John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God,
believe also in me. 2 In my
Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have
told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place
where I am going." 5 Thomas
said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know
the way?" 6 Jesus said to
him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. 7 If
you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have
seen him." 8 Philip said to
him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been
with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen
me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the
Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on
my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but
if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who
believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater
works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. 14 If
in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
The
drama of Easter continues this week with a Gospel selection from prior to the death/resurrection of
Jesus. This continues an idea begun last week (4th Sunday of Easter). The point
being, on Easter Sunday we read about the empty tomb; on the 2nd Sunday of
Easter we read about the resurrection appearance in the upper room; and on the
third Sunday of Easter we read about the Emmaus Road disciples. Each of these
readings featured the resurrected Christ. To one degree or another, the
focus was on him and his resurrection.
Last week an
important shift happened in the drama. From a textual chronology perspective,
we backed up and had a reading from before His death--the Good Shepherd passage
from John 10. And now we have this passage from John 14 for this week. Next
week we'll have a passage later in the chapter where Jesus promises to send The
Comforter. And then the 7th and last Sunday of Easter we have the "high
priestly" prayer of Christ in John 17 where he prays that his followers
would be one, as he and the Father are
one. In other words, what's going on in the Easter 'drama' is that the
focus is shifting away from the simple fact
that Jesus arose, and is directing our attention to life in the Church as we
follow the risen Christ. This is accomplished by traveling backward in the
story of the text, but we should always remember that the words belong on the
lips of the risen Christ. For last Sunday, an excellent example of this
is the icon I have in my office at home of the Good Shepherd. Jesus is depicted
as out in the pasture with sheep all around him, but when you look close at the
image, you can see that his hands and feet have nail marks.
I
see this week's passage as being easily divided into two chunks: vss 1-6 regarding our anxieties about life
after death and the promises of comfort that [the risen] Christ gives, followed
by vss 7-14 regarding the [everlasting] relationship Jesus has with The Father.
My hunch is that it would be difficult to preach this entire text--and my
knee-jerk reaction is to focus in on vss 1-6. Having said that, vs 14 deserves
some comment: If in my name you ask me
for anything, I will do it. On the surface it sure looks like Jesus has
revealed the secret to getting whatever we want; ANYTHING we ask, he'll do it.
We could get our despised co-worker fired; we could get a brand new BMW. We
could be financially secure... healthy,
wealthy and wise. And yet surely our experience as Christians teaches us it
DOESN'T work like that. So what gives? We need to remember that in my name part. The name of Christ,
like the name of God mentioned in the 2nd commandment, is not to be taken in
vain. Invoking the name of Christ means invoking His Will. It is his will to
forgive sinners; to rescue us from death and the devil. If we invoke his name
and ask for this, he will surely do it.
Back
to the first part of the passage... I'm struck by the anxiety in Thomas's
voice: Lord, we do not know where you
are going. How can we know the way? I like Thomas a lot because he seems
like a 'detail guy'... and I'm a detail guy. Thomas has just been told let not your heart be troubled... but
obviously his heart seems troubled as he blurts out this statement. In his
exclamation he is trying to call "timeout" in a game that's unfolding
too quickly before his eyes. He thinks he's missed something. He thinks that
he's going to be held accountable or responsible to personally accomplish something that he doesn't know how to do. I
can relate. Several instances come to mind--particularly in my former career
field. At one point, my section was going to be held strictly accountable for
performing hardware modifications/upgrades on our test systems... to be
accomplished no later than a certain date... yet the schematics and
instructions for accomplishing these mods had not yet been given to us. Just
the recollection of that story causes the spirit of Thomas to well up within me...
we do not know how to do this, and how can
we know?
Of course the spirit of Thomas can well up within any of us at
any time and at any stage of living the Christian life. Maybe you feel a clear call
and open door to pursue a new area of ministry, yet the spirit of Thomas is
simultaneously welling up within you saying I
don't know how to do this and HOW can I know how? Maybe things are not
going well in your personal relationships.... with your spouse, or your
children. Or, maybe it is the eternal question; maybe you’re just not sure
about this whole thing of belief and faith, and it seems like it’s all resting
on your shoulders and dependent upon your
ability to understand it all.
Regardless,
to ALL of this we need to see and HEAR Jesus’ words to Thomas I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. Often these words are lifted out of context and used as a ‘prooftext’ for
the exclusivity of the Christian faith as a viable path to God. There is indeed
a time and place for this sort of question to be pondered in theological
discourse, but within the context of what’s going on in the text, Jesus is
addressing Thomas’s specific concern. Thomas has just been anxious; Thomas has
just said he doesn’t “know how” to get there, or the “way” to get there. And in
response to this, Jesus in essence tells him, ‘don’t worry, I’ve got it
covered.’
I wonder how often we complicate the
life of faith by assuming that Jesus is relying on us to work miracles. I
wonder how often we become anxious and let things weigh us down, when in fact,
those cares and concerns belong to Christ. He is the way… we’re not. Our call
is to be faithful to him, to follow him along ‘his way’ (this week) to follow
him as our good shepherd (last week), and… with Thomas after Christ’s response,
breathe a big sigh of relief.
Cheers,
T.M.
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