Year A

John 14:1-14

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Way, Truth & Life of Christ

When you build a church, what are the elements you want to include? Will it be built out of brick and mortar, or rock and concrete, or lumber and nails? Will it have a steeple or possibly a bell tower? Will the baptismal font be in a permanent location or one that can be moved about? Do we install pews, or use removable chairs to give our building more versatility? All these components are important to consider when building a church but when Jesus built his church, he didn’t consider any of these components. When Jesus built his church, he started with a very small, but firm foundation.

Upon that foundation, he built a structure that has been rocked and windblown, shaken and flooded, even attacked by numerous enemies, and yet has withstood and survived down through the ages. Not even our modern day pandemic will be able to take the church down. We are anxious about the future of this virus, and also about the changes it will bring to the church but the Church will survive because its foundation is built on the risen Christ.

We are definitely living in anxious times and in our gospel reading today from John, Jesus’ disciples also had good reason to be anxious. The text today forms a part of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples after their last supper together and before Jesus was arrested, put on trial and crucified. He had gathered his disciples around him to help them understand his life and work, his approaching death and his resurrection. In the previous chapter of John, Jesus tells them some things that were confusing and worrisome. He said he would be leaving, and they would not be able to come with him, that one of them would betray him and Peter would deny him. I’m sure they were wondering how any of this could happen, they had left everything to follow him, and now he was telling them they would no longer be able to follow and one of them would betray and one would deny him.

Understanding their anxiousness, Jesus said to them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Not easy: in fact without God’s help it is impossible.  However, Jesus gives them a way, the means, to be lifted from their anxious, directionless, fearful state. He says, “Believe in God, believe also in me;” The cross of death is coming, but the difficulties will not last forever; they will give way to God’s will and future. “For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” This stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner. A cornerstone that is the route to God, the path, the mode of transportation, the fuel, the navigation, the destination, and the reason for the voyage. It is Jesus who tells them, he is “the way, the truth and the life; the firm foundation.

The great Catholic theologian, Thomas a’ Kempis, caught the meaning of Jesus’ words and said this about them, “Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; and without the life, there is no living.” In these words “Way, Truth and Life” there is eternal meaning and truth. For when God created us, God created us for more than just living life. We are created with a purpose. Life has a goal to it. We weren’t placed here so we could just wander around in circles. We were created to travel through it toward an end. And Jesus tells us today it is through him that we find the “way” to that end. If we want to find our way to the place God has created for us or to understand our purpose, we must follow Christ; for Jesus leads us to God.

Philip learned that. After Thomas had questioned Jesus on where he was going. Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Show us God, Philip asked. Help us understand who God is and that will be enough to calm our anxious hearts and to understand where you are leading. To that request, Jesus responds by saying, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” God need not be a mystery to you. I am the way to know God, Jesus says. If you know me, you know the Father.

And what do we know about Jesus. Well, first we know that he is love. When we see Jesus, we see love in action; love reaching out a hand of care, or healing a leper, or accepting an outcast and rebuking the hate-filled. We see love forgiving the sinner, welcoming the prodigal, freeing the captive, and giving new life to all. The way of Jesus through life is found through love—love for God and love for one another. And today, he is giving us an invitation to know God through him and an example of how to live our lives.  In verse 12, he says. “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.”

Jesus embodies the way to God and therefore, the “way” of following as a disciple. As he was “sent” by God to proclaim this love to the world, so too will the disciples be sent. We are called on this path of following the way of Christ to love, and we are also called to be learners, and for that reason, Jesus says, “I am the truth.” He is the truth of God in the flesh and he lived the truth.  When we look at Jesus we see the truth about God. We see the very nature of God. It is God’s nature to show mercy, forgiveness and love; a love that is unearned and when we look at Jesus, we learn the truth about the life God wants us to seek and live.  When we look at Jesus we also see the truth about ourselves.

It’s hard to look at Jesus sometimes because we fall short. When he says to us, “I am the truth”, he confronts us with our sin and failures. Paul puts it this way, “All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” And “the wages of sin is death” and that is why it is so important that Jesus also say to us “I am the life.” His entire purpose was to bring “life” to the world. The “life” promised is “eternal life” which is participating in the very being of God.  Therefore, he gives us an invitation just as he did to those original disciples to believe and come to him, to receive in him the gift of life, eternal life that God created us for. The thread that runs through all of what Jesus is saying today is faith.

It is faith that leads us in the way to God. It is faith that helps us to see the truth about our lives and to seek the truth about God. And it is faith that brings God’s gift of life to us. Faith comes to us when we believe in Jesus and trust his words, follow his example, and live with God. Whatever our anxieties might be, we have God and we have one another. Together, we can stop letting our hearts be troubled and together we can trust in God. This is the way of Jesus: the way of trust, the way of faith, and the way of peace.

This is the solid foundation that we can build our lives on and this is God’s promise to us that in Jesus we have the way and the truth and the life that God created us for. May we walk the way of the risen Lord, seek to know his truth and to live his way of life so that the church which has survived for generations, may continue to be the example of God’s people. “A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into his light.” This is enough to sustain us and empower us no matter what the world may bring. Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Amen.