I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: What did Jesus Mean?

What did Jesus mean?  Who was he speaking to?  Context is critically important when reading passages of Scripture to understand their meaning.

Take the phrase "I'm sorry," for example.  It can take on many different meanings depending on the setting and circumstances in which it is spoken.  That is why context is so important.  Let me give you a few examples to  illustrate this point.

• A waiter comes to a table in a restaurant with the wrong dessert order and when told this, he says, "I'm sorry."

• A doctor delivers a diagnosis to a patient that he/she is in the advanced stage of a terminal illness, and says, "I'm sorry."

• A man is sitting at a table with a woman across from him.  He pushes a small opened box halfway across the table toward her.  She looks at what is inside, says "I'm sorry," stands up, and walks out of the restaurant.  The man is there alone with a profoundly overwhelming sense of disappointment.  He picks up the box with the engagement ring in it and puts it in his pocket.
• An 8-year-old boy beats up his younger brother and his father tells him to apologize, which the boy does through clenched teeth and no sign of emotion, saying "I'm sorry."  (He is not sorry).

In each case the words "I'm sorry" are said but in very different contexts.

Take John 14:6, for example, where Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  Many of us have that verse committed to memory.  It is the classic proof text that there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ, and that He alone is the mediator between us and God the Father.

Turth be told, how many of us know the context in which these words were spoken by Jesus?

We might imagine that he was preaching to a large assembled crowd, including Jewish religious authorities and Roman centurions viewing him with great suspicion as threat to the established religious and political order because of his widespread and increasing popularity with the common people.  Perhaps he was preaching in a large Jewish synagogue or in front of King Herod's palace under a statue of the Roman emperor.  Imagine Jesus in either setting uttering those words for all to hear: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  It evokes a powerful imagery.

However, the truth is that these words were spoken by Jesus to his apostles shortly before his betrayal and arrest.  They were gathered in a small room.  Jesus told them that he would be going to his Father's house soon, and that a place would be prepared there for each of his apostles.  They did not understand what Jesus was talking about.  Where was he going?  Was this another parable perhaps? They were worried, puzzled and confused.

Thomas blurts out, "Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?"

It is in this context that Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."

The apostles were still confused.  They were not quite sure what Jesus was saying or who he was.  Phillip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."

Jesus was taken aback by these remarks.  How could his apostles not know who he was after all of the time they had spent with him, witnessing the impressive signs and miracles?

The apostles were worried, scared, afraid and confused.  Jesus was telling them that he would be leaving them shortly to join his Father in heaven, and that they would be on their own.  They would have to carry on his ministry without him.  However, Jesus assured them that he would not leave them as orphans.  He promised he would send them the Holy Spirit.  "On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:20).

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life."

Those words were spoken by Jesus not as a bold pronouncement before the assembled multitudes listening with rapt attention or in a verbal confrontation with the Jewish religious or Roman political authorities.  Rather, he was speaking to his closest disciples, his inner circle, who did not understand what he meant when he said he woudl be leaving them soon to join his Father.

Stay steady and strong in faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ,

Colby