You Know The Way (John 14:4)

 


Monday, May 26, 2025


Psalms 65; 70

Exodus 34:27-35:9

John 13:36-14:7


Observance: Augustine of Canterbury, missionary and bishop (d. 605)


You Know The Way (John 14:4)


[Jesus said] “And you know the way to where I am going.”


The very start of John’s Gospel has Jesus telling his disciples that, if they want to know where he comes from, then they should “come and see”. And now, as we are moving towards the end of the Gospel, he tells them that they now know the way to get there.


Following Jesus is the way to get to his Father’s house. It is not for nothing that the very first Christians called themselves “Followers of the Way”. Our first instruction book for new Christians, the Didache (compiled before 300 AD), opens by talking about how there are two ways, one of life and one of death.


The way to the Father is the way to life. Yet, paradoxically, that way passes first through death: the death of Jesus. This Way is not easy. But it is realistic. Death comes for us all; but we have a way to follow that leads us through death into eternal life.


The way we approach death, then, defines which way we are taking. Clinging to life on our own terms, we will find ourselves in a permanent relationship with death. Clinging not to our own life but to the life of Christ, on the other hand, will make death merely a passing affliction; indeed, will make death the gate to everlasting life.


It is a curious attitude we Christians have towards death. We know it is evil, and tragic, and stupid, and nasty, and heartbreaking. Having this attitude is just being consistent with the attitude of our Lord, who wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. But he has gone into death before us; he has cleared our way. He is the way, the truth and the life, and if we go through him, we will come out into the presence of the Father. Where, o death, is your sting? Where, o grave, is your victory? Christ is victorious over all evil; he is our way, and our truth, and our life.


What tragedy are you facing, or have last had to face? Where was the victory of Christ’s resurrection in that experience?


Lord Jesus, our way, and our truth, and our life: show us how to follow you, that we may fear no evil, both in every tragedy of this life, as well as our final moment of death, that we may be brought into your Father’s mansion with you and all your saints and feast with you forever.

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