John 14:1-14
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 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’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 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 miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus gave His disciples, and He gives us an invitation...This invitation is to heaven itself...He tells us a little bit about His house in heaven and gives us an open invitation to His Father's home...How great is that invitation and invite...How great a hope these verses are...Yet, it seems we often do not take His invitation serious enough...It is like something on this earth keeps us from being able to fully comprehend the importance of His invitation...The things, the pleasures, our desires of our own flesh seem to make us drift from Him and this Great Invitation...
Thomas (and Philip), are men after my own heart...They both have humanly type questions and comments...Man is ignorant of many things of the eternities and heaven...Thomas says we don't know the way to heaven and your Father's house -how do we get there?...Jesus with even more divine words of hope, says I AM the way, the truth, and the life...He is the Way to heaven, He is the very Truth of this world and the next, and He is eternal Life...The Truth, the Way, and the Life are all related...This is Jesus, in a way -summing Himself up...I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life...
This invitation, this way to His Father's house is through Him...In fact, the only way to His Father's house is through His invitation...Jesus in telling us, He is the way, the truth, and the life is teaching us He is divine...No one comes to the Father, except through Me...How bold of a statement is that?...
Then Philip says another comment, like this author might say...Just show us Your Father, and that will be enough, and then I can believe...Jesus tells Philip, and the rest of His disciples (and throughout His ministry), that I have come from heaven, I have been sent by My Father and yours...God is still in heaven in His waiting for us...Jesus came to earth to reveal God to us...Jesus' role is to lead us to the Father...He is the way to the Father...This is why Jesus came to earth -to show us this way...
I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life, says so much about Jesus...When Jesus says I AM -He is telling us He is, in fact, Divine...When He ways I AM the Way, this sums up His mission and intentions of earth...He, alone shows us the Way to God, His Father...When He says He is the Truth, He is as much the Truth as His Father in heaven is the Truth...And for I AM Life, He was with God in the beginning (John 1:2), He is the Creator and Sustains of all Life...