top of page

Mansions from a Cross

Sam Stringer

Oct 15, 2024

Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going
you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward." Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I
not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake." Jesus answered him, "Will you lay
down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have
denied Me three times. Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In
My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself;
that where I am, there you may be also.

John 13:36-14:3

I’ve worked many jobs over the years, some in manufacturing, food service, party supplies, burial
vaults, ice skating, ministry and construction (please don’t judge me!). When I worked construction,
which I wasn’t all that great at, we would follow blueprints and get the materials and every day was
pretty much assembling those materials into a finished project, be that a house, an addition, a
garage or the like. We worked to prepare a place for people to live in or to store their belongings in
for the most part.

When I think about these verses, I’m reminded of how many times over the years I’ve heard
imaginations dealing with five car garages on a gigantic house with a pool and a basketball court (for
me it was a hockey rink), all those things that we wish for in a superior materialistic dwelling. I don’t
know that that’s actually the intent of this passage, because the word for “mansions” could also be
translated “dwelling places” and honestly, it seems to be reflective more of the fact that Christ has
secured a place for us to be with Him in Heaven forever than anything else. There could be truth to
the idea of a mansion as we know it, but that really does seem secondary given the context.

Now, I also want to address this issue: is Jesus up in Heaven with a hammer and nails, building
mansions for His people? In context, Jesus was talking to Peter, who had just claimed that he would
“lay down his life for (Jesus’) sake.” Jesus was going to die, and He foretold it to the disciples, with
whom it did not set well. Peter, as he did at other times, was first to step forth, to speak up, to forbid
the One that he loved. Jesus rebuked him because if the cross didn’t happen, neither would
salvation.

So when, or where, did the “preparing a place” happen? In context, it was on the cross. Jesus’ death
on the cross is what secured a place for every believer, ensuring us that we would have a place with
Him eternally in Heaven. The cross, if seen rightly, can be used to instill confidence in us, because
Jesus accomplished the necessary work of our secure redemption upon that cross. If you want to
think of it figuratively this way, Jesus used the wood from the cross to build the mansions that we
would live in one day. The security of our faith and hope rests not in us, but in the sure work of
Jesus Christ. We’re not banking upon our promises to Him, but His promises to us. We’re not hoping
that we’re enough for Him, but we’re trusting that He is enough for us. That’s saving faith right there:
trusting in Jesus and His death as enough. Saving faith is taking God at His word and living upon His
promises. If we will be braver than lions today, we must not only acknowledge the promises of God,
but we must also stake our lives upon them and rest in them. If it weren’t so, He would have told us;
but it is so. Be blessed.

Sam Stringer

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
bottom of page