John 14: in my Father's house are many rooms
Jesus comforts his disciples: let not your heart be troubled.
Bible reference: John 14:1-6
At a glance
- Length, read slowly
- About a minute
- Where it goes
- New Testament reading · Christian funeral serviceRead by: reader or officiant
- New Testament Scripture · Homegoing serviceRead by: officiant or reader
- Scripture reading · Celebration of lifeRead by: family or friends
Have the officiant read your choice first: they have the last word.
We don’t show modern translations here: they are protected by copyright. You can find them in your church’s Bible or on the publisher’s website. Further down this page is the text from the King James Version, which you may use freely.
Use in your programWhat this reading says
This is the night before Jesus died. He is at supper with his friends and tells them not to let their hearts be troubled. He says there is room for everyone in his Father's house, and he is going ahead to get a place ready. Thomas asks how they can know the road if they do not know where he is going. Jesus answers that he is the road himself: the way, the truth and the life.
When it fits
Choose John 14 when your family wants the service to say plainly that the person has gone home. The image of a house with many rooms has comforted American funerals for centuries. It fits an old believer, a church deacon, a parent whose faith held the family together. If you would rather have a reading that admits how hard the loss is, John 11 starts with Martha's grief before it gets to hope. For a wider picture of the end of all sorrow, see Revelation 21. John 14 is the most personal of the three: Jesus talks to his friends, not to a crowd.
Reading it aloud
In most Protestant funerals this is the pastor's text, read just before the sermon. At a homegoing it may be read by a family member while the choir hums underneath. Keep the first sentence slow and warm, because it is addressed to the people in the pews. The King James Version says "many mansions," which is where the gospel songs about a mansion come from, though a modern translation gives "many rooms" or "many dwelling places." Pick one wording and print that same wording in the funeral program so the reader and the page agree.
Text from the King James Version
John 14:1-6
This older translation is in the public domain in the United States, so you may print it in your program for free. A Catholic Mass reads from the lectionary, so for a Mass, paste the text your parish uses.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye 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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Goes well with
- Psalm 23: the Lord is my shepherdPsalm 23The psalm that ends in the house of the Lord, where this reading begins.
- John 11: I am the resurrection and the lifeJohn 11:21-27The same gospel, but with a grieving sister's question first.
- Revelation 21: God shall wipe away all tearsRevelation 21:1-4Widens the prepared room into a whole new heaven and earth.
- Crossing the BarA poem about going ahead to meet the one who waits, for the back page.
In sample programs
- Example program for a Christian funeralAn example funeral program for a church service, with Psalm 23 and John 14 from the King James Version, the obituary and prayers.
- Example program for a homegoing serviceAn example homegoing program with Psalm 23 and John 14 from the King James Version, the obituary, reflections and the eulogy.