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March 18, 2007
How Necessary is Jesus?
Isaiah 55: 1-11/John 14: 1-11
March 18th, 2007
How Necessary is Jesus?
Isaiah 55: 1-11/John 14: 1-11
March 18th, 2007
The words of Isaiah that we listened to a few moments ago come to mind nearly every time I listen to the Bible being read. “My word that goes forth from my mouth shall not return to me empty.” How unlike our words that often we hope will get lost in the mist because we cannot take them back. How often in our controversies we claim God’s Word as the foundation for our ideas but the ideas are often painfully just our own. Thankfully only God’s word will not return to Him empty.
I love those gracious words of God at the start of Isaiah 55: “Everyone who thirst, come to the waters?” Then in the next chapter, “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord, say, ‘The Lord will separate me from his people . . . for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” All people? Do I understand this Divine message of universal welcome right?
Jesus quoted those words of the prophet Isaiah as He cleansed the Temple of the moneychangers who carved an unfair monopoly in the market place of sacrificial animals. The Lord’s House is not a place for commercial profit but a place of prayer for all people.
But the universal welcome suggested in Isaiah 55 and 56 seems jeopardized in the Gospel lesson we just read. One sentence in John 14 seems to stand out nowadays. “I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life; no one comes to the Father except by me.”
We read this today in a competitive religious climate as a gauntlet thrown down in the face of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and all others who claim a different way to God. That one sentence sounds like a challenge. When it is announced as a competitive challenge it is anything but appealing. It sounds like an affront. It says to non-Christians, you’re all wrong; only our Jesus is the way to God.
It matters not only what we say but also how we say it. In a few moments I want to think of what Jesus said in the context in which he spoke it. But here I want to recognize that some understandable reason stands behind tossing down these words of Jesus as a gauntlet, a glove of challenge to a religious duel for supremacy in a pluralistic age.
First, in our global village those who believe in Jesus don’t have to cross the ocean to mix everyday with people who believe in Mohammed or Vishnu or Buddha, or only in the Law of Moses. We never expected freedom of religion to come to this in America. Those who hammered out the “establishment clause” of our Bill of Rights had in mind keeping away from our shores anything like the authority of the Church of England in their former motherland. Now as the American Episcopal Church languishes there is little risk of that. Instead, just across the street some Christians in our country can see a mosque or a Hindu temple. Even the presence of Synagogues gets under the skin of some “good Christian Americans.”
Christians have responded to this plurality of religions in various ways, but the two extremes are pluralism and defensive exclusivism. Any word that ends with the three letters ISM labels an ideology.
Lesslie Newbigen, who was a missionary in India for forty years before returning to England, defined pluralism as an ideology where there is “no officially approved pattern of belief or conduct.” He wrote this description of pluralism in dismay in 1989.
The Gospel that sounded so clearly in India in distinction from Hinduism and Islam he found swallowed up in Great Britain. He found that England, indeed the Western world had the vocabulary of Christianity because of long exposure to the Gospel, but the specifics of the Gospel of Jesus Christ had been squashed into a religious mush. The ideology of this religious mush was Pluralism. Pluralism says you’ve got your truth and I’ve got mine, and we’re both right because truth is only what a person thinks is true.
On the other side from pluralism is exclusivism that says “I’m all right and you’re all wrong.” At its worst this exclusivism has led to suicide bombings in the Muslim world. It has led to the demonstrations by some Christians that we used to see on the Purdue campus. They held up these placards that pronounced God’s damnation of all and sundry that did not agree with them in matters of faith—even other Christians.
When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by me,” did He intend that this should be the mantra of belligerent Christians in a pluralistic society? I don’t think so. But neither do I think we do well to water down what our Lord teaches here. Let’s look more closely at what Jesus said and the context in which He said it. What did Jesus mean when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life?”
First, we can’t help but notice that in this section of the Gospel of John Jesus speaks often of the Father. Our Lord referred to God as the Father repeatedly. Remember Jesus was a Jew, a descendant of the ancient Israelites. It was a bold thing back when Moses was preparing Israel for the exodus from bondage in Egypt to say to the King of Egypt that God called Israel “my son,” actually, “my first-born son.” To call Israel first, my son (bni), and then my first born (bkori) offered not only to Israel a privileged relationship to God, but it also opened to others the privilege of a “second-born” or “third-born” relationship with God. In Isaiah 19 we see this welcome extended even to Egypt and Assyria.
It was this broader compass of God’s love that Isaiah and others of Israel’s prophets took up and emphasized. Indeed, the Feast of Tabernacles that all Israelites were to celebrate each year was a feast of ingathering of all peoples into God’s great harvest.
But the point I want to make here is that when Jesus referred to God as “the Father” repeatedly in John’s Gospel our Lord made personal what Moses had made a national relationship with God. Moses taught that Israel was God’s first-born Son. Jesus, the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,”taught that individually we may call God, “Father.” He taught us to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” It is no whimsical thing to call God, “Father.” So first, remember how wonderful to call God Father in the first place.
Second, when Jesus told His disciples, “I am the way to the Father and no one comes but by me,” He did not say this in a competitive, pluralistic religious environment but as comfort that as He had been the way to the Father while He was with His disciples He would continue to be the way to the Father when He was no longer with them. He went so far as to say, “The one who has seen me HAS SEEN the Father.” Jesus said this to His disciples not to those who had conflicting beliefs about ultimate things.
One of the unique things about Judaism in the ancient world was that though the Jews were an ethnic unit, a religion of people with family ties to their origins, they actively invited non-Jews to come to worship the God of Israel. They learned this from their prophets. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” we read in the prophet Isaiah.
The Book of Acts refers to “God-fearers.” God-fearers were non-Jews who learned of the God the Jews worshipped and were drawn to worship Him while not actually becoming Jews. In the Mishna, the heart of the Jewish oral law, we read that one duty of a devout Jew is to “raise up many disciples,” among three duties. To extend the welcome of God to those who were not born into the family of Israel was a gracious word.
Now as Jesus drew near to the end of His time with His disciples they were deeply worried. They saw how close He was to the Father in heaven. They trusted that He was going to introduce the reign of the heavenly Father on earth—the Kingdom of God. He had taught them to address God, “Our Father.” But then He told them He was going away. Furthermore, alarmingly He told them, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now.” They knew this meant His enemies were going to do to Him as He predicted, kill him. Thus they feared their access to God as Father would be gone.
Peter impulsively responded with his infamous broken promise, “I will lay down my life for you.” And Jesus laid bare the extent of his weakness: “You will have denied me three times before the roosters announce the coming of morning.”
Jesus’ disciples badly needed His comfort. So in the verses that surround our passage this morning the Lord emphasized the Father, and then tells them in no uncertain words, “I am [still] the way, [still] the truth, and [still] the life. No one [will] come to the Father except by me.”
It is because Jesus said this that we do well to tell other people about Jesus. But so much more than words is involved in coming through Jesus to the Father. Coming to the Father by Jesus is not a matter of saying certain words. We must remember that Jesus warned, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. This remark comes with others that give us pause. “The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” I look at the masses that stream to churches in our land and wonder which gate they go through. Jesus seems to tell us that calling God “Father” requires living a family relationship to this Father. Earnestly doing the will of God is part of believing in Him. Obedience to the Lord Jesus is part and parcel of trusting Him as Savior.
Remove intending to try doing the will of God from saying “I believe” and I wonder if we see what makes up streaming through the broad gate that does not lead to life. This is not a popular word of caution today. But it is a caution I often personally feel in my heart.
Perhaps I want to say that if we truly believe that Jesus is the necessary way to the Father, the only way to heaven, it is much more than a matter of saying a password. A password may get you into your email account, but it won’t get you into heaven. If you and I have come to the Father through Jesus Christ it will be evident that we are trying to follow Jesus.
And if we are trying to follow Jesus two things will result: First, we’ll recognize that following Jesus is no automatic reflex for any of us. It is as hard as John Bunyan described in his Pilgrim’s Progress to follow the Jesus way. It is humbling to try to live like a Christian.
Second, if we are trying hard to follow the Jesus way it will strip us of our belligerence. We never see Jesus toe-to-toe with a Samaritan or a pagan Roman saying, “I’m better than you are.” What Jesus was spoke so eloquently what He was. All kinds of people were drawn to Him. If you believe in Jesus; if you and I believe He is the way, the truth and the life to the point that following Him is the great passion of our lives, people will be drawn to us as they were to Him. We will not need to claim that word of Jesus as a battle cry in a warring market-place of religions. I have been reminded that I often use the word “winsome.” I learned this from my late beloved teacher, Bruce Metzger in his prayers before class. He reminded us that the only reason for faithful scholarship as pastors was to help make the Gospel winsome—so people would be drawn to Jesus.
There was a song I remember hearing many years ago. It put into Jesus’ mouth thought provoking remarks: “You call me the way, but walk me not. You call me the life but live me not. You call me the truth but believe me not. If I condemn you, blame me not.” We believe we are saved by grace that is greater than our sin, but should we for that reason take lightly Jesus’ words when we say we believe in Him?
With all my heart I believe that Jesus is the way to the Father. Else I would not be a Christian. I’d be a Unitarian if I did not think Jesus was the only way to the Father. With all my heart I also believe that if I say I believe in Him, it is my task in life to try with all I’ve got to follow Him. And if it is this way for us all, what will be our tone of voice when we quote Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me?” Will it seem like a challenge to us to walk His way to the Father so that the way of Jesus has great appeal? Or will it seem like an affront to all who have not yet trusted in Jesus?
Remember the promise of Scripture, “Every knee will bow, in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Let’s let God work out how this will happen.
Remember this comes after Paul urges us, “Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus: He emptied Himself. He took the form of a servant.” You who believe in Jesus, think this way of yourself. How different does it seem to come to the Father through this Jesus than through a Jesus you defend with your fists clenched as the only way to the Father.
Let us pray: Grant to us, O Lord, to so trust in Your Son, Jesus that we follow Him in a way that makes appealing His access to You. Amen.
Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at March 18, 2007 01:08 PM