NOTES for Joh 14:1-6

How important it is for us that Jesus says these words: "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14:1). First of all, it becomes clear that the Lord knows we can be troubled and doubtful. He does not say that this is bad; but the fact that He calls us not to be troubled means that there is something better for the human heart: joy, rejoicing, peace, and all of this is given to us as the fruit of faith.

This is precisely why the Lord calls us to believe, overcoming trouble and doubt by faith. True, this does not mean that joy and peace will come to us immediately, because God expects faith from us regardless of what is happening around us and longs for our steadfastness. Therefore verse 1 of today's passage can be received as a motto for life, suggested by God Himself.

"I am the way and the truth and the life." That is how these words sound, in a way unfamiliar to our ear. We are more accustomed to "I am the way, the truth, and the life"; then it would be a list of coordinate terms, each of which could be moved into first place. See Fr. Georgy Chistyakov's book Light Shines in the Darkness, chapter 19. Yet such an approach substantially distorts the picture: the word "way" stands at the beginning for a reason, for Christ is the way, and "the expression 'and the truth and the life' has, to use the scholarly term, an explicative character, from the Latin explicatio, explanation" (ibid.).

But it is hard to come to such a conclusion by limiting oneself to an attentive reading of this one phrase alone; it is necessary to turn to the whole New Testament text as a whole. Let us recall the words where the way and life again appear together: "narrow is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life" (Matthew 7:14). The way that leads to life. What sort of way is this? Let us note that here it says "gate and way." But the Lord says, "I am the door; if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9).

A door, like a gate, is something one must pass through in order to go out onto a way. But when the way is finished, one must pass through the gate and the door again, for this is the beginning and the end of the way. The Lord is the beginning and the end, but also what lies between them: the way itself. Let us recall another saying: "I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut; you have little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name" (Revelation 3:8). The opened door becomes, as it were, an icon of the Lord, who sends us on the way and waits for our return.

So we have tried to understand the link between "way and life." Now let us turn to the expression "way and truth." The word "truth" (like the words "to do," "works of God," "light," "hour," and some others) is key for the Gospel of John and does not occur in the synoptic text. First of all we must recall a fragment of the prologue: "for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). It is not He Himself who is truth, as one could think if the words in the phrase we are considering were separated by commas; rather, truth came through Him. And although neither the Greek nor the Latin originals contain this etymological connection, in Russian the word proiskhodit, "comes forth," has the same root as khodit, "to walk," and one can walk only by one way or another.

In mathematics, the equality of two sets can be proved this way: first it is shown that all the elements of the first set belong to the second, and then the reverse - all the elements of the second belong to the first. And it turns out that this mechanism applies far beyond mathematics. As we read today in the Gospel, Jesus Himself uses it, saying: "I am in the Father and the Father is in Me" (John 14:10).

We do not know why He does not tell the disciples directly that He and the Father are one, since He had already said this publicly (see John 10:30). Perhaps to the people closest to Him He wants not simply to report this as a fact, but also to explain why it is so. This is enough for our understanding of how the Father and the Son can be one: everything one does is done through the other and in the other. If we try to penetrate fully and lay out "on shelves" the mechanism of the inner unity of our God, nothing may come of it. The Lord asks us simply to believe that it is so. And if we cannot, then simply to look at what Christ does and in this recognize the Father (see John 14:11).

It turns out that the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ did not complete God's plan for our salvation, but opened a new stage in the spiritual history of the world. And the Lord speaks to us about this in today's reading from the Gospel of John. "I will send you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth."

He speaks of such nearness of God as we are unable to imagine and could not have expected. The Spirit of God Himself, whom the world does not see and does not know, will be not only with us but also in us. The Lord says that the Spirit, the Comforter, will guide us into all truth; therefore we will no longer be alone in our search for God, but He Himself will lead us to Himself. And another name of the Spirit of God is the Spirit of life, the life-giving Spirit, as our Creed calls Him. He creates in us life that never ends, never grows poor, and never ceases.

Jesus' words about His unity with the Father, spoken during the Last Supper, take on a new meaning compared with what they conveyed before. Now Jesus speaks of this unity as the way, the truth, and the life. His life itself proves to be not only the fullness of living truth but also the living embodiment of the path everyone must travel—the path of the Kingdom. In those days, the ideas of way, truth, and life were traditionally associated with the Torah. The Torah was regarded as the way, the way of truth and the way of life, leading the one who walked it to God and to the threshold of the messianic Kingdom. The ideal was a living Torah, which a person could become if his life conformed to it completely.

By calling Himself the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus speaks of Himself as the living Torah. But His way becomes the way of the Kingdom. His relationship with the Father contains a dynamic that is revealed to the world as the dynamic of the Kingdom entering it. He goes to the Father—and the Kingdom enters the world. Such is the path of the Man who revealed the Torah to the world in all its fullness, the living Torah. But it is also the path of every Christian, everyone who wants to follow Christ into His Kingdom and travel that path to the end.

The Savior goes so that there may be a place in His Kingdom for each of His disciples and followers. But to become His disciple in truth, to reach those dwelling places in the Kingdom that He promises to prepare for them, one must repeat His journey. Not imitate it outwardly, but repeat it in essence, travel it oneself—and oneself become a living Torah.

Of course, a person does not remain alone on this path. Otherwise no one could become a living Torah, for without help from above this is impossible for a sinful human being. Yet everyone must still walk for himself. A person can be helped to walk, but only if he is walking rather than sitting on the sidelines. This is the path to which Jesus calls His disciples. He is confident that they know the way, for He Himself is before their eyes as a living example. They do not yet see or understand everything, of course, but what they do not yet see or understand can be understood only through their own experience, which each of them will gain in due course. Words are useless here. Jesus has already told His disciples the essential thing; the rest will become clear once they set out on the path.

The Lord continues His final conversation with the disciples about His new covenant with them. If since the time of Moses the bond between God and Israel had been carried out through sacred rites in the tabernacle and then in the temple, now Jesus becomes the center of God's presence, the new temple (John 2), He is the way to the Father, the manifestation of truth, and life itself living in people.

But they face separation: He is going where access is still closed to the disciples. He promised to return, but how many generations must pass before His words are fulfilled? How can the disciples preserve their bond with God if Jesus leaves them? And the Lord reveals a new mystery to them: He remains despite His departure. He will abide with them through the One whom the Father will send to them, the Comforter, who will remind them of Jesus and make His presence among them manifest, so that each person may recognize in the Spirit the face of Christ and, having recognized Him, see the Father in Him...

The last two lines of today's passage from the Gospel of John read as one, as something similar and repeated. But in the words "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14) there is what appears to be a small difference: it does not say of whom we may ask anything in Jesus' name. We can ask anyone: relative or stranger, acquaintance or unknown person, evil or good. And despite this, He says that He will do it. The main thing is that the request be in His name.

And a person who, without embarrassment, openly pronounces the name of his Lord, without being sure that the one listening will understand him, trusts God. And his faith is strong. According to this faith the Lord does what we ask.