John 14:2

Jesus next explained the reason the disciples should stop feeling troubled at the thought of His leaving them. He was departing to prepare a place for them, and He would return for them and take them there later (John 14:3; John 14:28).

The Father’s house is heaven. This is the most obvious and simple explanation, though some commentators understood it to mean the church. However the fourth Gospel never uses the house metaphor for the church elsewhere, and the phrase "the Father’s house" occurs nowhere else in Scripture as a figure of the church. Neither can it refer to the messianic kingdom since Jesus said He was about to go there. The messianic kingdom did not exist and will not exist until Jesus returns to the earth to set it up (cf. Daniel 2:44; et al.)

There are many dwelling places (Gr. mone, cognate with the verb meno, meaning "to abide" or "remain") in heaven. The Latin Vulgate translated the noun mansiones that the AV transliterated as "mansions." The NIV "rooms" is an interpretation of mone. The picture that Jesus painted of heaven is a huge building with many rooms or suites of rooms in which people reside. The emphasis is not on the lavishness of the facility as much as its adequacy to accommodate all believers. Other revelation about heaven stresses its opulence (e.g., Revelation 21:1 to Revelation 22:5).

"The imagery of a dwelling place (’rooms’) is taken from the oriental house in which the sons and daughters have apartments under the same roof as their parents." [Note: Tenney, "John," p. 143.]

"This truth may reflect the marriage custom of the bridegroom, who would go to the bride’s house and bring her to his father’s house, where an apartment would have been built for the new couple." [Note: Bailey, p. 184.]

Jesus assured His disciples that if heaven were otherwise He would have told them just how it was. This assurance recalls John 14:1 where Jesus urged them to trust Him.

Jesus had previously spoken of His departure as including His death, His resurrection, and His ascension (John 13:31-32; John 13:36). Consequently He probably had all of that in view when He spoke about going to prepare a place for believers. His death and resurrection, as well as His ascension and return to heaven, would prepare a place for them. [Note: Edersheim, 2:514.] The place, the Father’s house or heaven, already existed when Jesus spoke these words. He would not go to heaven to create a place for believers there. Rather all that He would do from His death to His return to heaven would constitute preparation for believers to join Him there ultimately. The idea that Jesus is presently constructing dwelling places for believers in heaven and has been doing so for 2,000 years is not what Jesus meant here. Jesus’ going itself prepared the place.