May 7, 2023

John 14:1-14

“Defining the Way”

We, as a church, leave the Easter season on Pentecost but we are leaving this sermon series, “What Now?” this Sunday. We have been following a human response to tragedy as we read the scripture of this Easter season-fear, disbelief, lack of recognition, coming into understanding, and beginning to find a way forward.

On our last Sunday of this series, we are taken back to the last, pre-crucifixion, days Jesus spent with his disciples in John 14. Jesus tells the disciples there is a way forward. He has prepared a place for them. Jesus says, “And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas retorts, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (You know the rest of the disciples were thinking it!) Because they don’t understand, Jesus gets specific, He is the way forward. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

What does it mean that Jesus is the way forward in a post-resurrection world? What is the promise of the prepared place? What does all of this mean to us today?

[Lectionary]