Perhaps the most memorable line from Billy Joel’s song of about thirty years ago, “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” went something like this:
“Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again.”
This is especially true for parents who have children and grandchildren who live far away, or parents with kids away at college, like my wife and I have – life is full of hellos and goodbyes. And I said as much in a facebook post not too long ago – I wrote that “I like hello days a lot better than goodbye days.” Indeed, we go from the joy and jubilation, the “up” of hello days to the sadness and pain – the “let back down” of saying goodbye.
Well in this morning’s Gospel we definitely have a goodbye day. It’s the night of the last supper, the night of the Lord’s arrest, the night before His passion and death. And Jesus is preparing his disciples for the inevitable, giving them final instructions, so to speak, And I have to think the disciples must have clued in to this inevitable parting as well. Their hearts were troubled. Probably scared. Confused. Probably without a clue how they would carry on without this man they’d followed and loved and learned from these past three years.
And Jesus speaks to them words that to me, at least, are some of the most comforting words in all of scripture –
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
“I will go and prepare a place for you.”
“I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
For any of us who are facing separation from loved ones, or any of us who are experiencing the pain, the heartache of separation, these words can be very comforting. These give us great hope. Hope in the midst of heartbreak, of confusion, and fear. For in this passage, Jesus promises His disciples that He is going away, but He is coming back! Going to prepare a place for them, in His Father’s House! For eternal life! And He is coming back so that they will be together again. Together with Him, together with each other.
These words are a promise to us, too. A promise all of us who follow Jesus, the way. To all who believe in Jesus, the truth. And to all who strive to conform our lives to His, for He is the life. A promise that He will come back to take us to Himself to live eternally in His Father’s house, never again to have to say goodbye.
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