Gospel for All of Us
In John Chapter 14 we find ourselves in the company of Jesus and his disciples in the intimate setting of the flame-lit upper room. It is the last night of Christ’s earthly ministry. In less than 24 hours he will be buried in a tomb, but Jesus’ concern in these final hours is for his disciples, not himself. He has already washed their feet; Judas has already left the room to carry out his satanic plan; Jesus has given the eleven who remain a new commandment to “love one another as I have loved you;” and he has foretold the self-confident Peter’s impending denial. This he immediately follows with the words of comfort that begin our chapter: “Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”
Jesus spends the rest of the chapter (and the two after that) calling their troubled hearts to faith. “I go to prepare a place for you,” he says. “And . . . you know the way to where I am going” (v. 3). When Thomas admits that he does not know the way, Jesus utters his famous words, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6). This statement has (rightfully) come to be seen as one of the great evangelistic passages in Scripture, yet when Jesus spoke these words, he was not speaking to the crowds, to the Pharisees, or to the heathens. He was speaking to his own disciples. “You know the way to the Father.” You’re looking at him.
In fact, Jesus continues, “you . . . have seen him”(v.7). The disciples still don’t understand: “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us,” says Philip (v8). Jesus frames this confusion as a matter of faith: “Have I been with you so long and you still don’t know me, Philip? . . . Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (v9a, 10). In other words, I’ve already shown you the Father; you’re looking at him.
And again he calls them to believe: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do . . . Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (9, 11:12a, 13). What does a person who believes in Christ do? He does the works of Christ. What does the person who believes in Christ want more than anything? To see the Father glorified in the Son.
With his next breath, Jesus shifts his vocabulary: “If you love me,” he says, “you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” Though Jesus has previously spoken of his love for them (13:34), this is the first time he brings up their love for him. But he is not changing the subject. He is taking the conversation from the cold realm of the head to the warm intimacy of the heart. Knowledge is not faith. Even mental agreement is not faith. Love is the heart’s tight embrace of what it has come to believe. To trust Christ is to love him. And this love is not some warm impotent sentiment. Rather, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him (21).
Jesus has come full circle. “I am the way, the truth, and the life . . . he who loves me will be loved by my Father.” Jesus is the only way to the Father. The gospel is not merely an entrance. Jesus is not only the door (Jn 10:7); he is the way. He is the path we walk. He is the substance of all the truth we are called to believe, and he is the source and the motivation of the life of love we are called to live.
These are the gospel words that Jesus used to comfort his disciples on the eve of his death. And this is the gospel he will use to uphold us through our darkest days, and strengthen us for our entire Christian life. As he sat in the quiet of the upper room comforting his disciples, he was also, evangelizing them: “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid . . . I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe” (v. 29). The gospel is not just for those unbelievers out there. It’s for all of us.
