A Spiritual Re-Awakening…? day 27 Lenten Readings & Reflections through John’s Gospel

Day 27 (Friday, April 5, 2019)

Read

John 14:1-7


1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Reflect

At the end of John 13 a dark cloud hung over Jesus’ disciples. For three years they had followed him, increasingly confident that he was God’s promised king. But at the Passover meal he had told them he was going away. “Don’t be troubled,” he said. “Believe in God, believe also in me… I go to prepare a place for you.”

Thomas’s response expressed a frustration we can all feel: “Lord, we do not know where you’re going…” Jesus’ reply is breath-taking, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He didn’t say, ‘I’ll show you the way’ but rather, ‘I am the way’; he didn’t say, ‘I’ll tell you the truth’ but, ‘I am the truth’; he didn’t say, ‘I’ll give you eternal life’ but, ‘I am the life’.

At the heart of the universe is not a theory of unification, but a person. The only way we can make sense of our human existence is by recognizing the one who is the Truth – the Word of God incarnate.

This is not fantasy. John candidly reports that Thomas thought for a while it was. He didn’t believe the other disciples when they said they had seen Jesus risen from the dead. But then when he saw him he responded, My Lord and my God. Were those first followers dreaming? Six weeks later Peter preached the first Christian sermon less than two miles from Jesus’ tomb, yet no one contradicted his claim that the tomb was empty. In tough times we can remember Jesus’ words, “Believe in God, believe also in me.”

Prayer

Almighty God, we confess that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: keep us outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, so that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, Lent 2 – adapted)

Daily Reading Plan

Read John 14:1-14