This is part 7 of an 8-part series. View the entire series here.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” – John 14:6 NLT
It’s hard to fully grasp what the disciples were feeling during the Last Supper. At a time of celebration, of remembering the faithfulness of God with the Passover feast, your Teacher tells you He is leaving.
On a special mission? A secretive meeting? Will He be gone for the night; maybe a few days? Several of you offer to go with Him, but His reply is plain and direct: “Where I’m going, you cannot come. But you will follow after. You know the way to where I am going” (paraphrased).
Finally, bold Thomas chimes in: “‘No, we don’t know, Lord…We have no idea where You are going, so how can we know the way?’” (John 14:5 NLT). It was the first honest pushback of the night.
Throughout the centuries, Thomas has gotten a bad rap, often referred to as “Doubting Thomas” for needing to see the holes in Jesus’s hands and feet before believing in His resurrection.
But perhaps it’s not doubt that Thomas should be remembered for. You and I would almost certainly wrestle with the same trepidation to believe such never-before-seen wonders. And here, in John 14, Thomas’ true character shines––not as one who doubts, but as one who wants clarity in confusion. Someone who isn’t content with a blurry idea of who Jesus is. Someone who wants a deeper understanding of and experienced closeness with the Messiah.
It’s this willingness to seek understanding that resulted in one of the most well known I AM statements of Jesus: “‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” Jesus was preparing to return to Father. And there was one way to follow Him.
Thomas and the disciples still had yet to fully realize Jesus’s words. He was about to be glorified through the crucifixion, and His return to the Father would be through His death, resurrection, and ascension.
All of this would soon be understood, but for this night, Jesus wanted them to know one thing: though their time hadn’t come yet, they would follow Him into His eternal Kingdom. And when that time came, they already had the key to enter––their Savior Jesus, who would go ahead of them to prepare for them a heavenly home.
