Lent
Midweek 4 – John 14:1-14
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Our
Gospel lesson takes place on Maundy Thursday evening. There in the
Upper room, before He heads to His passion, our Lord teaches His
disciples, His closest friends. And as He prepares them for what is
to come, for His suffering and death and resurrection, He tells them
that He is doing this to prepare them a place in heaven. And just to
cap things off, He says, “And you know
the way to where I am going.” And then
Thomas, good old Thomas peeps up with, “Lord,
we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Talk about a deflating answer – You don’t know, Thomas? Here
Christ has been pointing them to heaven and salvation – the
mansions of the Father… ah, nope, don’t know what You’re
talking about, and I certainly don’t know how to get there.
In
response our Lord says tonight’s I Am statement: “I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.” With these words
our Lord sums up His entire ministry, the entire point of why He
came, what He was here to do. He is the way, He is the truth, and He
is the life. When we think of Jesus, when we think of His ministry,
nothing encapsulates it better than Jesus saying that He is “The
Way”. In fact, the first Christians just said that they were those
who were part of “The Way”. Christ Jesus is the way, the path
which brings us to restoration with God the Father and with each
other. If we are to spend eternity with the Father, Christ is the
way. There is no way apart from Christ – you cannot get to the
Father apart from Christ. Doesn’t matter how good you think you
are, doesn’t matter how nice you have been – apart from Christ
you cannot reach the Father. Period.
You
can think about it this way – every Gospel lesson we hear, every
sermon that is preached here, is nothing more than expanding upon
this idea of Jesus being the Way – every Gospel lesson, every
sermon simply shows and explains what Christ has done in order to
bring us, restored and forgiven, before the Father. He becomes man
to fulfill the Law in our place. He is baptized, so that we might be
baptized for the forgiveness of our sins. He lives the perfect life,
fulfilling our righteousness. He suffers and is mocked in our stead.
He suffers and tastes death so that He can defeat it for us. He
rises, so that we too will rise. Every thing is just Christ paving
the way to life everlasting. He is the way, and there is no other
way, no other name under heaven by which we are to be saved.
What
we must be wary of is this – our sinful flesh despises the fact
that Christ and Christ alone is the way. Our sinful flesh does not
want to rely upon Christ – it wants to rely upon itself. Our
sinful flesh doesn’t like not having a choice in the matter. This
is especially true for us as Americans – we love having our
options, our choices, the ability to customize – we do this to
everything. Yet Christ tells us that He is the way alone, and our
sinful flesh can take umbrage at this. This is the way Satan attacks
many people – by denying that Jesus is the way. How many folks
today will say, “oh, there are many paths to God”? This verse
calls them liars. Many folks will try to make even the Christian
faith a pick and choose sort of thing, where they observe parts and
other things they will ignore. Doesn’t work that way. Christ
Jesus is the way, and apart from Him, we can do nothing.
To
make us to see and understand this, Christ Jesus came teaching. He
came, and He is the Truth. Over and against the false temptations of
Sin, Christ came to show us our sin and show us His righteousness,
which He gives to us to give us life. As John teaches us in his
first epistle: “If we say we have no sin
we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us.”
Did you hear that – if we claim to be perfect, then we are liars
like Satan, and Christ, the Truth, dwells not in us. Yet, when we
speak truthfully about our sinfulness, what then? “If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” When we speak with
Christ His truth, we receive forgiveness, He cleanses our sin, takes
it all away. This is the Truth that sets us free, the Truth that
gives life everlasting.
There
is a lot of blabbering that goes on in the world today about
religion, about God, about faith. Here is how you can cut to the
chase with it – does it speak the Truth? Does it speak Christ's
Truth that I am a poor miserable sinner, does it speak the Truth of
Christ Jesus winning me forgiveness with His life, death, and
resurrection? Does it proudly proclaim that Jesus alone is the way –
or does it point to something else instead of Christ, like my works,
my worth, my merit? If it is not speaking of Christ for you, Christ
who comes to win you salvation, who comes to give you life – it’s
trash. And again, remember that the world will dangle all sorts of
things out there for you to be focused on, even in churches. But the
center and key must remain this – that we are sinners who receive
forgiveness on account of Christ Jesus. In fact, this is what life
is.
This
is true because Christ Jesus is life. Our life, our existence, our
salvation rests solely and completely upon Him. Again, this is
something that cuts across the grain of American society. How often
have you heard someone say, “It’s my life, I can do with it what
I want.” Actually – no. First of all, it denies the reality
that we were created to be in relationship with others. Yes, I have
a life, but my life, it belongs to my wife, my kids. They have the
right to lay claim to my time. Yes, I have a life, but in this life,
I am a pastor. You here have the right to my time, my service. It
is a deception of sin that makes us think that we should live only
for ourselves. Do you not know that we were created to love and care
for one another – that is what life is. To live is to serve. Sin
has wrecked that, made us selfish and fallen. But that is why Christ
Jesus came – He came because He is life, and He will restore you to
life, life everlasting. If you are to have life, you will have it
only by Christ, only in Him. You belong to Him. He is your
Redeemer, He has purchased and won you from all sins, from death,
from the power of the devil. You belong to Him, and He is your life.
And this is a wonderful thing, a wonderful gift. It’s a wonderful
thing to be Christ’s, to have your life come from Him. Because
apart from Christ there is only death, there are only lies and
delusions, there are only wandering paths into loneliness and
isolation and doom and destruction. Christ Jesus does not desire
that for you, so He comes to you through His Life giving Word to call
you unto Himself, to redeem you, to forgive you and make you His own,
so that in Him you have life. He invigorates you, beats down your
selfishness and fills you with His own life, His own love. That is a
mighty thing.
Lent
is winding down – know what you are seeing. You are seeing Christ
Jesus re-establish life in this fallen world – bringing life to
fallen mortals, bringing Truth, making us to really be alive, taking
us to the Father. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And all
this He is for you, for your sake, so that He might have you with Him
in His Father’s house for all eternity. In the Name of Christ the
Crucified +
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