The Way and the Truth and the Life
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Our text for today, is one of the best-known passages of
what Martin Luther calls “the best and most comforting sermon preached by
Christ while on this earth.”1 In chapters 14-16 of his Gospel, St.
John records and transmits the words spoken by Jesus after the Last Supper on
the night in which He is betrayed. With this sermon, Jesus wants to comfort and
strengthen His disciples both against the present sadness occasioned by His
departure, and also against the suffering they will endure because of the
devil, the world, and their own conscience as they go out into the world as
heirs of His kingdom and His ambassadors.
Jesus said to him, “I Am the Way and the Truth and the
Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ!
Jesus’ predictions of His own suffering and death have
greatly troubled the disciples, so He speaks to calm their fears. He encourages
them to continue to believe in God and in His Son despite what their eyes and
hearts tell them. Though the way be dark with the shadow of death, Jesus is on
the road to glory—for Himself and for them. Jesus is leaving His disciples in
order to prepare a place for them—His Father’s house. Furthermore, He will come
back one day and take them to be with Him. Then Jesus adds, “And you know the
way to where I am going.”
We can understand Jesus’ meaning by remembering what He is
about to do, namely, to die on the cross and rise from the dead. Human beings
by nature have no place in God’s house because sin has barred the way. But Jesus’
death will atone for all sins and prepare the room. His resurrection will
signal that all is ready.
Jesus’ disciples already know the way. He has been
showing them for three years. But they are slow to catch on, as we often are. Thomas
gives voice to their bewilderment. How can they know the way when they don’t
even know the place? He’s missed the spiritual impact of Jesus’ words.
But Jesus patiently teaches His disciples everything they
need to know for salvation: “I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life.”
Everything of God has its source in Christ and is reached through Christ and
only Christ. Jesus is the Way. We can only approach the Father through Jesus. Jesus
is the Truth. We can trust Jesus because all that is real and true is found in
Him. He is God the Word, and through His Word He reveals His salvation. Jesus
is the Life—the source of physical and spiritual life. Whoever believes in Him
has eternal life.
This teaching is exclusive. What a contrast to the
popular teaching that says all religions reach God, but just follow different
paths. Christ teaches that there are no other paths: “No one comes to the
Father except through Me.”
Jesus goes on to say, “If you had known Me, you would
have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” To
know the Son is to know the Father. The disciples should have already known
this, but they can’t see past their earthly limitations. Only after Jesus’ work
of redemption and the sending of His Holy Spirit will the Way and the Truth and
the Life be clear.
Thomas isn’t alone in his confusion. All the disciples are
struggling to understand. Philip offers what seems a simple, logical solution: “Lord,
show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Apparently he feels Jesus can
have God the Father make some sort of appearance and everything will become
clear to them.
Jesus chides Philip: “Have I been with you so long, and
you still do not know Me, Philip?” Then He states the simple truth: “Whoever
has seen Me has seen the Father.” Philip needs only to open his eyes and see Who
is standing right in front of him. The one true God is standing before him
veiled in human flesh.
Jesus emphasizes His unique oneness with the Father. Jesus
is never separated from the Father. He is in the Father, and the Father is in
Him. The Father speaks through the Son. The Father works through the Son. Jesus
does and says nothing that doesn’t further God’s plan of salvation. “Believe Me
that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe on account of
the works themselves,” Jesus tells His disciples. Jesus reaches our hearts with
His words, and He points to His works as evidence that His words are true.
Then Jesus adds, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever
believes in Me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these
will he do, because I am going to the Father.” Jesus first mentions the works
He does in the physical realm, such as healing the sick. The disciples, by
Jesus’ power, will do similar miracles to substantiate the Word they preach. But
the greater works are the miracles in the spiritual realm that He will work
through them. In sharing the Gospel, every Christian can have a part in His
miracles: opening eyes that are spiritually blind, giving eternal life to the
spiritually dead, opening heaven to lost sinners.
But that’s not all! Jesus makes another astounding
promise: “Whatever you ask in My name, this will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.” And just to make sure His disciples understand, He repeats:
“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” The promise is absolute. It
covers whatever the believer asks, and it carries Jesus’ assurance: “I will do
it.”
Do you see what Jesus has done here? He has begun by
pointing His disciples and us to our ultimate destination—the place He has
prepared for us and then He has shown us the way there—the only way there—through
Himself, who is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Next, He tells us how the
Way and the Truth and the Life is ours even here and now. He gives us faith
through the words He says to us spoken by the authority of the Father; and we,
in turn, ask blessings of the heavenly Father in Jesus’ name, according to His
will and Word.
We follow in His Way. We listen to His Truth. We have
Life in His name. And we have all of these even now. You see, this passage
doesn’t just refer to the heavenly dwelling places Jesus has prepared for us.
The Way and the Truth and the Life is the Christian life—here and now. But like
many spiritual truths it is not necessarily visible to our eyes; in fact, it
often appears contrary to what we might expect. We must rely on something
outside of ourselves. We need someone to lead us and guide us. That is where
Christ’s means of grace and prayer enter the picture.
John Kleinig explains: “Imagine, for a moment, that you
are completely blind. You cannot use your eyes to see where you are or what is going
on around you. Like all blind people, you have to learn to ‘see’ with your
ears. If you wish to travel, you can use a cane to supplement your ears and to
find your way as you walk along by yourself. But it is best to have a guide dog
to lead you or, better still, someone to travel with to tell you where you are
and where to go.
“Spiritually speaking, we are blind. We walk through life
on an unseen journey, since we live by faith here on earth. There is an unseen
world all around us that we can sense but never see, a world of radiant
splendor and of abysmal darkness, a world that surrounds us like a fifth
dimension and more. That world is not an imaginary world. In fact, it is much
more real than the world we know from our senses. Our access to that world
comes to us via our ears rather than our eyes, ears that are attentive to the
Word and Spirit of God. By faith we go on our invisible way through life. We
learn to travel along that way by walking with our invisible traveling
companion, Jesus. Traveling step-by-step, we listen to Him as He speaks to us.
He is, as it were, our eyes. We use our ears to see our way.
“Our spiritual journey is unlike any other journey. It is
a heavenly pilgrimage, a journey from our earthly location to God’s holy place,
and a holy journey from earth to heaven… On their annual pilgrimages the
Israelites went to meet with God so they could receive His blessing and share
in His holiness; as holy people they then took that blessing with them to their
homes and their communities. We, however, do not just go on pilgrimage
occasionally; our whole life is an invisible pilgrimage with Christ.
“There are, in all, four dimensions to our unseen
pilgrimage. First, we travel with the whole Church throughout the ages,
beginning with Abraham, on its historic journey from this world to the world to
come, from our earthly homes to the heavenly city. Second, we travel with the
people in our congregation on its weekly journey from earth to heaven and back
again in the Divine Service. Third, we travel by ourselves and our families on
a daily journey into the Father’s presence in our daily devotions. Fourth, we
travel by ourselves in our personal lifelong journey through death to eternal
life with Christ in the Father’s presence…
“The way of discipleship has two sides to it. On the one
hand, it is a journey in which we live by the grace of God. As we travel with
Christ, God the Father reaches out to each of us in the same way through His
Word. Through His Word He generates and maintains our faith; through His Word,
which is enacted in proclamation, absolution, Baptism, and Holy Communion, where
He gives us the Holy Spirit and all His gifts…
“On the other hand, in our journey we live by faith in
the multicolored grace of God, just as plants live by the light of the sun. By
faith we have access to God the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. By
faith we again and again receive all the benefits that Jesus has won for us by
His death on the cross… By faith we
receive the Holy Spirit and rely on the Spirit to transform us in our
personality and mentality, our behavior and our lifestyle, so that we, each in
our own way and in our unique cultural context, mirror some of the fullness of
Christ. Our whole experience of life is shaped and illuminated by faith, the
faith that comes from hearing God’s Word and receiving His Holy Spirit.
“Although in our spiritual journey we live by the grace
of God, in practicing it we concentrate on the life of faith. It is true that
we, both as creatures in the world and as children of God in the Church,
receive everything from God as a gift. That’s the foundation of our faith, its
bedrock. Yet while faith is always trustfully receptive, it is never inactive
and unproductive…
“We who have access to God’s grace use our faith to
approach Him for help and to bring help to others. We exercise our faith by
practicing our piety, whether it is by going to church or by saying grace
before meals, by meditating on God’s Word or by praying, by examining ourselves
in the light of God’s Law or by confessing our sins, by fasting or by
presenting our offerings to God. Faith is meant to be used, and grows as it is
used. We are not called to live as practical atheists, people who, theoretically,
believe in God, and yet act as if God has nothing to do with their daily lives;
we are called to rely on God’s provision for us at all times and in all places…
“Exercising our faith involves the constant interplay
between the Word of God and our experience of life, what God has to say to us
each day and what happens to us each day. These two belong together; they
interpret each other. God’s Word interprets our experience. Our experience of
life helps us to understand what He says and so confirms our faith in His Word.
His Word teaches us to see ourselves and our experience from His point of view;
the school of experience shapes our minds and souls, so that they are attuned
to His Word and His good and gracious will for us…
“In practice this means that our spiritual growth, our
spiritual health and maturity, is the product of the interaction between work
and prayer, for the same God is equally at work in both. In prayer we receive
what we need for our daily work. In our daily work we discover what we need to
pray for. By prayer we receive the Holy Spirit, so that we can live and work by
the power of the Spirit.”2
Do you see how freeing this all is? It frees us from our
sin and sinfulness. It frees us from an angry, capricious God. It frees us from
the lies of Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh. It frees us from bondage
to the Law and guilty consciences. It frees us from depravity and death!
To the ancient peoples, the gods acted much like modern
organized crime. You did your religious duty to keep them off your back and out
of your lives (like a protection racket) or to entice them to do you a favor
(bribery or kickbacks). The Gospel runs counter to religious thought across the
world: the God who reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures is the only real God
in all the world.
And the claims of Christianity go even further: This one God
provides one and only one way of salvation throughout the ages. Not all
religions lead to the true God. In fact, Jesus makes the claim that He and only
He can lead us to God. “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes
to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Church teachers sometimes call this the “scandal of
particularity.” Christians go out into the world with the scandalous message of
Christ crucified for sinners. They do not preach that Jesus is a way of
salvation or that He is one option among many. Only Jesus, true God and true
man, can lead people to the love of God the Father. Outside of faith in Jesus,
no one can have God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. Apart from a personal faith
in Jesus, no one in all the world throughout all history could be saved.
What does this mean for you and me? It means that we have
a great privilege and important mission here on earth. Only through faith in
Jesus Christ can any human being in any place on earth receive God’s love,
forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. And as member of His holy priesthood,
Christ has called us to share that message with others and to offer up prayers
on their behalf. And we have Christ’s promise that as we do, He will be with us
every step of the way.
That is truly a great adventure! And that is why this has
become one of my favorite prayers: Lord God, You have called Your servants to
ventures which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through
perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we
go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through
Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Like Jesus’ disciples, you and I face uncertainty,
perhaps even doubt and fear. We don’t know what the future—even this very day—may
hold for us. But we do know Who holds us and the future. Jesus Christ is the
Way and the Truth and the Life. Through Him you may confidently come to your
Father with all of your cares, concerns and requests, confident that He will do
these things in Jesus’ name. After all, in Baptism, He has already given you
His name. In Jesus’ name, you have forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.
Indeed, you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
1Luther, M. (1999, c1961). Vol. 24: Luther's
works, vol. 24 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16 (J. J.
Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (24:7). Saint Louis:
Concordia Publishing House
2Kleinig, John (2008) Grace upon Grace: Spirituality for Today. Saint Louis: Concordia
Publishing House
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