Meal time can be a profound time. 

It can be so much more than just eating. This is where we plan for the week, review our day, and share our hurts and successes.  And this last meal Jesus is having with his disciples is so much more than just a meal. 

First, it’s the Passover feast.  A meal designed to remember how God protected and provided for his people and rescued them from slavery. 

Second, it’s Jesus last meal with his disciples.  They aren’t fully grasping this yet, but later this meal will become more and more special to them.

And after 3 years of teaching, healing and leading, Jesus gets incredibly clear with the disciples about who he is, what he’s been doing, and where he is going.

‘“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” 

This must have made the disciples jaws drop.  Where is this place? We’ve been together all this time and you’ve never taken us to the Father’s house. How are we to know how to get there? So Thomas speaks up. 

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 

Then Jesus says words that have echoed through time.  Words that bring life and healing and clarity.  

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:1-6

People often take offense at this phrase.  The focus on the “no one can come to the Father except through me” as exclusive and demeaning to others.  But Jesus is just stating the facts. It’s not that I’m one among many options and I’m the best. It’s that I’m your only option. In other words, I’m the only one coming to save you. 

Other religious leaders simply say they know about God, Jesus claimed to BE God. Others say they know how to connect with God. Jesus says he can take you to God. He’s not just the right way… he’s the only way. 

So today, thank God for ‘the way’ being provided.  Not hidden, not a list of requirements or hoops to jump through, but Jesus being clear that in a world of imperfect and ill equipped people… Jesus is THE way, THE truth and THE life. 

Live with that in mind today.