“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You
believe in God; believe also in me…You know the way to the place where I am
going.” (John 14:1, 4)
In John 13 Jesus
had predicted Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial, and explained that he’d soon
be leaving. Put yourself in the shoes of
the disciples. Were they sad, shocked, or
fearful about what would come next? What
were they thinking? Perhaps how could one
of us ever betray or disown Jesus? Am I capable
of such a thing? Will we ever see Jesus
again?
That’s when Jesus
interrupted their thoughts saying don’t let you hearts be troubled, just
believe in me. Trust in me, and trust that you know the way to where I am going.
As believers, we too know the way to God
and eternal life with Him.
But for all those Thomases out there, with too many doubts and too little faith,
Jesus goes on to tell us in no uncertain
terms.
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really
know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have
seen him.” (John14:6-7)
Not only do we know the way to God, but we
know God as well. We’ve seen
him through Christ because they are one in the same. God didn’t send Christ
simply to pay for our sins; rather he paid for our sins in order to restore our relationship with him, a
relationship that was broken when sin first entered the world.
Like these disciples, we also know the way
to walk in Jesus’ steps here on earth. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John14:15) “Anyone who loves me will obey
my teaching.” (John14:23) Our obedience is evidence of our love and trust in him.
In real life we
have seen so many twisted, imperfect, sinful examples of love, power, and authority
that we cringe at words like commands
and obey. And doesn’t the word if sound manipulative? Perhaps it’s been
used on you or by you when motives weren’t so pure.
But Jesus isn’t
trying to manipulate here. He’s telling
us to put our love, faith, and knowledge of him into action. If we love
him, trust him, realize that his plans are perfect, know his motives are pure, trust
that he only wants what’s best for us and knows what that is…if we love him, we’ll
obey his commands.
Thomas’ question was how can we know the
way? My question is now that we know it will
we walk it out?
