A dozen years ago, we took a family trip to Washington, D.C. On our first full day in our nation’s capital, we visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the F.D.R. Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. Then we met up with our good friend who is a Secret Service Agent who took us on a private tour of the West Wing. We got to see the Press Room and the Oval Office and the Rose Garden. It was crazy to be standing in the spots I’d seen on TV or movies.
Pictures from that trip popped up on my phone the other day, transporting me back to the past. The one of the five of us, all dressed up for our tour, made me think of some of Jesus’ words in John 14. Let me get you up to speed…The time is drawing near for Jesus to be crucified. He’s beginning to talk more and more about his death. Statements like “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came,” and “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”
Jesus is busy in these chapters—He enters Jerusalem on a donkey; He washes His disciples’ feet; He predicts His death and gives hints about His betrayer; He tells Peter the bad news about his upcoming denial. Jesus tells His closest friends: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” He’s preparing them for the time that will come after He leaves.
Then in John 14, Jesus lets them know about their future, swanky living arrangements because He knows their more immediate struggles that lie ahead: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” I wonder if Jesus looked into their eyes and saw how they would suffer. Peter, crucified upside down. Andrew, tied to an X-shaped cross. The apostle James, beheaded by King Herod.
Then Jesus continues, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” This is the part that reminds me of that trip to D.C. Walking on the West Wing carpet, seeing the plain-looking black telephone by the simple, tan sofa in the office of the world’s most powerful man. How did we get to this place? It wasn’t because of our achievements. We were just a regular family from Murfreesboro, TN, not a championship team or war veterans. The only way we were allowed inside that building was because we knew a guy who knew the boss. And that’s the same way I’m getting a room in Jesus’ mansion. I know a guy.
A promised invitation to a place like the one Jesus described caused confusion for the men listening. Thomas asked Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Reading and re-reading Jesus’ declaration gives me chills. He doesn’t just say that He points which way to go. He is the way. He doesn’t only tell the truth (which, of course, He does), but He is the truth. And He’s not just saying He’s alive—a miracle of its own considering the whole virgin birth thing. But He is the life, the source of life, here on earth and in what comes next.
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