Day 42 of 49
The time had come. Within 24 hours, Jesus would be tried, condemned and hung on the cross to die. In his last precious moments with his disciples, his words contained the essence of all he wanted his disciples to remember. He understood that his leaving would cause sorrow, confusion, and fear.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jn 10:10
In Christ, our life continues to grow and expand…Jesus came to give us abundant life. It’s not our possessions that make our life abundant, but the love, contentment and joy that we can have through Jesus Christ.
“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.
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
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.
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, because I am going to the Father.
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Jn 14:1–14.
The disciples were disturbed that Peter could deny Christ (Jn 13:38), I’m sure they considered themselves equally fallible. Jesus encouraged them and told them he was going to prepare a place and would come back for them.
The picture is one of a marriage. After a betrothal, the future husband returns to his father’s house and prepares a place for the bride. The son could not return for the bride until the father said the place was ready.
Jesus spoke about his return to the Father, to prepare a place for them. Because he’s with the Father, they will be able to do even greater works than Jesus did. They could ask for anything in his name and his Father would provide it.
But they didn’t understand.
Thomas said: “We don’t know where you are going, how will we find the way?”
Jesus responded: “I AM the way, the truth and the life.”
In the Greek, these words are placed in such a way to indicate that “the way” is the most important part of the name. The Way is first and foremost, all must come through Jesus Christ to arrive at the Father. Following Jesus Christ leads us to the truth about God’s plan. Knowing Jesus as the way, leads us to truth that leads us to life, eternity with the Father.
They still didn’t understand and Philip spoke up, “Show us the Father.”
We only have Jesus’ verbal reply. “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me?” I wonder if he sighed…
It must have been hard to have a human Jesus who needed to eat, sleep and eliminate waste like everyone else…and think of him as God Almighty. I think they grasped that he was the Messiah, the chosen of God…but it was a stretch for the finite mind to equate him with God, even though he told them multiple times.
Even today, it is difficult to fully comprehend the concept of the Trinity.
Jesus came to earth to reveal the Father by being the image of the invisible God. He came as a tactical expression of the Father’s character; full of love, mercy and grace. God wants a return to the intimacy he had with Adam when they walked and talked in the garden together.
Jesus death and resurrection opened the way for all of us to come into God’s presence. Our sins are paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. His resurrection broke the power that death has over our souls. Our physical bodies will die and decay, but we will live forever in fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Jn 17:1–26.
Because Jesus said “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”
- I have_________________
- I can_______________
- I will________________
TRICIA LATHROP 