I Am the Way

I am!  What a statement.  I am.  When I was growing up I used to watch Popeye and you may remember that he used to say “I yam, what I yam”  And Popeye was simply stating his acceptance of himself.   And that’s not a bad thing, being comfortable in your own skin.  That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be improving ourselves, and that we shouldn’t embark on a life time journey of self-improvement and education, but it does get to the core of how we feel about ourselves, how we were created and our standing with our creator.  I yam what I yam. 

But that was just a tangent and really has nothing to do with what we looked at last week or what we will be looking at in the weeks ahead.   Last week we looked at that defining moment in Jesus’ ministry when he identified himself as God.  He had been engaged in one of those theological back and forths that he was so famous for and the discussion turned to the people’s reliance on being the “Children of Abraham”.

Have you ever met someone that when they were challenged on matters of faith, or for that matter challenged on their behavior their response was “Well I’ve been born again.”?  They may not follow the teaching of Jesus, they may not obey the laws of God they might live like the devil but at some point they prayed a prayer, recited a mantra or walked forward at a crusade and for them there doesn’t have to be anything else. “Don’t judge me, I’ve been born again.”  Although I firmly believe that if being born again doesn’t make a difference in your life in the “here and now” it won’t make a difference in your life in the “there and then”.  Just saying.  That may have been another tangent, so let’s see if we can circle back around and tie it in.  For many of the Jews of Jesus’ day being a “Child of Abraham” seemed to be more important than being a child of God.  For them it was the last word, it didn’t matter what happened it didn’t matter what people said, it really didn’t even matter how they behaved they were “Children of Abraham”. 

And in John chapter 8 Jesus challenged that, he said that their relationship with God was more important that their relationship to Abraham.  And that got them cranky, and they resorted to that time tested final argument, “Oh yeah, what do you know?”  That’s a rough translation.  But Jesus response is found in John 8:58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!”  And while we may think that Jesus was confusing his verb usage, and that he should have said “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I was.”  Those who heard him that day knew exactly what he was saying because in the very next verse it tells us that those who were listening picked up rocks to stone Jesus.  Why?  Because of his superior debating skills?  No. Because he was claiming to be over 1500 years old?  No.   It wasn’t about when Jesus claimed to be but instead it was all about who Jesus claimed to be.

From childhood every Jew had been taught the story of how Moses had been called of God to deliver the children of Abraham from the slavery of Egypt.  They all knew the details and they knew that when God called Moses while he was in the wilderness that he didn’t want to go, and when Moses finally gave in he had one final question for God and that question is found in Exodus 3:13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”   And that is a good question?  It’s something that I would want to know. “Why should the people believe me?  Whose authority am I coming in?”  And God’s response is found in the next verse Exodus 3:14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.”   

And so when Jesus told the people who had gathered that day John 8:58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!” They knew exactly what he was saying and exactly who he was claiming to be.  And when someone claimed to be God, for the Jews that was blasphemy and the penalty for blasphemy was stoning.  You might be thinking “Well how did Jesus escape?”  Well . . . we don’t really have all the details.  What the bible tells us in John 8:59 At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.   And we don’t know if Jesus put on his cloak of invisibility or if his disciples crowded around him or what.  All we know is that the plans of the people to stone Jesus were thwarted. 

And that brings us to today.  Over the next nine weeks we are going to be looking at the different times in the book of John that Jesus said “I am”.  And for those who care there are 22 separate instances where Jesus is recorded as saying “I am” in the gospel of John.  In John 8:58 we see Jesus use “I AM” as a statement of existence.  The statement lacks an object after the verb.  In the other twenty one instances when Jesus says “I am” he means he is something, a predicate nominative follows the verb.  Not in this case, he isn’t saying he is something, he is simply stating that he is.

Another ten of those instances are self-identification, times when Jesus said “I am” to identify himself.  An example of that is found in John 18:4-5 when Jesus is arrested in the garden,  Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I AM he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.)

In another 11 instances the statements are metaphorical, that is that Jesus describes himself by comparing himself to something else.  “I am the gate”, “I am the vine”, “I am the bread of life.”  And it is those metaphorical statements that we are going to be looking at over the next 8 weeks. 

 Have you ever gotten lost?  I mean really lost?  When I was a kid, probably 10 or so a buddy and I got lost in the woods where we lived.  Not lost as in “call the police and dogs the kids are lost” type lost, but probably only a few hours from that point.  Remember those were the days of “Have fun, be home by supper.”  And we were home by supper, but just.  We wandered in circles and tried to remember if moss grew on the north side of trees or the south, we probably figured out that the sun set in the west but we weren’t sure which way home was.  Now in retrospect, being lost in the woods in Lincoln New Brunswick for four or five hours probably isn’t the same as being lost in the woods in Alaska, but when you are ten it sure seemed like it. 

And what my buddy and I wanted more than anything else right then was to find “the way” home.  We had already eaten all of our provisions that we had packed, a couple of cans of sardines and some crackers and knew that if we didn’t find our way out by supper that we would probably starve to death and then get spanked.  And then we stumbled onto a path that led us back to the main road, we were saved.   But as scary as being lost in the woods can be, or for that matter lost in the city or lost in the mall being lost in life is even scarier. 

In the scripture that was read for us earlier Jesus has told his apostles about a wonderful place that waited for them.  He told them that he would go and prepare a place for them, and it would be a wonderful place in the presence of God.  And it is a great promise, a promise of home.  You probably are very familiar with the passage, it is often read at the funeral of Christians.  John 14:1-2 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”  And if you are old enough then you might know it from the King James version where it says John 14:1-2 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.   Which led to some really cool songs like “Mansion over the Hilltop”.  Now if we get to pick where we are going to live in heaven you can skip the mansion I would prefer a house boat or really cool a tree house, I always wanted to live in a tree house, but again I digress.   

After telling the twelve that there would be a place for them, for all eternity he finishes by telling them John 14:4 “And you know the way to where I am going.”   And good old pragmatic Thomas answers by saying John 14:5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

And Jesus responds by saying in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”  This morning I want to focus on one part of this triad, Jesus told him “I am the way”  Jesus didn’t say I can show you the way.  Jesus didn’t say “if you follow me you will find the way” 

He Didn’t Offer to Show Us the Way

Thomas was looking for a map while Jesus was saying he was the means.  Have you ever gotten lost in a strange town and stopped and asked for directions?  I can see from your faces that the ladies know exactly what I’m talking about while the guys have drawn a complete blank.  They understand what I meant by “lost” but don’t have a clue what I meant when I said “ask for directions”   You probably identify with Daniel Boone who once said “I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.”

So, ladies you know what I mean, men just imagine that you have asked for directions.  And the person you are asking says:  “not a problem, you just keep going on down the road and take your second left, you go about 1 km, past where the Johnsons used to live and take the third no fourth right.  Keep going until you come to the where that big old oak was before it was struck by lightning and they had to cut it down turn there and keep going until the pavement ends.”  And you wouldn’t have a clue where you were supposed to go.

Now it would be a lot more helpful if the person you were asking said “Here, let me draw a map”.  Maps are good, they don’t fold up real easy but they certainly have their value, it was Earl Nightingale  who said “All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.”

And that is what Thomas was looking for, he was looking for directions on how to get to Heaven.  Much like the person in Matthew 19:16 Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” They were saying “Draw me a map”.  And many people see Jesus as a map drawer.  If you follow the sermon on the mount, if you obey the Golden rule, if you pray the Lord’s prayer, then you will find your way to heaven.  But that wasn’t what Jesus said.  He didn’t say “I will point you in the right direction” or “I will draw you a map” he was saying “I am the Way”.

If we go back to our example of asking for directions, we said that getting directions would be better than nothing, that getting a map drawn would be better than simply getting directions but just think if the person you asked said “Tell you what, I’m going that way, why don’t you tag along with me?  I will take you there.”

And that’s what Jesus said “Travel with me and I will take you where you want to go.  I am the way.”  He didn’t say he was “a” way and he didn’t say he was “one” way, he said “I am ‘the’ way.”   And in case they didn’t connect the dots he clarifies by saying John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

He Offered to Be the Way

And some people get bent out of shape by that statement; they want Jesus to be one way to heaven.  You can take the Jesus way, or you can take the Mohammed way, or you can take the Confucius way or you can take the “Just be a nice person” way and they will all get you to heaven.  But that isn’t what Jesus said, he said John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”  Who did he say could come to the Father by another way?  No one!

And you may be thinking, “That’s pretty narrow.  Awfully dogmatic.”  And we’ve all met people like that.  I had a teacher once who was just that dogmatic and narrow.  She insisted that 1 + 1 = 2 and that 3 + 2 = 5 and that 7 + 3 = 10  and it didn’t matter if you were adding apples or dollars the results were always the same.  And she would give any ground on that, she wouldn’t hear any other options.

My mother was fairly dogmatic about something’s in life, she would say “Don’t play in traffic, don’t stick a fork in a toaster, don’t tease the dog or you will get bit and if you keep tormenting your sister she will hit you, then don’t come crying to me.”  There are something’s in life that you have to be dogmatic about because they are simply the truth.  And you have to realize that it is characteristic of truth to be dogmatic.

You see Jesus didn’t come to offer us teaching, or to offer us direction or guidance, he came to walk alongside of us and to be with us on the journey. 

If you read the book of Acts you will discover that before Christians were called Christians they were simply called “Followers of the Way”.  I think that is so cool, but funny how time changes, I would have loved to simply called Cornerstone “The Way” but today that sounds really cultish. 

Many people want Jesus to show them the way to peace, or to show them the way to a better marriage, or to show them the way to heaven.  But what Jesus is saying is “In me you will find peace”  “In me you will have a better marriage.”

A number of years ago the fad was “What would Jesus do?”  Believers were supposed to ask themselves that as they made decisions in life, what would Jesus do?  And so WWJD bracelets and t-shirts were worn, WWJD coffee cups were sipped from and WWJD bumper stickers adorned Christian cars.   But really the question shouldn’t be “What would Jesus do?”  The answer to that is easy, he would come from heaven, live a perfect life, die for the sins of the world and be raised from the dead.  The question that we should ask ourselves as Followers of the Way is “What would Jesus want me to do?”   And that can only be answered when he becomes the centre of our lives.  When we accept that he did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.  That the sacrifice that he made for us paid the price and the grace that he offers provides for the forgiveness of our sins. 

And so before we can know what Jesus would have us to do we need to get a better understanding of what Jesus did.  And we do that by reading His story.  You see You Will Never Know The Way Until You Know “The Way”. 

This summer, I would challenge you to read the Gospel of John, at least once and maybe a couple of times, that is where our messages are going to focus for the next couple of months.  And as you read his story come to know Jesus more and let him take you by the hand and walk you through life.   See how he treats people, the grace that he offers and the love that he displays.  What is he asking you to do?  To love and to forgive? How will that affect your relationships with others?  How will that affect with yourself.   Observe how he worships God; listen as he prays to his Father.  What is he asking you to do?  To make God central in your life, to understand that he loves you and wants the very best for you.  Understand that he is not only offering you the way to eternal life but he is offering you the way to the life you want here. 

In closing my your prayer be the same as David’s prayer  Psalm 16:11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.