“In my Father's house are plenty of dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I am going in order to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and will receive you face to face with myself, that where I am, you may be as well.”
Jesus then links Himself closely with the Father speaking of Him as ‘MY Father' (something which, as we have already seen, John sees as indicating equality with God - John 5:18), and points out that He Himself has full authority as to who enters His eternal dwelling. Consequently it is their confidence in Him that can also result in their confidence in their future, because, as He explains, He is going to His Father's house, and there is ample room for them there too. The Greek ‘mone' can mean a room, a dwelling place, and the latter would seem to be the emphasis here. His ‘Father's house' probably contains the thought more of a family estate with a number of buildings, the place where the wider ‘household' dwells, or of a large dwelling with an abundance of living quarters, built round a courtyard like the house of the High Priest. The emphasis is on their being family and on there being plenty of room. They are coming to His Father's house, the new Jerusalem.
What is more they can be sure of this more than anything else on earth, that He, when He goes, will Himself prepare a place for them. There, in His Father's family home, there will always be a welcome for them. Their destiny is sure. So whatever happens now they can be confident for the future.
And He knew that this confidence would be necessary. For He knew that in the future they would be rejected, tortured, beaten, and even martyred. It was therefore necessary for them to have the assurance in their hearts that all would be well.
Nor were they to think that they were being left to look to someone else, for He stresses, “I am returning (for you)”. The emphasis here is not so much on the second coming as on the fact that He will come back for them. He will return and take them to His Father's home, where they will share the joy of His presence, being ‘face to face' with Him (pros with the accusative). This both refers to His welcoming arms to those of His own who die, and to His second coming when He comes for His own (see 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17). For the Christian hope is a dual hope, a certainty if death comes, and yet a longing rather for His coming. But either way they should be looking forward to His return in glory in order to finalise God's purposes and to receive them into His presence.
He wants them not only to be sure that they have a home to go to, but also to enjoy a confidence in the successful culmination of God's purposes, and a certainty that He will continually have their interests at heart. Thus His going will not mean that He is deserting them. Nor will it mean that He has been helplessly forced to leave them. It will rather mean that He is going in order to personally look after their interests and the eternal future for His own.