Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Am the Way
John 14:1-7
1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. · WEB
Told not to be troubled, they are promised a house with room in it — and Thomas admits he is lost.
"Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me" John 14:1.
The chapter division obscures how this arrives. It is said immediately after Peter has been told he will deny him three times, to a room that has just watched a man walk out into the dark.
And the word troubled is the one used of him twice already John 11:33 John 12:27 and once tonight John 13:21. He is telling them not to feel what he has been feeling all week.
The remedy offered is not an explanation but an object: believe, twice, and the second clause puts himself where God is in the first.
"In my Father's house are many homes. If it weren't so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you" John 14:2.
The picture is a family house with room in it — the word is for a dwelling, somewhere to stay, and it is the noun form of this book's great verb remain John 15:4.
If it weren't so, I would have told you is a remarkable aside. It appeals to a track record of honesty: he has told them the hard things, so they can take the good one at face value.
"I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also" John 14:3.
The promise is a return and a collection, stated plainly. This Gospel says less about the second coming than the other accounts and says it here as clearly as anywhere — I will come again, in person, to fetch them.
And the purpose given is not the place. It is where I am, you may be there also, which makes the house incidental to the company. Everything the New Testament says about the hope comes back to being with him 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
"You know where I go, and you know the way" John 14:4.
Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?" John 14:5.
Thomas is worth defending. He is the only man in the room honest enough to say he is lost, and the greatest sentence in the chapter is the answer to his admission. Nothing in this book is given to people who pretend to understand.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" John 14:6.
The sixth of the seven declarations, and the three nouns are not a list of equals. The way is the load-bearing one — he asked about a road and is given one — and the other two say what kind of road it is. It is the truth, so it does not mislead; it is the life, so it does not merely inform.
The answer also changes the category of the question. Thomas wanted directions; he is given a person, and the difference is that a route can be taken alone and a person cannot.
No one comes to the Father, except through me is the exclusive clause, and it is stated without hedging. It is worth noticing what it is exclusive about: not who may come — the book has spent twelve chapters saying whoever and all people John 12:32 — but by what means. The door is one and it is described three chapters earlier as standing open to anyone John 10:9.
"If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him" John 14:7. Which is the sentence Philip is about to prove he has not understood.
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