“Arise, let us go from here.” – John 14:31
From Attendance to Obedience
I find it almost otherworldly that I hate missing church. Work circumstances dictate that I miss church every third Sunday, and I truly abhor that.
What is strange to me is that I once went from being an unbeliever who never attended church, to attending for acceptance, to now desiring to be there simply because Jesus is the Head of the Church, whether or not I am accepted, seen, or included.
But as I read John 14, a more profound observation screamed off the page of Holy Scripture.
I realised that I do not pilgrimage from the world on a Sunday to be near Jesus in church, rather, my nearness to Jesus should compel me to pilgrimage from His teaching to joyful obedience.
That obedience always requires moving from here – the holy huddle of learning, worship, and safety – to there, where Jesus longs to reach lives through us.
As I drove to work yesterday, I whispered what may be the most honest prayer any of us could pray:
“Lord, help me to be, live, and become who You say that I am; to live in the beingness as You say that I should, and to obey Your purpose for who You say that I am by doing the portion of Your Story that You have assigned for me to do, whatever that may be.”
This prayer is the heart of pilgrimage.
It is the journey from the influenced us here, to surrendering to become integral over there.
Arise: The Call to Purposeful Movement
When Jesus says, “Arise, let us go from here” (Egeiresthe, agōmen enteuthen), He is not uttering a casual phrase.
The Greek verb egeirō means more than “stand up,” it carries the same root as “resurrection.”
It is a summons to intentional rising.
Jesus and His disciples are in the upper room. The candles flicker low. The lessons have been spoken. But suddenly, He stands, the moment of contemplation gives way to movement.
The teaching must now become flesh.
The church Fathers saw this moment as the hinge of obedience.
Chrysostom writes that Jesus “leaves the room not as one fleeing darkness, but as Light advancing into it.”¹
Augustine called this transition “the motion of love from word to deed.”
N. T. Wright, too, reminds us that Jesus’ path to the cross was not reluctant but resolute, the willing stride of love fulfilling itself. Wright states that:
“Jesus thus does, climactically and decisively, what scripture had in a sense been trying to do: bring God’s fresh Kingdom-order to God’s people and thence to the world. He is, in that sense as well as others, the Word made flesh. Who he was and is, and what he accomplished, are to be understood in the light of what scripture had said. He was, in himself, the ‘true Israel,’ formed by scripture, bringing the Kingdom to birth. When he spoke of the scripture needing to be fulfilled (e.g., Mark 14:49), he was not simply envisaging himself doing a few scattered and random acts which corresponded to various distant and detached prophetic sayings; he was thinking of the entire storyline at last coming to fruition, and of an entire world of hints and shadows now coming to plain statement and full light.”²
The imperative “arise” is command and comfort, but most decidedly, it is missional praxis expected.
Jesus knows the ruler of the world is coming, yet He walks out in serenity, not surrender. He shows that divine love does not cower before evil; it simply moves through it.
The true pilgrimage, then, begins when we leave the safety of listening and enter the risk of living.
The Twist: Learning That Never Moves Becomes Paralysis
The danger for every believer, and every student of any kind, is to mistake understanding for transformation. Knowledge that never walks into the world eventually calcifies into self-importance.
Both theology and secular education warn of this.
John Dewey argued that experience is not education until it leads to purposeful action, writing that, “The principle that development of experience comes about through interaction means that education is essentially a social process. This quality is realised in the degree in which individuals form a community group.”³
David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle identifies that real learning only completes itself in active experimentation; in doing.⁴
The Jesuit Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm insists:
“Experience + reflection must lead to action; otherwise, learning is sterile.”⁵
Even the early Church Fathers shared this conviction. Origen taught that truth unrevealed in obedience is not yet truth understood. Chrysostom urged that “Scripture must be read with feet as well as eyes.”
And here lies the quiet tragedy of much modern faith; our sanctuaries overflow with listeners, but the streets thirst for witnesses. We’ve turned “learning about Jesus” into a pastime, when He meant it as a passport.
To arise is to understand that discipleship was never meant to be seated.
The True Pilgrimage
The true pilgrimage is not to a shrine, a mountain, or a city. It is from knowing to doing, from hearing to becoming, from here to there.
“Arise, let us go from here,” Jesus says, and with that, the room becomes redundant.
The journey of faith is never a circle; it is always an exodus. The conclusion is already written in Revelation 22.
The love that once gathered us in must now send us out. The world does not need more people who attend church; it needs people who have been with Jesus and then go where He goes.
The true pilgrimage is obedience on the move.
So perhaps this is where every sermon, every study, and every sacred conversation must end not with applause, but with motion.
Not “Amen,” but “Arise.”
And maybe, just maybe, the most faithful step of worship we ever take is the one that carries us from here to there.
“Lord, help me to be, live, and become who You say that I am; to live in the beingness as You say that I should, and to obey Your purpose for who You say that I am by doing the portion of Your Story that You have assigned for me to do, whatever that may be.”
Practical Application: Walking from Here to There
The danger of reading a text like John 14 is that we nod in reverence but never rise in response. Jesus did not say “Stay and ponder these words.”
He said, “Arise, let us go from here.”
To obey that invitation today, three simple yet sacred steps can turn understanding into pilgrimage:
1️⃣ Identify Your “Here”
Ask honestly: What is my here?
It might be comfort, routine, the pew, a pattern, or a personal fear that has become familiar.
Write it down. Name it. Bring it into light.
Because you cannot arise from a place you refuse to admit you’re sitting in.
“Awareness is the birthplace of obedience.” – Anonymous Desert Father
2️⃣ Discern Your “There”
Jesus’ “there” was the cross; love made visible in obedience.
Yours may not look heroic, but it will always look like love. It may be a difficult conversation you’ve avoided, a call to serve, a moment to forgive, or simply walking toward someone in need.
Ask the Spirit: Where do You need to be made visible through me?
“God’s will is rarely far away; it’s usually the next right thing done in love.”
3️⃣ Take One Step in Faith
The most sacred motion in Scripture is often small, Abram leaving his tent, Peter stepping out of the boat, Mary saying yes, Jesus standing to go.
The size of the step doesn’t determine its holiness, obedience does.
Let obedience become your new form of worship. When knowledge becomes action, faith becomes alive.
“Between knowing and becoming lies the word arise.”
Prayer for the Journey
Lord Jesus,
Show me where I have stayed when You’ve said go. Teach me to see church as the launchpad, not the landing. Give me courage to move from learning to loving, from here to there, wherever obedience leads.
In Your Mighty and Holy Name Lord Jesus,
Amen.
Challenge for the Week
For the next seven days, each morning, pray:
“Lord, what is my ‘here’ today and where is the ‘there’ You’re sending me?”
Then record one act of obedience you lived out of that prayer.
By week’s end, you will have walked your own small pilgrimage, from awareness to action, from knowing to becoming.
TRACK TO ENJOY
Epilogue Thought
The holy huddle is never the destination, only the classroom of love. The real pilgrimage begins when worship walks out the door. After all, even God- Jesus left His heavenly-here to be born as baby Jesus in our world, His there.
Footnotes
1. Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 79.
2. N. T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today (London: SPCK, 2013), 40.
3. John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: Macmillan, 1938), 58.
4. David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984), 21.
5. “Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm,” Jesuit Education Documents, 1986, 10-11.
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