One Way Jesus
April 20, 2005 – 9:37 pm | by Duncan Macleod
This week’s gospel reading is from John 14:1-14.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together. You know the way to where I am going.”
I’ve taken many funerals and often read from John 14 at those funerals. I’ve done so because I believe in some sense of life after death, life in a new dimension. In these words Jesus gives us a hope that what we have now is not all there is. He’s inviting his followers to trust that it will be OK in the next dimension.
However I’m not so keen on founding Christian faith on an anxiety about whether or not we’ll make it into heaven. Looking at the life and teaching of Jesus, he didn’t spend a lot of time making sure that his disciples had an assurance of salvation or life in heaven. Most of his work was about making heaven come alive in the lives of people right now.
I’ve always liked the phrase “It’s not just pie in the sky when you die, it’s steak on the plate while you wait”. I heard it first in a Pentecostal church in Invercargill. Sure, there was a hint then of triumphalist expectations that life would be cruisy because of healing and peace of mind. And of course, there’s a consumerist approach underlying the promise. “But wait, there’s more!”
It has been observed that people who have it tough in this life are more motivated to long for the next life. People who have it comfortable are more likely to want to enjoy this life and put out of mind any worries about the next life.
Despite the talk of rooms or mansions Jesus does get into specifics about the next dimension. He focuses more on the relationship that will be sustained even through the transition of death.
Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t even know where you are going! How can we know the way?”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father. If you had known me, you would have known the Father. But from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.”
A man dies and goes to heaven, and meets St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter shows him in, and begins to walk him to his designated room. As they walk, he gives the man a bit of a tour. “Over here in this area are all the Buddists, over here we have the Jews, and over there are all the Hindus.” They’re about to turn a corner when St. Peter says “Shhhhhh, be sure to be real quiet when you’re walking around here.” “Why?” Asks the man. St. Peter answers “Because this is where we keep all the Catholics, and they think they’re the only ones up here.”
Back in the 1970s there was a common bumper sticker with the slogan, “One Way Jesus”. Larry Norman came out with his song, “One way, one way to heaven”. This was all linked up with the conservative Evangelical teaching that people would get into heaven only if they trusted in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. If you trusted in your own works, you were done for in God’s eyes. If you didn’t even think about the basis for your relationship with God your eternal destiny was in danger.
But I don’t see that approach here in John 14. Jesus says that if we connect with God through Jesus, we’ll be able to do the same things that he did, and even more.
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”
Jesus replied: “Philip, I have been with you for a long time. Don’t you know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you ask me to show you the Father? Don’t you believe that I am one with the Father and that the Father is one with me? What I say isn’t said on my own. The Father who lives in me does these things. Have faith in me when I say that the Father is one with me and that I am one with the Father. Or else have faith in me simply because of the things I do. I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father. Ask me, and I will do whatever you ask. This way the Son will bring honor to the Father. I will do whatever you ask me to do.”
