¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 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. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

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’? 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. 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. 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.

There are 21 chapters in John’s gospel and four of them about 19% of the entire gospel are focused on the Last Supper and what happened during that meal. One would think that this is so important to John giving over so much time and detail to this event, over what happened and what was said.

Have you been to any good funerals lately? An unusual question you might say, but the text before us today should be very familiar because this text is frequently read at funerals, and for good reason.

It contains promises that are profoundly comforting in the face of the death of a loved one. The challenge for the preacher on this 5th Sunday of Easter may be to help listeners understand that this text is not only about life after death, but is a text that has everything to do with our lives here and now.

The setting is Jesus’ farewell address at his last supper with his disciples.

Jesus has washed his disciples’ feet and has explained to them what this means (13:1-20).

He has foretold his betrayal by Judas, and Judas has slipped out into the night (13:21-30).

He has told his disciples that he will be with them only a little while longer, and that where he is going, they cannot come (13:33).

He has also foretold Peter’s imminent denial (13:36-38).

No wonder the disciples are troubled. Their beloved teacher is leaving them, one of their own has turned against them, and the stalwart leader among the disciples is said to be on the cusp of a great failure of loyalty. It is as though the ground is shifting beneath their feet.

I want you to imagine that you are in the room with Jesus and his disciples, watching, hearing these words as they are addressed to you!

Jesus responds to the anxiety of his disciples by saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me” (14:1). Jesus calls them back to this fundamental relationship of trust and assures them that he is not abandoning them.

Rather, he is returning to his Father, which is good news for them. In speaking of his ascension to the Father, Jesus assures his disciples that this is also their destination.

There are many dwellings in his Father’s house, and he goes to prepare a place for them, so that they will be with him and dwell with him in his intimate relationship with the Father (14:2-3).

Many rooms is saying that there is ample room in heaven for ALL the disciples of Jesus.

When Jesus says that they know the way to the place where he is going (14:4), Thomas, like most characters in the Gospel, takes Jesus quite literally. He wants directions, a road map to this place (14:5).

Jesus responds by saying that he himself is the way: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6).

V6 has always been for me the most confronting verse in the bible and it’s Jesus’ own words as recorded by John, but not Matthew Mark or Luke.

Unfortunately, this verse has often been used as a trump card, or worse, as a threat, to tell people that they better get with the program and “accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour,” in order to be saved. To interpret the verse this way is to rip it from its context and do violence to the spirit of Jesus’ words.

This statement by Jesus is a promise, another word of comfort to his disciples. Jesus himself is all they need; Our good works cannot save us neither can our positions in the church or among society, it’s only Jesus who can save us so there is no need to panic, no need to search desperately for a secret map.

Jesus adds, “If you know me, you will know my Father also” (14:7a). The conditional phrase in Greek is a condition of fact, meaning that the condition is understood to be true: “If you know me (and you do), you will know my father also.”

So that there can be no misunderstanding, Jesus adds, “From now on, you do know him and have seen him” meaning the father(14:7b).

This time it is Philip who is not quite convinced. “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (14:8). Jesus’ response contains perhaps a hint of exasperation:

“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (14:9). Here Jesus echoes an affirmation from the prologue of John’s Gospel: “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart (literally, in the bosom of the Father), who has made him known” (1:18).

This is the whole of Jesus’ mission, to make known the Father, to reveal who God is. Jesus, who has come from the bosom of the Father and is now returning there, is the fullest revelation of the person and character of God.

If we want to know who God is, we need look no further than Jesus. All the words that Jesus has spoken, all the works that he has done, come from God and show us who God is (14:10-11).

Yes, this passage is often read at funerals to bring comfort to families who are going through a period of grief. But this passage has everything to do with life here and now because Jesus entrusts his mission to his disciples. “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father. 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 me for anything, I will do it” (14:13-14).

Yet here is where Jesus’ promise becomes a little hard for us to swallow. Greater works than these?

Really, Jesus? Greater works than healing the blind and raising the dead?

And you will do whatever we ask in your name?

We have all known the pain of praying for healing that did not come, of feeling powerless in the face of disease and death. How can these promises be true?

Perhaps in hearing these promises, we might expect to do these greater works in the same way that Jesus did them — with miraculous power that instantly solves the problem at hand.

Yet even miracles are not guaranteed to produce faith. Many in John’s Gospel who were witnesses to the “signs” that Jesus performed had trouble seeing the work of God right before their very own eyes.

Toward the end of John’s Gospel, Thomas sees the risen Lord and confesses, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).

Jesus responds, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” This is not so much a scolding for Thomas as a blessing for us who have not seen and yet believe, however feeble our believing may seem, we are blessed by none other than Jesus.

Jesus promises to be with us through the power of the Spirit, to work in and through us to accomplish his purposes in the world. This does not necessarily happen in easily visible or spectacular ways.

Yet wherever there is healing, reconciling, life-giving work happening, this is the work of God. Wherever there is life in abundance, this is Jesus’ presence in our midst.

“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (1:18).

Jesus has made known to us the heart of God, and he has entrusted this mission of “making known” to us.

Where might we see Jesus’ work and presence in our midst?

How might we show others the very heart of God?

This passage and message is for and about you this morning.

You don’t have to be a Peter or a Thomas or a Phillip, just be you!

The person created by God and in his image, to do his will, by the grace of Jesus the Christ, you Christ, your saviour.

The Lord be with you.