Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

If you are planning a trip, whether it is to a place you have never been, or someplace you would like to revisit, most likely you will get a map and plan your course.  Here, Thomas asks Jesus how they can know the way, and Jesus basically tells him, ” I am the road map”!

Remember, as we are going through our days, we have the road map to heaven, to eternal life with our Loving God.  Let’s not forget to share Him with others.

“Now that I, yourLord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know theses things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus’ last act on earth before His time of suffering began was to show His disciples that they must be servants.  The Author of Life, the Great Lord of Glory, got on His   hands and knees and washed the feet of those He had created.  His example is clear: as He served others, so must we serve also.

Whoever serves me must  follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.

This is very clear.  If we serve the Lord, we must follow in His ways.  Those who do not know the Lord, or do not follow Him, will not understand the things we do or the choices we make.  Following Christ, serving Him,  means being in the world, and it also means being separate from the ways of the world.

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”  Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”  Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”

vs. 33, etc. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.  “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.  

Jesus wept.

We are a blessed people indeed, the believers in Christ.  Our God, Our Saviour knows human suffering on its deepesrt level.  Jesus has given Martha all His assurances: vs. 23, your brother will rise again; vs. 25, I am the Resurrection and the life, and she responds with hope.  She know the promises, but how is she to handle the pain of separation now?  How does she get through the next ten minutes.  He sees that even with hope, there is still pain.  Jesus is moved, deeply moved, to tears, to compassion.

He is our Saviour.  Well acquainted with our suffering.  We can trust Him in our suffering.

The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to is voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on  ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.

When I was young, I lived in an area chosen by Basque sheepherders as the perfect place to raise sheep. My friends’ parents were sheepherders. I spent many hours up in the hills with these men and their flocks. I understand how the sheep know the Shepherd’s voice.  He is with them all the time: speaking, correcting, often living among them in small trailers.

As we spend time in God’s Word daily , we know not only His voice, but His heart, His character, His will and His ways.  Like sheep, we must surrender to the Sheperd’s will in order to be safe, but because we know Him, surrender is not to be feared, but to be embraced in rest and peace.

vs. 13: They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.  vs. 15: Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.  “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”   vs. 18: The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents.  vs. 20, 21: “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, ” and we know he was born blind.  But  how he can see now, or who opened is eyes, we don’t know. 

The evidence was there.  The witnesses were there, parents and son.  Still, the Pharisees chose to say it did not happen.  Clearly, the man was healed, but they could not acknowledge anything beyond their legalistic ideals.  How far from the love and knowledge of God they had strayed.

It happens today.  Lives are changed.  Sinners, who love sin and its surrounding darkness, come into the light of salvation and become children of God.  The evidence is there.  The witnesses are many to the miraculous saving grace of God, yet there are those who will not believe.  That is between them and God.  We keep on, bringing the good news, sharing our testimonies, presenting the evidence for the truth of God.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

I looked up the word “light” in the Greek.  It means a luminous force emanating from certain bodies which allow the eye to distinguish form and color.

Until Christ comes into a person’s life, that person is incapable of receiving spiritual light because he has no receptor.  In the new birth through salvation, we are given the capacity to receive this light.  So, in  John 8:12, Jesus is saying He is the Illuminator of men.  Life equals life in the absolute sense.  Life as God has it.  That which the Father has in Himself, and which is in the Incarnate Son.  Also, part of the explanation of this word includes the fact that sin involved the forfeiting of this God-life.

So, vs. 12 with the expanded definition reads like this: Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but I will be his Illuminator, and will give him as his possession, that which was forfeited by the sin of man, life as God possesses it.