The Way Truthful Life

John 14:1-11

Jesus encourages his disciples as they are about to face an unknown future without his physical presence. They already know the way because they already know and are known by Jesus.

The way is not a series of steps, Jesus is the way.

The truth is not a collection of facts, Jesus is the truth.

Life is not an extended period of time, Jesus is the life.

It isn’t procedural; it’s personal.

Worship focus: Knowing Jesus more, loving Jesus more

Lost Away From Home

Growing up near the Los Angeles national forest, one of my favorite things was hike-reading. You know, like you do.

It works like this. Take a paperback and go hiking. Find a spot, read for a bit. When the spot gets uncomfortable or you just feel like moving again. Hike to a new spot, read for a bit. Continue until you finish the book, get hungry, or the light fades.

There was an occupational hazard. In between all the stops I wasn’t always keeping track of where I was or where I was going. I remember looking up and suddenly realizing… I don’t know where I am or quite how to get home.

Now I wasn’t far away, and I climbed a hill and from there, I could see landmarks that got me back home. But you never forget that spinning feeling down in the stomach. I don’t know where I am, I don’t know how to get back, I don’t know how to go home.

And that wasn’t the last time I felt lost. Even with GPS on my phone, I still get that feeling. When I don’t know where I am or where I am going. When I don’t understand and I don’t recognize anything around me as home.

I would guess we have all had that feeling of being lost. Without answers, without ideas. Confusion and anxiety about what to do next.

What do we do when we are lost?

Lost Disciples

The disciples are in precisely this moment on the night of the Last Supper. Jesus has mystified them by washing their feet. Then commanded them to love each-other in this extraordinary new way, that this will be their new identity. But, more clearly than he ever has before, more directly, he dropped this bombshell: they will need a new identity because he is leaving somewhere they cannot follow.

Peter expresses his disbelief, his troubled-heart “Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” And Jesus says, not only can you not follow me now, you will deny me. Betray me before the sun fully rises.

Now that is not a calming statement. So the disciples, all of them, have got to be at least as confused and troubled and worried, panicked even, as Peter. And Judas had stormed out earlier in mysterious circumstances. Things are falling apart and their leader says he won’t be there to lead them anymore. They can’t follow.

They are lost.

But on the very night he was betrayed. On the night when Jesus, who was troubled in his own heart, when Jesus needed comfort and encouragement… on that night Jesus stops to encourage his disciples.

John 14:1-11

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

Where is Jesus going? He goes to prepare a place for his disciples in the House of the Father. A place for them. This is heaven-speak, ultimate destination. Jesus goes to prepare the very possibility of life-with-God, eternal life with the Father through his salvific work in death, resurrection, and glorification.

All that Jesus goes and does now is for them that they might be with him forever… but all they hear is that Jesus is going.

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

I love Thomas. He is super-literal. Drop all the metaphor, Jesus. Seriously, we don’t know any ways. Give me the steps, give me the directions, write them on a napkin or something.

Jesus, we want to be with you, with the Father, in the many rooms of the Father’s house. That all sounds great. How do we go to there? How do we actually do it? This is where a good religious leader would be prepared to give the 8-steps to achieving heaven. This is where, if Jesus wants his teaching to live on beyond him, he should give the directions, the steps, the procedures they should follow. He should unveil the road, the way to Jesus, or even the way to be like Jesus.

Instead he says this.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.

Lost in the Airport

Last weekend Jono, Reba and I corralled 6 kids through the airport on our way to California. Shortly before boarding, the kids got a drink at the drinking fountain and then we walked over to the store to buy water bottles to bring on the plane. Only $40 a bottle because they know you can’t bring ‘em.

I do a quick head check out in front of the store and come up one short. Where’s Arabelle? Quick adult check. Reba doesn’t know. Jono doesn’t know. I lost my kid.

I track back and just around the other side of the escalator I find her at the drinking fountain. She had gone back for an extra drink without telling anyone, and when she turned around we were all gone. And she stayed put just like she should have. And it was maybe 5 minutes.

But I saw her eyes. She had that look. Fear. Confusion. Anxiety. Where am I? Where is my family? Where am I going?

And then I had her. And she cried a bit. The fear of it and the relief of it. But as soon as I had her… all the danger was over, all the anxiety and question of where we were going and what we were doing. All over.

Because to Arabelle, it didn’t matter how we were getting to California… or how we were getting home. All the details and minutia of travel was irrelevant. To Arabelle, I was the way. And the fact that I had her means she is right where she is supposed to be.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

The way to heaven, the way to God isn’t a procedure. It’s personal.

The way isn’t just something that Jesus opens up, something Jesus makes possible, it is something he is.

The truth about the universe and God and the future and where we are and all of that… it isn’t a series of facts we memorize. It isn’t Scripture verses we memorize, or theological facts well categorized and articulated in our minds… it is personal. The truth is Jesus. All that other stuff is only valuable as it connects us to and deepens our relationship with Jesus.

Life isn’t a series of days given to us and then we die. Life isn’t our hobbies and jobs and interests, our memories and ideas, or the sum of all those things. Life is Jesus.

Take courage, Jesus says to his disciples. You already know me and I know you. So you know the way, because you know me. You know the truth and more will be revealed to you because you know me and you’re going to know me better. I’ll tell you how in the next section.

You know life, life eternal, life abundant, because that is who I really am. Way, truth and life.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Everything you have seen leads to this: know me know as God, one with the Father. I in him and him in me. And I’m going to drop some full-on Trinity in the next bit. Know me.

I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Our Troubled Hearts

Anyone feel lost this morning? I had some moments of lost-ness. Even as, by faith, I know I’m not… that sensation, that feeling still catches me. And it’s not wrong to feel it, but Jesus speaks words of comfort to you and me.

He says “Let not your hearts be troubled… trust God… trust me.”

We, humans, naturally put a whole lot of emphasis on actions and doing the “right” thing at the “right” time. And if for any moment we feel like we missed the “right” train, or we turned the wrong way, or we just don’t know the next thing… there’s that feeling. Lost. Confused. Troubled.

It isn’t wrong to seek God’s will and direction and guidance. But as you seek, let not your heart be troubled. And never for a moment think that you are lost. He is the way… and he isn’t lost. He is the truth, he’s not confused. He is life, now and forever.

Life through the airport

We are kids running through the airport. We want to know which security line, and which escalator and which gate, and we each want to hold our own boarding pass, and laugh with one another and chase. And sometimes God tells us, and sometimes he just takes us by the hand and gently leads us, and sometimes kicking and screaming.

Sometimes we know we are in his hand and full of confidence. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the crowds and the chaos and all the options. Or we don’t see any paths forward. But we are a kid crying at a drinking fountain when Dad is already there.

All times, he is present and watching and with us and there is never any danger of us not getting where he is taking us.

He is the way. The Truth. The Life.

Now are there things we are going to do in our walk with Jesus? Absolutely. But it isn’t because they are procedural steps on a stairway to heaven. We do them because they affirm, they strengthen, they deepen our relationship with Jesus. We do them because we love Jesus, we respond, we walk the way because He is the way. We seek his truth because he is the truth. We life because he is life.

How do we actually do this? How is Jesus going to be “with” his disciples and what is that actually going to look like in daily life? Jesus continues his teaching, he doesn’t leave it there, though we are going to pick that piece up next week.

This week, we need to take our troubled hearts to Jesus. And if you feel lost, bring that with you into worship. Jesus I feel lost. But I am actively putting my trust in you. The way, the truth, and the life.

As we worship, let us meditate on Jesus’ powerful words of comfort to his disciples then and to us now. As we continue worship, let me read the meditation of Thomas a Kempis:

Follow thou me. I am the way and the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou must follow; the truth which thou must believe; the life for which thou must hope. I am the inviolable way; the infallible truth, the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth; life true, life blessed, life uncreated.