I go to prepare a place for you.
—John 14:2
At the bedside of the dying, many a minister has quoted Jesus’ words: “Let not your heart be troubled . . . I go to prepare a place for you.”
Appropriate. But those words were not spoken by the living for the consolation of the dying—they were spoken by the dying for the consolation of the living.
“I shall be with you only a little longer,” Jesus had said to his distraught disciples. As he turned his face toward the Cross, he sought to comfort their hurting hearts—fortifying them against the paralysis of despair. “I go to prepare a place for you . . . that where I am you may be also.”
It is in their ministry to the living that these words achieve their greatest good.
It remains true: he is preparing
a place for you.