John 14:1 1Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, and in me believe.
After hearing Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s denial, the whole group of disciples must have been shocked, discouraged, and perhaps even frightened. Peter was their leader and voice in many situations. He expressed what others may have been thinking. If he, their strong leader, was going to deny Jesus, what about the rest? Everything seemed to be unraveling at the moment. Their hearts were troubled. Jesus’ assurance was spoken to all the disciples at the supper (plural your, though heart is singular). Jesus was troubled earlier (12:27; 13:21), but now the disciples were beginning to realize that difficult times were coming. They may not have understood all that Jesus prophesied, but they caught enough about his soon departure and possibly his mention that Peter would deny him, to grow concerned within themselves.
Jesus gives the simple answer to the troubled heart: believing. The verb believe (pisteute) is the key word of John’s Gospel. The whole book comments on and describes its meaning. It has the sense of trusting that what Jesus claimed about himself is true. Since he is the Messiah, the Son of God, then what he says is also true. At the center of his teaching in John is that he reveals the Father. John organizes the statement in verse 1 in a chiastic ABBA pattern, with believe as the A’s and God and me as the B’s. This has the effect of joining Jesus to God. Believing in one should include believing in the other.
The statement is an invitation. Many people claim to believe in God, though they often define and describe God in their own terms and ways. The result is putting God in a box of their own making. The best and ultimate way to see God is in the Son, who came to reveal God. Belief in God or gods was core to all cultures of the Mediterranean region. Faithful Jews of the first century believed in God as revealed in the Old Testament. Faith was at the core of their identity as Jews. Yet, their faith was partial and compromised by human institutions and teachings, as evidenced by Jesus’ dialogues with the “Jews” throughout John’s Gospel. They had some light of the truth, but there is always a danger of human interpretations distorting this truth. Jesus came as the Truth and full revelation of God’s character and intent. To look at Jesus was to see God’s compassion, love, and holiness (5:19-24).
This invitation to believe in Jesus was what the disciples needed to do. They had heard his teachings and watched his miracles and often were recipients of them. Their faith in Jesus and trust in his words would secure them against the forces of doubt and fear that would seek to discourage and blind them to God’s truth. Importantly, Jesus promised in a few verses later the source that would help them with this. He would give the Holy Spirit to strengthen their faith and remind them of him and the truth he brought (verse 16). The starting and central component of the Christian way of life is faith in Jesus.
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