“I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life” – What Jesus Really Meant. John 14:1-7

John 14:1-6Authorized (King James) Version

14 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ² 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. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. ⁴ And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

⁵ Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? ⁶ Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. ⁷ If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Many of us are familiar with John 14, where Jesus tells His disciples that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

But what did that saying really mean for them, and what does it mean for us?

This short conversation happens on the last night before the crucifixion, during the Passover meal. 

Before this, Jesus had washed all of the disciple’s feet, predicted his betrayal by Judas, predicted his denial by Peter, and told each of the disciples he would soon be going away (John 13) absent his specifying where exactly he was going to go. 

All of this naturally prompted some direct questions from the disciples about where Jesus was going, and why it was that they could not follow with him:

John 14:1-7 Revised Standard Version

Jesus the Way to the Father

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe ^[a] in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way where I am going.” ^[b] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.”

By him using this phrase, Jesus is establishing that knowing Him is not only the ultimate meaning and the ultimate fulfillment of life on earth, but it is the only way to really know the Father in heaven.

“I Am the Way”

As Jesus tells his disciples that he is the way, there are multiple meanings involved. 

First off, he directly and decisively addresses our very human instinct to know where we are going before we start a journey. 

The disciples wanted to know the next step, the next turn, the ultimate destination of where this journey in faith would lead them. 

When we have a long trip ahead of us, we want to turn on our GPS and get an idea of how long it will take and the roads we will travel on to get there. 

We determine the best, fastest routes and then start our journey. 

Thomas was looking for the same kind of information.

However, Jesus makes it clear that they (or we) won’t know the defined way we are supposed to travel in life. 

We are instead tasked with simply knowing and trusting in Jesus daily, and walking in faith that HE is, in immutable truth and undeniable fact, the way. 

When we abide in him, we will not know a defined course, but we can rest in the comfort of faith – he will lead us exactly where we need to go as we walk in him.

This leads to the second meaning. 

In John 10, Jesus compared himself to a good shepherd:

John 10:1-9 New American Standard Bible

Parable of the Good Shepherd

10 “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. ² But the one who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. ³ To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he puts all his own sheep outside, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ However, a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶ Jesus told them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what the things which He was saying to them ^[a]meant.

⁷ So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

Jesus is comparing himself to a shepherd and us to his sheep.

Sheep do not choose their own path to safety and protection, but rely on the shepherd to guard and care for them. 

In order to be safe, we have to trust the shepherd, and not wander off on our own adventures and try to find out own way. 

That will lead us to danger and pain. 

But when we follow Jesus, he leads us to exactly where we need to be.

Finally, he is making clear he is the way to the Father, by extension, to heaven.

He further says he goes ahead to prepare a place for us, and this suggests after we have completed the journey of this life, he would have already gone ahead, prepared that place, we’ll find ourselves in a place of rest where the Father is.

“I Am the Truth”

What is truth?

And how can we know truth?

After Jesus had been arrested, He found Himself standing before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea.

He had been accused of blasphemy, of stirring up the people to revolution, and it was rumored He called Himself a King.

In speaking to Him, Pilate found no evidence of any crime worthy of death, but was fascinated by His bold talk of a Kingdom “not of this world” (John 18:36). 

Pushing back on the idea of whether this lowly carpenter from Galilee truly considered Himself to be some kind of King, Jesus replies, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate’s response comes in the form of a question, the exact same question that humanity has been asking for centuries, the same response to Jesus that keeps so many from faith: “Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?'” (John 18:38)

Jesus answered this question in John 14 with only the disciples present when he tells them “I am the truth”. 

Jesus can testify to the truth, teach the truth because he himself is that truth. 

In him there is nothing false, there is nothing misleading, and there is nothing even remotely fake or even remotely uncertain. 

Each and every single of us are capable of knowing truth, but none of us can claim to actually be truth. 

There are too many things we don’t know, too many things we will never come to understand and by far, too many things we get wrong throughout our lives.

Yet here, Jesus claims to be truth, and in doing so claims to be One with God. 

The words of John 1:1 set the stage for this very fact: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In this one sentence, John is proclaiming Jesus as ‘the Word’, which would have suggested that Jesus is the beginning and culmination of all that has been true throughout eternity, and that to seek the truth ultimately leads us to seek him.

When asking God to “search our hearts”(Psalm 139:23) we seek to figure out just what is the truth, what is a lie, we can then try to measure it against the words of Jesus, who himself is the truth – “to lead us in the way everlasting” (139:24).

“I Am the Life”

This saying also draws us back to the shepherd analogy of John 10:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. … “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me– just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (emphasis added)

Here Jesus is not only painting a picture of how he leads, guides, defends and knows his sheep, but also foreshadowing his coming brutal death on the cross.

But if this is true, why do Christians still continue to struggle so much in life? 

Why do we still endure pain and heartache?

Because, ultimately, this life is not the point. 

This life is not our ultimate goal, doesn’t encompass the entirety of who we are.

This life is a mere drop in the ocean of eternity and serves as the starting block on the marathon that leads us to our ultimate goal of our eternal life with God.

We can try to slow it down, we can spend time money and energy working to fight tooth and nail against it, but we cannot stop it from marching forward. 

Jesus is ultimately teaching us what we are to really be ultimately concerned with is not this life, but with eternal life. 

Scriptures speak frequently and often of the life to come after our life on this earth, and as we seek after the Truth, following the voice of our shepherd, we can grasp what that “ONLY Way” to eternal life, is in the here and the now.

We can live this life in such a way that we are not chasing things that don’t last but chasing the things that ultimately do last and will have eternal significance.

This type of life has eternal impact not only for us but untold others around us.

When Jesus refers to himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he is giving us an infinitely better way to ultimately live our lives penultimately through him.

He is showing us that through following him daily in faith, he will lead us to a fuller, better, richer, more meaningful life than we could ever find on our own.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 61 English Standard Version

Lead Me to the Rock

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. Of David.

61 Hear my cry, O God,
    listen to my prayer;
² from the end of the earth I call to you
    when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
    that is higher than I,
³ for you have been my refuge,
    a strong tower against the enemy.

⁴ Let me dwell in your tent forever!
    Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah
⁵ For you, O God, have heard my vows;
    you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

⁶ Prolong the life of the king;
    may his years endure to all generations!
⁷ May he be enthroned forever before God;
    appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!

⁸ So will I ever sing praises to your name,
    as I perform my vows day after day.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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