I AM the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
John 14:1-7
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
There exists in all of us a deep desire to be with. In many ways we have always known it. In many ways we may have taken it for granted. But over the past several months, we have likely felt it in a much more acute and palpable way—this deep longing of our souls to be in the presence of another.
The story of the Scriptures is a story of with. God creates man and woman in his image and for his glory and for relationship with himself. In the garden, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in a way that was unbroken, unhindered, and unashamed. This is what we were created for, where our greatest flourishing is found. But this is what is lost when they eat the fruit and believe the lie. Sin becomes the great barrier to with. A holy God cannot be with a sinful people.
The rest of the Scriptures tell the story of God making a way to be with his people again. We see God move towards his people first to clothe them, and then to covenant himself to them. With is at the very heart of the covenant promise, as God says to his people again and again, “I will be your God, and you will be my people and I will be with you.” Then the temple, the tabernacle, and the sacrificial system—they are merciful but temporary solutions to the problem of with. For God’s people to truly live in restored relationship with him, there must be a more ultimate way.
In the incarnation of Jesus, God moves towards and is with his people in a categorically new way. He is Emmanuel, God with us. The life and ministry of Jesus over and over again point to the glorious and merciful reality that the only way to overcome the barrier of sin was in the sending of the Son- not just to dwell with his people, but to die in their place.
In these verses in John, Jesus is getting closer and closer to the purpose for which he has come. He has brought his disciples together to share the Passover with him before he goes to the cross. Imagine the atmosphere of the upper room on this night. He has washed their feet. He has told them that he is going away, that Judas would betray him, and that Peter would deny him. They are confused and they are afraid. Their hearts are deeply troubled. But it is to their troubled hearts and to ours that Jesus says,
I am the way and the truth and the life. . .
The hope for their troubled hearts, and ours, is that he is the way to the Father. The hope for the troubled heart is that he is the way for us to finally and fully be with the one who made us, to truly know him and in him to find our flourishing and our life. As he looks into their hearts, hearts weighed down with fear and uncertainty, he tells them where to anchor their hope. He does not tell them that they will not suffer, or struggle, or sin, but rather that he is the way to the Father. He says to troubled hearts, “fix your eyes on me, trust me fully. I am the one who has come to make the way, to meet the deepest longing and the truest need of the human heart—to be in restored relationship with God himself.”
The hope for the troubled heart is that the way to the Father has been opened by way of the cross. The great barrier of sin has been broken down by the sinless son of God hanging bloody and naked in our place. As all the guilt of our sin covers him, and all the wrath our sin deserves, he cries out to the Father, with whom he had only ever known intimacy and delight and love, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And for the first time—and the last—when he spoke, nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. God didn’t answer. He turned his face away from his Boy. (Sally Lloyd-Jones, Jesus Storybook Bible)
The Father turns his face away from his son, so that he can turn his face toward us. The Father forsakes the son, so that he can draw near to us. The son’s cries are met with silence, so that the Father can say to us again and again, “I will be with you.”
In these days, we need to be reminded again and again that our hope is in the sure reality that Jesus is the Way. In these days, our hearts are often troubled. In these days we are weary and afraid. We are overwhelmed with anxiety and uncertainty, by sin and by shame. We cannot anticipate what the days ahead will hold, or what in our hearts might be revealed. But because of the cross of Christ, we can be confident in the reality of God’s presence with us—both for eternity and for right now.
Because Jesus has made a way for us to be reconciled to the Father, we are able to look at all that troubles us with confidence. We are able to say with Paul,
If God is for us, who can be against us? For he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?… For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31, 38-39)
Because Jesus has made a way, we are able to look at both longing and loss with peace. We are able to sing with the great hymn-writer, Horatio Spafford,
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Because Jesus has made a way, we are able to look at our present realities with future hope. We are able to look forward to the day when God’s gracious promise to be with us comes to complete fruition, when
The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be their God. (Revelation 21:3)
Our God has met our great longing to be with with himself. This is our confidence, our hope, our peace, and our joy. No matter what these days may hold, may we fix our troubled hearts on the one who has said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” And may we come to the Father again and again through him!