Share Light: In the Darkness a Light Shinesنموونە

SHARE LIGHT: Jesus Reveals Himself to Us 

Day Seven

Jesus Is the Way and the Truth and the Life

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Today’s Focus: John 14:6

Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.”

Today’s reading takes us back in time to just before Moses, the great leader of Israel, dies at the age of 120. He has been their leader for 40 years from the Exodus to the edge of the Jordan River through which they must go to finally get to the Promised Land. But Moses will not lead them. He will not be there to show them the way, or to declare to them the truths of God, or establish them in their new life in what will become Israel.

As great a leader as Moses has been, God will raise up another leader to take them into the home stretch. This new leader is named Joshua. His name in Hebrew is Yehoshua/Yeshua, the same name we translate into English as “Jesus.” Joshua in the Old Testament will do for Israel an inkling of what Jesus comes to do in the fullest way in the New Testament.

The night Jesus is arrested before his death on the cross, he is having the Passover meal with his disciples. They do not fully comprehend what the next 24-48 hours will hold for them or for Jesus. Their hearts are troubled especially as Jesus talks about leaving them. In this critical moment we read in John’s Gospel:

“Do not be worried and upset,” Jesus told them. “Believe in God and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so. And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am. You know the way that leads to the place where I am going” (John 14:1-4 GNT).

But Thomas says, “We don’t know where you are going!” He and the other disciples are fixated on a physical place with a specific time and instructions on how to arrive. They want to know, “How do we get by without a GPS?”

They were missing the point. Jesus didn’t want them to focus on a place or a map or a time to arrive. He wanted them to focus on him, on his message, on his purpose for coming to earth and calling them to follow him in the first place. He then says to them:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6 GNT).

While the disciples initially despaired, hid, and even denied Jesus, within 50 days of his resurrection, they were publicly proclaiming the way, the truth and the life of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem. This message spread far and wide, and within a relatively short period the message of the gospel had spread to the far corners of the Roman empire.

Reflection

Jesus’s declaration that he is “the way, the truth, and the life” and that “no one goes to the Father” except by him, is a hard saying for many today. Have you encountered pushback from those who take exception to that statement? From your own life and experience with Jesus, how would you help someone come to understand what Jesus is saying? How does this truth impact the need to make sure all people hear and experience the message of the gospel? Pray for those on the list you made two days ago, that they would hear and believe the gospel.