The Great I AM
09/02/2007 - I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life
Come around a troubled table ...
You may have noticed the table set in front of me ... before we leave today we are going to worship around this table ... we are going to give each of you an opportunity to come up to the table and take some bread and wine back to your seats and think about the body and blood of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for us on the cross ... this time of remembrance and worship is always a precious time for us at Valley View ...
I want to draw the table into our focus right now as a prop, if you will ... I want to invite all of you to imagine yourselves sitting around the table in the upper room in Jerusalem ... come into the scene where Jesus has gathered with the disciples just before the Jewish Passover Festival ...
As much as you possibly can, try to rid your minds of the classical images that may flash across the screen in your mind when you think of the Last Supper ... some of those pictures paint an image of a serene gathering with the disciples lounging about as if they were waiting for the entertainment to begin ...
I don't think it was like that at all ... there was a lot of crazy stuff going on around Jesus and his followers ... day to day life was all mixed up ... it was tough to keep the days straight ... emotions were raw and exposed ... fears were stirring up their stomachs and rising up in their throats ...
If you were here last week you might recall the tension surrounding Jesus and his disciples as he made the decision to travel back to the Jerusalem area after hearing that his friend, Lazarus, was dead ... the disciples were extremely jumpy ... “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
When Jesus insisted it was Thomas who proclaimed what they were all fearing ... “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Have you ever been afraid for your life? ... I mean actually afraid that you were going to die ... that your life was in jeopardy? ... maybe it was an unfounded fear ... you just got yourself all worked up over what amounted to nothing ... or maybe it was for good reason ... maybe you were in a car accident or found out you were being shipped over to Iraq or Afghanistan ... maybe your doctor found a suspicious lump on your breast or something suspicious in your blood work ... maybe you got involved with some people that turned out to have a violent temper ... all of a sudden you feared that they might hurt you or even kill you ...
When you fear for your life everything else blurs out of focus ... the world that you used to live in ... work in ... enjoy ... the world around you starts to move in slow motion while your inner world starts spinning faster and faster until it becomes hard to even breathe ...
I think that is what the disciples were feeling as they gathered around this table with Jesus that night ... they were treading water ... fighting to breathe ... running for their lives ... they didn't feel much like eating ... they were starting to feel the heat and what they wanted were answers ... answers to the questions that just kept backing up in their heads ...
“Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
“Ask him which one he means when he says one of you is going to betray me?”
“Lord, who is it?”
“Lord, where are you going?”
“Lord, why can't I follow you now?”
Jesus was acting strangely calm ... did he realize that he had stirred up a hornets' nest? ... if he is our leader what is he going to do to either calm things down or push through to a powerful victory? ... why is he washing our feet? ... what is all this talk about betrayal? ... about death? ... about going away? ... about disowning him? ...
This is a troubled table that we are gathered about this morning ...
Jesus tries to comfort us ...
Jesus realizes it ... he loves the anxious people gathered around the table ... he sees their worried eyes and his heart goes out to them ... and this is what he says ...
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. My Father's house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 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. You know the way to the place where I am going. (John 14:1-4)
[Thomas stands to his feet and shouts]
“NO!” [looks around at the other disciples]
“No, we don't!” [looks back up at Jesus]
Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
[Thomas remains standing as the teacher tells everyone more about him]
Everyone, I'd like you to meet Thomas ...
Thomas is one of my heroes because he has the guts to say the words and ask the questions that nobody will admit ...
we don't know a lot about Thomas ... his name means “twin” so he may have had a twin brother or sister ...
he probably was a fisherman because at the end of the book of John he was listed as being with some of the disciples fishing ...
usually that's the only mention of Thomas – in a list ... just a name in a list ... a common man ...
but he was real ... he didn't hide his struggles ... he said what he was thinking even if it wasn't popular ... even if it wasn't what all the other followers of Jesus were saying ...
It was Thomas who said going to Judea with Jesus would result in their deaths ... it was Thomas who, after the resurrection, said, “Yeah, right, you say you have seen the risen Lord ... Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Doubting Thomas is the name that he's been pegged with throughout the ages but I don't think that's fair ... Honest Thomas seems more appropriate to me or Real Thomas ... Genuine Thomas ... a run of the mill human being like me who's faith journey is often a roller coaster of ups and downs ...
I think Jesus really loved Thomas' raw confessions ... when Jesus came into that room after the resurrection he said to the disciples “Peace be with you” ... and then he turned to Thomas and said “Hey, Thomas ... here you go ... put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. No more doubting, Thomas ... believe!” ... to which Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God.”
And now this Thomas stands before us ... stands before the followers of Christ ... stands before Jesus and expresses his fears and frustrations ... “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
How many times in the dark days have we wanted to cry out the same words? ... How many times have we mistakenly thought that “good Christians should never say such things”? ... that good Christians should never doubt, never worry, never fear for their lives? ...
I believe that God included these panicked words of Thomas in the Holy Scriptures to let us know that it's okay to blurt out the anxiety on our hearts even if no one else has the guts to say it ...
I can really relate to this guy ... can you?
You can sit down now, Thomas, [Thomas sits down] thanks for having the courage to say what all of us have been thinking ... from here on out I want you all to put yourself in Thomas' sandals ... we've all been in situations where we've wondered what Jesus was talking about ...
Jesus answers Thomas' question ...
“Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus stops and looks right at Thomas, looks right at you and me, with knowing eyes and says,
I am the way, Thomas, and I am the truth, and I am the life ... if you want to be with me ... if you want to be with my father ... follow me ... stay with me ... I'll get you there ... I'll get you through all of this ...
Unfortunately, throughout the centuries the Christian church has misplaced the emphasis of these words ... Christianity has pointed the finger or the sword and demanded that people confess that Jesus is THE way, and THE truth, and THE life ...
But the very nature of Thomas' question prompted Jesus to put the emphasis on “I” ...
I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life ...
Thomas is not asking Jesus if he plans on starting a new religion that would be THE only true religion, he is asking Jesus how he can be with him ... how he can be with the Father ... how can we find the way? And Jesus' response is, “you're looking at it”
I am the way ...
I am the way ... I am the way to my Father's house in the life beyond this life ... the life beyond space and time... Jesus said that he would come back to personally escort us to his Father's house just like a Jewish groom of that day would come back and escort his bride to the new addition that he lovingly built onto his family's home ... that is the future way ...
Jesus is also the way in this life ... Jesus is saying to his frightened followers, “I will carry you through the perilous days that you are facing right now” ... I read an excellent description of the way of Jesus in Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis ...
As a Christian, I am simply trying to orient myself around living a particular kind of way, the kind of way that Jesus taught is possible. And I think that the way of Jesus is the best possible way to live.
This isn't irrational or primitive or blind faith. It is merely being honest that we are all living a “way”.
I'm convinced being generous is a better way to live.
I'm convinced forgiving people and not carrying around bitterness is a better way to live.
I'm convinced having compassion is a better way to live.
I'm convinced pursuing peace in every situation is a better way to live.
I'm convinced listening to the wisdom of others is a better way to live.
I'm convinced being honest with people is a better way to live.
This way of thinking isn't weird or strange; it is simply acknowledging that everybody follows somebody, and I'm trying to follow Jesus.
Over time when you purposefully try to live the way of Jesus, you start noticing something deeper going on. You begin realizing the reason this is the best way to live is that it is rooted in profound truths about how the world is. You find yourself living more and more in tune with ultimate reality. You are more and more in sync with how the universe is at its deepest levels.
I am the truth ...
I am the way ... I am the truth ... the words that I have spoken to you are true ... they will lead you to understand the bigger picture, the ultimate reality, through me you will understand how all this madness will one day be resolved ...
I am the life ...
I am the way ... I am the truth ... I am the life ... my life is a picture of the Father ... my life is a picture of how life is supposed to be ... my life is the pattern for your life ...
Transition to the Lord's Table ...
On the night that Jesus was betrayed, this was a troubled table ... I'm sure that there are many around this table ... in this room ... who feel like Thomas ... “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ... Jesus invites all of us to the table ... to take the bread which reminds us that his body was broken for us ... to take the cup which reminds us that his blood was poured out for us ... to follow him ... the way ... the truth ... the life ... to follow him into the mission that he has for us ... come to the table while we worship ... take the bread and the cup back to your seat and consider how these words of Jesus are speaking to you ... and wait until we've all had a chance to come to the table before we eat and drink together ...
Just before we eat and drink ...
The Faces of Jesus: A Life Story by Frederick Buechner from Chapter 4: Last Supper
Jesus knows that it is their last supper together and he makes no secret of it. “This is my body,” he says, picking up the bread. He breaks it in two and gives it away to them – “take ... eat ...” And then the wine. “This is my blood which is poured out,” he tells them. “Drink of it all of you,” and while the stain of it is still dark on their lips, he says, “I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
It is the great Messianic Feast to take place beyond time that he is speaking of, but he must have had a hard time believing in it there in that stuffy room full of frightened Jews.
When he first sent them out as disciples, he reminds them, he told them to take no purse or bag or sandals, nothing to arm themselves with against the world, “but now let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag, and let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one.” This side of paradise there is to be no paradise, and this side of the “peace of God, which passeth all understanding” there is to be no peace that they are likely to understand. They are going to have to fight fire with fire, he tells these feckless men, and if it is to be a fire that lights the way to truth, it will also kindle the blaze of their own cruel martyrdom. He promises them no less.
And they sing a hymn, the Gospels say. Their mouths spit dry, not one of them with heart enough to carry a tune. Their voices thin and quavering as they try to keep their spirits up, they belt out some crazy, holy song and leave for the Mount of Olives where Jesus says, “You will all fall away.”
Whatever else it was not, it was at least human, this final feast. One hardly knows whether to laugh or to weep. They were no better and no worse than they had always been, the twelve feasters. They were themselves to the end. And if there is a kind of black comedy about them, the way the Gospels paint the scene, there is a kind of battered courage about them too. Even though they knew what was coming, knew even what their own unedifying part in it was to be, they stuck to their guns, all but one of them. And in the long run, if not the short, they stuck to Jesus too. God makes his saints out of fools and sinners because there is nothing much else to make them out of. God makes his Messiah out of a fierce and fiercely gentle man who spills himself out, his very flesh and blood, as though it is only a loaf of bread and a cup of sweet red wine that he is spilling.