The Way, The Truth, The Life
John 13:36 – 14:6 (NIV)
Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I often ask God where he’s going, what is he doing, why doesn’t this life make sense? And there’s no point in looking for answers because answers aren’t what I’m looking for. Mostly, I’m just venting dissatisfaction. My questions might as well be demands that God let me be in charge.
Peter knows where Jesus is heading. (Matthew 16:21,22) He just doesn’t like it. His offer to lay down his life, while sincere, contains emotional blackmail, an attempt to manipulate.
Jesus doesn’t react to Peter’s threats. Instead he arms Peter against the events about to unfold so that Peter can survive the night, unlike Judas. God doesn’t cave to demands but he gives generously that which is best for us.
Jesus’ warning to Peter was immediately followed by comfort. Peter, you’re going to disown me but don’t despair. Trust me, there is room for you in the Father’s house. The plural, hearts, lets us know that Jesus was lending comfort to all the disciples and that John included these words in his gospel extends it to all who believe. There is room for all of us to rest in the Father’s presence.
Again, Thomas knows that Jesus is going to the cross. He also previously offered to die with Jesus. (John 11:16) Thomas’ protest of ignorance belies his morbid fidelity in that he knows Jesus is going to the cross but he is hoping for an out, an escape that evades the cross.
Jesus didn’t escape the cross so that Peter and Thomas and all of us could follow him to the cross and through it to resurrection and eternal life. Romans 6:5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Jesus is The Way. There is no other way to God. The Truth, not that he spoke the truth but that Truth has no existence, no meaning apart from Christ. The Life, he is the uncreated eternal origin of everything. He spoke the world into existence. John 1:3,4, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”
brotherpayne 