Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
The linkage still isn’t there for the disciples as they sit down to the Last Supper, despite the fulfillments to date of the Old Testament prophecies, of Jesus’s confirmation he is the Messiah. Now, the greatest test of all is coming.
And so he tries again in today’s lectionary Gospel reading. You have faith in God, so have faith in me, he advises them. They still don’t get it. Finally, after Thomas in all his literalness asks Jesus to spell it out plain, Jesus does:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
It’s his boldest, clearest statement to date as to just who he is. And still, they don’t get it. Philip and Judas have more questions in John 14 beyond today’s reading, just as we still have questions two thousand years later, even with the advantage of knowing the glory of Jesus’s resurrection and what it means to each and every one of us who follows him.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Could he be any more direct: Believe in me. Follow me. And through me, live.
