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John 14:6 is famously problematic.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me.”
The “I AM” statements in John’s gospel make known Jesus as the source of life, abundant grace, and, seen in connection with the absolute “I AM” statements, signal the very presence of God.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
And this is a very powerful “I AM” statement, one that hits deep to the core of any Christian. At the same time, it can be a hurtful claim to non-Christians as it can be viewed as quite an exclusionary declaration.
The original first-century Johannine community was forged in stressful and religious circumstances that led John to think in binary, exclusivistic, and oppositional categories. For example, the perception of this particular “I AM” statement is that the only way to God is through Jesus.
But what if you don’t believe in Jesus? Are those who are Jewish or Muslim or Hindu any less likely to find God, heaven, or salvation than Christians? What if you didn’t know who Jesus was? What if you had never heard of Jesus, or heard his story?
It is inconceivable that everyone would have been aware of what was happening. There was no CNN or Google. Not everyone in the world would have known who Jesus was or the events surrounding his birth, life, death, and resurrection.
In his World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) David Barrett identifies 10,000 distinct religions, 150 of which have a million or more followers. Is it reasonable to believe that Jesus is the only way and that the other 9,999 religions are false?
According to Karoline Lewis, “removed from the conversation between Jesus and Thomas, and from the situation of Jesus’ last alone time with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion, this particular “I AM” statement in the Gospel of John has turned into evidence for and proof of Jesus as the sole means of salvation.” When taken out of context, John 14:6 becomes the defense of all defense that Jesus is the only way to salvation and to heaven.
An additional glaring misappropriation of this “I AM” statement is it stands as contradictory to every other “I AM” statement in the Fourth Gospel. “I AM the way, the truth, and the life” becomes an indication of God’s judgment, exclusion, and absence. “No one comes to God except through me” rather than a word of promise becomes a declaration of prohibition.
Does that mean we should dismiss or avoid this verse? Not at all.
If we keep reading beyond verse 6, we realize that God has come, is present, in the life and ministry of Jesus. “If you know me” is a condition of fact, “if you know me, and you do.” These are words of comfort, not condition, for the disciples. There is nothing uncertain for their present or their future because of their relationship with Jesus. Of that, Jesus wants them to be secure.
Now, there is a possibility that John literally meant that no one gets to heaven except through Jesus, we will never know. But I don’t believe that thought is in keeping with the spirit of Jesus’ own life and teachings.
The statement, I think, is not grounds for slaughtering non-believers in Jesus, or forced baptisms, or worrying that non-believers have been condemned to everlasting damnation.
Let’s look at the statement in a different way. Jesus first says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Now, let’s do a little word algebra using the substitution method.
The verse goes like this: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me.’” If we substitute for the "me" in the second statement with who Jesus says "me" is – the "I am" in the first statement – we get “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to God, except through the way, the truth, and the life.”
The verse is now a plain statement of the simple truth that the life to come will be a way of truth and life.
And, since Jesus has said that he will come and take us to God himself, we can trust that we will not be abandoned and left on our own to find this impossible-for-us-to-be-nothing-but-truth-and-life way.
Jesus himself is a gift from the very heart of God whose teachings guide us and whose presence sustains and challenges us. We continue, throughout our lives, to ask and ask again the basic questions of "Am I on the right track in life?" and "How can I know God in my life?" The answer Jesus gives is both simple and profound: "I am the Way."
John 14:6 is an important statement by Christians, for Christians. It is a message of hope, not exclusion.
I like the view of C.S. Lewis who, in his book Mere Christianity, wrote, "Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him."
And as Rachel Held Evans states in her book Faith Unraveled, “Isn’t it a little suspicious that the only true religion is the one with which we happened to grow up?”
Jesus’ statement about being the way, the truth, and the life is a response to a question by Christians, and Jesus’ answer is directed to Christians and is about Christians. Of course, Jesus’ followers wouldn’t have called themselves to “Christians” yet; but, as we learn in the book of Acts, “The Way” was one of the earliest names for Christianity.
When not misused, John 14:6 it a source of hope and comfort to us Christians and it is to be a reminder not of how we can exclude others, but of how we should be living our lives.
Ask yourselves these questions:
How can I know God in my life?
Am I living the Jesus truth?
Am I living the Jesus way?
Am I living the Jesus life?
Whenever we struggle with finding our way, return to these questions. Jesus is the way for those who dwell in an abyss of misery and futility. Jesus is the way for disciples going through the motions. Jesus is the way for new disciples who fear their questions are too basic. Jesus himself is a gift from the very heart of God whose teachings guide us and whose presence sustains and challenges us.
May we all do our best to live out Jesus’ truth, way, and life and be examples of true Christian believers through love and compassion for ourselves and for our neighbours.
Amen.
Resources:
"Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis
"Faith Unraveled" by Rachel Held Evans
`workingpreacher.com
patheos.com
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