Jesus had just been telling His disciples what had to take place. Peter's attempt to go with Jesus and to try to help showed that he, and likely the others did not completely understand why it had to be that way. Even if he had understood, would he have been able to just let Him go? These men had put their everything into the Lord's hands and followed Him. And now, what could they do to stop the One that they knew better than most to be unstoppable from carrying out His Father's Word? But, before leaving the fleeting safety of the room where they had eaten their last supper together before the time came for them to go, Jesus spoke words that began to provide comfort to His friends, even though they did not fully understand their meaning yet. Those words must have been like the sound of a single drop of water against the raging storm of doubt and fear in their hearts that night. But, soon their lives would show that the sound of that drop had echoed into a roar, as "deep calls to deep at the sound of thy waterfalls" (from Psalm 42:7). "Let not your heart be troubled," He said to them. "Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going" (John 14:1-4). When Jesus told them that they knew the way where He was going, we know that Thomas, and likely the others, did not understand. Thomas thought what I would have thought: "I missed something", "Am I the only one who doesn't know?" or "Did He tell them about it when I went to the restroom?" Jesus did not mean that they knew the road or the steps to get there. He was telling them that they knew the way because they knew Him. In that knowledge they could let their hearts not be troubled, and so can we.
The wildly popular religion of self-confidence is a mindset that people tell us all of our lives that they want to see in us and that many work to foster. But, Jesus says "Believe in God, believe also in Me." It is not a weighty sacrifice that He asks of us. Our self-confidence is a poison that insures swift disaster on those who live by it. We know better. We "know the way" where He is going.
"And His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life" (from Psalm 42:8).