I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life

John 13:34–14:7 NIV

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 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. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Does it feel like Jesus is starting to get a little repetitious now? If you have been following with us through this series of “I am” statements in the gospel of John, maybe it seems like we’ve basically heard this already. Just last week we heard Jesus say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Today we hear him say, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” At some level, aren’t these all sayings that essentially point to the same teaching? What is John doing here by putting in these seven “I am” sayings of Jesus?

At this point in John’s gospel, it may be helpful to pick up on some of the unique characteristics for each of these separate stories which John includes in his writing. Here is the setting. Jesus has just completed the Passover meal with his disciples—the scene that we know as the Last Supper. John has given us the account of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples with the instruction for them to serve others has he has just demonstrated by humbling himself to serve them. Judas Iscariot has left by now to go find the officials and bring them back for Jesus’ arrest. Jesus, along with the eleven disciples that remain are about to leave the upper room and go to the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem.

But before they go to the garden where Jesus will be betrayed and arrested, he takes this final moment with his disciples for some instructions. By John’s account, this is the last time Jesus sat and taught his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion. And this is a long section of teaching. We pick it up at the beginning in chapter 13, but it continues all the way through the end of chapter 17.

Imagine the setting. Jesus does not share these words with the gathered crowds around him as he has done so many other times previous to this in John’s gospel. Jesus does not direct the force of his words towards the Pharisees and Jewish religious authorities. This is not a rally or convention or TED talk kind of presentation. This is a small group discussion with only his closest followers. This is the evening in which he is going to be betrayed and arrested. It is going to be the very next day in which Jesus will die on the cross and be placed in a grave. Jesus knows that the time has come for him to leave his disciples and complete the task for which the Father has sent him. Jesus is giving his disciples a heads-up about his departure; and naturally, they have questions. That’s the story we read here. We are picking up on this Q&A session Jesus is having in a private conversation with his closest followers right before he is about to leave them for the cross. Let’s unpack this passage in light of that setting.

The Place

Question: Where are you going?

Father Son Holy Spirit

Jesus tells his disciples that he will be leaving them soon. Of course, the immediate question from Peter is, “where are you going?” and, “why can’t we go with you?” It is a question about place. It has an immediate implication for the next day that is about to occur. But it also has a far more reaching implication that is instructive for us here today as well.

The immediate answer is that only Jesus can go to the cross. No one else can follow Jesus to the cross because no one else can accomplish on the cross what Jesus accomplished. Peter and the disciples did not understand that yet. They would understand later, and we understand by seeing the entirety of scripture why Jesus had to go alone to the cross.

But there is also a much farther-reaching answer to this question of place. Because the cross was about to change everything. It is not as though Jesus would come back in the resurrection on that first Easter Sunday and then everything would go back to the way it was before. There was no going back to the days when Jesus would travel the Jewish countryside teaching and healing and performing miracles. There was no going back to the long days of Jesus being physically present among the disciples as a man who had come to experience life in all of its trials and temptations just like the rest of them. There was no more hanging out with just the squad like it was before.

The next time they would see Jesus, he would be resurrected in his glorious new body. The next time they would see Jesus, he would be setting his sights toward his next step of obedience to the heavenly Father; the step of ascending back unto glory to take up his place at the right hand of the Father. Jesus, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is forever the triune God that we worship.

Peter’s question of place is a question that opens up the trinity of God. Jesus says that he is going to his Father’s house in order to prepare a place for them. Further in chapter 14 Jesus tells his disciples that he will send an advocate—the Spirit of truth—to be among them forever. It is a reference to Pentecost; the day in which the Holy Spirit came to rest upon the church.

Here in this chapter of John’s gospel we see a picture of the Trinity. It is a picture of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is an answer to Peter that still serves as an answer for the church today. The question is still valid today. It is still a question that people ask today. God, where have you gone?

Now that’s a real question that comes up a lot. Faced in a moment of indecision, often we may ask which way to go in order to follow God’s leading. When experiencing a moment of tremendous grief or loss, often we may wonder where God has gone in midst of our struggle. When witnessing the tragedies of war and violence around our world today, it is only natural to ask where God is.

And it is not just in our time. Long before the cross of Jesus ever took place, the Psalmists asked that exact same question: where are you, Lord? why do you remain absent? where have you gone?

May I offer this, then, as a starting point to answer that question. That first of all, we remember God is a Trinity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And once we remember that God is a three-in-one being, we can begin to put some language around the question of place.

Alright then, where is God? There is a right and proper answer to that question. Every Christian church professes the same answer to that question. Some of you grew up in church reciting the answer to that question every singe week. We recited it here today. Where is God the Father? He rules in heaven. Where is Jesus the Son? He has ascended to the right hand the Father in heaven. What does that mean? It means that Jesus mediates for us as the one who has provided his perfect righteousness as an atonement for our unrighteousness. Or to put it in the more picturesque language of Jesus; he is preparing a place for us in his Father’s house. And where is the Holy Spirit? Ever since the day of Pentecost, the Spirit is right here within the hearts of those who are the church. That is the biblically and doctrinally correct answer to the question, where has God gone?

Can I workshop this with you for a moment right here? You all came here today—to church—to worship God. So, how does that work? Where is God right now and right here within our moment of worship? For the sake of keeping this sermon moving, I am going to answer that question for you. Here is how God is present in our act of gathering for worship. It is the Holy Spirit who prompts and moves our hearts to come before God in worship. Our adoration and praise go up to God the Father who is in heaven. Jesus the Son purifies our worship so that, through his perfect righteousness given to us, our worship is received by God the Father as perfect and acceptable. God the Father, our creator, reveals to us, his created beings, his good and perfect will. Jesus the Son mediates that revelation of God by being—as John calls it—the Word become flesh who has come into the world. And the Holy Spirit interprets and applies that word of truth unto our hearts and lives so that we may understand and believe. Do you see it? Do you see where God is actively present in every moment of our worship right here today as our Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

That’s your workshop moment for today. now it is up to you to take the truth of God’s trinitarian presence and apply it to any other situation or moment in which you might be asking the same question; the question, where is God? where has God gone?

The Posture

Question: How can we know the way?

Way Truth Life

Bring it back to small group huddle between Jesus and his disciples. After Jesus explains that he is going to the Father to prepare a place for them, the next question follows, this time from Thomas. How can we know the way? This is where Jesus gives the answer, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” And here again, there is an immediate implication for that answer, and a more far-reaching implication for that answer. The immediate implication is a pretty bold truth claim. Jesus is saying that he is the only way to the Father. Jesus plainly says it in verse six. No one comes to the Father except through me. That can be a rather bold claim in today’s world of tolerance in which all truth is relative. But I don’t think it is the point of Jesus in this passage to throw shade on every other religion of the world. His point is this: no one on their own can achieve new resurrection life. There is no salvation that anyone can buy or earn or work out or solve. You and I simply cannot do it on our own. There is no way on our own. Jesus is the only way.

Bring that question forward, the same question Thomas asked. How can we know the way? Everyone is asking that question is some form. Everyone is searching for a way to find meaning and significance and value. Everyone wants to know that their lives are worth something, that we matter. We are all looking for ways to get there.

This is a question of posture. The way we answer this question sets us up for how we make our way through all the rest of life in this world. If wealth and fame are the way we choose to find what matters in this world, it will impact everything else we do. Jesus says that he alone is the way and the truth and the life. Anything else in this world that matters only has value because of Jesus. This is a posture that drives me to see all the rest of the world through a “Jesus-lens.” And Jesus himself gives some framework for how this works. In fact, we see something of that framework right in the verses we read today. “A new command I give you: love one another as I have loved you.” Only a few moments before Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, he was kneeling and washing their feet, demonstrating this love with action. It is a posture of living in which the desire of my heart is that I may love as Jesus loves.

And here’s the important part. I do not take this posture of love because living this good and loving life is the way. I do not take this posture of love because following all the commands and keeping the rules is the way. I take this posture of love because Jesus is the way.

The Projection

Question: Will you show us the Father?

Hands Head Heart

One more question. The disciple Philip makes this request to Jesus. Show us the Father and that will be enough. Jesus has been trying to explain to his followers that to know him is to know the Father. God the Son is so tightly bound together with love for the Father and the Holy Spirit that to know one is to know all three. Philip says give us a glimpse; let us have a peek; we want to see and know and experience this ourselves. But you already have all this, is the answer Jesus gives.

Jesus has already told them, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” He has already given them everything they need. The projection—the plan, the path—that we have to follow Jesus shows us how to live in Jesus as the way, how to live in Jesus as the truth, and how to live in Jesus as the life. Way, truth, and life. Consider the balance of these three.

Jesus is the way. This is a faith that projects forward in action. This is faith that takes shape in what we do and in how we live. This is loving God with our hands—by our actions. We have a big church word for that. It is called orthopraxy, which means right action.

Jesus is the truth. This is a faith that projects forward in belief. It is a faith that is based upon what we know for certain and the hope to which we cling. This is loving God with our heads; it is our minds. It is a love for God that desires to learn about God and to know God more. We have a big church word for that too. It is called orthodoxy, which means right thought (doctrine, teaching)

Jesus is the life. This is faith that projects forward in experience. This is a faith that is based upon feeling and emotion. That when I say Jesus is the desire of my heart I would truly mean that Jesus is the desire of my heart. This is what gives faith the element of being authentic and genuine. Many of you know what this feels like. Do you have a favorite church song or hymn that is especially meaningful to you in some way; and whenever you hear that song played or we sing it here in church you get those tingly goosebumps or maybe you get a few tears? There is something expressed in the experience of this faith that can’t quite be put into words, but you know it when it happens, you feel it.

Now then, balance is rather essential when we look at these three projections of faith. Think of it as a table that has three legs; all three are needed for balance. Any one of those three all by itself is a weak faith that cannot stand on its own. Two-out-of-three is not much better for keeping balance. But a proportionate balance of all three keeps level.

Our tradition going back here in the Christian Reformed church has been one in which we maybe tended to emphasize head knowledge as the one expression of faith that mattered above all others. Those from a more charismatic church background like the Pentecostal church might emphasize emotional experience as the one bedrock of faith. Perhaps the consistent undertakings of evangelism and code of living seen in the Southern Baptist church point to their emphasis on faith being expressed in action.

Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” To follow Jesus then is to love God with hands and head and heart. It is intellectual in what we believe. It is pragmatic in what we do. It is experienced in what we feel. Jesus is the only way, and everything about who we are is embraced and held by that grace given for us by a God whose love for us is faithful forever.