Day 2

Untroubled hearts

To Start

Sit in silence for 1 minute before you begin.

For the first few days this may be the hardest part of your time with Yahweh, but after practice you’ll likely come to love it.

Pray

If you’re coming to Scripture this morning with pressing pains, hopes, or needs, take time to offer them up to Yahweh. When your spirit feels quiet (or maybe just quieter), move into reading.

Yahweh, meet us in Scripture today. Show us why you’ve drawn us to this text. Surface things buried or ignored in our hearts.

Trouble the waters so that they might then be stilled.

Read

Yesterday we read three whole chapters in one big gulp. Today we’ll read one verse.

Read John 14:1.

• Read with your hands open, palms up.

• Read it ten times. Each time read it a little slower than you did the time before.

• Write the verse on an index card and carry it around with you today.

• Summarize it in one simple sentence (you can’t use any of the words in the verse in your summary).

John 14:1 (CSB)

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

From JL

Welcome to John 14. Let’s get situated.

This section of Scripture (John 13-17) is commonly referred to as “Jesus’ Farewell Address.” It’s one more speech in a series of speeches recorded (perhaps) by the apostle John (credible alternatives exist). John’s gospel, significantly different from the three other gospels in scope, timeline, and ambition, includes 90% unique material. The last gospel authored, it attempts to fill in blanks left by the other gospel writers particularly in regard to Jesus’ professed identity as the Son of God.

If you read another Gospel, Mark perhaps, but switch over to John to catch Jesus’ farewell before the cross, you will almost certainly be surprised by Jesus’ straightforward confession of His identity as Son of God, one with the Father, from Heaven and returning to Heaven. In Mark, Jesus attempts to veil His identity. In John it’s on full display in almost every chapter.

When we arrive at John 14, Jesus has been traveling with His apostles for two or three years. They live together. They eat together. They walk and serve and laugh and cry and learn together. At the end of John 13, they eat a meal together (possibly a pre-Passover meal including the Passover meal elements—John indicates that Jesus dies at the same time the lambs are being slaughtered for the upcoming Passover feast).

Jesus knows this is His last meal with the boys. At it, He washes their feet, reveals Judas as traitor, and prophesies Peter’s upcoming denial of Him.

Right before Jesus says, “Don’t let your heart be troubled…” He says to Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.”

Troubling, no?

Also interesting in light of this opening line: Jesus’ own feelings about the upcoming betrayal.

“When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” (John 13:21)

Jesus is troubled.

Don’t let your heart be troubled…

Hmmm…

Today I find myself particularly interested in the words “don’t let,” “heart,” and “troubled.” We don’t have time for a deep dive on all three, so we’ll stick to the word “troubled.”

If you have time, sit with the words “don’t let” (What does it mean to let something happen? Is it active or passive?) and “heart” (What is it? What controls it? What other passages of Scripture mention the heart?).

When I looked up the Greek word translated here as “troubled” I wasn’t surprised to see it often connected to water. For example, here’s a passage from Homer’s The Odyssey including the Greek word ταρασσέσθω:

“So saying, [Poseidon] gathered the clouds, and seizing his trident in his hands troubled the sea, and roused all blasts of all manner of winds, and hid with clouds land and sea alike; and night rushed down from heaven. Together the East Wind and the South Wind dashed, and the fierce-blowing West Wind and the North Wind, born in the bright heaven, rolling before him a mighty wave. Then were the knees of Odysseus loosened and his heart melted, and deeply moved he spoke to his own mighty spirit: ‘Ah me, wretched that I am! What is to befall me at the last?’” (5, 291)

In this example, a god reaches down and agitates (troubles) still water.

A very similar thing (which also happens to be a very dissimilar thing) happens in the gospel of John. Sick people gather around a pool waiting for a Heavenly being to come down and stir (trouble) the waters:

For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

In The Odyssey, Poseidon troubles the waters in order to prevent humankind from flourishing. In John’s gospel, God stirs the waters to enable humankind’s flourishing. I find myself thinking of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters in Genesis 1—another “good” stirring resulting in peace, order, and beauty.

What about when Jesus is troubled in Spirit in John 13? Is that a good stirring? Or is it something more like Poseidon’s rage?

Jesus is troubled (or agitated or stirred) in spirit by the knowledge of Judas’ upcoming betrayal. The stirring of His Spirit motivates Jesus to testify to His apostles. Judas, in response, leaves to do what Jesus knows he will. In other words, this “troubling” kicks off God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. We will all be healed because the Spirit troubled the waters in Jesus’ heart.

So, given Jesus’ own stirring (and the positive effects of that stirring) what does Jesus mean when He looks at His friends and says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled”?

Hold that question.

I went canoeing with friends today on the beautiful Buffalo River—tall bluffs, blooming dogwoods, turtles and bats and swallows, and cold, cold water. It was beautiful and peaceful.

Except when it wasn’t. Because the Buffalo isn’t all still water and easy floating. Sometimes it’s… What’s the word?

Troubled.

I am not a slouch with a paddle, but time and time again the white water of the Buffalo got the best of me. At the counter signing waivers before launching out in our canoes, Justin and I raised our eyebrows as the outfitter said, “Two out of three canoes will overturn today.” She was almost right. We went three for three.

What was it that troubled the waters?

It wasn’t the wind above the river. The weather couldn’t have been gentler. No, it was what was under the water that caused the problems. Rapids are simply “sections of a river where the water flows over and around obstacles like rocks, creating turbulence.” We struggled on the agitated water because it was full of rocks and the rocks were taller than the river was deep.

Sometimes the waters are stirred by a benevolent Spirit. Sometimes the waters are stirred by a vengeful force of evil. And sometimes the waters are stirred, because they’re too shallow and chock-full of obstacles.

What is Jesus concerned about as He tells His apostles, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled”? He’s not so concerned about the inevitable troubling that will be caused by His leaving—that’s going to result in good things, healing, re-creation, life from death. He’s more concerned (I think) about the Poseidons and the rocks and the shallow water. Perhaps especially the rocks and the water, because that’s the agitation His apostles can control through belief. Notice, it’s belief He offers as protection against troubling:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.”

Standing in Jerusalem not far from where He’d give His last address, Jesus said, “The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him” (John 7:38).

Maybe the apostles remember that line. Maybe their belief raises the water level.

Process

• Though Jesus is speaking to his apostles in a specific time and place, His admonition, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled” still applies. If you’re feeling like the waters are being stirred, which kind of stirring are you undergoing?

  • Is the Spirit stirring you in order to provoke growth or healing?

  • Are the forces of evil stirring you to prevent you from finishing your God-given journey?

  • Or is the water level low in your heart?

  • Pray and ask God to give your discernment.

• What does it mean to “believe in God” and/or to “believe in [Jesus]”? What does belief look like?

• If you were one of the Apostles and you’d just witnessed Judas being outed as a traitor and Jesus’ foretelling of Peter’s denial right after you’d had your feet washed by your Rabbi, what would you be feeling? What would you need Jesus to say to you? What questions would you have?

Pray

Take a moment to talk directly to God about something you’ve learned, realized, or been reminded of today. You might pray for deeper water in your heart.

In the Comments

Though we focused on belief and shallow/deep water today, we might also consider the rocks:

• What rocks did the Apostles need to remove in order to find peace in Christ?

• Have you ever seen someone struggling with agitation and trouble because of some entirely removable circumstance/situation/habit/preference? What does it feel like as someone watching from the outside? What do you wish you could say?

• What “obstacles” are creating unnecessary whitewater in your life?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Godspeed

JL

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If you’re an experienced paddler you might say, “Actually, Jennifer, increased water levels make rivers more dangerous.” And you’re right. To an extent. A little extra water makes the river more turbulent. Flooded rivers are exceedingly dangerous. But what would happen if the river were simply deeper? Deep rivers don’t have rapids. As Google tells me: “In deep channels, large rocks and boulders—the primary cause of rapids—are often completely submerged, allowing water to pass over them without creating significant breaking waves.”