John 14:1–14

14:1–6 The Way to the Father. The flow of discussion in verses 1–6 indicates that while the admonition not to be troubled in verse 1 applies to Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s denials, what is mostly in view is Jesus’ destination. He told the disciples they could not yet go with him (13:36), prompting Peter’s plea (v. 37) that led to Jesus’ prediction of the denials (v. 38). Jesus has been clear that he is going away, that night is coming (9:4; 13:30), and that at present he must go alone (13:36; cf. 7:33–34; 8:21).

John had stated in 13:1 that the hour had come for Jesus to leave the world and go to the Father. Jesus had come from the Father’s side (1:18), descending from heaven (3:13), and now he will ascend to where he had been before (6:62). The disciples are troubled that they cannot go with Jesus (13:36–37), and Jesus seeks to allay their concerns in 14:1–6—not only by telling them to trust him but also by explaining to them where he is going, what he will do, and how they may rejoin him.

Jesus tells the disciples what they should and should not do: the disciples are not to be troubled but are to trust God and him (14:1; cf. 13:21; 14:27). Anxiety’s antidote is active trust. As Jesus continues to speak, he tells the disciples precisely what they are to trust him to do: he will go to prepare a place for them (v. 2). The fact that Jesus mentions the Father’s house indicates the heavenly temple is likely in view, of which the earthly temple was but a faint copy. The house Jesus goes to prepare is the new temple, the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth. Jesus assures his disciples that there is room enough for them in the new temple, for there are many rooms in the Father’s house (v. 2). Jesus is going to prepare a place for his followers there (v. 2), and the fact that he does so guarantees that he will return for them and take them to be with him (v. 3).

The disciples, then, are to trust that, even though they cannot follow Jesus at present, he is actually serving them by going away. They are to trust that Jesus is leaving them in order to go prepare a place for them. They are to trust that he will come for them and take them to be with him. Believing these points, trusting what Jesus says, will make it so that their hearts are not troubled by the fact that they cannot follow him where he is going.

Jesus had earlier likened his glorification to a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to bear much fruit (12:23–24). Jesus will be glorified at the cross (13:31–32), and part of the fruit his death will bear is the place he will prepare for his disciples by means of his death. This includes both a temporary place and an eternal place. The temporary place is the church: the death of Jesus propitiates the Father’s wrath against sin, sanctifying the living stones that will be built into God’s new temple, the church. After his death, Jesus will ascend to the Father’s right hand, where he will reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (cf. Psalm 110; 1 Cor. 15:20–28). This prepares the eternal place: the new temple of the new Jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth.

To understand the sense in which Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6), we must bear in mind that his going to the Father includes his death as a substitute for his people (cf. 10:15, 17). Jesus tells the disciples in 14:4 that they know the way to where he is going because he has told them that the Son of Man will be lifted up (12:23, 32) so that the grain of wheat might fall to the ground and die (12:24). The way to the Father goes through the cross.

As so often in John, the words of Jesus are misunderstood and taken literally. Jesus speaks symbolically of his death as the spiritual route to the Father. In 14:5 Thomas thinks Jesus has spoken of a literal place, and Thomas asserts that he and his fellow disciples do not know where Jesus is going and thus cannot know the way. The reply of Jesus binds the context together and shows that Thomas has not grasped his spiritual meaning.

Jesus is going to the Father, and his disciples want to follow him there. Jesus is the way to the Father, and “no one comes to the Father except through [Jesus]” (v. 6) in the sense that the death of Jesus on the cross is the only avenue by which man can be reconciled to God.

The death of Jesus is the way to the Father also in the sense that all who would serve Jesus must follow him (12:26), taking up their crosses (Mark 8:34) and following in his footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). The way to the Father is the way of humbling ourselves and serving others in the way he humbled himself, washed his disciples’ feet, and then paid for their lives with his own. The way to the Father is the way of being cleansed by Jesus (John 13:8–10) and following his example (13:15–17).

Furthermore, Jesus is the truth: everything he says corresponds to reality, including these utterances. And Jesus is the life: life was in him (1:4), God granted him to have life in himself (5:26), his words are Spirit and life (6:63), and the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and live (5:28–29).

14:7–11 Jesus Represents the Father. Jesus has repeatedly stated that he does only what he sees the Father doing (5:19) and says only what the Father would have him say (5:30). Jesus has asserted himself to be the “I Am” (8:24, 28, 58; 13:19) and has declared that whoever sees him sees the Father (12:45). Thus he says in 14:7 that if the disciples had known him, they would have known the Father, and further, now that he has spoken this reality, they do in fact know the Father.

Here again something that Jesus has said prompts a response that is off-target, giving Jesus the opportunity to clarify. In response to what Jesus said concerning how the disciples have seen and known the Father because they have seen and know Jesus (v. 7), Philip asks him to show them the Father, saying that it would be enough for them. Is Philip asking for Jesus to show them something like what Moses experienced at the burning bush or at Mount Sinai?

God has been pleased to reveal himself in his Son, Jesus Christ. Those who do not find God’s revelation of himself in Christ sufficient to prompt their faith are not likely to be satisfied by the Father’s revelation of himself in some other manner. Jesus explains this in verse 9, and the wording of his statement communicates some disappointment that Philip is not satisfied with what he has seen of Jesus. Jesus indicates that Philip has been with him long enough to understand this, again asserting that those who have seen him have seen the Father (cf. 12:45). Having asked Philip how he can make such a request (14:9), Jesus asks him if he does not believe what he has been taught (v. 10).

Jesus had said in 10:38 that the works he performed granted people the ability to know and understand that the Father is in him and that he is in the Father. The fact that the Father is in the Son and vice versa is a profound, mysterious, unique reality. Jesus can speak this way because, as 1:1 states, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus and the Father share one divine essence, one divine nature. They are both God. And yet Jesus is not the Father, nor is the Father Jesus. They are distinct persons. That they are in one another seems to speak to how their shared nature and knowledge, programs and purposes result in constant communion, ongoing intimacy, unfaltering fellowship.

Because of the way that each is in the other—Father in Son and Son in Father—each surrounds the other while also holding the other within himself. This has been described with the Greek term perichōrēsis (peri, around; chōrein, to make room for/contain), which was translated into Latin as circumincession (circum, around; incedere, to go, step, approach). The reality has been depicted in Christian art with the Borromean rings (three interlinked circles), the Scutum Fidei (a triangular diagram demonstrating that each member of the Trinity is God but is not to be confused with the other two members), the valknut (three interlocked triangles), and the triskelion (three interlocked spirals).

As a result of this relationship, Jesus explains, the Father is doing his work in the words that Jesus speaks (14:10). By means of the words Jesus speaks, the Father works, just as he spoke the world into existence through the Word (1:3).

Jesus commands his disciples in 14:11 to believe that he is in the Father and that the Father is in him. Christ commands his followers to believe what we now refer to as the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all God, but each is not the other. If the disciples find this hard to understand or believe, Jesus goes on to say that they should believe on account of the works he does. Jesus hereby offers help to those who would understand, instructing them to consider the way that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all do what only God can do. In John’s Gospel, Father, Son, and Spirit all give life (3:6, 8; 5:21–26; 6:33, 63; 17:3), proclaim the future (1:33; 13:19; 16:13), and indwell believers (14:17, 20–23).¹

14:12–14 The Disciples Represent Jesus. Christian theologians have understood the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to be the origin of human community. God created us as persons who are able to interact with one another because of the way that Father, Son, and Spirit have always existed in communion with one another. John’s Gospel has much to say on these points. We have seen Jesus speak of the way that his relationship with the disciples parallels his relationship with the Father in 13:20 and 23, and he does so again in 14:12–13.

Jesus has just said that the Father who dwells in him does his works through the words Jesus speaks (v. 10). Now Jesus says that those who believe in him will do the works that he does (v. 12). Belief in Christ is not something that Jesus speaks of as merely cerebral. Jesus says that those who believe in him will do what he does. Believing in Jesus means becoming like Jesus. If someone is not becoming like Jesus, the implication is that they do not believe in him.

Jesus says that the Father does his works through the words Jesus spoke (v. 10). This indicates that the primary contextual meaning of the works Jesus does in verse 12 is also words that will be spoken. The works of Jesus in view would seem to be accomplished by the true words about Jesus that the disciples will speak. This helps us to understand how Jesus can go on to say at the end of verse 12 that those who believe in him will do greater works because he is going to the Father. Jesus will go to the Father by dying on the cross. The works his disciples will do will be greater for the same reason that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11): because Christ will have accomplished the long-anticipated salvation on the cross. Because Jesus goes to the Father, those who believe in Jesus will benefit from the full and final revelation of God’s climactic and triumphant salvation and the outpouring of his Spirit (cf. John 14:15–31).

That the words of the disciples are in view in verse 12 guides our understanding of verses 13–14, where Jesus says he will do whatever his disciples ask in his name. The two controlling modifiers of what Jesus promises are (1) that the requests be in the name of Jesus and (2) that they result in the Father’s being glorified in the Son. A request in the name of Jesus is a request that is in keeping with the character and mission of Jesus. The Gospels tell us what Jesus sets out to accomplish: that the Father’s name would be hallowed. Jesus does not promise to grant requests that are out of step with his character and his purposes—chiefly, magnifying the glory of the Father.