1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. 2 There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. 3 After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”
5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t even know where you are going! How can we know the way?”
6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father. 7 If you had known me, you would have known the Father. But from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”
9 Jesus replied:
Philip, I have been with you for a long time. Don’t you know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you ask me to show you the Father? 10 Don’t you believe that I am one with the Father and that the Father is one with me? What I say isn’t said on my own. The Father who lives in me does these things.
11 Have faith in me when I say that the Father is one with me and that I am one with the Father. Or else have faith in me simply because of the things I do. 12 I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father. 13 Ask me, and I will do whatever you ask. This way the Son will bring honor to the Father. 14 I will do whatever you ask me to do.
Read John 14:1-14 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, He makes one of the least politically correct statements, and it is a claim that may have turned some people off of Christianity when discovering it. The gospel of John tells us that while promising His followers He will be preparing a place for them in Heaven before returning to bring them home, the conversation Jesus has with His disciples went like this: Jesus finishes one sentence by saying, “You know the way to where I am going.” (v. 4)
Then Thomas jumps in with a question: “Lord, we don’t even know where you are going! How can we know the way?” (v. 5)
Jesus then responds with His politically incorrect and culturally insensitive response: “I am the way, the truth, and the life! Without me, no one can go to the Father.” (v. 6)
On the surface, these two sentences run completely counter to Jesus’ character. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He seemed to downplay His role and His significance in favor of pointing people back to God. Jesus didn’t want glory or fame; He wanted people to repent and return to the Father.
These two sentences, while technically pointing to the Father, place Jesus in the spotlight, and while Jesus had plenty of occasions to be the center of attention, very rarely is Jesus responsible for drawing attention onto Himself without pointing the glory to the Father.
So because these two statements seem un-Christ-like, does that mean we can safely ignore them?
In my own mind, it would be unwise to do so. In verse 10, Jesus describes how everything He says comes from the Father. This gives weight and context to Jesus’ earlier statements. If God told Jesus to say something that placed Him in the spotlight, it would be no different from empowering Jesus with the ability to miraculously heal a disabled person which would also place Him in the spotlight.
Because of this, we can trust the statement Jesus makes as a promise for us, however offensive it may sound to someone looking in with a critical attitude.
Also, it is worth challenging ourselves with the following thought: If God the Father directed Jesus to say that Jesus is the only way to Him, perhaps God the Father is the one responsible for making Jesus the only way to reach Him. If God the Father chose Jesus to be the only way to Him, then it would be complete foolishness for us to discount Jesus because it sounded like Jesus made an arrogant, exclusive statement about Himself. If God the Father is responsible for this, then rejecting Jesus is equal to rejecting God Himself, and rejecting God never leads to anywhere good long-term.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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