I AM JesusBeispiel

"I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE."

Jesus had just washed His disciples’ feet, predicted His betrayal, and prophesied Peter's denial. I'd say He's on a roll. After these rather somber revelations, Jesus comes back to His disciples with a word of comfort. "Don't worry," He declared. There's plenty of room in Heaven, and Jesus assures them (and us) that He has personally gone to prepare the glorious place with a promise to return for them (and us) later. Magnifying His deity, Jesus assures them, “You know the way where I am going.” Unfortunately, yet again, Thomas and Co. couldn’t wrap their minds around the promise Jesus was giving us. In their own words, "No, we don't know, Lord. We have no clue where you're going, so how on earth can we know the way." Jesus, as bold as ever, declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Reminiscent of the gate statement, Jesus confidently declares nobody gets to the holiest place outside of Him.

Their response? You’d think they would “get it” by now. From the miracles to Jesus’ own words, He’s continued to put His divine nature on full display. Not even that was enough. Phillip asked for one more sign to “satisfy” their skepticism. Jesus, understandably annoyed, replies, “Have I been with you this long and you still don’t get it?”

Our church rents a building from a public university for Sunday gatherings. The entire campus is a maze of one-way streets and very little parking. The problem is my GPS (here we go again) can’t figure out which streets are one-way and which aren’t. More than once, I’ve found myself face-to-face, or headlight-to-headlight, with a steady stream of vehicles trying to get to class. As you can imagine, the honks and California howdy came my way fast. The problem is there’s only one way, the GPS thinks there are many ways, and I have no idea which way I’m going.

Back to the narrative – Jesus is declaring there’s only one way, the religious elites believe there’s an entire lawbook of ways, and the disciples have no idea where they’re going. Question? Does a GPS failure or not knowing a street is one-way get you out of a ticket? Nope. Trust me, I know. The only choice is to follow the correct way. That’s the invitation from Jesus here.