UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

John 14:1–31 

Focus verse: ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”’ (John 14:6,7) 

Old Testament lens: ‘Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them’ (Exodus 25:8) 

The true centre of worship is not a place like a temple or church building. Instead, it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. (1) Jesus is not only the way to God, but also the very place where God’s presence now dwells. This echoes what John said in the first chapter of his Gospel: ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). The word ‘dwelt’ actually points back to the tabernacle in the Old Testament, the tent where God’s glory was present among His people during their journey through the wilderness (see Exodus 25:8–9). John is showing us that Jesus is now the new ‘tabernacle’ or temple, the visible, living presence of God on earth. 

Richard Hays (1) also draws connections to Ezekiel’s prophecy of God making His dwelling place among His people forever (Ezekiel 37:26– 27). In short, Jesus doesn’t just show us the way to God, He is the place where God meets us (2). Tom Wright focuses on how controversial Jesus’ words in John 14:6 have become in modern times … that Jesus is the only way to the Father.(3) People see it as narrow-minded or arrogant. But Wright says that His words about being ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ must be understood through His humility and self-giving love. 

Wright also points out that Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, the ‘Helper’ or ‘Comforter’, to His disciples. After Jesus returns to the Father, the Spirit will live in believers, giving them strength, guidance, and peace, especially when life is hard. The Spirit helps us understand Jesus’ teachings, remember His words, and even continue His works. The Holy Spirit enables the Church to understand that Jesus came to fulfil all of God’s promises to Israel and to be the very presence of God among His people. 

The Early Church Fathers who inspired the Celtic Church 

John Chrysostom (c349–407), Archbishop of Constantinople 

‘Find the door of your heart, and you will discover it is the door of the Kingdom of God.’(4) 

John Chrysostom was a strong advocate of personal holiness, ascetic discipline, emphasising fasting and self-denial, inner purity and humility, simplicity of life, repentance and confession. 

How does the Holy Spirit live in believers, as described in John 14? For Chrysostom, he saw tears as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart, softening the soul and restoring communion with God. They mark the transition from hardness to tenderness, from sin to reconciliation. Like St Ephrem the Syrian, he frequently compares tears of compunction to a second baptism, available to all after baptism for the cleansing of post-baptismal sins. He said, ‘Do you have sin? Enter the Church and wash your sin away. As often as you fall down in the marketplace, you wash. Likewise, as often as you sin, repent; for repentance is a medicine that destroys sin. It is a baptism without trouble and without cost, since it depends not on time but on disposition, and is perfected not by water but by tears.’ 

Here Chrysostom calls tears the water of repentance, showing that God provides continual healing for the penitent soul. In Chrysostom’s thought, tears a re not just an expression of sorrow, they are themselves a form of wordless prayer. ‘The tears which come from compunction are a voice stronger than a trumpet, crying aloud and making the heart heard before God.’ He interprets Hannah’s silent prayer (1 Samuel 1) as an image of the soul praying with tears, teaching that God hears such prayers more readily than eloquent speech. Thus tears become the language of love, a mystical communication between the repentant and the merciful Lord. 

For St John Chrysostom, the tears of compunction are not a sign of despair but of divine visitation, the heart’s renewal through the Spirit. They express repentance, healing, and love, and they are among the greatest treasures of the Christian life.

There are a number of Celtic saints for whom John 14 would likely have held particular importance, either because of their spiritual journeys, their mystical relationship with the Holy Spirit, or their life of peace and pilgrimage following ‘the Way’ of Christ. For St Columba, founder of Iona (one of the most important spiritual centres in Celtic Christianity), John 14 mattered to him because his whole life was a journey led by the Spirit. He followed Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

John 14 mattered to St Brigid of Kildare as well. She led a monastic community of men and women; her leadership reflects the Spirit’s gifts at work. She would have deeply identified with the Spirit as the indwelling presence and teacher (John 14:26). 

St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (c634–687) was a mystic of the wild and exemplified a life lived in the indwelling Spirit. His connection with creation and the Spirit made the idea of the Spirit dwelling in all things deeply personal and real. Similarly, St Kevin of Glendalough lived in the wilderness of Glendalough, surrounded by birds and beasts. The Spirit as comforter and teacher would have been his only companion in long seasons of solitude. Jesus as ‘the Life’ would have been visible in every part of his natural surroundings. 

St Aidan of Lindisfarne, an Irish monk who brought the Gospel to Northumbria, walked from village to village, teaching by example and conversation, rather than preaching from on high. He literally walked ‘the Way’ of Christ, bringing truth and life to a people in darkness. 

REVIVAL

The Father’s love revealed through Jesus compels us. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 it says, ‘For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.’ Will that love compel you and me to pray for revival in the British Isles? Are you and I willing to pay the price in fasting prayer and self-denial that the orthodox Fathers paid, to receive the gift of tears, as described by St Ephrem the Syrian and St John Chrysostom, so that we can pray for revival?

PRAYER

One way, Jesus, one way, Jesus, He is the Truth, the Life and the Way. No-one comes to the Father, but through Him every day. One way, Jesus, One way, Jesus, Our hope, our peace, our guide. He is the living presence forever by our side. Your Spirit comes to comfort, teach and guide my soul. Lord, unblock the well of tears, soften my heart, that I might pray with Your heart for the British Isles at such a time as this. We are in desperate need of awakening. Pour out Your Spirit on our land afresh today! 

One Way, Jesus. ( CLICK ON PICTURE BELOW TO LISTEN TO SONG)

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(1) Hays, R. Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels, Baylor University Press, (2017), 31

(2) Hays, R. Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels, Baylor University Press, (2017), 31

(3) Wright, N.T. John for Everyone, Part 2, SPCK, (2002), 59.

(4) Ware, K. Philokalia ( Volume 13- mind and Heart) Faber and Faber (1983)