“Don’t let your heart be troubled,” Jesus said to the disciples in the upper room. He was nearing the end of His earthly ministry, but they didn’t know it yet.
“Believe in God, believe also in me,” He continued. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.”
At least one disciple was confused—Thomas. He didn’t know the way. He didn’t even know where Jesus was going. He had just followed Jesus all over Israel, from village to village, and during that time, the Lord had left them behind before, and it sounded like He might do it again, so Thomas asked the question the rest of the disciples were probably thinking.
“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
Thomas wanted to be with Jesus, so He wanted to know the way. And because he wanted to know, Jesus told him.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:1-6).
In commenting on this passage, John Caputo remarked, “Jesus is not the way unless you are lost, even as Jesus is not the answer unless you have a question.”
Although I wouldn’t put it that way, I think I know what Caputo means. He means you don’t search for answers to questions you aren’t asking, and you don’t search for the way if you believe you’re already on it. “Seek and you will find,” Jesus said (Matt 7:7), but notice that seeking comes before finding.
The book of Acts is full of seekers. Think of the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah (Acts 8:26-29), Cornelius praying to the God of the Jews (Acts 10:4), or the man in Macedonia calling out for help (Acts 16:9). They were all looking for something they knew not what. But God knew. And because they sought, they found.
If you’re an unbeliever, are you seeking? Or are you too content with your life to search for answers—for the Answer? Are you too satisfied with your life to search for “Life” with a capital L? Are you too sure where you’re going to be open to looking for the Way? If you don’t seek, how will you find?
Thought for the day: One benefit of feeling lost is that you can ask Jesus for directions.
