Garrett Vickrey 10:45 AM Worship Woodland Baptist Church 5.18.14 San Antonio, Texas Going John 14:1-14 Jesus is going. He knows he is going, and wants the disciples to know it will be OK when he goes. But, where is Jesus going? What are the disciples going to do? Who s going with them? Are they going to have a prayer? What the disciples learned here is that Jesus is with them as they go. That s good news for his 1st century and 21st century followers. And in going as he goes we go with God, the Father. A well known preacher and author from many years ago, Leslie Weatherhead, tells a story on himself from when he was in high school. He had a test coming up and he was having trouble studying. Then he discovered this verse here in John 14: "And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it. He believed the verse meant that all he had to do was ask and he would pass the exam. He told God he believed God's promise, and he wanted a good grade. The next day young Weatherhead took the exam, but he failed. He was disillusioned and almost lost his faith. He decided that the promises of the Bible were not good - all because God had not granted his wish for a good grade. The next year he repeated that course. He worked hard, and he passed. This time he decided that he didn t need God, that he could get along by himself. After some years had passed, Weatherhead came to understand that his own powers and abilities were in reality the power that God had given to him. He began to realize that God had already given him the power to pass the test, but he had not used that power the first go around. There s power there for us too. Not the kind of power that bails us out but the kind of help that shapes our lives. The kind of help that says I will strengthen you in difficult times; the kind of help that doesn't show us the way but rather becomes our way: He is our way; He is our truth; He is our life. This is the kind of help that doesn't do the good works for us but rather teaches us and strengthens us to use our gifts and talents to do good in the world. He is going to be our way. And we are invited. 1
This passage is an invitation. It s a part of what scholars call Jesus Farewell Discourse in the gospel of John. It stretches from John chapters 13-17. This kind of speech is common in ancient writing. Plato records Socrates Farewell Discourse. Much of the book of Deuteronomy is a Farewell Discourse from Moses to the Israelites. These long speeches function as a recap of the teaching of these great leaders, and helps their followers envision a future without their leader there to show them the way. Jesus Farewell Discourse is different. Because, it s not really a prolonged lecture (like Socrates or Moses) it s a conversation. Jesus talks. The disciples ask questions, and Jesus answers those questions. He talks to them as a friend. Because, relationships are critical to this gospel You may say, that s obvious. Or isn t it always critical to Christianity? But, even more so than other gospels, John shows how God came to us in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth to befriend us and bring us into relationship with him. To make things right, through confrontation, conversation and ultimately sacrifice. Jesus says, There s no greater love than to lay down one s life for one s friends. Jesus came to show us what life could be if lived in union with God. And since he lived that life we have the opportunity to live that life through him now. It is a life that overflows the boundaries of death. And this is what he is trying to get his disciples to understand. It s a great truth too good to comprehend. These are words of comfort spoken to a group of friends. And yet, we disciples of Jesus rip these words out of their context and use them in ways they weren t really intended. Instead these words of comfort and assurance spoken to the disciples at a tender moment have become a baton of exclusivism to wave threateningly in the face of non-christians. This is Jesus talking to his friends in a friendly way, and yet so often John 14:6 - I am the way, the truth, and the life is trotted out in unfriendly conversations. The gospel forcefully proclaims the profound meaning of Jesus for the destiny of the world. But, Jesus death, as one scholar puts it is, An act of friendship love and Reveals God s redemptive love for the world. 1 Jesus is responding to a question here, but the question is not the one we ask so often, What about other religions? He is responding to his 2
friend asking, We don t know where you are going, how will we know the way? Don t let your hearts be troubled, you will know the way. And through the overflowing friendship that comes with this way you will show others the way. Taking the element of friendship away from these words robs them of their true meaning. The gospel is relational. It s not cold and objective. The contingency of Christ enters each of our lives through people in conversations, or through our interactions with words on a page, and even with stories on screens. This is not some cold doctrine. It is relational truth. John is telling us that Jesus is the revealer of God shows us what God is like and offers us an entry point to relating to God like he does and so we can live in relation to him like we would a loving father. People around you everyday in elevators, in school, in the office, at the gym need the hope that the Jesus Way provides. They need it. And you need to find ways of expressing what this way, this truth, this Christ life means to you for the sake of God s sons and daughters who are thirsty for the fullness of that way, that truth, and that life. There s a lot of people out there who are looking for transformation, looking for salvation through what they can accumulate. But, they are missing something. Caesar Augustus was a man with a troubled heart for a variety of reasons. The Roman Empire was continually at war. Political threats constantly swarmed him. No surprise, a person like that had trouble getting to sleep at night. August was a hero who end a civil war and was nicknamed Son of God. He was a brilliant strategist at war. Yet, he was stressed and struggling. Augustus, this troubled emperor, heard about a man in Rome who was heavily in debt. Yet, despite his financial woes, this man slept peacefully. Augustus was so impressed with this that when he heard about this man who was heavily in debt and yet slept peacefully through the night, that Augustus went to the man... and offered to buy his bed. Think about that. Augustus thought he would sleep better if he just changed beds. He was desperate. And when our hearts are troubled, when we are thirsty for life that truly is life we do silly stuff. We live in ways that don t make sense. Some have come to Jesus, said a prayer for Jesus to come into their heart and that was that life went back to normal. But others followed after. 3
We are invited to follow his way. We know it because we know him and we know his friendship. But, it s the going the journey with Christ that is truly transformative. We need to do more than just know about God, we need to go with God to all that God wants to show us We need to do more than just know about God, we need to go with God to all that God wants to show us In Jesus we are given a glimpse of what could be. We see a way of life that leads to the fullness of faith in life which brings us into union with our creator. Yet, we are so entranced with life as we can see it and feel it at any moment, that we forget to live with any sense of larger purpose. And so we get caught up in ideologies of self interest that beaten down path that s easy to find and easy to walk, yet leads no where. That s a way that ultimately keeps us from seeing the world God sets before us. In 1816, that eccentric poet Lord Byron wrote a narrative poem entitled, "The Prisoner of Chillon". It's the story of a man incarcerated in the dungeon at the Castle of Chillon near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. The prisoner was in a narrow, cramped dungeon cell for such a long time that he began to think of it as home. He made friends with the spiders, insects, and mice that shared his cell. They were all inmates of the same dungeon and he was king of the cell. The years in the dark dungeon cell had taken their toll. He was no longer unhappy or uncomfortable. He had grown accustomed to his environment and came to think of his chains as friends. One day a bird perched on the crevice of the ledge above and began to sing. It was the sweetest music he had ever heard. Suddenly, the desire to see the outside world overwhelmed him. He grabbed the walls of his cell, and began climbing and struggling up the wall so that he could look out of the little window at the top. In that moment as he clung to the wall at the top of the cell, he saw a world that he had forgotten. There was a crystal blue lake... and some tall green trees... and the beautiful little white cottage that he called home nestled in the distance against the green hills... and an eagle soaring majestically across a blue sky. He saw them all for one magnificent moment and then he fell back into his cell. But that dungeon cell was no longer home. For one fleeting moment he had 4
seen a home that lay beyond the tiny cramped cell of the dungeon. He had seen a vision of a world beyond and hope eternal towered over the despair that kept him chained to that cell. We, too, have a vision beyond our present existence. We are pilgrims of the future because our faith enables us to catch a glimpse of an everlasting Kingdom which lies within and beyond this world. A world that comes close to us as we go because the Spirit of that kingdom is with us when we live in the spirit of grace that unites all things with the creator. We are the way we live. We will be the WAY we live. Christ offers us a way to God... to the fullness of life at the source of life. That way is through him... living like he does, dying like he did, giving like he does now. That's the way. What we put first will be where we are going. Some of us choose to make friends with our chains... play with the mice and befriend spiders. But, there is one in whom we have seen a glimpse of another world beyond and within this one where God waits for us. 5
1 Donald Senior, Fifth Sunday of Easter: John 14:1-14, Feasting on the Word, David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor ED., (Westminster/John Knox: Louisville, 2010) 471. 6