You Know The Way

Apr 16, 2024

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -John 14:1-6

Lord, How Can We Know?

You can see the tears streaming down Thomas' cheeks, hot with frustration and confusion as he speaks to Christ. “Lord, you are going to your Father’s house. I don’t know what you are saying. I don’t understand what you are saying. How can we know the way? How can we know the way to where you are going when we don’t even know where you are going?”

And we cannot look at Thomas with any airs of superiority. He was with the Lord in the flesh for three years, and claimed to not know. How can we know? How can I know the way through this suffering? How can we know the way to heaven, the very courts of God? What power do we mortals have to grab hold of heavenly things? We are mere creatures from dust! How can we know the way to those mansions in His Father’s house?

Thomas is objecting, saying, “How can I know?”, but the Lord says he does know. And Jesus is not a liar. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The doubting apostle had professed ignorance of two things: “I don’t know where, and I don’t know the way there.” Jesus answers both of these. Jesus goes to prepare the Where and is Himself the way. To know Him is to have eternal life. He goes to His Father and has promised to bring us there, that we may be where He is.

It is incredible that Thomas says, “Lord, I don’t know,” and Jesus reassures him, saying, "You do know. I am the way.” The Christian life often plays out like this. When God has caused us to be born again, and made us a new creation through the gospel, we find ourselves with a fountain of living water that bubbles up to eternal life.1 We find that, even in these fallible jars of clay2, we have heavenly treasures that the jars themselves don’t fully understand.

In John’s first epistle, he says, “I am not writing these things to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it.”3 If you know Jesus Christ, if you have been baptized into Him, if you have faith in Him, if you believe He is the Son of God who died for your sins and rose from the dead, then you know. You know the way.

Accordingly, if they knew Him, and He Himself is the way, they knew the way; if they knew Him who is Himself the truth, they knew the truth; if they knew Him who is also the life, they knew the life. Thus, you see, they were convinced that they knew what they knew not that they knew. -St. Augustine4

Words like these are just a reminder to you. May these be reminders that explain out a little more about what you already know. You already know Him. You know the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you know Him, then You know the way.

So don’t despair in the Christian life. Don’t throw your hands up and say, “How can we know the way?” This is His word to you my brother: “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house, there are many mansions. And you know the way to where I am going… I am the way” He is the way to those mansions. He is the Way.

Via Dolorosa

But that Way leads the twelve out of the doors of that quiet room. Then the Way meanders down into a dark garden, to pray alone and sweat drops of blood. And then that Way goes through the high priest’s house where there is spitting and slander and betrayal and false witnesses and denial by friends.

And then that Way goes before the civil authorities, where there is injustice and mockery. And that Way goes through a crowd, with shame and undeserved public humiliation. And that Way goes perfectly straight, without turning even an inch to the left or the right, up a hill. A hill called Golgotha: The place of the skull.

That Way goes up to a bloody cross. To a painful death. To nails through innocent hands and feet. And that Way goes into a tomb. Into the very grave. Into the heart of the earth. Into Death. But the Way leads out of the grave. In His resurrected body, the Way will say to them, "Peace be to you."5 That Way will say to Peter, the denier of the Lord with oaths and curses, “Follow Me.”6 He will say, “Come here, Thomas.7 You know the way. Put your finger in my hands. Put your finger in my side.8 Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Amen.

Christianity, or “The Way”

But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets… -Acts 24:14

Christians have called Christianity, “The Way,“ from the days of the Apostles. This is a fitting name, because we are followers of Christ. This is more than a set of doctrinal points: it is a life lived by faith in Christ.

But one of Satan’s tactics in recent decades has been to distort this idea into something false. Something that sets progressive “Christianity” apart from true Christianity is that the former sees Jesus as an example, rather than as the Savior. That is just a nice way to say they reject Christ. Now, Christ is indeed our example: He commands us to follow Him. He lived a blameless life and called us to imitate Him.

But He is not merely an example. It is simple apostasy to say that Christ is just another good teacher, to be set up in your idol-niches next to Buddha. Jesus did not come to simply say, “Here is how to live a better life. Be more spiritual with these ten steps…” This is another facet of the Lord’s words, “I am the way.” He did not come to tell us about the way. He is the way. The opener of His first public sermons was “Repent, and believe the gospel.”9 He told a massive crowd that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life.10 He came to give Himself to us. He is the Savior, not another Socrates.

The lies of the evil one are so wicked, because when you say that Jesus is “just an example,” but not really the “Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father… who for us men and for our salvation was made man”, you end up losing His example also. Because His example includes things like calling out sin. His example includes affirming the Old Testament to be true divine revelation. His example includes telling the truth, and if He is not truly the Savior and Lord, who will return to judge the living and the dead, then He is a liar, a bad example, and we are still in our sins.

The example of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is inseparable from His saving work on the Cross. The core of the Christian life is, “take up your cross and follow me.”11 The Father gave His only Son to be “for us both a sacrifice for sin and an example of godly living.”12 Jesus was not simply a sheep who found the way through the valley. He is the Good Shepherd, to Whom the sheep belong. He was not simply another teacher. He is the true Teacher, whose teaching has ultimate authority. He is not a guidepost pointing to the way, the truth, and the life. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by Him.

Power & Glory

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