The Way Through: A Meditation on John 14 for the 5th Sunday of Easter

Let not your heart be troubled:

 ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions:

if it were not so, I would have told you.

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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest;

and how can we know the way?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:

no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

 

In John 14, Jesus was offering consolation and teaching prior to His betrayal.  Soon Jesus would be whisked away by an armed mob, and natural questions would arise among His disciples about whether or not Jesus really was who He claimed to be.  Knowing the darkness that would descend upon them, He gave His disciples clear guidance about how to navigate the ups and downs of the world.  Where the world would create confusion, Jesus would be the Way.  Where the world would spew lies and deceptions, Jesus would be the Truth.  Where the world would offer up only death and destruction, Jesus would be the Life.  And where the world would invent a myriad of ways for people to work in vain for God’s favor or present themselves as their own impotent gods, Jesus would remain the only means by which fallen men could be reconciled to the Father.  That Jesus would be leaving them through death, and after the resurrection by His ascension, was not to leave His disciples abandoned as orphans.  Rather, Jesus was going to prepare a place for all His people in the presence of His Father, and would be sending the Holy Spirit to abide with and empower His people for their lives of service in this world until He comes back at the End of Days.  No matter how crazy the world would become around them, the disciples were taught to follow Jesus.

 

To modern ears, this might sound ridiculous.  For all the complexity in the world still being unveiled, and for all the variations on evil that continue to surge forth in each new generation, one Man declaring Himself the solution to it all and for every person would be sheer folly—if that Man were not, in fact, fully God.  We have physicists today who think they have figured out the cosmos, and biologists who think they have figured out life; computer scientists who think they have created artificial intelligence, and politicians who think they have perfected the recipe for earthly utopia; gurus who think they can lead a select few to inner enlightenment, and philosophers who think that questions are better than answers.  We have rising terrors of Marxist dictators on the warpath, tyrants who murder their political adversaries, drug cartels that invade countries with deadly poisons, human traffickers who would bring forth a new age of slavery and oppression, and leaders who are traitors to their oaths of office and the people they were called to serve.  There are global economics with trans-national corporations and banks rising and falling, interwoven supply chains that bind adversaries and allies alike into tense relationships over critical resources, and there are academics and executives who promote themselves as luminaries while demonstrating themselves to be the worst synthesis of ignorance and greed.  Surely the solution to our problems is more than Jesus?

 

Yet for all the complexity of our times, the truth always remains radically simple.  There may be, and almost certainly is, a beautiful prism of variety in the Truth which reflects the grandeur of the world as it was fashioned, but that Truth is always united together in a harmony which cannot be broken.  Truth is fundamentally simple, because it forms a unity—just as God is one who cannot be divided, so is the reality which comes forth from Him.  It is only the lie which gives rise to complexity and incoherence, because it is divorced from the Truth and from reality.  Our generations are not confused today because the world is too complex, but because they no longer seek Truth which unites reality in the universe, preferring instead a cacophony of deceptions which pander to personal proclivities.  It is the Word of God which framed the cosmos, and the Word of God which continues to sustain its existence, so why should it be any surprise that the Word of God is the Way to navigate through it?  Jesus as the Incarnate Word spoke to His disciples and fulfilled the teaching of His Word to the Prophets whom He inspired before them.  His Word of Law, particularly summarized in the total love of God above all things and the love of neighbor as one’s self, eliminates all the confusion around the duty each person has in this life.  Where the Law teaches obligation, it also sends dark shadows of confusion to flight.  The world is not shades of grey ethics and moral quandaries, but one of light and love and truth.

 

But this Way and Truth of the Law are also complimented and fulfilled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way nothing else can do.  Only Jesus could give His life as a ransom for the world, so that by His Vicarious Atonement upon His Holy Cross, all people might be absolved of their sins before the obligations of His Law.  The universe stands by Law and Grace, and so does every soul which would be reunited with God.  This is the Life which no evil can take away, and which no confusion can muddle.  There is no wicked machination of men or demons which can do away with the work Jesus accomplished on our behalf, nor make void the Promise of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  The world of wicked ambitions and deceptions might try to hide Jesus from others, or obscure Him through false teachings, or declare Him irrelevant by the puny powers of their fallen minds, but Jesus still remains the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Apart from Him there is only the endless plurality of paths leading to destruction, where lies and deceit would steal even what little life people have in this world before guiding them into eternal perdition.  It is Jesus alone who seeks and saves us when we are lost, and Jesus alone who brings us through the maelstrom of this fallen world to be reconciled again with the Father.

 

And this reconciliation is the Way in which we approach God in Truth and receive eternal Life.  God cannot be divided, and neither can He be corrupted.  His perfect justice must be satisfied, and the penitent heart must be made whole again if it is to dwell in the presence of God.  It is true that the Kingdom of God holds many mansions in which the saints now live who went before us, and into which we shall one day press by the grace of Jesus Christ.  When Jesus went to prepare a place for us, He also went to prepare us for that place, taking all our sin upon Himself so that we might instead be given His righteousness.  It is not a perfection we have earned, but one we can only be given through the merit and work of the Son of God.  In Jesus there is no judgment, because Jesus has born all judgment so that we might be made free.  In Jesus there is no death for us, because He has conquered death to give us eternal life.  In Jesus there is no fear of being suddenly found unworthy, because He was laid bare for us.  There is no mystery or confusion left in the Promise of the Gospel, because where the forgiveness of sins flows out upon faithful and repentant hearts, there is grace and life and victory everlasting.

 

And so, dear Christian, when the world seems to be so complex as to be unnavigable, set your eyes once again on Jesus.  Hear Him speak to you the Law which guides you into virtuous action, and the Gospel which heals you of all your faults.  See Him ascend to the Cross for you, descend to the dead for you, and rise again for you, that you might live in Him forever.  Receive from Him the Holy Spirit to embolden and empower you in His service, that you might work the works He has ordained for you from before the foundation of the world.  And remember that He is coming back for you, that He will take you to be where He is, in the fellowship of God the Father forevermore.  Let the darkness clear away from your eyes and your mind, that you might trust now and always in the One who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for us all.  Soli Deo Gloria—Amen.