"I am the way the truth and the life" John 14:1-14

John 14:1-14  Gospel Reading for Sunday 22nd May 2011

This week's reading takes us into fascinating if not controversial territory. It contains one of the top-ranking verses in all of the Bible - John 14:6. The TOP VERSES web site in fact ranks it at number three. So while there are many dimensions to this text, I would like to centre this edition of Gospel Reflections on verse 6.

There is possibly no single verse in all of the Bible that has caused more debate, angst, animosity or religious conflict than this one ... especially with regard to the second part of the verse ... "No one comes to the Father except through me".

It is interesting to broadly analyse religion. Every religion thinks that it is the correct one and has all the answers. Christianity is one of many thousands of religions in the world ... so we have it right and the thousands of other religious groups have got it wrong? Let's face it we Christian people do firmly believe that JESUS IS THE WAY. The big question though, is Jesus the ONLY way? ... and if we are honest we would have to acknowledge that our belief system has hard-wired into it YES as the answer to that question.

I'm not about to mount a case to suggest that there are other ways to God, but what I would like to do is raise our awareness about this BIG question, after all we in Lutheran Schools need to be equipped to frame responses on this topic that arise from the enquiring minds of people in our community.

From my reading of the situation, I think we have to be careful about pulling out single verse texts out of context, to use as proof texts. The first thing to note about John 14:6 is that it is part of a long discourse that starts back in the previous chapter. Jesus has just washed the disciples feet, predicted his betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter and explained at length that He is about to leave and is going to a place where the disciples can't follow. The disciples cannot comprehend the confusing way that Jesus is speaking, so Thomas is the guinea pig and asks the question that was on everyone's mind but no-one was game to ask (verse 5) ... Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” So John 14:6  is Jesus' response to Thomas in answer to a question about where He (Jesus) is going!

We might say - well OK, isn't that also Jesus' response to the whole world both then and now? Well maybe, but note that it is NOT an answer to a question about "Do people that don't know you go to hell?" In any case it is important to at least read verses 6 and 7 together. Note also that John the gospel writer is continually about the task of convincing his readers about the divinity of Jesus. Rather than this being a statement about who gets to heaven and how they get there, is this perhaps a further example and attempt to let the people know that Jesus is God?

I think Eugene Peterson's translation in "The Message" highlights this point beautifully:

^6-7Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You've even seen him!"

Can I paraphrase this even further ...

"Come on you blokes ... get this into your heads ... I am actually God. I have chosen to show myself to you in this Jesus form. So let's get this straight ... if you know me, you actually know God ... or putting it the other way around, if you know God you actually get me in with the deal, because we are one and the same ... you cannot get God the Father without also getting me. No one gets to the Father apart from me."

 Hey look ... I don't want to down play for a moment the key message of Jesus who says "I am the way". All I am saying is ... we need to be careful about playing judge and jury by using single texts to answer questions that they were not designed to answer. In the end the critical point is that it is none of our business about who is saved ... it is up to God through Jesus to make that call.

Our business is to let people know that there is a way to guarantee that one of those rooms is reserved for us ... and that way is Jesus.

Nev

PS During my exploration of John 14:6 I came across these two articles which may be of interest.

A progressive Christian reading of John 14:6  Carl Gregg (Posted May 13 2011)

A reading of John 14:6 Brian McLaren 2006