John 14:3-5 - Where are you going?

14:3

Then He tells them He will come back for us to take us to be with Him. There was a purpose in all that was about to happen, and that purpose was good and was good for us, because of what Jesus was doing.

“Come back” has been interpreted in various ways: (i) their seeing Him again after the resurrection; (ii) the sending of the Holy Spirit; (iii) the return of Jesus at the end of the age. Clearly all three of these are important and are related, but it is primarily the third option that fits best. The goal of God’s plans is that He will be our God and we will be His people, or as it says in Revelation, “now the dwelling of God is with men” (Rev 21:3). We will be with Jesus forever, and everything will be changed.

14:4,5

“You know the way to the place where I am going”. Clearly the disciples, especially Thomas, did not think they knew the way. In fact Thomas’s question was based on the fact that they didn’t know where Jesus was going, so how could they know the way? Now this was understandable, but even though they did not know where Jesus was going, they actually did know the way. We do not need to know where Jesus is going in order to follow Him. In fact the Bible has many examples of people following the Lord without knowing the details. Abraham was called by God to leave his land but was not told where he was going (Heb 11:8). When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him He did not tell them where He was leading them. We want to focus on the what and the where. It is actually more important to focus on the who.