Jesus replied, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (NET)
Jesus Answers a Lost Man
It is the last night before the arrest, and one of the disciples says the honest thing. Jesus has told his friends he is going ahead to prepare a place for them, and that they know the way there. Thomas tells him they do not: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” It is the question a person asks when everybody else in the room is nodding.
Jesus answers, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” A man asked for directions and was given a person.
Peter is a few feet away. He has just been told he will disown Jesus three times before the rooster crows, and before the night is over he is standing at a fire in a courtyard, telling a servant girl he doesn’t know the man.
The line about no one coming to the Father except through him has been used to shut people out. He said it that night to men who would run before morning, and he said it to them, not about somebody else.
A route can be lost by taking a wrong turn. Peter took every wrong turn available to him before sunrise, and the man he denied went to the cross and came back looking for him. If there is something you did that still sits between you and God, some hour you would take back if it could be taken back, look at Peter. He failed, and the road stayed where it was. John tells it again at the end: he was asked three times on a beach whether he loved him.
Jesus had the fire going before Peter got there.
A Prayer to Remember
Jesus, more than once this week I have said that I don’t know where any of this is going, and I meant it. Keep me near you tomorrow, even if tomorrow looks exactly like today and I still can’t see where the road goes.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
