We are up to the sixth “I AM” statement; I am the Way is found in John 14:6, but I am including verses 1 – 11, as we need to know the context around this statement.
The thought of death troubles human beings and always has. Jesus had spoke to the disciples about his death and they were troubled. Jesus is going to pretty much tell them to stop worrying.
With this week’s “I AM” statement, it will be teaching an exclusive gospel. No universalism, the hope that everyone will someday be in heaven, but a narrow way. Salvation is through Jesus alone. Some Christians struggle with the exclusivism of the gospel, but Scripture allows us no other choice. God offers no variety of ways leading to heaven, only Jesus Christ.
Troubled people need peace and the disciples were no different. The problems they were facing were real, just as our problems are real. These disciples were good Jews and had already put their trust in God the Father but now Jesus asked them to trust in him, not for just food when they watched Jesus feed the five thousand, but with their lives.
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 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 know me, you will 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 I do not speak on my own authority. 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 works themselves.
Thomas was an honest follower though always the skeptic, so he was the first to ask, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus’ response is the key verse of the passage, memorized by Christians all around the globe. Jesus is the way – reconciliation; Jesus is the truth – illumination; Jesus is the life – regeneration. This is the exclusive gospel. The New Testament knows nothing of universalism, the idea that God will find some way to save everybody. What could be clearer than Jesus’ words in verse 6, No one comes to the Father except through me.
Why did the disciples need all this talk about trusting Jesus? Why do we need it? Because like them, we do not know Jesus well enough; we struggle to understand the Father. Repeatedly Jesus emphasized the link between the heavenly Father and the Son, but right up to the end the disciples did not get it, and we struggle with the concept as well.
This is one of those places at which we would like to have audio aids for the Bible. What was Thomas’s tone of voice when he said this? Is he still the skeptic? The pessimist? The negative thinker? It would appear so, but we admire his openness and vulnerability. The impact of Jesus’ answer echoes through the centuries to the present hour. He embodies the way to God, the truth about God, and the life in God. And if the disciples really knew him as they should, they would understand the inseparability between the Father and the Son.
This announcement in John 14:6 prepares the way for the author of Hebrews to write, “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Hebrews 10:19-20).
The common Greek word for the way is hodos and it appears 102 times in the New Testament. John used it to warn people that they should prepare for the way of the Lord (Matthew 3:3); the Pharisees told Jesus that he taught the way of God in accordance with the truth (Matthew 22:16); the Book of Hebrews talks about coming to God by a new and living way (Hebrews 10:20); and Peter writes about the way of truth (2 Peter 2:2). None of these passages, however, carry the drama of the word as it appears here in John 14.
Moving to verse 8, Philip either did not understand his Old Testament well or he failed to link the Father and the Son. Or perhaps he was born in Missouri, the “show me” state. If Jesus could produce physical evidence of the Father, Philip claimed the disciples would finally be satisfied.
We must remember Jesus’ response. There is no difference between the Father and the Son; they are both God, equally powerful. Here again we find the theme, believing is seeing. Notice Jesus’ emphasis on both words and workin verse 10. Jesus’ words reflected his deity much more than his work did. The disciples had been fascinated by his work, but they had not listened carefully enough to his words. Almost in frustration, the Lord said, at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
Philip’s confusion is typical of the disciples throughout the first four books of the New Testament. The depth of theology in these discussions overwhelmed the disciples, probably until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Even Christians today who hold the entire Bible and enjoy the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit struggle with the doctrine of the Trinity and oneness of the Father and the Son.