DAY #170: John 14:1-24

I'm a little down. Camp is over. I thoroughly enjoyed my time serving at camp. I am so grateful for the volunteers who took a week of vacation to be with us. God did an amazing work. I would encourage each of you to do the same in the coming years. Vacation with a purpose.

In today's passage, we see that Jesus spoke to Peter and to all the other disciples, telling them, “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me.” All of the disciples must have been troubled about Jesus’ predictions of betrayal, denial, and departure. After all, if Peter’s commitment was shaky, then every disciple should be aware of his own weaknesses. Jesus urged his disciples to maintain their trust in the Father and in the Son, to continue trusting through the next few very difficult days

The traditional interpretation of this phrase teaches that Jesus is going to heaven to prepare rooms or “mansions” for his followers. Based on that imagery, entire heavenly subdivisions and elaborate “mansion blueprints” have been described. Many commentators think that Jesus was speaking about his Father’s house in heaven, where he would go after his resurrection in order to prepare rooms for his followers. Then he would return one day to take his believers to be with him in heaven.

Jesus said, “You know where I am going and how to get there.” This statement anticipated Thomas’s question (in the next verse) and prepared the groundwork for what Jesus was about to teach regarding himself. Jesus was not naively hoping his disciples understood; he was inviting them to declare their ignorance so they might receive the truth.

Clearly, the disciples didn’t know what Jesus meant. Thomas expressed the obvious by asking, “We haven’t any idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Like us, the disciples thought in terms of this world—time and space. So going must mean physically moving from one place to another. Jesus replied: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Jesus’ response shows that the destination is not a physical place but a person (the Father), and that the way to that destination is another person (the Son). Jesus is the Way to the Father; Jesus is the Truth (or reality) of all God’s promises; and Jesus is the Life as he joins his divine life to ours, both now and eternally. Jesus is the way that leads to the truth and life.

Jesus’ exclusive claim is unmistakable. It forces an unconditional response. Jesus invites people to accept or reject him, making it clear that partial acceptance is rejection. His self-description invalidates alternative plans of salvation. Some would say that a single way is entirely too restrictive. But that attitude fails to see the desperate state of the human condition. That there is a way at all is evidence of God’s grace and love. The state of human rebellion can be seen in this: We are like people drowning at sea who are graciously thrown a life-saving rope but who respond by insisting that we deserve a choice of several ropes along with the option of swimming to safety if we so choose.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

While the PC thing to say today is that many "roads" lead to heaven, scripture teaches there is only one way. Highway 146 - Jesus Christ. Buddha didn't die for people and then beat death. Neither did Confucius or Mohamed or Joesph Smith or Ganges Khan or whoever.

Jesus claimed to be the only way to God and backed it up by proving He was/is God through the Resurrection. Deservedly, He deserves our worship. He deserves our full heart and full commitment. In a day and age when so many former "mainstream" denominations are backpedaling on the Deity of Jesus and the authority of the bible, we at COV stand our ground. We believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. We believe in the truth of creation. No matter how unpopular those truths may become, we will not compromise these essential truths.