Is Jesus A Way or THE WAY? John 14:1-14

Transcription

1 1 Is Jesus A Way or THE WAY? John 14:1-14 [A sermon preached by the Rev. Stan Gockel at the Bellbrook Presbyterian Church on May 22, 2011] I When I was a young Christian back in my high school and college years, being a Christian meant witnessing to non-believers about Jesus. Such conversations usually meant marshalling verses of scripture to prove that Jesus is the only way to God. So my friends and I, in trying to persuade our non-christian friends to believe in Jesus, would come up with what someone has called clobber verses, verses designed to brow-beat a person into believing in Jesus. We would quote Peter in Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. We would quote Paul in 1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all. And inevitably we would get to the trump card, the one verse that in all our arguments with non-believers would break down their defenses and overcome their arguments, John 14:6 Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

2 2 II John 14:6 is perhaps the most misunderstood and misused of all the so-called clobber verses. It is seen on bumper stickers and church sign boards and even at sporting events. After quoting that verse, what else is there to say? How could any non-christian argue against I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me? And yet I think there is something fundamentally wrong with this way of using John 14:6. For one thing, it totally ignores the context in which we find this verse. Remember, this is the moment when Jesus and his disciples have gathered in the upper room. They have shared the last supper, he has washed their feet, and he has given a new command love one another as I have loved you by this shall all people know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Then we have what has been called the Upper Room Discourse John 14, 15, and 16 three chapters where Jesus gives his followers final instructions to prepare them for life after his death and resurrection. Jesus begins with our lesson this morning, speaking in a most intimate way to the ultimate questions we all ask what about death and what will happen next? Jesus addressed his followers then as he addresses us now with a word of assurance: Do not let your hearts be troubled.

3 3 The reason we should not let our hearts be troubled is NOT because Jesus is going to magically make all the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad circumstances of our lives go away. Jesus is still going to be arrested, tortured and executed. And as we read in our first lesson from Acts, Stephen and countless others, including most of those in the room with Jesus, will suffer martyrdom for their faith in him. When Jesus says, Let not your hearts be troubled, it means that hardship, pain, persecution, and suffering are not the end of the story. Jesus addresses the very human, natural fears and questions the disciples have, and we recognize that these are our questions too. What happens when we die? Where will we go? Will we be with our loved ones? Jesus goes on to paint a beautiful word picture of the life to come: my Father's house; many rooms; a place prepared; a trusted guide; not being left alone to find our own way; being with Jesus again. But as usual, the passage gives us our own spiritual work to do namely, to trust in and believe in Jesus. Y ou believe in God, he says, believe also in me. What powerful words of assurance for those who place their trust in Jesus. No wonder this passage, along with Psalm 23, is heard at most funerals and memorial services.

4 4 "None of us can escape the grey and dusty touch of death." But when death does touch our lives, when tragedy crosses our path, Jesus always has the last word. And when we make our final journey through the portal of death, Jesus promises there is a place prepared for us. In my Father s house there are many rooms (i.e. dwelling places) I go to prepare a place for you. No matter what pain, struggle and hardship we face in this life, there will always be a place for us with Jesus in the Father s house. III Then Jesus says, And you know the way to the place where I am going. Jesus statement here seems rather matter of fact, something like, "Of course, you do know the way to my Father s house, don t you?" But Thomas, ever the loyal skeptic, interrupts Jesus to ask, Lord, we don t know where you are going how can we know the way? Thomas heart is troubled. He is worried and concerned about all this talk of Jesus going away. So he asks that fateful question, How can we know the way? Thomas question is also our question: How can we know the way to God when death threatens us and sorrow overwhelms us? Jesus responds with this most famous verse: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me

5 5 And here is the second way we have misunderstood and misused this verse as a clobber text. Inevitably we leave out two key words: to him. Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus statement about being the way, the truth, and the life is a response to a question by one of his followers. And Jesus answer is directed to followers and is about followers. Misunderstanding this verse has caused it to be misused to try to coerce nonbelievers. It has also been used to justify persecution of Jews and other minority faiths. But remember that Jesus is responding to Thomas question. He is speaking to Thomas and the other disciples and by extension to each of us. Thomas question is not Jesus, are all non-christians going to hell? His question is not, what will happen to the so-called heathen who have never heard the name of Jesus? He isn t asking about the eternal fate of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and persons of other faiths or even of no faith. Thomas question is about what will happen to the disciples once Jesus is gone. Where will they find guidance? How will they be reminded of Jesus teachings? And what will happen when death comes to them, as it soon will come to Jesus.

6 6 Jesus says to Thomas and to us, I am the way, the truth and the life No one comes to the Father except through me. And, since Jesus has said that he will come and take us to himself, we can trust that he will not abandon us and leave us to find the way to eternal life on our own. IV The great German theologian Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton Theological Seminary. One student asked him, "Sir, don t you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity? Barth s answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. God has revealed himself in his Son." As a Christian I believe with every fiber of my being that God is revealed to us and to the world in God s Son, Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh. Jesus is our window to the divine he is our way, our truth, our life. That does not mean that there is not truth to be found in other religions. The World Encyclopedia of Religion identifies 10,000 distinct religions in the world. One hundred fifty have a million or more followers. The claim that Christianity holds sufficient truth for salvation does not mean that it has to hold that truth exclusively. Spiritual leaders like Gandhi (a Hindu) and Thich Nhat Hanh (a Buddhist) have come closer to the Jesus truth, the Jesus way, and the Jesus life than most of the Christians I know, including myself.

7 7 The great scholar of world religions Huston Smith says that God is defined by Jesus, not confined to Jesus. And C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity wrote, "Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him." I believe that we can affirm the validity of other religious traditions without abandoning our Christian faith. That is not to say that all religions are the same there are profound differences. And some religious expressions walk closer to the divine than others. There are dangerous and damaging forms of religion. But there is no reason why we who are Christians may not honor the Spirit of Jesus present and graceful as it is revealed in the lives and teachings of those who do not call themselves Christians. And there is no reason why we may not learn from them, for God shines God s divine light on all humanity. V So the question, friends, is not whether faithful Hindus, Muslims, and Jews are saved. There is too much wonder, beauty, and challenge involved with being a Christian to worry about anyone else s religion.

8 8 To use John 14:6 or any other verse the way I did with non-christian friends back in 1972 is no longer an effective way of reaching people for Christ (maybe it never was). I do believe Christians are called to be witnesses to the love and grace of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ but not in the way my friends and I did it when I was 18 years old. To pull verses like John 14:6 out of their original biblical and historical context and then use them to brow-beat some poor soul into the kingdom of God is not my idea of faithful Christian witness. We witness by how we live our lives, how we demonstrate God s love in word and deed. And if there is an opportunity to speak to someone about your journey of faith and how God has worked in your life, then do so with love, with sensitivity, and above all, with patient listening listening to the thoughts and ideas and feelings of the person you are speaking to. The questions we should all be asking ourselves today are: Am I living the Jesus truth? Am I living the Jesus way? Eugene Peterson put it well: Am I living the Jesus life? Only when we do the Jesus truth in the Jesus way do we get the Jesus life.

9 9 VI I close with these famous words of the poet W.H. Auden: Amen. He is the way. Follow Him through the land of unlikeness. You will see rare beasts and have unique adventures. He is the Truth. Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety. You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years. He is the Life. Love Him in the world of the flesh. And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy. Sources: W.H. Auden, Christmas Oratorio, Daniel Clendenin, Is Christianity A Sublime Bigotry? 10 Reflections on the Gospel and World Religions, retrieved from Carl Gregg, %E2%80%9Ca-progressive-christian-reading-of-john-146%E2%80%9D-for-sunday-may / Lowell Grisham, Let God Be God, sermon retrieved from David Ewart, Karl Barth story and C.S. Lewis quote retrieved from