Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your heart be troubled.” How are we supposed to heed that commandment while we are in the midst of a pandemic, when we cannot hug our grandchildren on Mothers’ Day, while we are unable to gather as a community to praise the Lord! But think about preachers confronting that text in the 1950’s when out of the fear of nuclear annihilation students were taught to hide under their desks and put their heads between their legs in the event of an atom bomb attack — like that was going to do some good. How did preachers deal with the words of Jesus in the 60s when our nation was convulsed during the civil rights movement as we confronted the besetting sin of racism? In the 70s preachers had to proclaim untroubled hearts to their congregations where some of the people were going off to fight in Viet Nam and others in the congregation were protesting an unjust war. During the 80s we had to find hearts that were beyond trouble in the midst of the plague of drug addiction when politicians saw as the solution to “just say no.” Then in the 90s Rodney King and the LA riots, OJ Simpson driving down the freeway in that white Bronco, and Timothy McVeigh blowing up the Oklahoma City Federal building made for troubled hearts. No sooner had the new millennium dawned and we had to confront the terrorism of 9/11 – that was heart-troubling. And in the 2010s semi-automatic weapons spawned gun violence against school children at Sandy Hook in Connecticut and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, and dozens of other schools, at movie theaters, a music festival in Las Vegas and even at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Try not to be troubled by that! That inventory is just in one man’s life time. My guess is that in the 200 or so decades since Jesus spoke those words about 200 of them were troubling. How are we to understand Jesus telling us “do not let your hearts be troubled?” To answer that we must notice when Jesus said this – at the Last Supper. In a few hours he would be arrested and tried; the next day forced to undergo abuse and execution by cruel torture and be placed in another man’s grave to repose in death the day after. So Jesus was not naïve about how terrible things could get. Nonetheless, he still tells us “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
How? How can we have untroubled hearts in the midst of a sea of trouble? Jesus tells us our hearts will not be troubled when we have faith in him because he is the way, the truth and the life. In saying that he is the Way, Jesus wants us to understand that it is the getting there, not the being there that matters. Jesus companions us on our up and down journey as we move in fits and starts toward a life in God. Obviously, if you on the way you are taking steps. Sometimes eager steps, sometimes reluctant steps. Sometimes steps springing with energy, sometimes steps full of pain. The point is to keep moving. We might stumble along the way, we might get weary on the way, we might feel we’re not making any progress on the way. The road is long with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where, as the song goes. But the blessed assurance of Jesus is that if we are faithful to the journey, despite the occasional misstep, he will be with us even if we’re blind to his presence like the disciples on the road to Emmaus were. A Christian has an untroubled heart by keeping on keeping on with Jesus on the Way.
And Jesus the truth. That is to say that there is a true way, a right way, a correct way on which we travel. On the journey of life we must find the true path. As Thomas Aquinas once observed, limping along in the right direction will get you where you are going faster than sprinting in the wrong direction. The truth of Jesus is found in how he lived out his mission from the Father. He brought healing, compassion, forgiveness, peace to those he encountered in life. He so identified with those who were in need – the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned – that he said “whatsoever you do to them, you do to me.” The truth of Jesus is that when the face of God turns toward us, it requires reaching out and touching those who are hurting. Jesus proves when we see love in action we find the truth which produces an untroubled heart.
Jesus is the life. This talk of being on the way and of finding the true path can make it seem as if following Jesus is a chore, an onerous burden to take on. “Oh, okay. I’ll do it.” But the contrary it true – being a Christian is about life, about abundant life. There is a special providence that today is Mothers’ Day in the US because it helps us understand what Jesus means by life. A mother is, of course, the one who brings forth new life into the world. But this is not a mere matter of biology, a physical process. Mothers don’t just produce life and then walk away like guppies. No, they nurture life, they promote life, they encourage life. Their care and devotion over the years matter more than providing a womb for nine months. Caring for their child, feeding their child, nursing their child, teaching their child are what makes life happen. So when Jesus says, “I am the life” he is saying it in a maternal way. I am the one who makes you glad to be alive. Faith in Jesus ensures that no matter how things seem to be going our human life is made for life, for love, and for joy. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” is exactly right.
