Fifth Sunday in Easter 2008 - St. Peter Lutheran Church, Norwalk, CT

EASTER 5, A – April 20, 2008

SCRIPTURES – Psalm 30; Acts 6 & 7; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him… Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14)

I don’t know about you, but after the beautiful week we’ve had, the clear skies and warm, sunny days, it’s very fitting to begin this week with these wonderful words of Jesus: “In my Father’s house are many rooms… I go to prepare a place for you…

I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” It is good to be alive, and especially to be enjoying and celebrating the life we have in Christ!

The problems we face in this world have not gone away, though, have they? We even face special problems because of these words of Jesus.

I have heard several very anti-Christian comments over the last few days, prompted primarily by the Pope’s visit to this country. Imagine what we would be hearing if he had spoken these words of Jesus in the synagogue he visited on Friday!

These words of Jesus in John 14 are very “in your face” words. Let us not avoid them, however, but confess them and rejoice in them! For, in these words, spoken to His disciples the night He was betrayed as He celebrated the Passover with them, Jesus proclaims very clearly who He is and what we have in Him. He proclaims:

I. HE IS GOD.

The true and only God. He is not one among many gods, nor another god with the Father in heaven, as if there are two Gods. He is one with God the Father. Listen again to what He says:

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me… the Father… dwells in me.”

This means that if you want to find God, you must look to Jesus. He says this very plainly. To Thomas Jesus says: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Then, to Philip He says: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

Now, this sounds very exclusionary; and, yes, it is. You cannot come to God apart from Jesus. You must believe in Jesus to see God. All other gods, all other beliefs other than Christianity, are useless, even a hindrance and an offense to God, when it comes to seeing and knowing God. This is not my opinion. It is what Jesus plainly says.

I know that this is an offense to our modern ears, our multicultural world. Even so, it is what Jesus says. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me… the Father dwells in me.” Jesus doesn’t allow us to consider Him one god among many, or just one name of God. He, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the true and only God.

This seems very exclusionary; but just consider: the God who speaks these words is sitting with His disciples. God has come down to us, in our flesh! He is not far away; we do not have to find Him, ascend to Him by our own efforts, whether it be our intelligence or goodness or sincerity. God comes down to us sinners and makes Himself known to us! And, we know how in His ministry Jesus welcomed all who came to Him, no matter who they were, no matter what they had done. He welcomed and helped all, even the worst of sinners, such as prostitutes and thieves. The only ones excluded were the self-righteous, those who thought they were better than others and had earned God’s praise. The friend of sinners – this is the kind of God Jesus is. Keep this in mind when you are troubled by your sins.

II. HE IS THE WAY – THE ONLY WAY – TO HEAVEN.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”/span> Again, how exclusionary this sounds, and is. What about the compassionate Buddhist, the faithful Jew, the zealous Moslem, the pious Hindu? Does not their sincerity and good life count before God? Must they be consigned to hell, simply because they call God by another name and do not worship Jesus?

Try to think outside the exclusionary box here. Jesus isn’t crossing His arms, frowning, and restricting heaven when He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He is opening His arms, and heaven, to everyone! For, He came for everyone, took upon Himself the sins of all people and made Himself accountable for them. In Him, no one is excluded from heaven. Other religions teach that heaven is for the deserving. You must earn it by your good works, your sincerity, your love for God and for others. Jesus proclaims that He has gained heaven for us. Your sins and failures will not close the doors of heaven to you, for in Him every sin is forgiven. He opens heaven to all!

As a matter of fact, He has brought heaven down to us. First He says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” Then He says, “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.” Heaven is not a house with rooms. It is Jesus Himself, for He takes us to Himself. And so, where Jesus is, there is heaven! There is God’s dwelling place! The truly amazing and comforting thing is that He makes us His dwelling place. The Jesus who proclaimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” went on to say (John 14:23), "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Jesus and His Father live in us who believe in Him! Heaven is here; it is in us who believe in Him! This is a mystery; it is certainly not in evidence. But, this is what Jesus proclaims. It will be revealed to us when He comes again in glory. In this life, Jesus will cover His glory and work through the cross. This is why many reject Him.

III. HE IS KNOWN THROUGH THE CROSS.

“I go to prepare a place for you.”/i> Go where? To the cross, of course. But, “I go to prepare a place for you” sums up Christ’s entire life, beginning with His coming down from heaven and being born among us. Don’t think only of the wooden cross on which He was crucified. Jesus’ entire life was the cross. The cross refers to God’s working to save us through that which is hidden and seemingly contrary, such as:

the almighty God coming to us as a weak and mortal man;

forgiveness being gained by His becoming guilty and bearing our sin;

Jesus winning eternal life for us by dying;

forgiveness, even Jesus and heaven itself, being given to us in our lowly worship, through simple words, water, bread and wine.

“I go to prepare a place for you,” Jesus says. He goes the way of the cross, humbles Himself to serve us and, ultimately, assume our sin and its punishment, that He might prepare a place for us in heaven and prepare us for heaven.

As believers in Jesus and those in whom He lives, we, like Jesus, must work through the cross. We must humble ourselves and serve others. This is how fervent faith and its exclusivity can break down barriers and bring people to Jesus.

It is certainly understandable, especially with what we have experienced in recent years in this country, that people would be afraid of fervent and exclusive faith. We have seen believers in Allah fly planes into buildings and kill 1,000’s, or strap bombs onto themselves and blow themselves up to kill others, especially those who do not hold to their faith. A faith that proclaims itself to be true and others to be false is dangerous!

But, not Jesus and His faith. He gives His life for the world. So do His followers, such as Stephen. He proclaims the truth. He says to the Jewish leaders: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit… you have now betrayed and murdered [the Righteous One], you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” Harsh words! And yet, when they stone him for this, what does he do? He prays for their forgiveness: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” You are God’s people, who have now received mercy from God so that you might be mercy from God. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. in Him heaven is opened to us, and He is in us who believe, through us opening heaven to others. May the Lord keep us steadfast in this faith and open our mouths to proclaim it, to the praise of His holy and saving Name. Amen.