Just hours before His death, Jesus arranged a final meeting with the Disciples who had known and walked with Him for 1,000 days. The appointed time had come. God’s plan for the salvation of the world must be transferred to eleven frail, ordinary, and unschooled men. But first, Jesus wanted to show them the full extent of His love. 

The setting was a ritual meal, given directly to the Jews by God. The symbols of the Passover meal: the killing of a lamb, the blood on the doorposts, the unleavened bread, etc., had been re-played in Jewish culture for 1,400 years. But over the next 14 short hours, their TRUE meaning would be revealed. With that as the backdrop, in a warm upper room, thirteen dusty men stepped into the most important night of their lives. Jesus seized the moment. With the humility of a servant, He washed their feet. With a voice of authority, He identified His betrayer. With the compassion of a friend, He predicted Peter’s denial. After all of this, Jesus told them that He must “go.” 

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 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. 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:1-5)

The teacher in Jesus always seemed to speak just inches beyond the understanding of the Disciples. “You know the ‘place’ where I am going,” He said, and they all thought, “We do?”

The most doubtful of the team (Thomas) quickly scanned the maps in his brain thinking: “I can’t imagine ‘where’ on earth Jesus, the carpenter’s son would go to build houses.” Dumbfounded, he asks, “How can we know the way?” After all – there was nothing in their scope of geography that pointed to a place where Messiah would set up an earthly dwelling. “Just tell us how to get there, Jesus!”

Verse 6 gives His answer – one that, months later, would become a cornerstone of the young Church. 

Jesus answered, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Remember, Thomas asked, “How can we know the way to the Father?” He wanted a map. To His surprise, Jesus pointed to a relationship. Even more surprising, (and controversial), Jesus claimed to be the exclusive way to reach the Father. In essence, He says, “I AM the only way to get to Heaven. You can’t get there apart from Me.”

Ponder this thought with me a little deeper:

This most exclusive statement by Christ is one of ten “I AM” truth claims in John. It is very specific, and His “Jewish” followers understood that He was claiming to be the Christ – the Messiah – the person of Jehovah. In Exodus, God revealed His name to Moses as “I AM” (not “I was” or “I will be”). This identifies the fact that God is trans-temporal (He is above time and all times are before Him at once). Just saying those words was considered blasphemy to the Jews… unless the person who uttered them was God!

This statement alone makes Christ’s truth-claim exclusive among the “religious figures” of history. None claimed to be “above time.” Hindu gurus saw many ways to become one with an impersonal god or gods. Buddha didn’t believe in a personal God. Muhammad claimed to be a prophet – nothing more; giving revelations to his fellow Arab tribesmen about “who” God is and what he expects. But in sharp contrast, Jesus claimed to have existed before Moses, Abraham and even Adam. (See John 8:48-58)

In a relationship with Christ, we have full and complete access (the way) to a loving God who is to be approached as “Father.” In a relationship with Christ, we see reality from God’s perspective (the truth) and are freed from our own skewed and subjective position. In a relationship with Christ, we enter into a life that is truly life where God is a Father who never lets His children remain in a state of death – where we enjoy Him and His creation in proper alignment for eternity. 

Understand, when Jesus uttered these words to His Disciples, He revealed something life-changing. They most likely did not grasp the implications of these words at the time, but undoubtedly, in later years, they looked back on that statement as the beginning of the Church. Of course, Jesus did not stop with words. The next day, God’s Son showed the world the full extent of His love for mankind by fulfilling those Passover symbols. As He bled and died, and then conquered death by rising from the grave, God declared to mankind that access to Himself was now available to all. THE WAY had been opened; THE TRUTH of the gravity of man’s sin revealed via the cost of the sacrifice; and THE LIFE of the God-Man was laid down so that we would never feel the sting of death.