Bible passage: John 14.1-6
I’d like you to imagine you are climbing up a mountain with a friend. It’s a sensible thing to do, if you’re on a mountain. Now imagine you come to the steepest and most difficult part of the climb, and there are all sorts of options and paths.
Your friend turns and says, ‘I think it’s this way, so follow me!’ And without another word she starts climbing round a corner – and disappears. You can’t see her anymore. What do you do? At first you wait. And wait. And wait…
What do you do? How do you know your friend was right, how do you know she is safe and has made it to the top? Do you follow the path she chose, or do you go a different way?
People often talk about life and religion as being like climbing a mountain. ‘There are many ways up the mountain,’ they say.
And that’s true. Isn’t it? We are all different, which is a good thing. We have different personalities, experiences, skills and talents. There are many ways to live our life. But to say all religions and philosophies are basically the same – based on what? Are you in a helicopter with a view of the whole mountain?
This really matters, because when it comes to the steepest and most difficult parts of life, like the friends in the story getting close to the top of the mountain, how do we know what to do? When faced with challenges, with hard situations – even with death itself – how do we know what to do? Which way do we go? How do we even make that decision?
But what if your friend suddenly appeared again, saying, ‘I’ve been all the way to the top, and this is the only safe path; so come on, follow me!’ I think I would feel a lot happier following my friend to the top of the mountain, knowing she had already been there, and come back again safely.
So what if we had someone to follow, someone who had been there and back again? Someone who had passed through life, even death itself, and instead of staying on the other side, came back to say, ‘It’s ok, follow me, and you will find even death is not the end’? What if…?
The good news of the Christian faith, is that there is such a person: Jesus Christ. I don’t know what you think about Jesus. In first-century Israel – as now – some were drawn to him, some rejected him, and others simply didn’t care.
But whatever you think, I encourage you to hear these words, spoken by Jesus to his friends the night before he was killed:
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.’
Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’
Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’
John 14.1-6 (NIV)
Here Jesus is making a promise to his disciples, that he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house.
Jesus is using picture language we can understand, to talk about something we can’t: heaven. We simply can’t imagine the wonder of spending eternity in the praise and presence of God. So, Jesus says, it’s like a huge house, and there’s room for you – not only that, the Son of God himself is going to prepare a place for you.
That is quite an astonishing promise. The next day Jesus was crucified, and if that had been the end of the story, his words would have been forgotten – or perhaps recorded as a footnote in the tragic history of a failed religious nutjob.
But Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end. On the third day Jesus rose to life, back from the dead. He appeared to his disciples. He talked to them, ate with them, travelled with them. Like our friend who disappeared up the mountain and came back, Jesus has come back to tell us, ‘I’ve been there and back again, so follow me; I know the only safe way up to the top.’
In fact, Jesus said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.’ It is one of the most shocking things Jesus said. It is a claim to utter uniqueness, to exclusivity. It means there is only one answer to the question of what’s most important in my life, in your life, in this church’s life: Jesus. He, and he alone, is where we find truth and life.
Someone wise once told me: as a vicar, if in doubt, point to Jesus. I think that’s good advice for everyone though! Jesus is the one who fulfils all our deepest needs. Jesus is the groom; we are his beloved bride. Jesus is perfect peace in the midst of life’s storms. Jesus shows us what true faithfulness and obedience looks like: it’s costly and it hurts, but with it comes abundant life. Jesus is the one whose love is stronger even than death itself. Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age. And as Bishop Michael said to me a few days ago, we might be called ‘Christ Church’ but we are also ‘Christ’s church’. We are his; Jesus is the Good Shepherd of this church: it’s not yours, it’s certainly not mine, it’s Christ’s church.
‘If you want to make it through life, and through death, to the place I have prepared for you,’ Jesus says, ‘then follow me.’ Jesus knows the way: in fact he is the way. We don’t have to guess, we simply have to trust and obey… because it turns out there aren’t many ways up the mountain, there is only one, and it’s Jesus.
That is the good news of the Christian faith, and the wonderful truth of the words of Jesus we heard today. The Christian faith isn’t empty, blind trust: shutting our eyes and hoping for the best.
No: Christians trust the one who has been there and back again, the way, the truth and the life: Jesus Christ.