John 14:1-3 is a well known passage where Christ affirms the existence of a heavenly home. Every sane person’s goal is to go to Heaven, not only because the alternative is Hell, but because we want to live! To live, to enjoy life to the full is inherent within us – a drowning man will clutch at a straw. And we know that we cannot live here forever – we are genetically programmed to die but the will to live is stronger. And so the appeal of Heaven is strong. Even those who are unsure about such a place say things like If there is such a place I’d like to go there.
But who goes there and how do you go? Jesus said to His disciples in v.4 You know where I am going and the way you know. Thomas begged to differ (v.5) – We don’t know where you are going and we don’t know the way. {there’s not a lot about Thomas in the N.T. but I feel we can easily relate to him – “unless I see the nail prints and the spear wound…”) – I get the impression he was an honest man who spoke his mind – he didn’t pretend to know what he didn’t know or pretend to believe what he didn’t believe. And his honesty prompted others to ask questions – Phillip (8), Jude (22).}
Very probably when Jesus spoke of His Father’s house having many rooms they were still thinking physically:- that Jesus would do as David did in going to Jerusalem to make it his capital and in that place Solomon built a magnificent palace and temple. But where was Jesus going to set up His royal residence, surrounded by His loyal followers, and there restore the kingdom to Israel? He said he was going away (13:33) but where?
Was Jesus answer (v.6) sufficient for Thomas? I suspect it wasn’t adequate and there was a mild rebuke (v.7) where Jesus said “You should have known”. There was to be a coronation for Jesus but it would be through a cross and there would be a throne but it would be on the throne in Heaven not the footstool of earth, and, indeed, His Father’s house would be Heaven and not on earth.
Verse 6 is an oft-quoted verse (…I am the way, the truth and the life….). Thomas a Kempis paraphrased this statement of Jesus thus: I am the way, the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the Way which you ought to follow; the Truth which you ought to trust; the Life which you ought to hope for. I am the inviolable Way, the infallible Truth, the endless Life. Despite the fact this verse probably comes a close second to John 3:16 in popularly-known sayings of Jesus, how many people know the Way?! Apparently, and sadly, not many. Perhaps we should come up with some new words for the old song, Show Me the Way Home, for as Matt.7:13,14 tells us, not many know and choose the narrow way which leads to Heaven.
Why so few? The end of v.14 supplies part of the answer – there be that find it. Many people just don’t look. We’re all on a road in life but we need to ask Where does this road end? It doesn’t make good sense to travel on a road and say is a beaut road – sure is a lot of traffic on it and it sure is nice and wide – I think I’ll stay on this road because even though I do not know where it leads it must be a good place since so many are heading there and they must know where they’re going – I’ll just stick with the traffic. Ever been following a car in front because you’re lost and you think the other fellow knows where he is going and he’s looking in his rear-vision mirror waiting for you to pass to get in front because he doesn’t know the way but he thinks you do?! If the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch.
Paul said in 1 Thess. 2:3 that his preaching was not of error, but a lot of preaching is! In the early part of Acts 19 we meet some men on the wrong road because they conscientiously followed a good man who preached error in ignorance. If we are guides of the blind then we had better make sure we know whereof we speak. The measure of Apollos was not that he preached error in ignorance, but that he changed when his error was pointed out to him.
This is one of the beguiling traps of religion. The Devil loves religion – he loves for men to be religious for there is nothing more consoling and deceiving than to travel down a religious road, for the mind-numbing thought continually steals over us – I am not an atheist, I am not an infidel, and Lord I thank you I am not as other men are – I know Jesus is the way, I go to church, I pay my dues, I say my prayers. But who is Jesus talking about in Matt.7:21-23? He is talking about religious people, but not Buddhists, Moslems, or Hindus – but people who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and do all sorts of good things in His name. Many religious people have not sought for The Way. One of the blessings of religious division, if it be right to call anything that comes out of the quagmire of denominationalism a blessing, is that the contradictory nature of religious doctrines tells me that I have to search for what is true. Luke’s account of Jesus’ admonition to get on the narrow way is rendered Strive to enter in at the narrow gate. The word translated strive is a Greek word agonise which comes across as an intense activity in the vernacular. Why is such care needed? Because as Prov. 14:12 says there is a way that appears to be right, and as the parable says The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls and when he has found that pearl of great price…….
Is it therefore difficult to find? Not at all. Isaiah, the Messianic prophet, also spoke about the Way. He does it in Ch.11 and again in Ch. 35. These are chapters that find partial fulfillment in the return of the people from Babylonian exile, but find their ultimate fulfillment in the Messianic age. He says a highway shall be there. Highway comes from the Hebrew root salal, which means to cast up as engineers do with with earth when they make a causeway or raised road. It’s not a track hard to discern. I remember as a young fellow trying to follow a track in the desert at night that was marked by bits of coloured plastic ribbon tied to saltbush every so often. I would lose the track and I would have to circle round till the headlights picked a piece of ribbon. This way is not like that.
It is a way of holiness and therein lies part of the reason few find it and walk on it. What is holiness? There is a natural contrast there – Isaiah says the unclean shall not pass on it. And we are not called to uncleanness, but to holiness. Holiness was taught to the Jews by a series of comparisons, in which purity pervaded all the ceremonies of the Law. Some of these we would find quite strange, but in the context of the time as a teaching process they did make sense. Things such as not plowing with an ox and a donkey in the same trace: not wearing a garment of wool mixed with cotton and so on. Holiness was the practice of not mixing different things – ultimately it was the idea of not mixing the clean with the unclean. One who is holy, as God is holy, is one consecrated in his heart to serving God and adopting in his mind and practice only those attitudes and actions that conform to God’s will.
We live in a world that is not intent on only doing God’s will (1 John 2:15-17; Jas. 4:4). So holiness carries the idea of separateness – separate from sinners (Heb. 7:24) – and thus it involves a ‘coming out’. Sad it is that the expression “coming out” has the connotation in our day of those who were once ashamed of their sin but have now become bold and brazen enough to boast about it (2 Cor. 6:14-17).
The way is not hidden, but a distinct way that requires a conscious choosing to come out and walk in righteousness. A lot more people would walk the Way if it was a way of worldliness. The greatest mistake is to think that the smart thing to do is to make the Way more like the world to attract the world. God put the Way in the world, but it is the Devil who wants to put the world in the Way. If the Way blends in with the world how will a man find it? It is a highway that stands out because of its contrast with the world. The darker the world the brighter the Way will shine.
Isaiah says more, although I notice that the N.I.V. has over-simplified it and left out the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Isn’t that comforting and reassuring? So when Jesus says few there be that find it, I don’t have to draw the conclusion that it is obscure or that you have to be an Einstein genius to stay on it.
Is the way long? yes – Rev. 2:10. Is the way hard? In the sense that it requires the will and discipline to fight the good fight against the adversary, it is. In the sense that there are always reasons for giving up, it is. But 1 Cor. 10:13 says that we can handle what comes our way and 1 John 4:4 tells us that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world, and Matt. 28:20 tells us that He promised to be with us always, and in John 10:28 He assured us that no one is able to pluck us out of His hand.
But be all that as it may – the way being long and hard – the way is plain so that even a fool shall not err in it. It’s comforting to know that in the midst of a world filled with religious movements with all their different doctrines I can know the Way and know that I’m on it. How is that possible?
Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. That wasn’t new to Him for God had spoken the same truth through Isaiah seven hundred years earlier. Isa. 66 contemplates the return of the Jewish exiles and their thinking that the building of a new temple and the restoration of sacrifices would be the way back into God’s favour. Religious formalism is not the ticket – To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and contrite in spirit. How does such humility express itself? He goes on: the one who trembles at my word. What does trembling indicate? Awe and respect.
Is that you? Is that me? It can be. And in a world of denominational confusion if we but speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where it is silent; if we have a “thus saith the Lord” for all that we believe and practice, and dispense with the traditions and creeds of men that cause the confusion, we will find the Way, get on the Way, and stay on the Way.