John 14:1-14--I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

John 14:1-14
English Standard Version

I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

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Our context is that Jesus is on His way to the Mount of Olives after The Last Supper and is with His disciples teaching the Eleven the last things that He wants to say before He dies and trying to prepare them for the loss and fear they are about to experience all with struggling with everything going on inside Himself now that His hour has come.  There are no longer any crowds and this is a very intimate group of people with Him--possibly a few more than the Eleven were there, but not the thousands of people that we've seen congregating around Jesus, so Jesus in the past.

Jesus' concern as the Good Shepherd is first and foremost for His sheep, so He starts off by telling them "Let not your hearts be troubled."  This sounds like the message that often starts off when a messenger from God speaks to one of God's people...."Fear not...."  Jesus then brings it back to them believing in Him.  He says, "Believe in God (the Father), believe also in Me."

He knows the disciples are in need of encouragement as He's just told them He's going away somewhere that they cannot follow (at least, not right now) as He's about to return to His Father in heaven.  Jesus speaks as a groom leaving His fiancé to say "I am going to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also."  This is how it worked in that culture.  There was a betrothal period, but the wedding didn't happen until the groom had built a house suitable for His Bride of which the Son's Father had approved, and the Father is the one that tells the Son when to return for His Bride--the Son doesn't even know the date of the wedding, but everyone has to be ready, because when it is time, the Son will be preceded by a herald that says, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh" and everyone needs to be ready so that the wedding can start immediately as the Bridegroom is not going to wait any longer.  We can be sure that both the Father and the Son have only the best in store for us and even though we are promised a Place, we know that the best thing is going to be the Person that we spend all eternity with.

Jesus then says they should know where He is going--this probably means that they should have listened and should know that He is both about to go to Jerusalem to be handed over to the Jews and die, and that He is returning to the right hand of the Father.  I'm pretty sure that the disciples connected these things as a single event and that they were thinking that Jesus' spirit would go back to the Father at the time of His death, but it seems pretty clear to me that no one was expecting a physical, bodily resurrection, even though Jesus had told them a couple of times, but in a way they would not understand until after the Resurrection, that He was going to rise from the dead.

Thomas speaks up for the group and says, "No, we don't know where you area going.  How can we know the way?"  In other words, "How are we supposed to follow after you and make the journey if we don't know the destination or even the direction of travel?  This is where we get to John 14:6, a verse often quoted out of context.  This is one of Jesus' last "I AM" statements and He will answer Thomas's question directly--Jesus is the Way....the only Way to the Father.  "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No man comes to the Father except through Me."  This was so foundational that before followers of Jesus were called Christians, they were called "followers of the Way."

Then Jesus rebukes them and it almost sounds as if He's rebuking the Pharisees.  He says, "If you would have known me, you would have known My Father also."  Then Jesus' tone quickly shifts and says, "From no on, you do know know Him and have seen Him."  This completely blows their mind because Jesus has told many of the Jews, "No one has seen the Father, except the Son."  So, Thomas and the other disciples are understandably confused by this statement...no one, not even Moses, has seen the Father and lived, but Jesus is telling them they can actually see the Father?  This is great news!

So, I imagine the tone changes here and they forget about everything else as Philip says, "Show us the Father, that is enough for us!"  Again, Jesus answers them directly--something that He didn't always do for others when they asked even very direct questions like this.  There is no more time for Jesus to say, "Wait and see."  He has to be very direct and again speak to them in a tone that we usually see reserved for the unbelieving people when He asks them, "How long have I been with you and you still don't know Me, Phillip?"  Again, this has to be confusing for them.  I can imagine Philip thinking, "I thought we were talking about the Father?  Is anyone else following this?"  Jesus follows this up by asking Philip how he could say, "Show us the Father" when that's exactly what Jesus has been doing for them over the past three years that they have been with Him.

I mean of course they can see the Father in and through Jesus because He is the exact image of the invisible God, but they wanted to actually SEE the Father.  It seems clear that the answer to that question has not changed, but to see Christ is to see the Father, and to see Christians should be to see Christ.  We should be the exact imprint of Christ (through the power of the Holy Spirit) so that people will see us and say "I have seen Christ in and through you," since Christ is in us and we are in Christ in the same way that Jesus says, "10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves."  We should be able to say that same thing, but that we are in Christ and He is in us as people examine our changed lives and our words and our works that are clearly His words coming out of our mouths and His works being done through our bodies.  We are His workmen and His workmanship and we are His ambassadors representing our King and His Kingdom.

Then we have one of the greatest promises that Jesus ever gave His disciples.  This one blows my mind.  Jesus says that these disciples (and probably speaking prophetically of the Church as a whole) would do even greater works than even He had done.  This seems impossible to imagine.  We're not just talking about more works--that I can wrap my head around as Jesus was only in human form for a short period of time, but He says "greater works."  That just blows my mind until I realize that Jesus is probably talking about the Church taking the gospel to the whole world in all places in all times.  I don't necessarily think this is talking about signs and wonders or miracles--we've seen that word used by John quite often and I think he would have used that here if that's what was meant.  Jesus only reached a limited group of people in a limited space in a limited amount of time while He lived the life that He lived.

He knows that His mission is coming to and end, but He will not leave them as orphans--He is about to promise them the gift of the Holy Spirit, and He says this is to glorify the Father and so that anything that they ask for in the name of Christ will be given to them.  Don't take that out of context and treat it like some sort of incantation or witchcraft.  Remember that the Name of God is His identity, His character and His nature and essence.  So, if we ask for something consistent with the Name, we can be sure that this is also what God wants and that the Father and the Son will be happy to give it to us (and to those that we ask for).  I think this verse has a lot to do with what Jesus is talking about here:


Luke 11:13
English Standard Version
​13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Are we continuing to do the "greater works" that Christ foretold through the power of the Holy Spirit?  Are we asking for the good things in accordance with His Name that the Father desires to give to us?  Are we living in a way that people will see us and say that they have seen God?  Are we speaking His Word and doing His works that speak for themselves?  Are we showing people that Jesus is the only Way, the Truth ,and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him?  This was one of the most important things that Jesus wanted to make sure He taught to His disciples before He died and left to go back to the Father--we can sense some of the frustration here that they haven't picked up on this, but He graciously spells it all out for them.  How then can we ignore such a clear mission, vision and command?

Are we looking forward to the place that is being prepared for us and the One with whom we will spend all eternity?  Remember that promise was only for those who believed--Judas was not part of this group, and neither were the Pharisees or any of the non-believers.  Remember that it's about a Person and not so much about a Place.  Show people that Jesus is anything and everything they will ever need for now and all eternity.  If we have Him we will have all of our spiritual hunger and thirsts satisfied and He will take that which was dead and make it alive.  He is the Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Resurrections and the Life,  He is The Light of the World, the Door (the only way into and out of the sheepfold), the Good Shepherd, and He is the Way, the Truth and the Life--no one comes to the Father except through Him.

We will have one more "I AM" statement in John 15 and we will see Jesus say "I AM 'one other time at the time of His arrest and speak it with such power that it literally knocks the guards that came to arrest Him down with fear and trembling.  We still have a lot to go before we even get to the trial though.  John focuses on these final hours and we have much to learn as we study them together.