6. Week Six: The Way, The Truth, & The Life

Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

Those of us in the United States are now watching what feels like a war against the existence of truth. Postmodernists suggest we each find our own truth. Government officials pose alternative truth. I recently read an article in which a professor purports that there are two kinds of truth: the objective kind and the feeling kind. Sorry, ma’am. When they reach opposite conclusions, they are not both truth. Perhaps there have always been questions about truth. Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).

Jesus’s claim to be the truth is a mighty claim indeed. No wonder the world and the enemy are attacking truth claims. They want people to disregard God and hold on to their own imaginations of who Jesus really is. As God’s people, we should be characterized by the truth and stand up for truth-tellers and truth-seekers.

Part One

John’s record of Jesus’s story moves into a section of the book (chapters 13-17) often called the Upper Room Discourse. A more recent name is the Farewell Discourse because it takes place the night before Jesus dies. The action doesn’t all take place in the upper room anyway.

Of course, Jesus knows what is about to happen and how short his time is, but his closest followers exhibit confusion and uncertainty about Jesus’s words. I’m quite sure that I would have been as clueless as they were.

Imagine the scene: Jesus and twelve men gathered around a low table where they will soon eat, but it’s not just any meal. It is the Seder, the annual symbolic celebration of the Passover which reminds Jews of their miraculous release from Egyptian slavery.

On the original Passover night in Egypt more than twelve hundred years earlier, the first-born in every home died unless the blood of a lamb was painted across the sides and lintel of the door. When God’s angel saw the blood, he “passed over” that home and spared the firstborn (Exodus 12:7-13).

On this particular Passover in about 30 A.D. Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), shed his blood assuring us that God’s wrath will pass over all who smear his blood over their hearts.

Read John 13:1-30, Noting The I AM In John 13:19.

*** Mark or note the recurring words in these 30 verses, which represent themes. Most of them surface over and over in John. Journal about one of them.

Respond to the story by journaling:

• What do Jesus’s words and actions reveal about him?
• What do you learn about Jesus from the way he treats Judas?
• What is God saying to you from this story for your own life?

Part Two

Before dinner is over, Judas leaves the upper room and heads out to betray Jesus and set in motion his death on a cross (John 13:30). It’s interesting to read Jesus’s first words after Judas is gone: “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.” It’s a strange truth that a hideous, humiliating death on a cross as the lowest of the low brings God the greatest glory and is connected to this betrayal.

Read John 13:31-14:31

*** The I AM statement, our verse for this lesson (John 14:6), is so well-known that we often read it without thinking. Journal about all the truth involved in it.

Respond to the story by journaling

• What stands out to you from this conversation between Jesus and his disciples hours before his death? Why?
• What does Jesus reveal about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the second person of the Triune God and how does it affect you?
• What is God saying to you today from his Word?

Part Three

The end of chapter 14 suggests that Jesus and the remaining 11 disciples leave the upper room and begin their journey to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus often used daily objects as illustrations of spiritual truth, as he does here using a grapevine. He teaches through allegory, a comparison with multiple parallels to truth. A parable is a bit different because it is a fictional story with generally one main teaching point.

The timing of the vine allegory is particularly applicable because 50 days after Jesus’s resurrection (Pentecost) the Spirit will indwell believers and provide the power and strength to live out the Christian life. Jesus just taught them about the Spirit and now uses an allegory to better explain that relationship.

In this allegory, Jesus says that he will “take away” the unfruitful branch (v. 2). The verb translated “take away” can alternately mean “lift up.” That meaning gave rise to a popular interpretation that the vinedresser lifts the branch off the ground to help it bear more fruit. In recent years, however, archeologists and scholars have found no historical evidence that vinedressers ever used that technique to get a vine to produce, and they have backed away from that understanding. Thus this fruitless branch is likely someone who seems to be a believer but is in reality not attached to the vine and so is taken away.

Read John 15:1-17. As You Read, Note The Seventh And Final Metaphorical I AM Statement In John.

*** Several times in the Old Testament, allegories picture the Father as the vinedresser or gardener, so Jesus’s words support his claims to be the Son of God. Read at least one of these passages and journal your thoughts: Isaiah 5:1-7; 27:2-6.

Respond to the story by journaling:

• What does Jesus reveal about himself in this allegory and the teaching that follows it?
• What does Jesus teach about believers here?
• What is God saying to you personally through this passage?

PRAYER: Pray to the Father that you would dwell in the Vine.

Watch Who Is This Jesus? Week 6 That Accompanies This Lesson At https://Vimeo.Com/Album/4507580