John 14:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Thomas represents them all when he says, ‘Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?’ There is a lot of speculation about precisely what Thomas meant. Some people say, and this could be true, that what Thomas means is something like this: ‘You’re going, as though you are going to another region. You are just going to avoid the scribes and the Pharisees and then you will crop up somewhere else. Are you going to Galilee? Are You going a great distant journey to meet with dispersed Jews somewhere in a remote place? Until we know that we cannot know the way.’ Well, that may be what was in Thomas’ mind, but more likely he is saying something like this – he can’t get out of his head that Christ is going to be a political leader or Messiah: ‘Well, alright you have got to die, but how are You going to come back? In what way will you come back? How are you going to accomplish this great mission of reforming this land and making it glorious and prosperous? He is very confused. He cannot get out of his head this notion of a political Messiah. But a Messiah that is going to suffer and die and then go to heaven and then send his Spirit; well that isn’t in his mind.