I Am . . .

John 14: 6

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

We may think of this as a simple verse. It is well known also. I wonder, though, if it has profound depths that we don’t always see.
Imaging being one of Jesus’ disciples. You are sitting together after supper and he says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  What would you think? One of my first questions is, the way to what? The better question would be, the way to whom? Jesus is the way to God. We know no one goes to God apart from Jesus. What we may lose touch with is that part of Jesus’ mission in the earth was to connect the Father with His people. He doesn’t want us to have a great relationship with him because we are “Christians” and fail to have a great relationship with our Father.

What about the truth? What did Jesus mean by that? Were his disciples perplexed? He is all truth and in him is no untruth, no deceitfulness. What an amazing statement that is. You do not have to question his motives or his words. What he says, literally, is gospel. Any word Jesus has ever spoken is absolute in its veracity. The other side of the coin is that no lie has any part in him. No, untruthfulness, deceit, fraud, cheating, treachery or duplicity has any part in him. He is whole in his honesty and forthrightness.

“I am the life.” He is eternal life, yes, but he is also the air we breathe right now. Because he is the life, we know he is alive. If he was not alive, nothing else could have life. I often wonder if the world began to die those three days he was in the grave. Did the life begin to seep out of the earth? Another thought, he said he came here to give us abundant life. Okay, if he is the life, then he came to give us himself in abundance, right? He is to be found by us and absorbed, breathed, and lived.

Well, perhaps it is a simple verse but it sure is amazing to ponder.