The Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14)

A homily on John 14. 1 - 14. The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
     In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
     The Gospel reading begins, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me." Recently, a friend related his religious history to me, describing how he became a Christian. "I realized one day," he said, "that I did not have to not-believe." These days, when Church and society are going through great changes, there is a lot of pressure on believers to renounce their faith, to suppose that their faith is an irrelevant leftover from a dead past, a survival of an ancient way of thinking what has nothing to offer us in the very challenging time in which we live. The hearts of believers, in other words, are troubled by unbelief, by doubt, and our Lord shows us how to overcome this trouble, this uncertainty. We do not have to not-believe.
     The first thing our Lord says is, "Believe in God, believe also in me." We remember that Jesus is speaking here in what we call the Last Supper Discourses of John's Gospel. Jesus is speaking to the Twelve, and, through them, to us. The context is one in which the Twelve will no longer have the physical presence of their Lord to rely on, so he is preparing them for the new condition in which they will find themselves when he is no longer with them in the flesh.
     "Believe in God, believe also in me." Jesus is asserting an identity between himself and the Father, and is equating belief in him to belief in God. There is, therefore, no separation between Jesus and God, and so no separation between the Twelve (and us) and God. This is a radical claim, and is what the Christian religion is about, what the Christian religion is for: to assert, encourage, maintain the connection between God and humanity, between the divine and human natures, which are united in Jesus. All through the reading, Jesus asserts his identity with the Father, and reminds the Twelve forcefully that they already know this, although they question it. And the reading reminds us that our destiny as well is to be with them, in the place that Jesus is preparing.
      "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places." The surface meaning of this passage is that there are places for Jesus and his followers. The implied meaning is that there is room for everyone, not just those to whom Jesus is speaking, or those who hear about Jesus's teaching. There are many dwelling places; there is no restriction on the meaning of this passage. Jesus goes on to say, "I go to prepare a place for you...so that where I am, you may be also." This is not merely a spatial metaphor, about removing the Twelve from one place on earth to another place in heaven, where, presumably, Jesus has prepared the guest rooms in advance. "Where I am, there you may be also," means that the oneness, the intimacy that the Son has with the Father, will be shared with the Twelve, and, in fact, with the whole human race. Jesus alludes to this earlier in John's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 16, where he says, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice." Jesus is telling the Twelve, and us, that his promises are not restricted to his hearers and his followers who know him, but they include others, all others, as well.
     "Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" This is Doubting Thomas, remember. Doubting Thomas, or 'questioning Thomas' in this case, is every one of us of good will who do not know what is going on. So Jesus answers his question directly, since he knows the real character of his questioner and makes allowance for him. Jesus can hear his sincerity, his doubt, his uncertainty, and answers Thomas as clearly and directly as he can: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also."
     Jesus makes less allowance for Philip, however. Philip announces that he has totally missed the point. He says, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." And Jesus expresses some irritation and impatience, it seems to me. "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?" This question is a warning to us -- have we been with Jesus for a long time, and we still do not know him? Are we letting ourselves miss the point? Are we finding ways to distract ourselves from the real nature and purpose of Jesus, which is to bring us to the Father? Jesus reminds Philip, and us, that he and the Father are one, and that Jesus's words and works confirm it. In our world, with all its challenges and distractions, we can allow ourselves to miss the point, as Philip does. But our Lord calls us back by reminding us that his words and works confirm the truth of what he is saying, and he promises that we will experience the fulfilment of it when we go to the place that he has prepared for us.
     'The Way, the Truth, and the Life' are personal, human, incarnational. The Way is not a set of laws, principles, rules, guidelines, nor any kind of generalized theological abstraction. The Way, the Truth, and the Life are meant to be lived, and in the living of them we know Jesus, and the Father, as our Lord says. In our encounters with Jesus in the Scriptures, in the Church , in our interactions with one another, we are meeting, and knowing, the Father.
     There is a temptation for Christians to think that these promises apply only to them, and, indeed, Jesus's language can be exclusive at times. But we must remember that, as Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, "God shows no partiality." To know the Father in Jesus is not the same thing as expressing pious opinions in religious language about the Father and the Son. We remember that God wills the salvation, the resurrection, the life in a new heaven and a new earth, for the whole human race. We Christians, when we allow that reality to shine through us, will light the way for all others to follow. Jesus invites us to do this when he says, "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask for anything, I will do it." There is no restriction here on what we may ask. We are being called, empowered even, to ask him to help us to make him, and through him the Father, known to the whole world.


In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.