“Unpacking the truth”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, May 1, 2023
John 14:6-14 (Forward, p. 3) CEV p. 1121
Thomas, good old ‘doubting Thomas’—incorrectly and sadly nicknamed, I must say—has just elicited from Jesus one of the most important utterances Jesus would ever make. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (verse 6). But what does that succinct message actually mean?
This is important,, as it is far too easy to misinterpret it. It would be easy to assume, as many have, that He is saying ‘I will show you the way’ or ‘I will reveal to you the truth’ or ‘I will give you life’, all of which are true, but only partially, and only inadequately.
The truth is much more radical and far-reaching that any of that. When Jesus says that He is the way, He is saying that He Himself is that path, that roadway. Believers, in order to attain the Father, to access the Father, to go to the Father, have to actually tread that particular pathway. They have to put their trust, their faith, literally and actually in Jesus.
And likewise, with the ‘bit’ about the truth. What Jesus is talking about is not some set of abstract, impersonal propositions or facts but a Person, namely Himself. He, Jesus, is the encapsulation, the epitome, of all truth. As we come to know Him and put our trust in Him, our faith in Him, we come to know the truth, not in any doctrinaire or propositional way, but by experience, interiorly and personally.
And, similarly, with ‘life’: as we accept Him into our lives and allow Him to live there and work there, that very life, the life of God, becomes part of us, part of our very beings.
And so Jesus is the key to all of this. And how we activate this key is by trusting, believing in Jesus Christ. (Not for nothing does Jesus repeat, three times at least, the phrase ‘believe in me’, in this passage, for this is crucial). And if we place our trust in Jesus, believe in Him, several things will happen:
-we will know the Father, and we will recognize that the Father and Jesus are one, and that the Father is working in Jesus;
-we will do the things that Jesus does—and even greater ones, in fact, because Jesus is going to the Father;
-we will receive answered prayer. “I will do whatever you ask me to do” (verse 14).
But in case we take this to be some kind of blank cheque, a carte blanche on the part of Jesus, it all comes back to our actually dwelling in Him—or, more accurately, allowing Him to dwell in us. If He is in us and working in and through us, then what we do and what we ask will be exactly what He would want.
So, maybe this is our challenge—and perhaps our goal as well—this Eastertime, namely to so live His new, resurrected life that everything that we do or say or pray will be exactly in sync with what He wants—that His risen life will be so part of our lives, so embedded in our lives, so part of our very beings, that we will just naturally do and say and pray as He would. What a noble goal this would be. Amen.
Forward notes: “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’” (verses 8-9a).
Commemoration: St. Philip and St. James
“We don’t know much about Philip or James based on what is recorded in the gospels, but John gives us glimpses into Philip’s character. We know he is so excited after meeting Jesus that he shares the good news with his friend Nathanael. We know Jesus puts him on the spot in front of a hungry crowd of thousands. We know he is educated and speaks Greek. And we know that, despite his zeal, faithfulness, and intellect, he still needs reassurance from time to time.
“Jesus’s words to Philip sting just a little, but the purpose of his correction is clear: the reassurance you need is already there, Philip, you just need to remember. The journey of faith is not easy, and like Philip, we all have moments when we just want to see God clearly. When I am discouraged
or feel uncertain, remembering God’s faithfulness in the past provides me with hope and direction for the future.”
Moving Forward: “What experiences of God’s faithfulness in your past might help you in times of worry and distress?”