The Way, the Truth, and the Life

1. The Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:1–14)

    [14:1] "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe 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 if 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 to where I am going." [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 except through me.
   
(John 14:1-6 ESV)

OVERVIEW

It is important to remember that the chapter divisions in the Bible are not the work of the original writers. (The fourth-century AD Codex Vaticanus, which contains the oldest system we know about for dividing the NT, separates the fourth gospel into fifty units.) What we label as ch. 14 continues the previous "chapter" without any necessary break. The admonition "do not let your hearts be troubled" must be read in the context of Jesus' announcement of his imminent death (13:31–33) and his prediction of Peter's betrayal (13:38).


COMMENTARY

1 Having left their homes and occupations to follow the Master, the disciples are now faced with what appears to be complete failure. The noble cause to which they had given themselves for the past three years seems about to crumble. How reassuring, then, would be the words of Jesus, "Set your troubled hearts at rest" (NEB; the present imperative may suggest "stop being troubled"). The verb (tarassō, GK 5429) means "stir up," "unsettle," "throw into confusion." In 11:33 it depicted Jesus' reaction when he encountered the sorrowing Mary, in 12:27 when he anticipated death, and in 13:21 when he predicted his betrayal.
As members of the Jewish community, the disciples would know from their own religious tradition that God would never abandon them. Throughout history he had responded to the needs of his people and protected them in times of distress. Jesus is saying to his disciples, "You do trust in God; therefore trust also in me [pisteuete, "trust," GK 4409, can be taken as indicative or imperative in either clause]. Have I not yet convinced you that I and my Father are one [10:30; cf. 17:21–23]? If the Father is worthy of your trust, so also is the Son." In light of this, then, Jesus urges, "You must not let yourselves be distressed" (Phillips).

2 The reason the disciples are able to set their hearts at rest is that, although he will leave them for a time, Jesus will return. While he is gone, he will be preparing a place for them in his Father's house, i.e., where God is, in heaven. "Many rooms" is a way of saying "enough room for everyone." The KJV's "mansions" (stemming from Tyndale) is misleading. In Old English the word meant "dwelling place" without any special reference to a palatial mansion. Some writers take the Greek monai ("rooms," GK 3665) as representing an Aramaic term meaning "shelters along the road" where a traveler could spend the night. Temple, 2:226, calls them "wayside caravanserais" and pictures Jesus as "our spiritual dragoman, who treads the way of faith before us." While it is comforting to think of "resting places" as stages in our spiritual growth and of Jesus as the One who goes ahead to prepare each place and lead us there (cf. Temple, 2:227–28), it is better to take monē as related to menō ("to abide," GK 3531), a basic verb that occurs frequently in John. The "many rooms" are in the Father's house, not along the road that leads there.
Since the place Jesus is preparing for his disciples is in heaven, it is difficult to say with any precision what this may entail. Speculations about "celestial palaces" miss the point. To be in the Father's house is to be with him; everything else will pale by comparison. Marsh, 501, holds that the actual preparation of the permanent dwelling places was accomplished "not after the death on the cross, but in it and by it"—an interesting thought, though by saying that Jesus is "going there" (i.e., to his Father's house) in order to prepare a place, the text puts the preparation subsequent to the ascension.

3 Jesus' return for his disciples is as certain as his departure: "I go" and "I will come back." It is somewhat difficult to determine whether at this point Jesus is speaking of his post-resurrection appearances or his return at the end of the age. In the first case, it is not clear in what sense he would then take his disciples to be with him; in the second case, it is difficult to understand how the second advent would fulfill the apparent immediacy of the promise. Some have solved the ambiguity by holding that Jesus is speaking at this point of his "return" in the person of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is best to understand the passage as blending all three suggested interpretations: in the resurrection Jesus comes back from the dead, in the current age he lives among us by the Spirit, and at the consummation he will come again for his own.
The promise Jesus makes to his followers is that on his return he will take them to be with him so that they also may be where he is. The deepest longing of the human heart is to be in the presence of God. In the book of Revelation, John portrays the essence of eternal bliss in the words, "They shall see his face" (Rev 22:4). When the new Jerusalem descends from heaven, then will be fulfilled the glorious promise, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God" (Rev 21:3). There is no greater joy than the presence of God—which is why those who now live in vital relationship with him experience the greatest satisfactions life has to offer.

4–5 Jesus tells his disciples that they "know the way to the place where [he] is going," but Thomas questions both where Jesus is going and therefore the way that would take them there. While the question posed by Thomas is in a certain sense rational, it reveals an inability to grasp spiritual truth. True, if they don't know where Jesus is going, they cannot know the way. But Thomas should have known that Jesus was speaking spiritually rather than geographically. The disciples had been told by Jesus that he would be crucified and would return to his Father (cf. 12:7–8, 23–24, 27, 32, 46–47). Their understanding of that truth, however, was limited by the narrow scope of their imagination. They were unable to grasp the fact that for Jesus to "go away" could signify something other than merely geographical separation.

6 Unwittingly, the mundane question by Thomas led to one of the most far-reaching and provocative statements ever made by Jesus. For Thomas, the way to an unknown destination cannot be known. Jesus answers, "I am the way." Jesus is not one who shows the way but the one who himself is the way. He is the way—the only way—to the Father, for "no one comes to the Father except through [him]." The particularism of Jesus' teaching has caused many to stumble. The mind-set of secular society regards such exclusive claims as intolerant. Certainly there are other paths that lead to God. Not so! To accept Jesus Christ involves accepting all that he said, even though open support of his claims may cause a bit of embarrassment when brought up in certain circles of contemporary society.

Jesus is the only way to God because he is also "the truth." Note that each of the three nouns (way, truth, life) is preceded by a definite article. "Truth" and "life" do not modify "way," as though Jesus were saying, "I am the real and living way" (Moffatt). He is the truth. Ultimate truth is not a series of propositions to be grasped by the intellect but a person to be received and therefore knowable only by means of a personal relationship. Others have made true statements, but only Jesus perfectly embodies truth itself. He is the truth. And he is also "the life." Eternal life is to know Jesus Christ (17:3; cf. 1 Jn 1:2; 5:20). Apart from him is darkness and death.
Barclay, 2:157, mentions that in this sublime statement Jesus took three of the great basic conceptions of Jewish religion and made the tremendous claim that in him all three found their full realization. The fifteenth-century Augustinian priest Thomas à Kempis (The Imitation of Christ [1441; repr., Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983], 208) joined the three as follows: "Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no living."


Mounce, R. H. (2007). John. In T. Longman, III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 10: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (T. Longman, III & D. E. Garland, Ed.) (559–561). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

--
Regards,
Ryan Chia

It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world,
as that God has a church for his mission in the world.
Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission—God's mission.

From The Mission of God by Chris Wright