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Psalm 27:1-5 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. 3 Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. 4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. 5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.
John 14:1-7 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life
The passage I just read is often used at funerals to assure people that there is a place in heaven for them. There are many rooms in God’s house and Jesus has prepared a place for each of us. When a loved one has just died these verses help mourners to know that their loved one is in heaven. And to know that at death Jesus will come and lead them there.
Today though we are concentrating on the “I am” statement that Jesus makes in this passage and we are applying it to far more than death. Yes, Jesus leads us to heaven at our death and that is good, that is important but this is not a funeral this morning so we are going to focus on what this “I am” statement means for our lives today, right now.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” There is a small three letter word here that is crucial to the meaning of this sentence. It revolves around grammar. Remember grammar? Nouns, verbs, adjectives. Remember your grade school teacher telling you that grammar was important? Our “I am” statement is a perfect example of what our teachers meant when they said grammar is important. What is important here is the difference between an indefinite article, a, and a definite article, the. The indefinite article refers to one of many. I have a banana, I have a book. I could have any banana or book in the world, there is nothing definite or specific about them. A definite article refers to one specific thing. I ate the banana. I am referring to one specific banana that is now in my stomach. I read the book. Again, not any book but one specific book. Jesus does not use an indefinite article in His statement. He uses the definite article, “the” when He says I am the way and the truth and the life. Although it is one statement we are going to consider each part separately.
Jesus said, “I am the way.” Jesus is not a way among many ways; He is THE way, the one and only way to God the Father. Did you know that before Christians were called Christians they were called followers of The Way? The Way cannot be drawn on a map; it is embodied in the person of Jesus, He is the way, He is the exclusive way to God the Father, the only way to God. As Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
When I first came to here to Aston Presbyterian Church I didn’t know where it was, I don’t know my way around this part of Delaware County. Alone, I couldn’t find my way here. I found it by using my GPS. It tells me when to turn and which way to turn and it gets me to where I need to go. Jesus is our GPS system, if you will, showing us the way to the Father. For thousands of years navigators at sea steered by the North Star. We steer our lives with Jesus as our North Star, we trust Jesus to be our guide throughout our lives.
Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Jesus is not a truth, He is THE truth, the ultimate truth. In Jesus’ day truth for the Jews meant reliability or faithfulness. For the Greeks it meant what is real as opposed to something that only appears real. There was a time when ultimate truth was found in religion. In our culture today though there has been a change from modern to postmodern thought. Postmodernism rejects the idea of any ultimate truth. It believes all truth is relative. Christians are NOT postmodern. We believe there is ultimate truth and that truth is found in Jesus Christ. We judge all other truths by where they stand in relation to Jesus. Jesus is the truth, He is our cornerstone, Jesus is the very core of our beliefs and we believe what Jesus said through the witness of the New Testament and we judge other truths based on Jesus first.
When we say that Jesus is the truth we are saying that His revelation gives us a completely reliable, faithful revelation of reality in its fullest sense. Jesus is the ultimate reality-the truth. In a world that claims there is no ultimate truth Jesus is the truth. He alone shows us what is true.
Don’t seek the truth outside of Jesus, it can’t be found there. Don’t look for truth through another person, a political system, a nation or a philosophy. Truth is found only is Jesus. We judge everything through the lens of Jesus. If it is in line with what Jesus says then it is true and right. If it goes against what Jesus says then it isn’t true, it is wrong.
This is how we make decisions on right and wrong, on what is true and what is false. We take them to Jesus, we follow His teachings because He is THE truth.
Jesus said, “I am the life.” Jesus is not a life, He is THE life. Through Jesus we have eternal life with the Father and Jesus is THE source of abundant life, right now in our lives. I didn’t really know Jesus until later in life so I know the difference between living life without Jesus and living life with Jesus. As a child I’d been to Sunday School and church but for some reason I never developed a relationship with Jesus. No one talked about that or told me it was possible. I knew about Jesus but I didn’t know Jesus. Then I found out what it was like to truly know Jesus. This is the analogy I’ve used to describe the difference. When I was a child the Wizard of Oz came on once a year. I only ever saw it in black and white because in those days there wasn’t color television. Then my grandparents got a color TV and the whole family gathered to watch the Wizard of Oz. The first part of the movie that takes place in Kansas is in black and white. Then there is the moment when Dorothy steps out of her house into Oz and everything is in brilliant color. That’s what knowing Christ is like for me. It was like stepping from a reality of only black and white into a world of dazzling color. Since I’ve known Jesus life is fuller, there is a peace inside me that I never knew before. I had known happiness but now I discovered JOY. The joy of knowing Jesus fills my heart and overflows. Now this doesn’t mean life is perfect. I’ve had my share of problems since then, financial, family, health and others, but what a difference it is to go through troubles with Jesus rather than in my own strength. It also doesn’t mean I’ve become a perfect person. I still make mistakes, I still sin but I keep trying to live life the way Jesus shows us.
The life Jesus offers us is a life lived in the presence of the Father. We are brought into the presence of the Father through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our faith is Trinitarian, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all three persons of the Godhead are active. Jesus’ work of reconciliation is done. On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished.” He sent the Holy Spirit to us at Pentecost and the Holy Spirit is the one who reminds us, teaches us, guides us and leads us as we follow Jesus.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Let the truth of this sink into our hearts. Trust that Jesus is the way, follow Him, let Jesus be our guide through life and when life is done trust Jesus to lead us to our eternal home.
The hymn we are going to sing after the sermon isn’t an old hymn, it was written in 1963. You will all recognize the Shaker tune, Simple Gifts. The idea of it is to think of life as a dance and Jesus as the Lord of the Dance.
There is a wonderful promise in the final verse. I’ll live in you If you’ll live in Me I am the Lord Of the Dance said He. Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life. He alone is Lord of the dance, may we follow where He leads.