During a traditional Passover service, children ask questions about the celebration (Exodus 13:14 tells parents to be prepared for this). At some point (it isn’t mentioned in the Bible) the number of questions was fixed at four. Some time later, these four questions became standardized; the same four questions were to be asked each year by the children, and now are expected to be memorized or read by children. However, in Jesus’ time, these standardized questions were not yet in place. I will mention them anyway as we proceed, since they came into being quite early, perhaps within a century or so of Jesus’ crucifixion. Traditionally the first question is, “Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzah, but on this night we eat only matzah?” The father is to answer the child by explaining the Lord’s command in Exodus 12:17-20. (It is remarkable to me that neither of the questions about the Passover actually mentioned in Scripture, Exodus 13:14 and Deuteronomy 6:20 are included in the modern Passover service).
On this final Passover night, one of the Lord’s disciples, Thomas, asked another far more important question. Jesus’ answer didn’t point to the way out of Egypt, but pointed to the way into heaven and eternal life.
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (NIV)
Thomas’ question seems simple at first. “How can we know the way?” But his motivation for saying it shows that he was a lot closer to understanding the truth than it may seem. Thomas saw everything depending on Jesus himself. If Jesus were to go where the disciples could not yet follow (death), then his ministry and work on earth would come to an end. The mission wasn’t complete yet; how would they be able to follow? Thomas was wrapped up so completely in his faith in Jesus that he couldn’t see that he himself was a part of Jesus’ plan. Jesus knew that Thomas was going to understand; that all of them would understand if only they would wait, witness his resurrection and ascension, and wait another ten days after the ascension for the Holy Spirit to come.
Jesus didn’t want the disciples to misunderstand or to shoehorn themselves into believing anything other than what he had been teaching them already. So his reply to Thomas’ question, “How can we know the way?” is one of the great “I Am” statements: “I am the way! And the truth, and the life.”
Lutheran pastor Rudolph Koegel (fl. 1917) said, “He does not say, I show you the way, like a second Moses; but I am the way. Nor, I have the truth, like another Elijah, but I am the truth. Nor only I lead unto life, as one of his apostles; but, I am the life.” Jesus tells Thomas and the others that they should keep putting their trust in him, even at this dark time when God himself would walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Even at his betrayal they should fear no evil. Even as the nails fix his hands and feet to the wood, his rod and his staff would comfort them. For he would be with them always, to the very end of the age. Keep trusting in Jesus, even when you don’t understand what you’re going through, like a child knowing his first real pain at the dentist; like a woman delirious in the agony of childbirth; like parents numb with the loss of a child. Keep trusting in Jesus because he is the one who brings us all before God the Father. “Jesus himself is the door to the Father” (Ignatius to the Philadelphians 9:1, written in or before 107 AD); “The door is the Son of God. He is the only way to the Lord. No one can enter into him any other way, except through his Son” (Shepherd of Hermas, Sim. 9,12,6, written in the mid-second century AD).
When we want to know what God is truly like, we have only to look to Jesus. When we want to know what God says, we have only to listen to Jesus. When we want to know whether God really loves us, we have only to remember Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. And everyone who comes to the Father through him will have everlasting life. I have it; you have it. Your sins are forgiven in him. You have peace with God.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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