For Sunday, May 18, 2014 – John 14:1-14
Jesus keeps on trying to clarify, and his friends keep on struggling for clarity. At least that much hasn’t changed. “Do not be troubled. Believe in God, believe in me. God’s house has many dwelling places. Wouldn’t I have told you if there wasn’t going to be room for everyone? And if I’m leaving to prepare a place for you, doesn’t it make sense that I will swing back by and get you there?” Got it. Sounds good. “Besides, you already know the way….” Um, what was that again, Lord? “We do not know where you are going,” Thomas says on behalf of us all. “How can we know the way?” And then the answer, oh my: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The interpretation of this one pivotal passage has meant the difference for many between loving or hating religion in general and Christianity in particular. Did Jesus really believe God is limited to only one way to reach humankind? Did he intend to exclude all who seek God on other paths? How this statement gets interpreted probably says more about the interpreter than about Jesus. Whether we see the way and the truth and the life of Jesus as generously inclusive, or narrowly bound, might indicate how free or limited is our own inner realm.
Throughout his public ministry, Jesus clearly shows that he did not come to establish philosophical theories about God, but to give us a way—a way to journey to God, and with God, in right here, right now practices of love. The way of Jesus is a giving-receiving-confronting-sacrificial way that does not seek its own security. It embraces, never shuns, the outsider. It is a way that calls us to lay down the limited vision of our private paths and to join others as a sign to the world of God’s great community of compassion. When I hear Jesus saying, “I am the way,” I hear, “This way I’ve been living is the way.” The truth and life of my life, rooted in mercy and an ever-expanding generosity, are the way to God. You will do even more than I have done as you continue in this way. I long for it to be fulfilled, and stand ready to give you whatever you need.
