5th Sunday of Easter, Year A
May 3, 2026
John 14:1-14
I’m sure you all have heard a version of the joke where a person dies and goes to heaven and St. Peter is touring the new arrival around to see the new house with many, many rooms in heaven. You can throw any denomination under the bus here, so I’ll just pick on us. Peter opens one room and there are people raising their hands and jumping up and down and he says, “Those are the Pentecostals.” They move on to the next room and open the door and it’s filled with smoke from incense, icons, and no chairs and he says, “These are the Russian Orthodox.” And so he goes on, door after door, opening to all the different varieties of religious traditions, and gets to one door, and before he opens, he puts his finger to his mouth and says, “SShhhhhh.” “These are the Episcopalians and they think they are the only ones here.”
But before we start talking about houses and rooms and space for people, let’s put this whole scripture passage today into its proper context. There are five Chapters at the end of the Gospel of John which is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. Five chapters devoted to everything Jesus wanted to tell his disciples on the last night of his life before he was arrested, beginning with Chapter 13, where Jesus washed his disciples feet. He then went on to tell them about his betrayal and denial. Between those two devastating predictions, he has warned them clearly for the first time of his departure. He talks to them about how he is going away, but will still be with them. So, you can just imagine the looks on his disciples faces as they are trying to take all this in.
There seems to be a pause as Jesus lets this news sit with them. And then, as we pick up in our reading today, Jesus begins with compassion, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The next words, “Believe in God, believe also in me” are critical at this juncture, as the disciples have just witnessed both Judas’s departure and the prediction of Peter’s denial. They need to hear what is central to the entire ministry of Jesus, believing in him. It is that trust, that relationship, that is the premise on which everything Jesus says going forward is based.1
So, Jesus carries on talking about many rooms, and naturally we think of a building, a specific location where we will one day live with Christ in a heavenly condo. Yet this dwelling place isn’t really a physical place at all. The root of the word for “dwelling place” in Greek means “abide.” Jesus is talking about being in the intimate presence of God, abiding in the bosom of God. Many rooms should clue us all in that abiding in God could include a lot more than we tend to think.
Abide in the Gospel of John is the most often used word to describe being in a relationship with Christ. The place of habitation for our hearts and souls is Jesus, not a building, not a mansion in the sky. The resurrection points to the ascended life with God. The Kingdom of God, here and now and yet to come. This is the mystery of abiding.
But even the disciples interpreted Jesus’ words on a literal level. Thomas questions, “Where are you going, Jesus? We need a map, the coordinates to get us to the right place.” And Jesus answers with one of the more well-known (and, I’ll add, ill-used) I AM statements. “I AM the Way, the truth, and the life.” Not THE way, but the WAY.
There is no definitive article in Greek, the text actually reads, “I am way, truth, and life.” It just as easily could have been translated into English as “I am a way, a truth, and life.” This I AM statement is not exclusionary as it is so often used. This claim from Jesus wasn’t meant to be a judgment, but a comfort to his bewildered and frightened disciples. When we read texts in the Bible that have been so frequently misinterpreted, it is always helpful to remember who the audience is, and in this case he is speaking to his closest disciples.
Just last week he was explaining that he is a gate. A way for Christians to navigate this world. If you are a follower of Jesus, your path is through him.
Moving past verse 6, we realize that the Father has already come, is already present, in the life and ministry of Jesus. “If you know me, “ and Jesus infers, “If you know me, and you do.” These words are meant to comfort the disciples, that they really do know God because they know Jesus. Jesus wants them to know they are secure, even in a world that has turned upside down, especially when his departure was going to open up all kinds of dangers for them. Jesus remains their way through it all.
But they are still not quite understanding, and I never want to diss these disciples, because we don’t always get it either, and we have the benefit of knowing about the ascension. What the disciples model for us is that they ask questions. They aren’t just sitting there as if the Master has spoken and therefore they just better believe it. They don’t. And they won’t for some time, but they are trying.
Jesus always lets them ask the questions, tries to explain, and lets time and experience help the answer unfold. Belief, or trust, is a process. Jesus has just washed their feet, and then they have to sit at this table and listen to Jesus tell a tale of betrayal and denial from within the close circle of friends. But they also were instructed in the great commandment that Jesus wants them to live by and from which their ministry is to operate–Love one another. Even in betrayal, even in denial, because that is how Jesus loves.
Their misunderstanding continues with Philip, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied,” which elicits Jesus’ most straightforward claims about his identity and his relationship with God–“I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” This ties back to the very opening sentence of John’s Gospel–(In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 1:1).
The relationship that Jesus has with the Father is the basis for how Jesus explains the promise of his followers being brought into this union. This is crucial. These words that he repeats to describe his relationship with the Father are meant for the disciples to imagine themselves in that same relationship, for us to imagine, too. The relationship that Jesus has with God is the very one we share. So many of the images that follow in the Farewell Discourse assume this oneness [in God.]2 In the very next Chapter, Jesus will explain this further by declaring “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Jesus is with you. And you are with Jesus, and we are one in and with God.
Jesus has been giving these bewildered disciples a glimpse of how to navigate what is to come, actually within a very few hours of his arrest, and also preparing them for the trials and dangers they are going to face after his physical presence is gone, and as they go on to share this New Covenant of a God of Love with the world.
Do not be troubled, he said. “In a life made up of difficult decisions and various crises not so radically different from the ones we face, Jesus sought first the kingdom of God and chose the paths that most embodied a faithful imitation of what he understood to be Godlike love.”3 Jesus is the Way, is not an escape hatch to get us out of having to deal with this world and all its sorrows, it is the path with which we walk through it. The path through the valleys, the way of Love when faced with injustices and war and suffering and fear.
Phillip and Thomas want to know where the Way is, who will show them God, and Jesus is like, have you really been with me every single day and don’t know the answer to your questions is that I AM the way? I am the way of Love, I am the truth you seek.
Jesus was also facing a fearful time. When he recited Psalm 31 from the cross, as we did today, it was because it was embedded deep within him. He trusted the God who was in him and from whom he came. And in his worst hour, these words were still in his heart. These are words that abide in us, take up residence in our hearts.
“In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge. Deliver me. Be my strong rock, lead me and guide me. Take me out of the net I am trapped in, for into your hands I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me. My times are in your hands, rescue me from those who persecute me.”
At times in our lives we may be faced with what seems insurmountable obstacles. Sorrows we would much rather avoid. Hardships that bring us to our knees. We also share the joys, the celebrations, and our gratitude. In all of it, Jesus is the Way–our times are in his hands. Jesus brings us to green pastures and restores our souls. How do we find the way? We keep walking with Jesus. It is an eternal friendship. Jesus has room for us, we may worship him in the brick and mortar of our church, but we dwell with him in a place of deep abiding. The Way is this indwelling of the Christ that is in us, and we in him. We are one in God and Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, forever.
- Karoline M. Lewis. John, https://books.apple.com/us/book/john/id6748033205 ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- J. David Dark. Feasting on the Word, Year A, Fifth Sunday of Easter. ↩︎
Magdalena's Musings 