Trust & Obey, Week 1: John 3 & John 14, Part 3
In John 14, verse 1, Jesus is talking about belief, as we saw him do in the previous posts on John 3. But between John chapter 3 and John 14, time has passed, and now Jesus is hours away from his death. He is meeting with his disciples, having a meal together, trying to prepare them for the difficult days ahead.
He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.” Again, as we learned in the previous posts, that belief is not just ideas in their minds. Instead, Jesus is saying, “Rely on me totally.” Then in verses 2–4 he talks about going to his father’s house, preparing rooms for them, and taking them there. Notice how he is using Kingdom of God imagery. He concludes in verse 4 by saying, “You know the way there.”
In verse 5, one of his disciples Thomas, ever skeptical, says, “Wait. What? We don’t know what you are talking about.” I love the honesty of that question. It is a great reminder that questions are not wrong not. God welcomes our questions.
Jesus has been speaking a new and deeper Kingdom reality, and Thomas said what was probably on most of the disciples’ minds, that even though Jesus says “you know the way there,” they do know what way he is talking about.
In response, Jesus gives another famous verse, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” Jesus himself is the way. And he says that since they know him, they know the Father. There is a one-to-one equality that is mysterious. Jesus and the Father are one, yet also different.
His disciple, Philip, now responds in verse 8, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” That question is hilarious in the eye roll kind of way, because Jesus has just said that if you know him then you know the Father. In a strange way, Jesus could say, “You’re looking at him. I am him. He is me.”
Frankly, I get it that the disciples were confused. Their entire religious framework was built on Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Now Jesus is saying that he is the Father and the Father is him.
The disciples are confused by all this. So Jesus needs to clear things up, and we’ll see how he does so in the next post.
Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash
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