When our Lord Jesus Christ speaks, his words have power and meaning and depth. They are like no other words. They are God’s word. They are rich, full, and worthy of our continual attention and meditation. Even when he speaks simple words and phrases, there is more to explore and apply, more treasures than we can exhaust.
So also with these familiar words from John’s gospel: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” So many of us probably have them memorized from an early age. We know them as well as we do John 3:16, “For God so loved the world...” And with good reason. This little sentence, these three ideas, are full of blessings for us, his people. Let’s examine them more closely today.
For starters, this statement is one of the 7 great “I Am” declarations Jesus makes in John’s Gospel. Pastor Christiansen mentioned these briefly last week. The 7 are: "I am the bread of life" (6:35), "I am the light of the world" (8:12), "I am the door/gate of the sheep" (10:7,9), "I am the good shepherd" (10:11), "I am the resurrection and the life" (11:25), "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (14:6), and "I am the true vine" (15:1).
In each of these Jesus is telling us something about himself, yes, but even more, about some way in which he blesses us. And even more, by using that special moniker, “I AM”, he identifies himself as the very God of the Old Testament, who created the heavens and the earth, who made promises to Abraham, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, who led the people out of bondage in Egypt, and so much more.
John’s Gospel is magnificent in its depiction of Jesus as the fully Divine Son of the Father. And these statements put a fine point on it.
And this threefold statement, that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, he further emphasize the superlative blessings he brings us.
He is the Way. The Greek word is “hodos” from which we get the word synod (like in Missouri Synod) – syn “with” and hodos “road” - we are together on the same road. But here, he is THE hodos, the road, the way.
He is not a way. He’s not just one way among many. But he is singularly the way, that is, the only way. As he says immediately after this, “No one comes to the Father but by me.”
That means that all the other ways to the Father are false ways. All the other ways lead somewhere else. And we sinners are quite good at following other ways, aren’t we? Like Frank Sinatra, we all want to do it “My way.” My choices. My priorities. My own rationale for what I want to do. Sin is just that way. My way, not his way. And my way is quite literally the highway to hell.
But like the Israelites in the book of Judges, “each one did what was right in his own eyes”, it’s never good when we depart from God’s way. Had we the ability to fulfill his law, keep his commandments, and avoid sin altogether, that would be the way. But we cannot, and we do not, and to be honest there’s that sinful nature that doesn’t even want to.
But then Christ comes and says, “I am the way” He is not the way for us to make our own way. He’s not an example to follow, or a new law-giver. He’s something altogether different. He represents the way of grace. A way to heaven that is not something to do, but receive. Not something to earn, but a gift. A savior who saves us by his blood, dies for us, rises for us, does all the work of our salvation. He is the way, and he alone can save, and he does. What a blessing that the Father has provided us a way out of sin and death, and that way, the only way, is Jesus.
He is the truth. The Greek, “Althea” 109 times in the New Testament. You could say the scriptures are very concerned about the truth.
And oh, what we could say about truth these days. Our world is undergoing a crisis of truth. It’s hard to know what is true anymore, or who to trust. We have fake news and alternative facts. It’s even disputed if there is such a thing as truth.
But these questions aren’t new. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “what is truth?” Even at the tree, the serpent questioned the truth, “did God really say?” From this very first lie, the Devil hasn’t stopped spinning his webs of deceit. And we, sinful by nature, we have ever drifted from the truth. We give ear to false prophets and false teaching. We even spin up the lies we tell ourselves. We are a mess of confusion and perversion and ignorance that is anything but bliss.
But Jesus cuts through all that with the truth. No, he doesn’t just speak the truth or lead us to the truth. He is the truth! He embodies and personifies it. He is, after all, the word of God made flesh who dwelled among us.
Friends, this is profound. It is not just that everything Jesus says is true and reliable, of course there’s that. But that he is the truth, the most important truth to know, the center and ground of all truth. To know Jesus is to know the truth. Without Jesus, no other truth matters.
And he is the life, the “Zoa” in the Greek, from which we get all kinds of English words like zoo. But like the way and the truth, the life he speaks of here is more than just everyday life, though that’s amazing enough.
Yes, it is by him that we live and move and have our being. He gives us life, by his own Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. Our creation itself traces back to him.
Of course that life was shattered by our sin, and death the interloper plodded into the picture. An alien, a slobbering invader who never belonged here. Death breathes his murderous threats down your neck, and never lets up until your cold clay rests in the grave. A fearsome foe, death. Not one we can defeat on our own.
But Jesus the Life has overcome death. He reclaimed his own life from the grave, and he promises to restore yours as well. He is the life, the source of life, the only true life we can and will have. And that life is ours, even now, even before death. And that life is ours even though we die. We will live, and never die, in him. For on the last day, the Spirit will raise all the dead, and give eternal salvation to you and me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
The hodos, the althea, the zoa, the way the truth and the life that is Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God for the blessings he brings. Thanks be to Christ who died, and lives, and gives us all good things.
