I Am: The Way, the Truth, and the Life

This is The Way

In 2019, season one of The Mandalorian streamed on Disney+.

A Star Wars tale that follows a rogue bounty hunter who is tasked to protect a force sensitive child named Grogu from the Empire. The show was a hit to Star Wars fans everywhere. And the phrase “This is the way” began to appear in pop culture frequently.

If you have never seen the show, that phrase was used to describe the culture. It is creed and way of life that encompasses ideals and persuasion. Its frequent use in the show reveals a visceral connection to a way of life and belief foreign to outsiders.

Where does Lucas get these types of thoughts? Well, they have been around for a long time.

Context of John 14, Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples. He has washed their feet. Judas has left to betray him. Here in the GK Jesus is showing a state of care. He has just told his followers “ I go to prepare a place for you and I will return and bring you to myself” speaking of his death and way to the Father.

John 14:5-7, we transition from the destination to the path, to “The Way”

I love what George Lyons of Emory University puts it “Jesus shifts from focus on his way to the Father, to the Christian’s way to the Father.

All of Jesus’s teaching, activity, healings, etc embody God’s goal for creation. And following Jesus faithfully leads us to the presence of the Father. Jesus is the totality of what God has done, is doing, and will do and in him we receive that blessing. His concluding statement “no one comes to the Father except through me” is emphatic that it is His life and no others that lead people to God.

God is the source of all truth and life and Jesus leads people to him.

William Lane Craig “Christianity could not survive without Jesus Christ”

He goes onto to say that “Christianity is not a code for living or a philosophy of religion; rather it is rooted in real events of history”

Jesus’s claim is that he is The Way, The Truth, and The Life is not an ideal or some aspiration but a authoritative claim from the existence of creation. Before all things “I Am” Jesus is God and Jesus is the living God who walked among us in Jesus Christ the 2nd person of the Trinity.

Phillip asks questions, he has concerns. Jesus responds with a graceful rebuke and a promise to Phillip.

Jesus gives the promise that from now on they do know him and they have seen him. Not only can they live in that assurance but God will always be present with his people through the advocate. God doesn’t leave. God will not abandon. God is ever present. That is the best news in the world.

ii. the disciples will move in their faith. They will move from belief that Jesus is of God to belief in Jesus is God.

Early Christians were derogatorily called people of “the Way” because of the new lived out faith. An expression of Divine ideals and activity among the people. People of The Way, Jesus makes exclusive claim, there is no other way to heaven except through him. Follow on the path. What is that path?

Service

humility

generosity

love

compassion

forgiveness

Jesus said “if you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”

What does that look like? The Sermon On The Mount. It is the living of God’s reign in the human heart. it is the upside-down kingdom. The Way is the focus and the Father is the goal to which it leads.

The followers of Christ live and look like Jesus. We deny our own selfishness, self-centeredness, and desires in order to bring others to the path.

The issue Christianity deals with today is the refusal to reject our own lives in service to living as Christ. To die to ourselves and rise to new life in service to his heavenly kingdom.

Life Purpose: This text is often read at a funeral. Why? Because it shares the promise of not only who Jesus is but what he has accomplished. Jesus has taken time and creation and wove them together into a beautiful tapestry. The ugly of sin has been dealt with and all things are made new. Jesus has expectations. Once you know him to receive him. To move from belief of him to belief in him.

It is only when we believe in Jesus that our lives are turned upside-down and we live in a radically transformed way.

Belief in God is to place trust in God.