John 14:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Peter said the words, "where are You going?" at the prompting of great love, but Thomas spoke from fear.

"Lord, we do not know where You are going." We do not know the place, he says, and how can we know the way that leads there?

And see with what timidity he speaks. He did not say, "show us that place," but, "we do not know where You are going."

All had long wished to know this. Indeed, if the Jews, hearing these words, were perplexed, though they wished to be rid of Christ, how much more did those wish to learn who never wanted to be separated from Him?

Therefore, although they were afraid to ask Him, they nevertheless ask, compelled by great love and anxiety.

The Lord sees that they have in mind to ask and learn where He is going. Therefore He gives them an occasion to ask about this. “You know,” He says, “where I am going, and you know the way.” Thus He brings them to the question. Therefore Thomas says: “Lord, we do not know where You are going; and how can we know the way?” Thomas says this out of great fear, not from a desire to follow the Lord, as Peter did.

Christ did not yet wish to tell His disciples plainly that He would ascend into heaven and depart to the Father. He was still indicating this enigmatically and through many hints. The disciple put a question to Him. It was Thomas, and, as though involuntarily compelled to speak, he added a certain reflection. It was a question about where He would depart, and to what place the path of His departure was directed. “We do not know,” he said, “where You are going,” and then: “How could we know the way?”

The Lord said that they knew both things, while Thomas says that he knows neither: neither the place where He is going, nor the way by which He is going. But he does not know that what he says is false. For they knew both things, yet did not recognize that they knew them. Let Him prove that they already know what they still consider unknown to themselves.

But since the apostles were always far from the thought of the Messiah’s death, and thought rather of some miraculous taking away from the earth than of what the Lord meant, Thomas, more than the others accustomed to cling to the evident, could not refrain from saying: No, Lord, we do not know where You are going; therefore how can we know the way to You?

After all Jesus Christ's explanations concerning His departure to the eternal mansions of the Father, and after the indications in the mystery of the Eucharist, by word and action in its institution, of the sufferings that had to precede His glorification,

the disciples ought to have known where Jesus Christ was going, and the path to His eternal glory, the path of sufferings and death (Phil 2:9; cf. 2:7-8).

But the disciples continue to remain in their former ideas about the Messiah and His Kingdom.

Then one of them, Thomas, says that if they, the Apostles, do not know where Christ is going, then still less can they know the way there.

Thomas was thinking of some place on earth, where Jesus wished to go and where the disciples could follow Him.

It would seem that the Apostles should have understood that Jesus Christ was going to His Father, that is, to God. They should also have understood that the path of this ascent to God was the path of His sufferings, death, and Resurrection. But they were still so clouded by false Jewish notions about the Kingdom of the Messiah that they could not at all grasp what Christ was saying. And so one of them, Thomas, said to Him: “Lord, we do not know where You are going; and how can we know the way?”

Thomas probably had in mind that the same path lay before them also. The Lord indicates to Thomas that for them, and for all who believe in Him, He Himself is the way.

Finally, the thought of the Lord's way into the house of His Father was still obscured for the disciples by their thought of the earthly kingdom of the Messiah.

They still had not transferred their messianic expectations from the world to God, from earth to heaven (cf. Acts 1:6). They were perplexed about the Lord's departure from them and the path of His going.

Thomas, who was distinguished by a certain exactingness of mind (cf. Jn 20:25), sharply expressed this perplexity in the words: "We do not know where You are going; and how can we know the way?"

Love for truth is a gift of the Creator. Curiosity becomes pitiable when it chases after illusory objects.

Among the Savior's disciples there was one who did not like to believe easily, but loved to reflect on the truth.

The Savior not only did not condemn Thomas, but Himself called the disciples to reflection and questions about the truth.

When He said to the disciples, "You know where I go, and you know the way by which I go," He spoke of their knowledge in order to call them to reflect and ask about important matters.

Thomas understood the intention of his Lord. Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going; and how can we know the way?"

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” the Lord said (Jn 20:29) to this same Thomas, whose searching mind always wished to understand the higher and heavenly things in earthly images. Thomas represents a certain side of the human spirit, present in every person. It disappears like a shadow only before the illumination of the sun, that is, when one’s reason is fully submitted to faith in the words of God. In answering Thomas, the Lord speaks to all who thirst for truth, though at times they are perplexed.