THE WAY TO LIFE
Jesus' words, "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6), is a brief formula for what he offers a follower. There is a progression widening in scope for each of the subjects he announces.
In saying "I am THE WAY," Jesus is not presenting himself primarily as a moral guide, nor as a leader for his disciples to follow. Here the emphasis is different from that of 16:13 where the Paraclete/Spirit is said to guide the disciples along the WAY of all TRUTH. Rather Jesus is presenting himself here as the avenue of salvation, as in the manner of 10:9: "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved."
This is so because Jesus is THE TRUTH, the revelation of the Father who is the goal of the journey. No one has ever seen the Father except Jesus (1:18). Jesus is telling us what he saw in the Father's presence (8:38); and Jesus makes men the children of God whom they can then call Father. Jesus is establishing his disciples in a new relationship to God. In calling himself the truth, Jesus is not giving an ontological definition but is describing himself in terms of his mission to men. The meaning is clear when interpreted in light of 18:37: "The reason I have come into the world is to testify to the truth." The Johannine formula does more than tell us what Jesus does, however: it tells us what Jesus IS in relation to men. Moreover, it reflects what Jesus is IN HIMSELF. John's emphasis on the "real bread," "the real wine" would be in vain if what Jesus is in relation to men was not a true indication of what he is in himself.
If Jesus is the way in the sense that he is the truth that enables men to know their goal, he is also the way in the sense that he is THE LIFE. Once again it describes Jesus in terms of his mission to men: "I came that they may have life and have it to the full" (10:10). The destination of the way is life with the Father; this life the Father has given to the Son (vs 26), and the Son alone can give to men who believe in him (10:28). The gift of natural life to Lazarus was a sign of the eternal goal behind Jesus' claim to be the resurrection and the life (11:25-26): "Everyone who is alive and believes in me shall never die at all."
If Jesus is the way because he is the truth and the life, "truth" and "life" are not simply coordinate: life comes through the truth. Those who believe in Jesus as the incarnate revelation of the Father--and that is what truth means--receive the gift of life, so that the words of Jesus are the source of life: "The words that I have spoken to you are both Spirit and life" (6:63); "The man who hears my word and has faith in Him who sent me possesses eternal life" (vs 24). When a person comes to Jesus for the truth, it is not simply a matter of learning and going away. One must belong to the truth (18:37). Thus, not only at the moment of first belief but always Jesus remains the way.
The disciples did not fail completely to know Jesus (as "the Jews" had done: 8:19); yet their questions betray their inadequate grasp of knowing him perfectly. All of this will be changed; after "the hour" the author of 1 John (2:13) will be able to say with conviction to his Christian audience: "You have known the Father."
In Near Eastern covenantal language, the verb "to know" includes the sense of "acknowledge." In the Bible it is used for Israel's acknowledgement of Yahweh as its sole God (Hosea 13:14); and Jeremiah (24:7, 31:34) makes true knowledge or acknowledgement of Yahweh part of the new covenant. As author of the new covenant with his disciples, Jesus insists that they must know him even as Israel knew Yahweh, for "from now on" it is Jesus who will be acknowledged by Christians as "My Lord and my God" (20:28).
In the evangelist John's own time, there were heretical Christians who sought after or claimed a mystical vision of God. Jesus explains clearly (vs 9) that such theophanies or visions are futile now that the Word who is God has become flesh. In seeing Jesus one sees God. Much of the equivalence between Father and Son is phrased in language that stems from the Jewish concept that the one who is sent is completely the representative of the one who sends him.
In this episode there are two themes running concurrently: Jesus union with the Father and the ability of his "works" to reveal that union. They are spelled out in vs 10: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you are not spoken on my own; it is the Father, abiding in me, who performs the works." Jesus had already stated in 8:28, "I DO nothing by myself." This attitude is best expressed in 17:4 where the whole ministry of Jesus, words and deeds, will be called the "work" given him by his Father to do.
Real belief and acceptance of the works involves the ability to understand their role as signs, that is, the ability to see through them to what they reveal, namely, that they are the work both of the Father and of the Son who are one, and thus that the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. As with the disciples so with me, I must be able to see through external works to the reality of the transformation happening within.
We move now to the power of belief in Jesus. Verse 12 serves as a transition from belief (10:11) to receiving help from God (13:14): "Let me firmly assure you, the man who has faith in me will perform the same works that I perform. In fact, he will perform far greater than these, because I am going to the Father" (14:12). Belief in Jesus will bring to Christian power from God to perform the same works that Jesus performs, because, by uniting a man with Jesus and the Father, belief gives him a share in the power that they possess. The additional promise that the believer "will perform (works) far greater than these" is explainable in the changed situation of the post-resurrectional period. After Jesus has been glorified (17:1,5), the Father will perform in His Son's name works capable of manifesting the Son's glory (see the last line of verse 13: "so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.")
The idea that the disciples will be given the power to perform marvelous works is found in many New Testament writings. There are conditions, however, for having the request granted. They are listed elsewhere in the New Testament, but I will confine the research to what John says: "If conscience (heart) knows nothing damaging, we can have confidence before God and receive from Him whatever we may ask, because we are keeping His commandments and doing what is pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3: 21-22). A similar theme is struck in 1 John 5:14-15: "Now we have confidence in God that He hears us whenever we ask for anything according to His will. And since we know that He hears us whenever we ask, we know that whatever we have asked Him for is ours."
In sum, the conditions are: keeping the commandments, asking in accordance with God's will, having the agreement of several Christians on what should be asked, and believing. This believing is not blind faith, for the Greek noun "PISTIS," which has been translated "FAITH," never appears in John's Gospel. Faith is not simply an internal disposition, but a union with Jesus and his Father involving total commitment and engagement on my part. It includes trust and loyalty. Only then might I have the presence and power to do what Jesus has done.
Prayer is a leading subject in much of the New Testament. Johannine theology, however, introduces into prayer in Jesus name an emphasis that goes beyond the use of a formula. A Christian prays in Jesus' name in the sense that he is in union with Jesus. Asking "in my name" in 14: 13-14 continues and develops the indwelling motif of 10-11: because the Christian is in union with Jesus and Jesus in union with the Father, there can be no doubt that the Christian's requests will be granted. This context of union with Jesus also suggests that the requests of the Christian are no longer thought of as requests concerning the petty things of life--they are requests of such a nature that when they are granted the Father is glorified in the Son (13). They are requests pertinent to the Christian life and to the continuation of the work by which Jesus glorified the Father during his ministry (17: 4).
What I see in this whole episode is that there are no intermediaries involved among the three parties, the Father, the Son, and the Christian. It is direct communication, perhaps an anticipation of the indwelling passages that John will explain in subsequent chapters. Religion seems to be moving from principle to the personal. I can talk at great length of religion offering ways and truths to make life better. But here Jesus himself takes the place of all these aids and teachings. Jesus is the gate where our entrance starts (the way). He reveals things to us about God that never fail to astonish (the truth). Our goal is living with the Father, now and forever (the life).
In John's writings we are to love not only God but also Jesus himself. To me this is a clear invitation to treat Jesus as a person I know, to talk to him as a friend. Talking to Jesus as a person gets me to my heart. Since strong feelings and emotions are involved this can be exhilarating and frightening at the same time. But what else could be expected? In opening my heart to Jesus I am stripped naked in front of God!
In allowing myself to be open, I may feel the total otherness of God. Yet since all is One, any feeling of alienation is a passing sensation. I may even experience light and darkness. Here again, they are merely fleeting phenomena.
In loving Jesus it is not only possible to have a personal relationship with him, but also to become him. I think that is the ultimate meaning of the second half of verse six which began, "I am the way and the truth and the life." The same verse concludes, "No one comes to the Father except through me." If I keep loving, a Jesus arises. I need to constantly remind myself that all is One. With God's divinization there is ultimately only God.
Thinking cannot get us to God, but loving Him can. When Jesus tells us that he is the way and the truth and the life, I believe he is showing us the ways we can love God.
(Selections from Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, The Anchor Yale Bible, vol. 29.)
This is so because Jesus is THE TRUTH, the revelation of the Father who is the goal of the journey. No one has ever seen the Father except Jesus (1:18). Jesus is telling us what he saw in the Father's presence (8:38); and Jesus makes men the children of God whom they can then call Father. Jesus is establishing his disciples in a new relationship to God. In calling himself the truth, Jesus is not giving an ontological definition but is describing himself in terms of his mission to men. The meaning is clear when interpreted in light of 18:37: "The reason I have come into the world is to testify to the truth." The Johannine formula does more than tell us what Jesus does, however: it tells us what Jesus IS in relation to men. Moreover, it reflects what Jesus is IN HIMSELF. John's emphasis on the "real bread," "the real wine" would be in vain if what Jesus is in relation to men was not a true indication of what he is in himself.
If Jesus is the way in the sense that he is the truth that enables men to know their goal, he is also the way in the sense that he is THE LIFE. Once again it describes Jesus in terms of his mission to men: "I came that they may have life and have it to the full" (10:10). The destination of the way is life with the Father; this life the Father has given to the Son (vs 26), and the Son alone can give to men who believe in him (10:28). The gift of natural life to Lazarus was a sign of the eternal goal behind Jesus' claim to be the resurrection and the life (11:25-26): "Everyone who is alive and believes in me shall never die at all."
If Jesus is the way because he is the truth and the life, "truth" and "life" are not simply coordinate: life comes through the truth. Those who believe in Jesus as the incarnate revelation of the Father--and that is what truth means--receive the gift of life, so that the words of Jesus are the source of life: "The words that I have spoken to you are both Spirit and life" (6:63); "The man who hears my word and has faith in Him who sent me possesses eternal life" (vs 24). When a person comes to Jesus for the truth, it is not simply a matter of learning and going away. One must belong to the truth (18:37). Thus, not only at the moment of first belief but always Jesus remains the way.
The disciples did not fail completely to know Jesus (as "the Jews" had done: 8:19); yet their questions betray their inadequate grasp of knowing him perfectly. All of this will be changed; after "the hour" the author of 1 John (2:13) will be able to say with conviction to his Christian audience: "You have known the Father."
In Near Eastern covenantal language, the verb "to know" includes the sense of "acknowledge." In the Bible it is used for Israel's acknowledgement of Yahweh as its sole God (Hosea 13:14); and Jeremiah (24:7, 31:34) makes true knowledge or acknowledgement of Yahweh part of the new covenant. As author of the new covenant with his disciples, Jesus insists that they must know him even as Israel knew Yahweh, for "from now on" it is Jesus who will be acknowledged by Christians as "My Lord and my God" (20:28).
In the evangelist John's own time, there were heretical Christians who sought after or claimed a mystical vision of God. Jesus explains clearly (vs 9) that such theophanies or visions are futile now that the Word who is God has become flesh. In seeing Jesus one sees God. Much of the equivalence between Father and Son is phrased in language that stems from the Jewish concept that the one who is sent is completely the representative of the one who sends him.
In this episode there are two themes running concurrently: Jesus union with the Father and the ability of his "works" to reveal that union. They are spelled out in vs 10: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you are not spoken on my own; it is the Father, abiding in me, who performs the works." Jesus had already stated in 8:28, "I DO nothing by myself." This attitude is best expressed in 17:4 where the whole ministry of Jesus, words and deeds, will be called the "work" given him by his Father to do.
Real belief and acceptance of the works involves the ability to understand their role as signs, that is, the ability to see through them to what they reveal, namely, that they are the work both of the Father and of the Son who are one, and thus that the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. As with the disciples so with me, I must be able to see through external works to the reality of the transformation happening within.
We move now to the power of belief in Jesus. Verse 12 serves as a transition from belief (10:11) to receiving help from God (13:14): "Let me firmly assure you, the man who has faith in me will perform the same works that I perform. In fact, he will perform far greater than these, because I am going to the Father" (14:12). Belief in Jesus will bring to Christian power from God to perform the same works that Jesus performs, because, by uniting a man with Jesus and the Father, belief gives him a share in the power that they possess. The additional promise that the believer "will perform (works) far greater than these" is explainable in the changed situation of the post-resurrectional period. After Jesus has been glorified (17:1,5), the Father will perform in His Son's name works capable of manifesting the Son's glory (see the last line of verse 13: "so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.")
The idea that the disciples will be given the power to perform marvelous works is found in many New Testament writings. There are conditions, however, for having the request granted. They are listed elsewhere in the New Testament, but I will confine the research to what John says: "If conscience (heart) knows nothing damaging, we can have confidence before God and receive from Him whatever we may ask, because we are keeping His commandments and doing what is pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3: 21-22). A similar theme is struck in 1 John 5:14-15: "Now we have confidence in God that He hears us whenever we ask for anything according to His will. And since we know that He hears us whenever we ask, we know that whatever we have asked Him for is ours."
In sum, the conditions are: keeping the commandments, asking in accordance with God's will, having the agreement of several Christians on what should be asked, and believing. This believing is not blind faith, for the Greek noun "PISTIS," which has been translated "FAITH," never appears in John's Gospel. Faith is not simply an internal disposition, but a union with Jesus and his Father involving total commitment and engagement on my part. It includes trust and loyalty. Only then might I have the presence and power to do what Jesus has done.
Prayer is a leading subject in much of the New Testament. Johannine theology, however, introduces into prayer in Jesus name an emphasis that goes beyond the use of a formula. A Christian prays in Jesus' name in the sense that he is in union with Jesus. Asking "in my name" in 14: 13-14 continues and develops the indwelling motif of 10-11: because the Christian is in union with Jesus and Jesus in union with the Father, there can be no doubt that the Christian's requests will be granted. This context of union with Jesus also suggests that the requests of the Christian are no longer thought of as requests concerning the petty things of life--they are requests of such a nature that when they are granted the Father is glorified in the Son (13). They are requests pertinent to the Christian life and to the continuation of the work by which Jesus glorified the Father during his ministry (17: 4).
What I see in this whole episode is that there are no intermediaries involved among the three parties, the Father, the Son, and the Christian. It is direct communication, perhaps an anticipation of the indwelling passages that John will explain in subsequent chapters. Religion seems to be moving from principle to the personal. I can talk at great length of religion offering ways and truths to make life better. But here Jesus himself takes the place of all these aids and teachings. Jesus is the gate where our entrance starts (the way). He reveals things to us about God that never fail to astonish (the truth). Our goal is living with the Father, now and forever (the life).
In John's writings we are to love not only God but also Jesus himself. To me this is a clear invitation to treat Jesus as a person I know, to talk to him as a friend. Talking to Jesus as a person gets me to my heart. Since strong feelings and emotions are involved this can be exhilarating and frightening at the same time. But what else could be expected? In opening my heart to Jesus I am stripped naked in front of God!
In allowing myself to be open, I may feel the total otherness of God. Yet since all is One, any feeling of alienation is a passing sensation. I may even experience light and darkness. Here again, they are merely fleeting phenomena.
In loving Jesus it is not only possible to have a personal relationship with him, but also to become him. I think that is the ultimate meaning of the second half of verse six which began, "I am the way and the truth and the life." The same verse concludes, "No one comes to the Father except through me." If I keep loving, a Jesus arises. I need to constantly remind myself that all is One. With God's divinization there is ultimately only God.
Thinking cannot get us to God, but loving Him can. When Jesus tells us that he is the way and the truth and the life, I believe he is showing us the ways we can love God.
(Selections from Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, The Anchor Yale Bible, vol. 29.)