Jesus was getting ready to be crucified, to be resurrected, and to return to the Father. While His apostles didn’t understand what was really going to happen, they understood enough to be anxious. So, Jesus reassured them. John 14:1-6 “’Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Just as the disciples were anxious about the future, you and I can also be anxious about our future. The reassurance of Jesus applies to us as well. “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” The word translated “mansions” literally means dwellings. The nature of these dwellings has not been revealed to us. The important point is that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. Then He adds “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Jesus promised to come back again and receive us to Himself; we will get to be with Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” We are assured of being with Jesus in the Father’s house.
Then Jesus added “And where I go you know, and the way you know.” But Thomas felt that he didn’t know. So he said “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus responds by saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus said that He is three things: the way, the truth, and the life.
“The Way.” Jesus taught in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Jesus is the door. John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” There is no salvation any other way. Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus paid the price for our salvation. We were slaves to sin. Jesus ransomed us. Matthew 20:28 “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Through Jesus we have the forgiveness of our sins; through Jesus we are made righteous before God; through Jesus we are reconciled to God. Only through Jesus can this be possible. He is the way.
Jesus is also the way by showing us the way to live our lives. Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’” Jesus also said in John 12:26 “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” As Christians, we are the disciples of Jesus and we follow His teachings and the teachings of the apostles. Jesus teaches us how to live and, in that sense, He is the way.
“The Truth.” Jesus was being questioned by Pilate in John 18:37 “Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’” There were many lies and half-truths in the time of Jesus and the same is true today – what life is all about, what is the nature of God, what is right and what is wrong, etc. His teachings are truth. We are set apart from the world as followers of God’s truth. Jesus prayed in John 17:17-19 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
“The Life.” God gave His Son that we would have everlasting life. John 3:15-16 “That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus is eternal life. 1 John 5:11-12 “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We must sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh. Galatians 6:8 “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
“No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Years ago, a young man tried to convince me that all religions (Muslim, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, etc.) are all good and we should all accept each other as different paths to God. But this is contrary to what Jesus taught. While we should show love to all, Jesus clearly taught that there is only one way to the Father, only one set of truths, only one way to eternal life. Jesus said “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
I encourage you not to be anxious about the future. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He has gone to prepare a place for you and will come again and receive you to Himself.