The whole thing was coming "down to the wire," as they say in horse-racing circles. These men who had followed Jesus, betting, so to speak, everything they had and were on Him, now began to see some hazards and horrors for which, quite frankly, they had not bargained.

They had followed in the confidence that here and now, in flesh and blood, Jesus was to be the bringer of a new Kingdom, something to be touched and felt and in which they could hold positions of prominence and influence, some sitting on His right hand and some on the left. So it may be safely said that from the very beginning we who follow Christ have suffered from what has come to be called "triumphalism," earthly grandeur, blowing trumpets, with pomp and circumstance as the mission and destiny of the church.

Of late, their leader had been talking strange talk about His approaching end. Slow-witted though the disciples were, they were beginning to see for themselves that things were not going well for either their master or their cause. Disquieting rumors were coming to their ears of sinister and ominous plots against Him being planned by the authorities.

Jesus, Himself, seemed to feel from the way He talked to them that His death was only an arms-length away now. There seemed to be a crack in their own solidarity, for Judas had been acting strangely of late. Simon Peter, so bold and forward, had been told that his loyalty was in question once the storm would break.

Bewilderment and consternation sat starkly on their faces. Looking at them, Christ shows the unbelievable patience of God Himself. It was like a teacher drilling His students once again, and yet not irritably, over lessons which the pupils should know by heart.

And so He starts that 14th chapter, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Remember how I have taught you and led you. You believe in God, believe also in me. Over at Father's house there are many rooms and I must go away. I will come back. I've told you so many times and in so many ways. You know where I go and you know the way. We have gone over it so many times."

From Best Sermons 2, (c) 1989 by Harper & Row Publishers. Used by permission. Available at local book stores or call (800) 638-3030.

Thomas could not take it any longer. This loyal man felt comfortable only with the rock of solid fact beneath his feet. Thomas cried out, "Lord we know not whither thou goeth, and how can we know the way?" Then the words which form the text: "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me."

"I am the way." Jesus is the way out. We are all captives and slaves. There is something wrong with our humanity. We feel a disquiet, a deep and true dis-ease.

We are not satisfied with what we are; we sense that we are born for some spacious destiny from which we feel somehow barred. We feel trapped and flail about in our own refined way, longing to be free.

Most recently we have thought that our way out is by acquisition, so greed has become our new religion, prettified to be sure by nice sounding political phrases uttered with a practiced unctuousness. This self-centeredness has been baptized and sanctified by the "health and wealth" TV evangelists in their worship of and service to mammon. All of this results in the greater transgression of becoming calloused to the needs of those most vulnerable in the society: the young, the old, the disabled, the disadvantaged.