The Way, the Truth, and the Life
(John 14:1-14)
Fr. Dan Tuton
April 20, 2008
Last week we talked about the cultural voices that compete with the voice of the Shepherd in our
time. We talked a little bit about pluralism, that belief that truth takes many different forms, and the
unacceptability of elevating any one version above any other. If there’s one verse of the New
Testament that seems to be a flash point for us in this pluralistic culture, it’s John 14:6. “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Upon hearing this, there are some who jump immediately to a position of indignation. “Do you mean
to say that all of those good people around the world who haven’t heard of Jesus, or who faithfully
follow other religious paths, really can’t get to God? And therefore they’re all damned? What
audacity to make a claim like this! It sounds like religious imperialism to me.” [How many here haven’
t heard words like these?]
This morning I’d like to spend a few minutes looking closely at this very question, and hopefully
suggesting some conclusions as to what’s reasonable, and what’s not so reasonable for us to
conclude from this passage. Let me first say that in our culture, the scriptures used to be
considered generally authoritative. Questioning them only seemed to happen in some of the halls of
academia. But recently there have been a number of challenges to the Bible’s authority. Among
the more popular positions in recent times is that the scriptures that have come down to us were
selected and edited with less than sterling motives by a power-hungry elite around the 4th Century.
According to these theories, Jesus’ exclusive claims about himself were trumped up, and were simply
an effective way to consolidate the church’s power. The most popular vessel of this kind of idea was
Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code a few years back.
I’m not going to spend time reiterating the wave of valid criticisms that make many of his allegations
seem pretty silly. But I’d like to respond briefly to this notion that the scriptures were changed, or
were selected above “equally valid” scriptures that say things that are incompatible with the Bible
that has come down the ages to us.
Really, with respect to Jesus’ claim in today’s Gospel passage, the first question is this: “Can we
trust John’s Gospel to give an accurate account of what Jesus actually said?” In other words, did he
really say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”? Or, as Dan Brown claims, did the 4th Century
Church-state establishment conspire to change the scriptures in order to make Christianity the
supreme religion of the Roman Empire? Did later writers put words in Jesus’ mouth to help in this
sinister conquest?
If you’re inclined to think so, I would invite you to consider the following:
There are over 5000 original language manuscripts of New Testament documents in existence
today, covering a broad swath of history. Some of these date from as early as the 2nd Century. By
that time the documents had spread out from Palestine all over North Africa, western Asia and
Europe. Amazingly, we have readable fragments of the Gospel of John dating from the 120’s A.D.
Now, to think that the 4th Century Church had the wherewithal to change every copy of the
Scriptures in every place they existed to modify Jesus’ message, in my opinion, requires much more
faith than believing that Jesus said what He said about himself. Almost no serious New Testament
scholar in this day and age would seriously entertain this kind of idea, and frankly, it can be
dismissed out of hand.
On the contrary, there’s considerable evidence that St. John’s Gospel, as well as all of the other
New Testament documents, were written and in circulation by the end of the 1st Century—very close
to the events they describe. There’s absolutely no compelling reason to doubt the genuineness of
the scriptures that have been an accepted part of the church’s teachings since its earliest days.
Now, some scholars freak out about the differences between John and the other Gospels when it
comes to Jesus’ exact words. In other words, in some ways he doesn’t even sound like the same
Jesus in his speech. I think this argument is valid, yet there’s a very simple explanation for this.
John’s Gospel is universally recognized as the last Gospel to be written. My personal belief is that it
was completed around the mid-80’s A.D. Simply put, it consists of John’s and other people’s
reminiscences of Jesus stated in John’s own words. Jesus’ teachings were mostly likely expressed in
John’s own words. John didn’t have a tape recorder when Jesus was speaking. The exact wording
of the Jesus “quotes” create a problem for some. But who was better equipped to express the
content and intent of Jesus’ words than the one who was arguably Jesus’ best friend? So for me, at
least, the precise wording of Jesus’ quotes are in no way a problem. If you’re still not convinced
about the reliability and accuracy of John’s Gospel, I commend to you Prof. Craig Blomberg’s
excellent book, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel. After reading it, I’m pretty confident that
you will be convinced.
So, assuming John’s Gospel is reliable, the second question we may ask in light of doubts about
Jesus’ claims about Himself, is “What did Jesus mean when he said, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I suggest that we start with the
premise that, to know what Jesus means, we need to have an idea of who Jesus is. This is the basic
question of context. A thorough answer to this would require hours of discussion. After all, there
are dozens of passages in which the Old Testament prophets pointed to the coming of Jesus, and
the New Testament writers in one way or another identify Jesus as the unique and divine Son of
God. Jesus certainly claims this about himself in each of the Gospels. The Church Fathers and the
creeds are united in their witness to Jesus’ identity.
Perhaps the clearest indications of who Jesus is are in John’s Gospel. Chapter 1 identifies Jesus as
the Word, who was with God, and who was and is God from the very beginning. Through him all
things, all this matter, all the universe, was made. And of course in John 3:16, the Apostle says
Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, and says that all who believe on him will not perish, but will have
everlasting life. Notice that he doesn’t call Jesus an enlightened teacher, or one of many avatars, or
a spiritually evolved guy, but the only begotten Son of God. There’s just one of ‘em, folks! That’s
what was said by the people who were there. And he came on behalf of all people everywhere in
the world.
St. Paul writes it another way in his letter to the Colossians. He says, “Jesus is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him.” And he goes on to say: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell
in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in
heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Do you hear how universal the scope is here? The scriptures and creeds say unequivocally that He’
s the only one sent by God the Father to bring us back into relationship with God after we had
rebelled against Him. And to back up this claim, Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day after
his death. And he’s ascended to that place God has reserved for all the faithful, who’ll also one day
share in the resurrection. Last I checked, he’s the only One to have done this. This is what gives
Jesus Christ the authority to proclaim, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” And it’s what gives
us the privilege, if we truly love our neighbors, to make the same proclamation to them. Because
instead of some power play with ulterior motives, this is an announcement of Good News for the
whole world—that all human beings who look to Jesus may be given the gifts of forgiveness and
eternal life. Good News is there to be shared and Jesus directs us to do so.
So, what did Jesus mean when he said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes
through the Father except through me?” I think we can only conclude that He meant exactly what he
said. If we want to get back in tune with the One who created us, the only way to do it is through
Jesus. As we heard Him say in last week’s Gospel reading, “I am the gate; whoever enters through
me will be saved.”
So, if it’s true that Jesus is the only way, what does it mean to us? It must first be said that there’s
an understandable objection that follows. Many at this point are likely to say, “Well, what about all of
those good people who sincerely follow other religions? What about those who’ve never heard
about Jesus?” It’s here that I think we need to be careful. For one thing, we need to be sure that we
don’t take it on ourselves to limit God’s grace. The scriptures make it clear that there’s no salvation
except through Jesus. But they don’t necessarily rule out the little surprises of grace that a loving
God is capable of giving through His Son. He may work in ways we don’t fully see. I for one am
relieved that we can leave it to a loving and just God to be fair about saving whom He will save.
Judgment is a burden we were never intended to carry. God is the only one equipped to do that.
Yet at the same time we can’t ignore the urgency in the scriptures to spread the good news of
salvation to all people everywhere. It’s what Jesus charged us to do before ascending to heaven.
He said, “Go and make disciples of all peoples.” And once again, St. Paul captures this
responsibility well in his letter to Rome. He writes: “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—
the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And
how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without
someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’
The bottom line is, the New Testament writers can’t be clearer that there is such a thing as final
truth, and He was given to us by our Creator in the person of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
We’re not only expected to acknowledge that one truth, but kindly and joyfully to spread the word to
others as well. To be blunt, if we were to start babbling at Jesus about relative or multiple truths I
suspect He’d give us a look that might stop us in our tracks. Pluralism is human wisdom, not God’s
wisdom.
You see, most people sooner or later recognize their need for God. We all have what the great
mathematician/philosopher Blaise Pascal called “the God-shaped void.” When someone comes to
you at wit’s end and reaching out in desperate need, would you say to them, “Be not afraid. There
are many truths because linguistic constructs depend upon other linguistic constructs and are
therefore subjective. There are no final truths, so… good luck and have a nice life!”
I’m sorry, but this is not what they need! What they need is someone with the love and the
confidence to point them to the one who says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Because
when you do this you’re inviting them into the presence of the One who also has the authority to
say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled! Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house
there are many dwelling places. I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will take you to myself,
so that where I am, you also may be.” Speaking personally, I’ll take this message over pluralism any
day of the week.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
(John 14:1-14)
Fr. Dan Tuton
April 20, 2008
Last week we talked about the cultural voices that compete with the voice of the Shepherd in our
time. We talked a little bit about pluralism, that belief that truth takes many different forms, and the
unacceptability of elevating any one version above any other. If there’s one verse of the New
Testament that seems to be a flash point for us in this pluralistic culture, it’s John 14:6. “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Upon hearing this, there are some who jump immediately to a position of indignation. “Do you mean
to say that all of those good people around the world who haven’t heard of Jesus, or who faithfully
follow other religious paths, really can’t get to God? And therefore they’re all damned? What
audacity to make a claim like this! It sounds like religious imperialism to me.” [How many here haven’
t heard words like these?]
This morning I’d like to spend a few minutes looking closely at this very question, and hopefully
suggesting some conclusions as to what’s reasonable, and what’s not so reasonable for us to
conclude from this passage. Let me first say that in our culture, the scriptures used to be
considered generally authoritative. Questioning them only seemed to happen in some of the halls of
academia. But recently there have been a number of challenges to the Bible’s authority. Among
the more popular positions in recent times is that the scriptures that have come down to us were
selected and edited with less than sterling motives by a power-hungry elite around the 4th Century.
According to these theories, Jesus’ exclusive claims about himself were trumped up, and were simply
an effective way to consolidate the church’s power. The most popular vessel of this kind of idea was
Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code a few years back.
I’m not going to spend time reiterating the wave of valid criticisms that make many of his allegations
seem pretty silly. But I’d like to respond briefly to this notion that the scriptures were changed, or
were selected above “equally valid” scriptures that say things that are incompatible with the Bible
that has come down the ages to us.
Really, with respect to Jesus’ claim in today’s Gospel passage, the first question is this: “Can we
trust John’s Gospel to give an accurate account of what Jesus actually said?” In other words, did he
really say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”? Or, as Dan Brown claims, did the 4th Century
Church-state establishment conspire to change the scriptures in order to make Christianity the
supreme religion of the Roman Empire? Did later writers put words in Jesus’ mouth to help in this
sinister conquest?
If you’re inclined to think so, I would invite you to consider the following:
There are over 5000 original language manuscripts of New Testament documents in existence
today, covering a broad swath of history. Some of these date from as early as the 2nd Century. By
that time the documents had spread out from Palestine all over North Africa, western Asia and
Europe. Amazingly, we have readable fragments of the Gospel of John dating from the 120’s A.D.
Now, to think that the 4th Century Church had the wherewithal to change every copy of the
Scriptures in every place they existed to modify Jesus’ message, in my opinion, requires much more
faith than believing that Jesus said what He said about himself. Almost no serious New Testament
scholar in this day and age would seriously entertain this kind of idea, and frankly, it can be
dismissed out of hand.
On the contrary, there’s considerable evidence that St. John’s Gospel, as well as all of the other
New Testament documents, were written and in circulation by the end of the 1st Century—very close
to the events they describe. There’s absolutely no compelling reason to doubt the genuineness of
the scriptures that have been an accepted part of the church’s teachings since its earliest days.
Now, some scholars freak out about the differences between John and the other Gospels when it
comes to Jesus’ exact words. In other words, in some ways he doesn’t even sound like the same
Jesus in his speech. I think this argument is valid, yet there’s a very simple explanation for this.
John’s Gospel is universally recognized as the last Gospel to be written. My personal belief is that it
was completed around the mid-80’s A.D. Simply put, it consists of John’s and other people’s
reminiscences of Jesus stated in John’s own words. Jesus’ teachings were mostly likely expressed in
John’s own words. John didn’t have a tape recorder when Jesus was speaking. The exact wording
of the Jesus “quotes” create a problem for some. But who was better equipped to express the
content and intent of Jesus’ words than the one who was arguably Jesus’ best friend? So for me, at
least, the precise wording of Jesus’ quotes are in no way a problem. If you’re still not convinced
about the reliability and accuracy of John’s Gospel, I commend to you Prof. Craig Blomberg’s
excellent book, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel. After reading it, I’m pretty confident that
you will be convinced.
So, assuming John’s Gospel is reliable, the second question we may ask in light of doubts about
Jesus’ claims about Himself, is “What did Jesus mean when he said, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I suggest that we start with the
premise that, to know what Jesus means, we need to have an idea of who Jesus is. This is the basic
question of context. A thorough answer to this would require hours of discussion. After all, there
are dozens of passages in which the Old Testament prophets pointed to the coming of Jesus, and
the New Testament writers in one way or another identify Jesus as the unique and divine Son of
God. Jesus certainly claims this about himself in each of the Gospels. The Church Fathers and the
creeds are united in their witness to Jesus’ identity.
Perhaps the clearest indications of who Jesus is are in John’s Gospel. Chapter 1 identifies Jesus as
the Word, who was with God, and who was and is God from the very beginning. Through him all
things, all this matter, all the universe, was made. And of course in John 3:16, the Apostle says
Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, and says that all who believe on him will not perish, but will have
everlasting life. Notice that he doesn’t call Jesus an enlightened teacher, or one of many avatars, or
a spiritually evolved guy, but the only begotten Son of God. There’s just one of ‘em, folks! That’s
what was said by the people who were there. And he came on behalf of all people everywhere in
the world.
St. Paul writes it another way in his letter to the Colossians. He says, “Jesus is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him.” And he goes on to say: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell
in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in
heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Do you hear how universal the scope is here? The scriptures and creeds say unequivocally that He’
s the only one sent by God the Father to bring us back into relationship with God after we had
rebelled against Him. And to back up this claim, Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day after
his death. And he’s ascended to that place God has reserved for all the faithful, who’ll also one day
share in the resurrection. Last I checked, he’s the only One to have done this. This is what gives
Jesus Christ the authority to proclaim, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” And it’s what gives
us the privilege, if we truly love our neighbors, to make the same proclamation to them. Because
instead of some power play with ulterior motives, this is an announcement of Good News for the
whole world—that all human beings who look to Jesus may be given the gifts of forgiveness and
eternal life. Good News is there to be shared and Jesus directs us to do so.
So, what did Jesus mean when he said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes
through the Father except through me?” I think we can only conclude that He meant exactly what he
said. If we want to get back in tune with the One who created us, the only way to do it is through
Jesus. As we heard Him say in last week’s Gospel reading, “I am the gate; whoever enters through
me will be saved.”
So, if it’s true that Jesus is the only way, what does it mean to us? It must first be said that there’s
an understandable objection that follows. Many at this point are likely to say, “Well, what about all of
those good people who sincerely follow other religions? What about those who’ve never heard
about Jesus?” It’s here that I think we need to be careful. For one thing, we need to be sure that we
don’t take it on ourselves to limit God’s grace. The scriptures make it clear that there’s no salvation
except through Jesus. But they don’t necessarily rule out the little surprises of grace that a loving
God is capable of giving through His Son. He may work in ways we don’t fully see. I for one am
relieved that we can leave it to a loving and just God to be fair about saving whom He will save.
Judgment is a burden we were never intended to carry. God is the only one equipped to do that.
Yet at the same time we can’t ignore the urgency in the scriptures to spread the good news of
salvation to all people everywhere. It’s what Jesus charged us to do before ascending to heaven.
He said, “Go and make disciples of all peoples.” And once again, St. Paul captures this
responsibility well in his letter to Rome. He writes: “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—
the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And
how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without
someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’
The bottom line is, the New Testament writers can’t be clearer that there is such a thing as final
truth, and He was given to us by our Creator in the person of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
We’re not only expected to acknowledge that one truth, but kindly and joyfully to spread the word to
others as well. To be blunt, if we were to start babbling at Jesus about relative or multiple truths I
suspect He’d give us a look that might stop us in our tracks. Pluralism is human wisdom, not God’s
wisdom.
You see, most people sooner or later recognize their need for God. We all have what the great
mathematician/philosopher Blaise Pascal called “the God-shaped void.” When someone comes to
you at wit’s end and reaching out in desperate need, would you say to them, “Be not afraid. There
are many truths because linguistic constructs depend upon other linguistic constructs and are
therefore subjective. There are no final truths, so… good luck and have a nice life!”
I’m sorry, but this is not what they need! What they need is someone with the love and the
confidence to point them to the one who says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Because
when you do this you’re inviting them into the presence of the One who also has the authority to
say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled! Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house
there are many dwelling places. I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will take you to myself,
so that where I am, you also may be.” Speaking personally, I’ll take this message over pluralism any
day of the week.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
The Way, The Truth and the Life
John 14: 1-14
John 14: 1-14
April 20, 2008
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton