John 14:5-7 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How are we able to know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have also known my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Like with Peter in chapter 13, John records how Thomas voiced a question that provided Jesus the opportunity to explain himself more. Thomas is mentioned in two other passages. He comes across as both courageous (11:16) and doubtful when he did not have proof (20:24). He was “all in” if he knew for certain and if the facts were clear but plagued with doubt if the evidence was not clear. He wanted to know two things: where Jesus was going and how they could follow him there. If the disciples knew where Jesus was going, then they could get themselves ready and follow him. Jesus had just stated clearly the answers to both of Thomas’ questions, but Thomas could not put the pieces together in his logical thinking. He seemed to have been thinking literally or physically.
Jesus answered Thomas’ two-part question in verse 6 in reverse order, using another significant “I am” saying. First, he gives the way, and second, he gives the place. Both of these merge in the person of Jesus, who is the way to the Father. The goal and place is to be with the Father. The Father represents the source of life and existence. To be in the Father’s presence is to have eternal life. Our goal is to return to the fellowship with God represented in the Garden of Eden, to be in the presence of the one who created us. Some people think of God as scary. Not Jesus–or John who wrote about God’s love in 1 John 4:7-8. Many people think of heaven as a paradise where all their selfish desires will be met or where they will have a nice mansion on a street paved with gold. They forget or neglect to think of heaven as the presence of the God who is love. Jesus’ answer to Thomas is simple: he was going to the Father from whence he came.
Jesus’ answer to Thomas is also simple but challenging: Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus mentions three keywords in John’s Gospel that summarize the message he preached and that John records in the long teaching sections (red letter). First, Jesus is the way. He not only set the path by example but is the path. Only through believing in him will anyone have access to the Father. This exclusive tenet of Christianity is being challenged by the syncretism and relativism of the post-modern age where people think there are many paths to God. As the Lamb of God (1:29, 34), he is the only one who can take away the sin of the world and provide resurrection life.
The second part of verse 6 emphasizes the exclusivity of this idea. No one can go the Father unless that person goes through Jesus. The prepositional phrase through me narrows the path and points to the gate that few find (Matthew 7:14). All other paths are limited and distorted. God’s truth is evident in many religions of the world, but they are paths people have forged for themselves and are incomplete. The only clear and sure way to the Father is through Jesus. Human inspiration and imagination are not adequate, no matter how righteous and holy they seem. The Jews in Jesus’ day thought they had the path figured out by their observance of the law and various regulations, but they were mistaken in the same way many people are today. The path is available only through the gracious revelation of Jesus. Looking to him in faith is looking to God for salvation.
What qualifies Jesus to be the way is because he is truth and life. As the truth, Jesus revealed the Father and the Father’s love for humanity. The word truth occurs more times in John (54 times in various forms) than anywhere else in the Bible. Jesus came as the truth (1:14) and spoke the truth. The way to eternal life is to accept his teachings and claims about himself. The truth is not so much an intellectual confession in a statement but in accepting a person. He not only revealed truth in his teaching, but he is also the truth embodied as the Incarnate Son of God. People seek for answers and to discover the truth. The “truth” is redefined and put in different terms, such as “discovery,” “new ideas,” “answer for diseases,” “philosophical inquiry,” “counseling,” and many other descriptions. All of these are but human interpretations and efforts to discover the truth of the universe. People look in the wrong place because all truth, including scientific discoveries, can be found in the Word through whom all things were created. The highest pursuit of knowledge begins with accepting Jesus as the truth.
As Creator and the Resurrected One, the Son is the source and instrument of creation and earthly life and extends this life in a new way into eternity. Life is another important theme in John, with the word occurring 48 times in different forms. Jesus provides life because he created it in the beginning as the Word of God (1:4). He is the source of eternal life to those who believe because he laid down his own life as the perfect and final sacrifice for sin (10:11). Finally, he will restore life in the end when he comes again (11:25). People try to find meaning in life, but nothing in this world satisfies the deep hunger for meaning like Jesus. Even if a person finds satisfaction in life, earthly existence, human philosophy, and religious quests cannot provide eternal life after one dies. The only source of eternal life is God’s grace provided on the cross. The guarantee of eternal life is Jesus’ own resurrection. As Jesus says in a few verses, because he lives, we too shall live (verse 19).
Verse 7 repeats the ideas of verse 6 and makes restates the connection between Son and Father. To know Jesus is to know the Father. The assumption is that the disciples had come to know Jesus, but there was more for them to know after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Knowledge of the Son comes through faith and obedience to his commands. Something would soon change for the disciples after they met the resurrected Lord. Their knowledge would change from their head to their heart, which is must happen for us to experience the life Jesus promised.
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