John 14:3

Ver. 3. “ And if I shall have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. ”

The place being once assured and prepared for them, they must be brought to reach it. It is He who will also charge Himself with this office. The rejection of καί, and, before ἑτοιμάσω in some MSS. (“and when I shall have gone, I will prepare”) would introduce an unnatural and even absurd asyndeton between the idea of preparing and that of returning which follows, and would at the same time lead to a complete tautology with the preceding sentence. The reading ἑτοιμᾶσαι, to prepare, is a further correction which was rendered almost indispensable by the rejection of the καί.

To the two verbs: “ when I shall have gone and shall have prepared,” correspond the two verbs of the principal clause: I will come again (literally, I come again) and I will take you to myself. The present I come again indicates imminence. Notwithstanding this, Origen and other Fathers, Calvin, Lampe, and, among the moderns, Hofmann, Luthardt, Meyer, Weiss, and Keil, refer this term to the final and glorious coming of the Lord. Undoubtedly this promise is addressed to believers in general, but it has in view, nevertheless, first of all, the disciples personally, whom Jesus wishes to strengthen in their present disheartenment; and He consoles them, it is said, by means of an event which no one of them has seen and which is still future at this hour! In thus explaining the word I come, it is forgotten that Jesus never affirmed the nearness of His Parousia, and that, indeed, He rather gave an indication of the opposite: “ As the bridegroom delays his coming ” (Matthew 25:5); “ If the master comes in the second watch, or if he comes in the third ” (Luke 12:38); “ At evening or at midnight or at the cock-crowing or in the morning ” (Mark 13:35); comp. also the parables of the leaven and the grain of mustard seed. Moreover, we have the authentic explanation of this word come in John 14:18, where, as Weiss acknowledges, it cannot be applied to the Parousia.

Ebrard thinks that the point in question is the resurrection of Jesus. But the true reunion, after the separation caused by the death of Jesus, did not yet take place at the resurrection. The appearances of the Lord were transient; their design was simply, through faith in the resurrection, to prepare for the coming of the Spirit. Grotius, Reuss, Lange, Hengstenberg, and Keil refer the word come to the return of Jesus at the death of each believer; comp. the vision of Stephen. But in John 14:18 this sense is altogether impossible, and no example can be cited, not even John 21:23, where it would lead to an intolerable tautology. This coming refers, therefore, as has been recognized by Lucke, Olshausen, Neander, to the return of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, to the close and indissoluble union formed thereby between the disciple and the glorified person of Jesus; comp. all that follows in John 14:17; John 14:19-21; John 14:23; especially John 14:18, which is the explanation of our: I come again. Weiss alleges against our view that the question here is of a personal return. We defer this to John 14:18. The following verb: I will take you to myself, indicates another fact, which will be the result of this spiritual preparation.

This is the introduction of the believer into the Father's house, at the end of his earthly career, either at the moment of his death, or at that of the Parousia, if he lives until that time. Καί, and, has the sense of and consesequently, or of, and afterwards, as is indicated by the contrast between the present (I come) and the future (I will take). This will be the entrance of the believer, prepared by spiritual communion with Jesus, into the abode secured for him by the mediation of this same Jesus. Πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, to myself (John 12:32); He presses him to His heart, so to speak, while bearing him away. There is an infinite tenderness in these last words. It is for Himself that He seems to rejoice in and look to this moment which will put an end to all separation: “ That where I am, there you may be also; ” comp. John 17:24. The community of place (“ there where ”) implies that of state. Otherwise the return of Jesus in spirit would not be necessary in order to prepare in each particular case this reunion. What touching simplicity and what dramatic vivacity in the expression of these ideas, so profound and so new! The Father's house, the preparation of the dwelling-place, the coming to find, finally the taking to Himself, this familiar and almost childlike language resembles sweet music by which Jesus seeks to alleviate the agony of separation in the minds of the apostles. Thus ends the first conversation, called forth by the question of Peter: “Why cannot I follow thee?” Answer: “Even thy martyrdom would not be sufficient to this end; my return in the Spirit into thy heart: this is the condition of thy entrance into my heavenly glory.” Comp. John 3:5.

But Jesus observes that many questions were still rising in their minds, that their hearts were a prey to many doubts, and, in order to incite them to ask Him, He throws out to their ignorance a sort of challenge, by saying to them: