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Shortly before he was arrested and crucified, Jesus told his disciples “you know the way to where I am going” (John 14:4). Where he was going was heaven, to be with the Father. The way there was through the cross he was about to suffer.

But Thomas, bewildered and confused, responded “Lord, we do not [even] know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14:5) To which Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This answer is startling—Jesus has already told his disciples there is a “way” which he must go to the Father (an obvious reference to the coming cross), but now he says that this “way” is himself.
It seems to me this is Jesus’ way of saying that there’s more to his cross than just the wood and the nails and the fact that he died. There is something about Jesus himself in the way he went to the cross that we need to pay close attention to.

Jesus’ death was not a tragedy that could have been avoided, something that just “happened” to him. No, it was a deliberate choice, a choice to sacrifice himself for the good of others, a deliberate decision to lay aside his greatness and stoop low, as low as anyone has, to rescue a sinful humanity. It was this particular aspect of his death, this willingness to humble himself out of love for other people, that Jesus seems to refer to when he says “I am the way.” It is as if Jesus was saying “Look at me Thomas. Watch what I am about to do. Learn from my humble submission to the Father and my sacrificial love for you, and then make my example the pattern for all of your life.” Indeed, he had just told them “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)

But after an unjust arrest, a brutal execution, and three days of loneliness as Jesus’ body lay lifeless in a tomb, Thomas seems to have lost all hope. How could this be the “way” to the Father? When the disciples come to him claiming that Jesus was alive, he would not hear it. “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25)

Eight days later, Thomas found himself face-to-face with the man he thought he would never see again. “Put your finger here,” Jesus said, “and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27 ) In that moment Thomas suddenly realized that Jesus’ dying example was not a failure, but a pathway to victory, to which he exclaimed “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)

One of my favorite hymns, My Lord, My Truth, My Way, begins with a line that is really a combination of Jesus’ words to Thomas before his death (“I am the way, the truth, and the life”) and Thomas’ words to Jesus’ after his resurrection (“My Lord and my God!”). It is the song of a Thomas-like disciple who has seen the risen Lord and longs to follow in his steps. Here are three verses:

My Lord, my Truth, my Way,
My sure, unerring light,
On Thee my feeble steps I stay,
Which Thou wilt guide aright.

My Wisdom and my Guide,
My Counsellor Thou art;
O never let me leave Thy side,
Or from Thy paths depart!

Teach me the happy art
In all things to depend
On Thee; O never, Lord, depart,
But love me to the end!

You can find the entire hymn at CyberHymnal.