With all the technology we have at our fingertips today few of us have any excuse for getting lost. However, back in the early 1990s when I first came to Atlanta from Ireland, I was perpetually lost. Those were the days before GPS and smart phones. Armed with maps, a dumb phone, and driving on the wrong side of the road, I struggled to get around. The city confused me at every turn. There were streets that had several different names and their layout seemed to defy logic. To confound things, there was the traffic. Never in my life had I encountered so much traffic, so I spent much of my driving time in a total panic.
I imagine that is how the disciples felt when Jesus told
them “Where I am going you know the way” that we hear in today’s gospel, John
14:1-12. Although Jesus told the
disciples countless times that he would return to the Father, they did not
understand him. Only blunt Thomas had
the courage to say, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can
we know the way?" Jesus’ answer to
Thomas is one of the most reassuring statements in scripture, “I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The disciples could find comfort in Jesus’ words because
since the time of Moses the children of Israel tried to follow the way of
God. In Deuteronomy 5:32-33 Moses
told them “Be careful, therefore, to do as the LORD, your
God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left, but following exactly the way that the LORD, your God, commanded
you that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you
are to possess.” In Psalm 32:8 we
hear “I will instruct you and show you the way you should walk, give you
counsel with my eye upon you.” And in
Isaiah 30:21 the prophet says, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you:
‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or the left.” Jesus didn’t simply give the disciples (and
us) directions, he led them and he leads us every day. When we listen to him, we too can hear the
word behind us, “This is the way; walk in it.”
