Easter 5

John 14:1-14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

Ok, I’m here to admit it: I am a details person. Are you one, too? It’s a trait that comes in quite handy when cleaning the bathroom but can also drive the people around us a little crazy. We can be what some call a little “obsessive” from time to time. I admit that, too. There are just some things in life that go better when in the hands of a details-oriented person. For example, those of us who tend to give more of our attention to the details of life get a little upset when the details of a story aren’t told correctly: that is, when they don’t match our version of the correct order of things. It’s because we have our own context, our own set of circumstances from which we see the world and our place in it, and we tell our stories from that context. It gives us reason to need the things we need, to want what we want, and to look at the world the way we look at it. Being a member of the details-oriented brigade, I am what some call “high context.” It means that when a story is told, I want to hear and tell as many of the details of the thing as possible. Somehow, that makes the story better, more plausible, and easier to understand for me. Fewer details only leave me with more questions: why? How? When? Who was there? What did they say? How did they seem to feel about what happened?

Have you ever had that problem of telling a story along with someone else and they tell some detail or event of the story “wrong”? I think the sharing of our faith story is often like that. Just get 2 people together and ask them to tell the chronology as we have it in the New Testament of how Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion took place, and you’ll likely get 2 stories that have basically similar timelines but with a variety of side stories and characters thrown in here and there. We do this because we often connect with certain moments or characters that are told in one gospel differently than another. For example, many folks are particularly moved by the Centurion whose eyes are opened as Jesus dies on the cross and who proclaims that Jesus surely must have been the Son of God. This man is mentioned in Matthew and Luke, but only in Matthew does he call Jesus the Son of God.

One of the details of the story of Jesus’ last supper as it is recorded in John in the chapter just before our passage for today is the conversation he has with the disciples about his betrayal. He tells them what will happen with Judas and with Peter, that he’ll be betrayed and denied by two of these gathered around the table with him. It’s difficult for them to hear these words that seem to be counter to the closeness they have developed over their life in ministry together. How could any of them turn his back on Jesus? And how could it all be coming to and end? This is the context for these verses we have for today: Jesus is preparing them for his departure, and they cannot accept that he is leaving them. Peter even asks where it is Jesus is going, but Jesus’ response is cryptic and a little frightening when he says they cannot follow him immediately but in the future. So when Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, we can begin to understand the reference back to his conversation with the 12 at the last supper when he has taught them about love and service—that they should consider themselves servants of all people in his name. This teaching helps us to know that the way of Christ is the way of service, the truth of the gospel is that we are called above all else to love one another in the name of Jesus, and that real life is the sharing of one another’s burdens and joys and serving one another in the name of Jesus.

But really to put these details into perspective, we must consider the introduction to John that sets the tone for the whole gospel. There we find not the birth narrative of Jesus but the emphasis on Jesus’ divinity as the Son of God, the light of the world sent to bring light into our darkness, received not by the people to who he was sent, but the true revelation of God in our world. In this way, we can add to the understanding of John 14 by seeing that when Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life, we must refer back to the words of the gospel writer when he first introduces us to Jesus: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…full of grace and truth.” God came to us, to live as we live, so that we could learn to love and serve in the way that God loves and serves. That is the truth of what Jesus came to teach us; that is the way to get close to the heart of God.

But that really isn’t enough detail for me. I think we have to look at the whole message of the gospel, even the whole Bible, which as I read it is a rich story of the history of God’s love being given freely to us over and over. Look at our disastrous ancestors of the Old Testament who turn away from God over and over again, whose love for God failed time and time again, and then remember the God of the Old Testament who has every opportunity and then some to discard human beings on account of our fickleness and self-absorption but who decides, instead, to remain steadfastly in love with us and continue to invite us back into forgiveness and grace. That must be the way, the truth, and the real life that God has to offer, now to us in Christ.

But what about the details of how this passage plays a role in your own spirituality or theology? Your own understanding of God and God’s action in your life? Thinking about the context of the 14th chapter of John, the whole gospel of John, the whole Biblical witness, and your own faith experience, how would you tell John 14?

Here’s how I would do it:
There is nothing at all to fear in life because Jesus has shown us that God is with us always. In fact, there is no place we can go that would take us away from God. Jesus was and is God’s gift to us so that we could understand the way that God relates to us—a humble presence of love and service, teaching us to offer the same to the world around us in God’s name with the help of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus has sent to be our help and guide. We don’t need a picture of God to know what God is like; that’s why we have Jesus and the portrait of him painted for us in the biblical witness. There we find his life, death, and resurrection told in terms of his love for us. So the way to God’s heart is to be ready and willing, as Peter states in the previous chapter and Jesus, himself, states in the next chapter, to give up what you hold dear in life so that someone else can have fullness of life. The truth is that God loves us more than we could ever imagine, and that while we may not be able to make contact with that understanding while we continue to live self-absorbed lives, believing the love and mercy of Christ is the way God has offered to us to try and connect with God’s love and God’s intentions for our lives. And when we can make that connection, we can live out that love and mercy with others, making God’s plan for us become a reality—that we would figure out that what God wants is for us to treat each other with love and respect, to serve one another’s needs, and to make God’s love known to as many people as we possibly can as far as it depends on us.

And there it is: our call to spread the news. But what is it that we spread? The more exclusive version of this story that, frankly, leaves out too many details for me to ever accept? The one in which there is a bit of proof-texting involved in trying to use God’s love in poured out in Christ to keep people out rather than to draw as many as we can in? I believe it is, instead, the message of how God’s love in Christ gives us the very best way to live our lives in service to one another, the truth that God truly does love us more than we could ever imagine—and that means all of us! —and the life that we can experience in hopeful expectation that God’s love will ultimately reign over all the parameters we try to put around it, such as who really deserves it and who doesn’t.

I don’t think we can tell the story in any other way except in high context: the whole story of God’s love for us, the remarkable presence of God among us in Jesus, the call to believe and share the news that because of Christ and his resurrection we cannot ever be separated from God, and that God’s love for us surpasses all things that we can think of to put in its path.
I think that’s a witness of John 14 that the world needs to hear. How will you tell it?

Amen.