I Am the Way the Truth & the Life

Introduction & Review

I AM - the anointed one, the light of the world, the resurrection & the life

John 14:1-7

Where is Jesus going?

In Jesus’ initial statement, he’s talking about how many rooms are in his Father’s house. Kind of a strange thing to say. I love mysterious Jesus. Makes you wonder if sometimes he’s just messing with the disciples. Like you know how to get where I’m going. And Thomas is like...uhhhh, no we don’t.

He says two things: that his father’s house has many rooms and that he’s going to prepare a place for us.

Most people interpret this to mean heaven. Jesus is going back to heaven to make it ready for us to join him. That makes sense. At the very end of the previous chapter, Jesus was talking about his death...so he’s saying, I’m going to die, but don’t worry—I’ll be back. And that’s true of his death and resurrection where Jesus left to make ready a way to heaven, but also is true of his ascension and return, when Jesus will finally bring all of us home to heaven.

Last Sunday was Easter, where we celebrated the resurrection. And on that Friday we celebrated Good Friday. But there’s also Holy Saturday, the day between the days, when it was silent, when Jesus was still dead and not yet resurrected. And there’s a sense in which that is where we live our lives—we know that Jesus has achieved victory over sin and death, but we still live in a world where sin and death are rampant. We are waiting for Jesus to return, to take us home to a place where things are ready, where we can always be with Jesus where he is.

That’s where Jesus is speaking into—the waiting—and he’s saying “don’t let your hearts be troubled.”

I feel like my heart is often troubled.

The interesting thing here, is that Jesus doesn’t say that he’s going to heaven. He says he’s going to his “father’s house.” The only other time Jesus uses that phrase is in reference to the temple, which I think is significant because it was where God’s presence was on earth. So, we can say that, yes, Jesus is going to heaven to make it ready for us, but we have to understand that heaven is the presence of the Father.

Heaven is the presence of the Father

Jesus is making a way for us to be in the presence of God. And since ...Holy Spirit. Downpayment of Heaven. ETC.

How do we get there?

The answer is Jesus. I AM the way, the truth, and the life. If you want heaven, if you want to experience the presence of God, you gotta go through Jesus.

Jesus is the way to the Father

There is a sense of exclusivity to this passage that I think runs against the grain of our culture. We don’t really like ONE way. We like options. We like to see all the routes on google maps. We like a good buffet, where we can pick and choose what we like and ignore what we don’t like. (Golden Corral with Pop.) ETC ETC More here??

And this idea can bleed over into our spirituality. There is a popular idea that all religions are really the same and they’re all just different ways of getting at the truth. So, just pick whatever one works for you and you’ll be all right.

NT Wright — what you’re really saying is that no religion gives you direct access to God. TBD?

I actually think most religions do provide different glimpses of truth. I think they are approximating a connection to the divine, and I find interesting ideas in other religions that help me think about God more deeply, but at the end of the day, I believe that the truth other religions are pointing to, in the end, is Jesus. Because the unique thing about Jesus is that he is God himself. He is DIRECT ACCESS to the divine. He is the way to the Father’s presence because he is ONE with the Father. That’s what the rest of this passage is about. Philip says, show us the Father, and Jesus says, “don’t you know me? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.

Follow the Way

Believe the Truth

Experience the Life