The “Way, the Truth, and the Life” is less path and more person — John 14:1–11

Jesus said, “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.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. John 14:1–11

The “Way, the Truth, and the Life” truth, and the life is less path and more person.

In the weeks since Easter, we’ve learned how Jesus makes a difference in our lives in all kinds of ways. We’ve talked about how on Easter, he gave us a life full of the ability to make an eternal difference. We’ve talked about how his resurrection gives us peace that is louder than the noise of the world around us. We’ve talked about how he provides us hope that, unlike other kinds of hope, actually gets stronger the more we suffer. And last week we talked about how Jesus’ voice is different than all other voices vying for our attention in the world because he’s not only our guide, he’s also our gate.

Throughout all of these, there’s been a common thread. It’s a thread that’s run through all this season of Easter, not always spoken out loud but always there. Today, Jesus says the quiet part out loud. In John 14, Jesus claims I am the way, the truth, and the life. In doing so, he sorts every person who has ever lived into two groups: people that recognize him as the way, the truth, and the life, and those who do not. Jesus’ claim is the foundation for all of the blessings we’ve been talking about in this Easter series: a new king, new reality, new life, new peace, new hope, new voice. And he says that he is the only foundation for all of these blessings as we walk through the path of our life.

This claim can be incredibly offensive to our world. That’s what our first and second reading were about, right? That Christ has claimed to be the cornerstone, the cornerstone you can either build your life upon or stumble over. So we’re going to take a couple weeks at the end of our Easter series to dive into John 14. To see how exclusive Jesus’ claim really is, and to see the eternal benefits of accepting his claim and the eternal consequences of rejecting it. This week, we’re going to focus on how he alone reveals the way the truth and the life to us; next week we’ll focus on how he alone reveals the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through us. This week, we’ll look directly into what Jesus is claiming and how dramatic it is; next week, we’ll look more into how his claim shapes how we live out our lives. In both weeks, we’ll see how Jesus’ claim is the culmination of all the things that make Easter the foundation for how we walk on the path of our lives. This week specifically, we will see how the way, the truth, and the life is less path and more person.

John 14 took place a few days before Easter happened. It took place on Holy Thursday. The disciples were in the upper room. And they were anxious over what was about to happen. They sensed the political pressure on Jesus had built to a breaking point. And the whole dinner felt like a goodbye. Jesus was sharing parting words with them. He was saying things like, where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later. And he was being cryptic with Judas, saying, what you are about to do, do quickly. Jesus was giving them final instructions, to love one another as I have loved you, and he was promising them wonderful things, like that he was going to prepare a place for them in God the Father’s mansions.

But the disciples were not comforted by these things. They were incredibly nervous. Instead of drinking in Jesus’ promises that heaven was in their future, they let the present situation of Jesus leaving them trouble their hearts immensely. And so Thomas speaks up, kind of speaking for all the disciples, and says, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? In other words, Jesus, if you’re leaving, we need some directions. We need clarity. We need to know what comes next on our path.

We can relate. Have you ever shared a difficulty with someone and gotten the response, “It’ll be ok.” “It’ll all work out somehow.” That seems hollow, doesn’t it? Not only are they not offering you a solution, they’re not even offering you a basis: “It’ll be ok,” well how do you know? “It’ll all work out,” well are you in control, can you really promise that? When we find ourselves in a challenging situation, a situation where it feels impossible to see how what our immediate future holds and where our path is leading, the ambiguity drums up anxiety. The uncertainty weighs on us.

Jesus has an answer for this uncertainty: I am the way, the truth, and the life. This answer is anything but hollow. In fact, it is packed full of all kinds of meaning. Before we can see how his answer applies to uncertainty, we should unpack what he’s saying. Jesus did not say, “I can show you the way” or “I teach the truth” or “I can give you life.” He says that he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. He did not say, like every prophet said before him, “Thus says the Lord.” He speaks to you as Lord. He says that he is the embodiment of the way. All other ways that present themselves as paths to God are not the way. All other claims to truth stand or fall in relation to him. And apart from him, there is no life—only death.

These words are so simple, and yet when we slow down and sit with them it’s tough to wrap our minds around how all-encompassing Jesus’ statement really is. Because this is not how anyone else talks. When you share a difficulty you’re facing with someone, they might offer you advice. They might suggest a way through it. They might offer you an idea of what might be true about your situation. But imagine if that person answered you by saying that they are the way, the truth, and the life that you are seeking. Imagine if someone said, it’s not that important what your next path in life will be, what your future will be compared to me. I am your future, I am your present. That would show a hubris to the point of insanity.

Yet that is what Jesus said. And depending on what you believe about Jesus, these are either the most wonderful words in the world or the most offensive thing you’ve ever heard. Because Jesus’ words have to be accepted 100% or not at all. Either you agree with him, that he is the way the truth and the life, and you submit your life and all your circumstances and decisions to him. You build your life on the foundational truth that Jesus is God. Or you disagree with him, and his words sound offensive and insane to you.

The offense comes because we prefer options. We would prefer to see our lives with not just one option to build our lives on. We like to sample, compare, and then choose. We like to look into different religions, different philosophies, different lifestyles. We want multiple paths open, and we bristle if any one path claims authority over the others. It’s not loving, so we think, to have one person who’s right in the face of everyone else. We want to live and let live.

However, when push comes to shove, when moments of uncertainty arise as they so often do, all those different options prove to be hollow. Because the solutions and the advice and the wisdom that comes from any other path ultimately come from human ideas. These might be human ideas partly based on truth, but they are humans that say, we can show you the way, we can tell you what’s true, we can help you build a good life.

Jesus does not claim to be the next voice among many. He claims to be God. He speaks not only to those in his own group, but into the heart of every single person. And because he claims to be God, his statement is exactly what those disciples needed to hear for their short term. They didn’t need to know what the next turns would be on their path. They needed to know a person. We normally think of a way as a path, a distance from a to b. But Jesus doesn’t offer you directions. He offers you his person. He is the way. He doesn’t say, “you can pick what you prefer from these schools of thought,” he says, “here I am, you can either embrace me or reject me.” Because Jesus is a person, he can’t be cut up piecemeal so you can only take the parts you like. When you have him, you have all of him. Because you know him, you know the way. Not that you know exactly what the next few months hold for you, but that you know that he will be right there with you every step of the way.

Ok, so Jesus promises that our near-term future will work out because he will accompany us on our path. And because he is God, we can trust his promise. But that still leaves room for Philip’s question, doesn’t it? Facing the prospect of Jesus leaving them, he said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. In other words, Jesus if you’re going to leave us, can’t you just give us the end goal of this whole deal right now? You’ve been teaching us about the reality of God, you’ve been saying that you and the Father are one, can you show him to us before you leave? Philip is asking for certainty of a different kind. Thomas wanted to know the path forward. Philip wants to know he’s headed for the right destination. And Jesus’ response gives him comfort that goes beyond the next portion of our lives.

Jesus said, Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him, they are one and the same, Jesus is God, and Jesus says, Philip, I have shown you the Father. You have seen God. You do know God. He is me and I am him. My person, my being, is the God of the universe sitting before you.

And this is so important because all other groups that we were talking about before get at a piece, maybe several pieces, of what God is like. Everyone can look around at the beautiful world that we live in and realize that a human didn’t create this, so whoever did must be more powerful than humans. Ok, so God is powerful. Everyone can look around and see that humans have a general sense of right and wrong, something that transcends time and culture. Ok, so God is just. Those are truths about God.

But to fully know God you must know Jesus. You could look around at the world and come to wrong conclusions about God just as easily as correct ones. You could see all the natural disasters and conclude that God doesn’t care about each human life. That would be a lie. You could see all the death and conclude that our goal in life should be to have fun here while we can, like some philosophers do, that would be a lie. You could notice that God doesn’t reveal your immediate future to you an conclude that God isn’t concerned with your life here. What a huge and damaging lie that would be.

To fully know God you have to know Jesus. Because in Jesus, God has revealed the truth of who he is and what he is actually like. Hebrews says, the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. When you see Jesus care for the sick and the needy, you see who God is. When you see Jesus spend time with the outcasts of society, you see who God loves. When you see Jesus spend so much time rebuking the Pharisees, the religious elites, you see that God values truth but also wants everyone, even the greatest hypocrites, to turn to him. When you see Jesus here in John 14, fully aware that he’s about to succumb to a painful death, but spending his last hours reassuring his disciples who he had told multiple times what was going to happen and yet they didn’t get it through their heads, you see just how patient God is. And when you see Jesus die on the cross, a sinless man willingly paying the just penalty for your sin, you see the truth about just how much God loves you.

Yes, it is true that Jesus makes an incredibly exclusive claim to be God. And yes, that claim offends many. But he makes that claim so that he could call you out of your search from this path to that, always looking but never really finding truth. He makes that claim because he wants you to stop building your life on paths that humans come up with and start building it on his person. He makes that claim because he wants you to know him, all of him, better than you know your best friend.

And how can we trust him over and above every other human idea? Because he did not leave that claim up for debate. He proved his claim to be truth over and above all other humans who claim to have the truth by rising from the dead, proving that his claim to be God is true.

Because Jesus makes this exclusive claim, and because Jesus backed up his exclusive claim, he has created the most inclusive path to God on earth. You don’t need to find the right teacher to show you the best way. You don’t need to pore over books of scientists and philosophers to discern the core of what is true and what isn’t about our world. You don’t need to experiment with different lifestyles to find the life that is best for your relationship with God. Because when anyone—anyone at all—comes to faith in Jesus, they have God. They have the way, the truth, and the life in full. Every person, young or old, who has ever lived can know God, and know how much God loves them, when they know Jesus. And we can know with certainty because he has risen from the dead. So if your future feels uncertain, run to Jesus. Because the way, the truth, and the life is not a path you need to figure out. He is a person who loves you forever.