I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life (cont.)

[HKHaugan]

Remember the three things that help us understand this passage? First, it is the situation in which the sequence occurs. Second, there is the overall culture of the time. Third, it is couched in Jewish heritage. Let’s consider these.

First, the situation
Jesus has called the disciples together to share the Passover meal with them. Chapters 13-17 are Jesus’ last teachings in the evening before He goes to the Cross. Here He has just washed the disciples’ feet teaching humility, predicted He would be betrayed and foretelling Peter’s denial. In these chapters He is giving them a glimpse of their future in the world and in the Spirit.

Second, the culture
The Roman Empire commands the entire known world at that time. It represents man’s attempt to control human definition through its political, economic, religious and social assumption of superiority. The Jewish nation was considered a distant subculture of little consequence needing only a Roman garrison and an unimpressive governor to make clear to the local populace who had the ultimate authority.

Third, the heritage
Jesus leads the disciples through the Passover meal signifying Jewish deliverance from Egyptian slavery as the blood of a lamb was sprinkled on the doorpost of each Jewish home to protect them from the angel of death. Jesus identifies Himself as the sacrificial lamb, the long awaited Messiah, who is the final sacrifice necessary to forgive not only Jewish sin but also the sins of all mankind. Further He will give them the prophetically promised Holy Spirit to guarantee His presence in their hearts after His death and Resurrection.

What Jesus gives us in this brief passage is the world shaking pronouncement that He is the way to live, the truth that makes its sure and the life that sustains through into eternity. It is the order, the sequence here, that is fascinating. What He is saying is that He is ‘The’ Way, ‘The’ Truth and ‘The’ Life. Each one leads to the other. Let’s look at these.

First, He says ‘I am.’
As we said before he is identifying Himself as the One who gave authority to Moses (“I Am’ sent you…I am who I am.” Ex.3:14 ) sending Him to Pharaoh to demand the release of the Hebrews (“Before Abraham was, I am.” Jn.8:58). He is saying He is God the Son.

That introduction sets up the sequence to be ultimately authoritative in every area of human experience. God is Creator of the entire universe and of those who dwell in it who, by His definition, are images of Him. Even though they are fallen from His presence by sin and the agitation of the devil, God’s plan is to restore everything by His grace which allows for each image of Him to receive His Son Jesus through faith in Him.

Second, the way.
Everyone has a ‘way’ to live, an approach to life from the time they wake up in the morning to bedtime at night. It varies from person to person according to the ‘way’ they have adjusted to life due to parental training or lack thereof on to the variety of experiences from pain to pleasure that shapes our personal ‘way.’ That ‘way’ is conditioned by all kinds of options we choose or that are chosen for us. Some have goals that have set patterns, ‘ways’ to attain them. It can be a profession, a place to live, an art to develop, all of which are bound to this world.

But there is more than this world. There is a whole spiritual dimension out of which this universe and all its people come. It is ‘the way‘ of God. It is His ‘way.’ His ‘way’ has purpose, meaning and significance. His ‘way’ is personal and interpersonal. His ‘way’ is spiritual because He is Spirit. His ‘way’ is ordered by His logical mind and His will which proceeds from it. His ‘way’ is motivated by His heart of love, compassion and mercy. His ‘way’ is trust because His nature is trust. Our God is faithful. He trusted His Son on the Cross to remain faithful. His Spirit is the Spirit of trust. It is trust that makes us right before Him and trust in Him that makes us right not only in ourselves but also among others. It is trust that is His ‘way.’ Trust to think the ‘way’ he thinks. Feel the ‘way’ He feels and to act the ‘way’ He acts. The ‘way’ Jesus lived was to trust in His Father in every next moment for every next moment which is why the Father said that we are to listen to Him. Jesus had perfect faith.

The ‘way’ Jesus lived was to trust the Father for everything He thought, everything He taught, every place He went, everyone He met and everything He did. None of us know what will happen from moment to moment. It is the ‘way’ of trust in the presence of God to take us through every next moment that is the ‘way’ of Jesus. That is how Jesus lived. It was His ‘way.’ This is why Jesus told His disciples that they must take up their cross and follow Him. That is God’s ‘way’ for each one of us. We never know what lies ahead but trusting Jesus with every next moment is the ‘way.’

Third, truth.
Truth is for the mind, stabilizes the thinking process and enables a reasoned foundation to carry us through this world into the spiritual reality that lies ahead. Jesus says He is the ‘truth,’ the only truth, the source of ultimate truth, the truth of God. Jesus prays in John 17 for all future believers to be sanctified by the truth, that His Word is truth. He is the living edition of the Word. John’s Gospel describes Him this way. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. All things came into being through Him…” The idea that truth was a Person and this Person’s word expressed Him was radically new on the world scene. Jesus being the truth thinks spiritually, believes spiritually, trusts spiritually and acts spiritually. How He did all of this is why we accept Him as truth. His death on the Cross paved the spiritual path that His Resurrection would prove as the only ultimate truth for all mankind for all time and eternity. Man’s philosophical and religious pursuits are sidelined in favor of the eternal truth that is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the only living God.

Fourth, life.
Life and the universe created for it came from the mind of God. While He put into motion a universe in which physical life is a copy of spiritual life it was to display the future He designed for all people who would trust the Son. Spiritual life begins with faith and lasts through death into God’s presence. Jesus is the source of life and by trusting Him the experience of spiritual life begins in a relationship with Him. It is the kind of life that grows from a kernel of spiritual insight and becomes the ‘way’ and the ‘truth’ God planned for all who would believe in the Son. This is why John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that all who believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”

This life can be experienced here in this world every time we trust the presence of Jesus for every next moment to think and act according to the truth of His Word. Spiritual life is faith in action. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word (Rom.10:17).” Jesus’ life is spiritual. It is the Holy Spirit life because He is the Lord of life. “Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2Cor.3:17).”

But spiritual life is more than just the personal awareness and experience of it. Its purpose is relational. It starts with a relationship with Jesus and then is extended to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit we extend ourselves to others and build a community of faith that makes us spiritual brothers and sisters. It is through this community of faith in Jesus that the world can be reconciled to God and fulfills the purpose for which it was created.

So the sequence is explained. Everyone is looking for a way to live, the truth to back it up and the life it promises. The sequence is not random but systematic because the mind of God knows our real needs before we even ask. He has set up for us life in His Son. The blessing comes in laying our pride aside and accepting the gift requiring only our willingness to try it out. Trying it out we trust it bit by bit until we discover it was His faith proven on the Cross and validated by His Resurrection that gave us the capacity for faith and the Spirit to ignite it.