Have you ever been having your daily devotions, and you read something in the Bible and it jumps out at you in a way it never did before?

That happened to me recently when I was reading John 14, our Bible reading for today (see above). In John 14:31, I came across an interesting verse which, when I read it, caused me to put my Bible down on my lap and think about it.

This chapter, as you know, follows the Upper Room and Last Supper events of chapter 13. Judas has left the scene. Satan’s got him now. The disciples are disquieted. Jesus says “Do not let your hearts be troubled …” and he keeps talking, in John’s version of events, and the last sentence of the chapter, perhaps as Jesus makes ready to visit Gethsemane, is “Rise, let us be on our way.”

Jesus would then go to Gethsemane and from there to a mock trial and from there to his crucifixion.

So when he says, “Rise, let us be on our way,” he knew the “way” they would be on would not be easy. In fact it would be very difficult, and all of the disciples would flee.

So what did Jesus mean when he said, “be on our way”? To what “way” has Jesus called us and called the church? Are we on that “way”? And if not, how do we get on it? How would we know?

Jesus called himself the “way” in this same conversation. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6). Christians were first described as “followers of the way.” “Rise, let us be on our way.” I like that this is a shared journey. Note that Jesus says “let us … be on our way.” Jesus goes with us on the way.