Easter 5A, May 22, 2011
Acts 7: 55-60*Psalm 31:1-5*I Peter 2: 2-10*John 14:1-14
Rev. David M. McNair
It’s an old joke, but it still has some bounce: A man died and was ushered into heaven, which appeared to be an enormous house. An angel began to escort him down a long hallway past many rooms.
“What’s in that room?” the man asked, pointing to a very somber-looking group of people chanting a Gregorian mass. “That’s the Roman Catholic room,” said the angel. “Very high church.”
“What’s in that room?” the man asked, pointing to a group of half-naked dancers gyrating their hips and occasionally shrieking out loud. “That’s a Balinese Hindu group,” said the angel. “Very lively.”
“What’s in that room?” asked the man, pointing to a group of bald-headed people meditating to the sound of an enormous gong.
“That’s the Zen group,” said the angel. “Very quiet. You would hardly know they are here.”
Then the angel stopped the man, as they were about to round a corner. “Now, when we get to the next room,” said the angel, “I would appreciate it if you would tiptoe past. We mustn’t make any sound.” “Why is that?” asked the man.
“Because in that room there’s a bunch of very fundamentalist Christians; and they think they’re the only ones here.”
Carl Sandburg was asked not long before he died what he thought was the worst word — the most despicable word — in the English language. Without hesitation, he replied, exclusivism.
Exclusivism is a terrible word because it is a terrible reality. Everyone has experienced it at some point, at some level; others have been traumatized by vicious exclusions. Christianity is often presented in the most exclusionary way.
As part of a series on peacemaking, Pastor Rob Bell, the charismatic leader of the hugely popular church (7,000 attend each Sunday), Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan, put on an art exhibit about the search for peace in a broken world. An artist in the show had included a quotation from Mohandas Gandhi. Hardly controversial, one would think – but one would be wrong. A visitor to the exhibit had stuck a note next to the Gandhi quotation: “Reality check. He’s in hell.”
Bell talks about this in a recent cover article in Time magazine. He says that when he saw this note he thought to himself: Really, Gandhi’s in hell? He is? We have confirmation of this? Somebody knows this? Without a doubt? And that somebody decided to take on the responsibility of letting the rest of us know? He discusses these questions in depth in his new highly popular and controversial book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived.
In today’s Gospel, John puts words on Jesus’ lips that have led Christians through the centuries to claim an exclusive way to God. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” As one commentator puts it, “[These words] are taken by some as the rallying cry of Christian triumphalism, proof positive that Christians have the corner on God and that people of any other faiths are condemned.”
This familiar passage is part of the Farewell Discourse of Jesus – his final words of comfort, instruction, and hope to his closest disciples on the night before he was taken away from them to be executed. Jesus was trying to prepare them for his imminent death and leave them with some reassuring words because he knew they were going to feel abandoned after he was gone. But the way that Jesus’ words get passed on to us through the writing of John, he seems to be speaking in circles or in riddles and the disciples are extremely confused.
Jesus tells them that there are many rooms in his Father’s house and that he is going to prepare a place for them — and that where he is going, they will know the way. Thomas is understandably confused because Jesus seems to think that the disciples know where he is going and how to get there. Thomas says, “We don’t even know where you are going so how can we know the way?”
Jesus’ answer shows that Thomas is even more confused than he realizes because Jesus is not talking about an actual place or an actual road to travel. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
This verse encapsulates everything that is distinctive about the Gospel of John, which is based on a radical theology of the incarnation. God has come to the world in human form through Jesus. The writer of the fourth gospel believed passionately that the Word made flesh altered forever the relationship between God and humanity.
Throughout this gospel, Jesus is trying to get the disciples to understand his special and intimate relationship with God, telling them that if they know him, then they also know the Father. The disciples cannot grasp this concept and keep asking to see the Father. Jesus tells them that he has come from God and is going to God and that he is the way to God.
Taken in context, these words are a powerful reminder to us in the Christian church of the gift we have been given in Jesus Christ, who offers the world a new and intimate relationship with God. But these words of the fourth evangelist have often been taken out of context and used as a weapon in theological and cultural wars.
We must begin by putting these words back in their historical context. According to most scholars, this gospel was written late in the first century, in a setting of intense conflict between Christian Jews and non-Christian Jews. John, chapter 9, refers to people being “put out of the synagogue” as a consequence of following Jesus.
In that world, to be “put out” from the synagogue was far more serious than being expelled from a Christian congregation or denomination in our world. To be expelled from the synagogue meant no longer being considered a Jew (or at least an acceptable Jew). In a traditional society where most people lived their entire lives in the same village or town, it was a powerful social sanction. Those expelled faced social ostracism. As a result some of John’s community must have been tempted to return to their community of origin. This is the setting for the words, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” John was not thinking of all the religions of the world, but of the synagogue across the street. He was saying, in effect, “don’t go back to the way you left behind.”
The conflict of this writing is a neighborhood conflict. As scholar Gail O’Day writes: “This is not, as in the case of the twentieth century, the sweeping claim of a major world religion, but it is the conviction of a religious minority in the ancient Mediterranean world.”
In our modern-day context, this verse is used to try to convince people that if they do not have the correct set of beliefs about Jesus using just the right words, (salvation by syllables) then they will not know God.
But Jesus does not claim that Christianity is the way to the Father. He says, “I am the way,” and the way of Jesus is not a set of beliefs. The “way” of Jesus is a lifestyle or a path to be followed.
This way — this path — of Jesus is not as easy to follow as some Christians have thought. Christians have too often been inclined to think we can wrap Jesus up in a theological opinion, or a three point sermon, or even a bumper sticker. The way of Jesus is the way of death and resurrection – the path of transition and transformation from an old way of being to a new way of being. This way of Jesus is always moving us – moving us beyond ourselves — moving us out to people who are on the outside, who are suffering, who haven’t yet found the way in. Always leaving the ninety-nine in the fold and going out to endure all the indignities of the search just so that he can find the one that is lost.
Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Not your opinions and your beliefs about me. Just me. I am the way. Do you want to know my way? A sower went out to sow and scatter good seed everywhere – everywhere! But later a man found weeds growing in his wheat field and Jesus says, “Leave them be! Dandelions make good wine! A man had a son who stayed at home and kept all the rules and was the perfect child and another son who took everything he had been given for granted, lived like a spoiled reckless brat and got busted. Guess what? He loved them both. I’m the good shepherd, the one who lays down his life for his sheep and who has sheep that aren’t even part of this fold yet who belong to me too! That’s the way I am. That’s the truth I am. That’s the life I am.
There is something deeply comforting about this gospel passage – it is that the way to wherever we need to be — the only way in — is much broader and wider, much more welcoming and expansive than any of us have ever imagined. Room enough for everyone!
Rob Bell says “Jesus leaves the door to himself as wide open as the universe. He is as exclusive as himself and as inclusive as containing every single particle of creation.” (1)
It is no wonder we still have difficulty seeing and understanding and comprehending this way and truth and life of Jesus because it is so inclusive, so expansive. It is why we still need to say to him over and over again and again, “Lord, show us the way you are! Show us the way.”
Note:
1. Rob Bell, Christian Century, May 17, 2011, p. 25.