Introduction
Jesus had just finished breaking the news to his disciples that the time was “now” for him to leave them and return to his Father, who their prophet Isaiah had taught was their Father also as his chosen people.[1] Events had been speeding up since Jesus had claimed to be God’s Son, intensified his pointed challenge of the hypocrisy of the religious authorities, healed a man blind from birth, who could not keep quiet about it, raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, witnessed by many who could not stop talking about it, and symbolically entered Jerusalem as the Messianic King of Israel – all resulting in the religious authorities locking in their determination to execute him along with Lazarus. From their panicked perspective, they were losing their viability to control the people with their onerous laws, while Jesus was gaining in popularity through countless miracles given in grace to the least. He had to be removed just as they had removed John the Baptist.
By journeying with Jesus, the disciples found themselves caught up in this mounting confrontational crisis, as the Father’s plan for their redemption by the death of his Son approached its peak. Jesus announced that he had to leave them and go on his journey into hostilities alone. This had the potential to make his followers feel suddenly abandoned, comfortless, and fearful of the events he had forewarned would come. “Now” was the time of his leaving. It had arrived. Now its potential impact was descending upon them. This was the time they needed his comfort above all other previous hostile challenges they had shared on their journey with him.
Words of comfort
Having announced that they could not go with him on the next difficult phase of his journey, Jesus was quick to calm any emotions and fears in his disciples, sparked by this sudden news of separation.
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.[2]
Jesus encouraged them not to respond with internal turmoil, but instead to trust him continually in the same way they placed their trust in the God of their nation. They had been taught in their synagogue plenty of examples from centuries past of their God always proving dependable to his words to their forefathers.
You believe continuously in God; believe continuously also in me.
Jesus urged them to trust continuously in him to the same extent they comprehensively trusted his Father. He presented himself to be just as dependable to fulfilling his words as the Father had proven to be over centuries. His interactions with them, and with a multitude of others over the past three years, would have shown the consistency of his love for all from the least to the powerful.
Eternal residence
In particular, Jesus quickly expressed that they need have no fears of his separation from them being permanent. His impending death was not an unavoidable disaster but a necessary temporary step to establish an eternal heavenly future for them. It was an essential act of eternal love. They could depend on that.
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
That is what the disciples needed to hear in the face of the current upheaval of their relationship with Jesus. They would each have a guaranteed place in heaven. They were the purpose of his departure and would be the purpose of his return. His announced departure was the necessary separation step in his preparatory work to enable them being together with him eternally. That meant also being with his Father eternally.
The same is true for every individual ever born. God has done the preparatory work of eternal love by sending Jesus to suffer the full judgement for all the sins of all humanity for all time. Many rooms in the Father’s house will accommodate many people. Only God knows how many. That is certain. The only question we have to confront for our own sake is whether or not we will choose to dwell in the Father’s house in the room prepared for us, or be excluded from it eternally. The only other option available is to dwell in the eternal chaos and isolation produced by the collisions and betrayals of rigid, self-serving pride.
The Way
Jesus concluded his words of comfort with strong assurance,
4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
In other words, “Rest easy. All is O.K. I am not springing some new surprise on you. I have taught you before the way to your eternal residence with me”.
The only catch was the spontaneous response of Thomas indicated that his, and possibly the understanding of other disciples, had not yet grasped the full measure of this ‘way’.
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
That would normally sound logical, but it wasn’t considering the prior teaching Jesus had given them about both the Father and eternal life. He had explained the way he was headed in detail. Thomas made no instant connection of Jesus’ words of assurance with the previous instructions he had given on ‘the way’ of eternal life. For example,
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over already from death to life”. (5:24)
27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand”. (10: 27-29)
Jesus had taught Thomas that secure eternal life can exist now in the hand of Jesus supported by his Father’s hand. The way ends with the Father and the Son. They are our secure destination. We therefore seek to be with him and held by him. Insanity is best defined as seeking to choose some other destination than Jesus and his Father to be our life purpose and way. It is to choose not to listen to his voice showing the way and instead choose to follow other voices, of which there are many. Our mind can be flooded easily with many voices speaking to our emotional needs and titillating our mind to the extent that the voice of Jesus is drowned out. We exist in various states of uncertainty, insecurity and fear of missing out in life.
Thomas was clearly thinking of ‘the way’ leading to some undefined physical destination, which Jesus had not revealed. Knowing a defined destination is the first step in knowing how to chart a way there, whether or not the destination is a physical location, national, business or personal goal. A plan is needed. Thomas’ spontaneous response most likely was the result of him interpreting ‘the way’ in solely physical terms.
… we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
In other words, “You have forgotten to tell us where you are headed!”
Clarification of the Way
Knowing the way to the Father is so crucial that Jesus then elaborated more about it so each disciple would be crystal clear about their eternal destiny using his words as a measuring stick to run across their current approach to life. This is the way according to Jesus:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
An unavoidable exclusive relationship
Jesus presented the way as a relationship and not a religion, a person and not a philosophy or physical path. Jesus firmly declared that no one can by-pass him, in order to reach the Father and gain “the life”, i.e., eternal life. Jesus claimed to be the unavoidable and only way to the Father and all the love he wants to give us now and eternally.
Jesus essentially stated that he must be fully embraced, and not merely partially considered, as the unavoidable, exclusive way to the Father. On any matter that I reject him, and consider some other philosopher, religious leader or authority, including myself, to be presenting the more superior way for my life, I cancel out any possibility of gaining eternal life, because I have cancelled out the sole Creator of life, the unified Father, Son and Spirit, who eternally was the life, before and beyond all physical life, including mine, came into existence. It is critical therefore to be honest and precise to ourselves about any specific way in which we have cancelled Jesus and the Father from our life. Once cancelled, there is no other option available to eternal life. Jesus is the sole option available to find life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
No exceptions. No alternatives.
Knowing Jesus and the Father
Jesus needed to give the disciples more understanding and certainty of how the unified identity of Jesus the Son and the Father functioned, even though over the past 3 years he had taught much about the Father. Jesus now shifted their focus to recognising that the knowledge they lacked was not about the Father but about him. How was this so after sharing his journey with him for three years? Why was he implying at this stage of his departure that they still did not know him? Who was this Jesus whose journey through life they had chosen to share?
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father as well.
Jesus stated that the disciples’ knowledge of him up to this current moment had not resulted in them knowing his Father, even though they had sacrificed much to journey with Jesus on his mission to spread his identity and message of salvation as far as he could in the short time of his life. They had shared many meals chatting around the table, engaged in the mundane essentials needed for their continuous journey together, watched him as they journeyed single out individuals seeking healing of body and soul, and handle the ever-present critics that sought to harm and silence him. They had watched a vast array of these interactions and how Jesus had responded to each one according to the posture of the person confronting him. Surely they came to know him just as we know our family members after several years. They most likely did. Yet, there is always more of your parent or sibling to know, especially when they are still coming to know themselves. Who am I? Who are they? How do they see me? If we knew our family fully, and saw our respective identities clearly, family breakdowns would be less rampant. Risk and chance are always present at the altar making wedding vows, because each person is still on their journey of fully discovering, appreciating, and maturing their identity, which means that the combined search for their married identity will continue after marriage as more of their individual identities are discovered in that setting.
Similarly, after 3 years journeying with Jesus, the disciples were still in the process of discovering his identity that reached into deity and also discovering their identity in relationship with this deity. The fact that at this departure moment Jesus was claiming that they still did not know him is therefore not surprising, but it may have caught the disciples by surprise. What more did they need to know about him that would enable them to know the Father? What more do I need to know?
Jesus then expanded the disciples need from knowing the Father to seeing him. What were they about to know about Jesus that would enable them to know the Father and see him?
7 … From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Philip responded enthusiastically that their simple desire was to see him. Many people since have had the same desire. Show me! Let me see you. That is all that I need to commit my life to you!
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Seeing the Father in Jesus
The answer given by Jesus was the most significant fact of life any and every person needs to face, who wants to see the Father in eternity. Show me!
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
This is possibly the most pivotal statement John recorded in his journey with Jesus. No doubt he had to confront it as much as Philip, who had asked to see the Father. He recorded it for every reader on their journey to face. It provides the acid test to evaluate any person posing to be the way to eternal life, and evaluate our own efforts to get there.
Jesus claimed to be more than the unavoidable, exclusive way to the Father. He claimed to be an accurate and undiminished image of the Father. Their identities merged as one. To reject Jesus is therefore to reject the Father of all life. It is to place ourself in the position of no life. We may continue to exist physically, even with peak physical fitness, exercising intellectual rigour and helping to improve the life of others, but we remain dead, separated from the life of the Father that created all life, both physical and spiritual.
Seeing the Father living in Jesus
Jesus expanded further on this critical need for the disciples to understand that he was more than the way to the Father. He was indivisibly one with the Father. He was more than a reflection of the deity of the Father. He dwelt indivisibly in the deity of the Father. Moreover, that deity dwelt in him alive. Therefore, all the hundreds of words and miracles John saw on his journey with Jesus and selectively recorded were the Father in action, without exception. The words of Jesus originated in the Father as the Father’s work carrying his authority.
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
We either trust these claims of Jesus or reject them and easily know which is the case. Our need to believe in the indivisible unity of the Father and his Son Jesus is so critical to our eternal destiny that Jesus urged the disciples at a minimum to look at all the tangible miracles they had observed over three years, if they were struggling to understand how the identities of the Father and the Son functioned as one.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Available evidence
The evidence available to any person struggling with the identity of Jesus is large. Jesus urged any disciple struggling with understanding his identity to switch their focus from their mind to their eyes. Instead of attempting to conceive with their mind the relationship between the Father and him, he urged them at the last resort to switch their focus to what they had seen as the tangible, physical, witnessed evidence of his divine identity. The disciples had every miracle they witnessed over three years as extensive accumulated evidence available for believing the indivisible unity of Jesus with the Father. We have passed on to us some of those miracles recorded in their biographies of Jesus, plus the evidence that the resurrected Jesus later showed his disciples at length from their scriptures recorded over the span of the previous millennium, plus the myriad of miracles enacted by the Holy Spirit through them in the Name of Jesus since his ascension.
How many witnessed and recorded miracles do I need to believe that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him? One? Five? Twenty? When does the number move beyond chance? When will I have enough in order to trust in Jesus and become the next miracle of salvation from eternal death?
To ignore that evidence is both madness and dishonest. It exposes a resistant unwillingness to trust God for his plans for our life, remaining determined to run by our plans and emotion driven theories. To dismiss the evidence of God’s works is to attempt to be god according to what suits our fancy. Unyielding pride refuses to submit to the will of the Creator and trust in His love that has opened up ‘the way’ to him created by him, via an unavoidable, exclusive relationship of continuous trust in his Son.
Continuing the works of Jesus
Jesus continued to expand the disciples’ vision of their future on earth in a continuing partnership with him after his departure. Each disciple had, and currently has, the invitation and opportunity to add to the works of Jesus as evidence of his deity and love.
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
We each have the opportunity to glorify the Father in the Son by doing the works he has set for us to do. Jesus committed to enact those supernatural works when requested in his name by any disciple, so that both his Father and he are glorified in each other, and not his disciple. Are my works his works being initiated by him to glorify him and his Father as the focus of my life, or are my works initiated by my pride that seeks to glorify me? It doesn’t take long to surface an honest answer to that question. Any avoidance of the question provides the answer. A simple prayer at the beginning of each day provides a test, “Lord, the primary desire I have for this day is to glorify you. Work through me to bring that to pass.”
The role of the Holy Spirit
The gift of obedience
Jesus had arrived at describing the exalted destiny of his disciples as ‘the way’. Fulfilling that destiny was contingent upon them keeping his commands, as it is for any person seeking to follow him.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.
Jesus left this conditional statement open-ended about the certainty of a disciple’s love, but definitive in the actions that true love will produce when present, i.e., the love for Jesus may or may not be present,[3] but if it is, the disciple will definitely keep his commands [4]. Such obedience is the sign of a true disciple.
The gift of another advocate
Jesus would always be an advocate for his obedient disciples. However, he had just announced that he was leaving, and they could not follow. To expand his comforting words, he promised to ask his Father for an additional, ever-present advocate to help them obey his commands and recognise truth.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth.
This supportive advocate would never leave them, as Jesus was about to. Instead, the advocate would continually and eternally help them recognise and understand truth.
An internal companion
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
Jesus claimed that this Spirit of truth was invisible and unknown to the world. Academics of the day could search endlessly for truth but never find or interact with the divine Spirit of truth who revealed all spiritual truth. They were blind to his existence and ignorant of his identity. The average person is equally blind and ignorant. Our pride bristles at such an assessment of us. This situation has existed throughout the history of mankind. Without the Spirit of truth, I remain unable to see the spiritual truth that builds a spiritual relationship of oneness and love with my Creator. The best I will achieve is an intellectually or emotionally reasoned analysis of a non-physical existence to which I am headed, can’t see, yet where I will be some day. Do I wish to gamble my eternal existence on my intellectual analysis that is void of spiritual truth and fact?
With a strongly contrasting statement, Jesus expanded the disciples’ perception of themselves. He assured them that they already knew the Spirit of truth, because they were already in his company.
But you know him, for he lives with you …
How would their minds process this claim of Jesus? Had this Spirit of truth ever shown his face for them to see? Was he with them invisibly? How was he with them? Maybe he was when he spoke through Jesus, who lived with them. Maybe he lived with them without them realising, because he lived in Jesus, who lived with them.
But you know him, for he lives with you … and will be in you.
Jesus now completed explaining the circle of spiritual intimacy and unity with God by promising the disciples a day when God’s Spirit of truth, who was with them, would in the future live in them. At that moment, they would be restored to full unity with the Divine. To further reinforce that end objective of Jesus and his Father for each of them, Jesus continued to make clear what his future relationship with them would be like, when the Spirit of truth lived in them.
A divine unity
Realised by disciples
Jesus assured them again that his separation from them would not be a permanent abandonment. Their separation would end with his return to them.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
His return to them would only be seen by them and give life to their spirit, which before was dead.
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
From then on, they would live empowered and instructed by the Spirit of truth. The world would be oblivious to the return of Jesus in this manner. His return to his disciples would be accompanied by an expanded realisation of divine unity that included them.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Upon of the return of Jesus, the disciples would gain a new realisation of the expanded boundaries and operation of the divine unity they would now experience as follows:
- Jesus is indivisibly in the Father who is Spirit.
- The spirit of the disciple will be made indivisibly one with the spirit of Jesus, who is indivisibly one with the Father.
- Jesus will be indivisibly resident in the spirit of the disciple.
Energised by love
This new awareness by a disciple of their relationship with the divine is a relationship of love at its zenith of unity, energised by the love coming from the Source of all love. That is the future offered by Jesus to all who trust in him.
21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Clearly, this is way beyond any efforts of self-improvement, or of attempting to firm up appealing eternal real estate, job satisfaction or social engagements. It is way beyond any religious effort or hope of attaining religious righteousness that is acceptable to the Judge of all. It is divine love promised to the one who loves Jesus and keeps his commands of love.
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Did Judas ask this question because he could not grasp the privilege of love and position being offered to him by Jesus? What did Judas do to qualify?
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
Therefore, the personal questions to ask ourselves that require honest assessment are:
- Do I, or do I not, want Jesus and his Father to be at home with all aspects of me?
- Am I committed to obeying all the teaching from Jesus, or is there a command he has given that I have chosen to continue to disobey? If so, am I still trying to argue that I love him?
24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
I cannot claim to love Jesus when I am consciously and continuously disobeying him in some specific way. His judgement is that I do not love him. His words originate from the Father. Therefore, to disobey the teachings of Jesus is to disobey the originating source of his teachings, and that is the Father who sent him.
Sustained by teaching and peace
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
The disciples’ new awareness of their soon to be expanded relationship with the divine would continue to be sustained and clarified by teaching from the Holy Spirit of truth acting as their Advocate. In particular, the Advocate would provide them supernatural recall of the details of every word of Jesus shared with them over their three year journey together. As a result, we can read those words today as recorded by John.
For the disciples to take up the later commands of Jesus to go into all the world preaching his gospel of salvation through trust in him, they needed the assurance of peace as a supernatural gift from Jesus as well as the gift of the Advocate.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Jesus then concluded with his original words of assurance that his separation from them was temporary and he would be back. In his first sudden announcement of separation, he comforted them by assuring them that it was a necessary temporary step to create an eternal dwelling for them. Now in his repeated announcement of separation and return, Jesus focused on its essential result of their certain belief in him.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
Demonstrated by Jesus
30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Jesus had made the claim that the person who loved him kept his commands. He concluded this session of pre-crucifixion teaching pointing to himself as an example of loving by obedience. His love for the Father obeyed to the finest detail, exactly. This level of obedience was to be seen by the world, not just aspiring disciples. The Cross remains as the premier example of sacrificial love in every culture exposed to the good news of Jesus.
“Come now; let us leave.
Isaiah 9:6, 63:16, 64:8 ↩︎
ταράσσω (tarasso) to agitate back and forth, become stirred up inside, upset ↩︎
Jesus used a present subjunctive tense to describe the presence of authentic love., it may or may not be present. ↩︎
Jesus used a future indicative active tense to express the certainty of obedience by the one who loves him. ↩︎