The Way

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettsyburg United Methodist church on Sunday, March 21, 2021.  The Bible verses used are John 14:1-14.

            One of the things that can make faith hard for us is that we can never really fully describe God.  God is bigger and greater and more multi-faceted than we can even comprehend.  No matter how many words we use to describe God, there’s always more to say.  Language itself fails us when it comes to talking about God.

            Our reading for tonight has at least two of God’s qualities on full display.  On the one hand, there’s the incredible love God has for us.  On the other hand, there’s the judgment that awaits each of us when our time to leave earth comes.  We like the first part of that; the second, not so much.  But both are part of who God is, and both are essential to our understanding of who God is.

            Jesus is getting ready to leave the disciples.  This is the night before he’s going to be arrest and, ultimately killed.  Jesus has just told the disciples that.  But now, he tells the disciples they don’t need to be sad.  They don’t need to be worried.  Just believe.  Believe in God, believe in Him.  He tells them heaven has lots of room.  Lots of room for them.  And he’s going on ahead to prepare a place for them.  And then, when the time is right, he’s going to take them to that place.  And they will be with him forever.

            Jesus says that to us, too.  And it’s a very comforting thing, right?  Don’t be sad.  Don’t be worried.  There are lots of rooms in heaven.  There’s room for everybody, right?  And when the time is right, Jesus will come and take us to the place he’s prepared for us.  We’ll go to be with the Lord forever.  What could be better than that?

            The disciples liked hearing that, too.  But then Jesus says, “You know the way to the place where I am going.”  And that got them confused.  

            Thomas asks Jesus about it.  You just knew it had to be Thomas who’d ask, right?  The one they call the doubter.  But really, I don’t see Thomas as having any more doubts than any of the other disciples.  Thomas just is the one who has the courage to ask the questions all the disciples have, but that the rest of them are too scared to ask.  Thomas may have had doubts, but Thomas did not want to live with those doubts.  He wanted answers, and so he was going to ask questions.  He was willing to risk looking stupid if it meant he could find out more about Jesus.

            So Thomas asks.  “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way.”  And Jesus answers, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know him, and have seen him.”

            That’s the part that, sometimes, we don’t like so much.  Jesus is the way to heaven.  Jesus is the only way to heaven.  No one can go to God the Father except through Jesus.

            The disciples did not object to that.  They did not fully understand it--Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father--but they did not object to it.  Because they expect the Savior to, well, save them.  Save them from hell.  Save them from Satan.  Save them from the consequences of their sins.  As such, they had no problem with the concept that the only way to be saved and to go to heaven would be to follow the Savior.

            Today, though, it seems that many people do have a problem with it.  We have a problem with the idea that God would allow anyone to go to hell.  We’re told that God loves everybody, right?  In fact, we’re told that God is love.  And we’re told that God is forgiving.  In fact, we’re told that there is nothing God won’t forgive.  So how can this all-loving, all-forgiving God allow anyone to go to hell?  To a place of eternal punishment?  Surely, God’s love must save everyone, right?

            I understand why people believe that.  For one thing, we want to believe it, and we all have a great ability to believe that the things we wish were true actually are.  I know people who don’t believe in Jesus as the Savior.  I don’t like to think of them someday being in hell.  In fact, if you really take the concept of hell seriously, you would not want anyone to ever be there.  Hell is the worst thing imaginable, and it’s eternal.  If you take that seriously, you would not want your worst enemy to go there.

            The thing is that, yes, God is love.  And God is forgiving.  But that’s not all God is.  The idea that, because God is love and God is forgiving, and so therefore God will let everyone into heaven, is really based on a misunderstanding of who God is and how our relationship with God works.  It implies that God somehow owes it to us to allow us into heaven, no matter what we’ve done.  It implies that God is obligated to allow us into heaven, regardless of what we believe.

            And that’s simply not true.  No matter how much we might wish it was, it’s not.  God does not owe us anything.  God is not obligated to do anything for us.  God is God.  God is the Supreme Being.  God is not subject to any human rules.  God is who God is.  That’s part of what God meant when He told Moses that His name is “I am”  

Yes, God is love.  And yes, God is forgiving.  But God is also just.  And God is also righteous.  And God is holy.  And God is perfect.  

You and I, as human beings, are none of those things.  We can be, at times, but not all the time.  We can feel love, and we can show love, but we are not love.  We can forgive, at times, be we often fail to forgive.  We have our notions of justice, but they are not the same as God’s perfect justice.  We are not truly righteous, or holy, and we most certainly are not perfect.  

God is so far above us that we cannot even begin to imagine it.  And so, really, none of us belongs in heaven.  None of us belongs in the presence of the holy and righteous and perfect God.  Not only does God not owe it to us to allow us into heaven, God would be perfectly justified in not allowing any of us into heaven.  

In fact, when you think about it, the odd thing is not that God would allow people to go to hell.  The odd thing, the amazing thing, really, is that God would allow any of us into heaven.  Why would God even want us around at all?  I mean, yes, God created us, but look at what we’ve become.  We’ve already made a mess of earth, in many ways.  Why would God let us into heaven?  As broken and imperfect and sinful as we are, it seems like we can do nothing but mess heaven up, too.

            And yet, look at what God does for us.  Because God is love, and God is forgiving, God has provided us a way into heaven.  Jesus.  Jesus is the way.  All we need to do is believe in him.  If we have faith in Jesus, if we believe in him as the Savior, our sins are forgiven.  In fact, they’re more than forgiven, they’re completely wiped out.  It’s like they never happened.  It’s not that God does not know about them, of course--God knows everything.  But God chooses not to see them.  God chooses to ignore them.  God chooses to treat us as if we were righteous, and holy, and perfect, even though God knows that we’re not.  And God does allow us to be in heaven with Him for eternity.  And all we have to do is believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ.

You know, when you think of it that way, it’s such an incredible thing God has done for us.  God does not make us do some great, huge, almost impossible thing to get into heaven.  God does not even make us do a hard thing.  God could put any conditions God wanted to on our admittance into heaven.  And yet, God’s way for us to go to heaven is the simplest thing in the world.  Believe in Jesus Christ.  Believe that he is, in fact, who he says he is--the Savior.  

It’s the easiest thing in the world, really.  And yet, there are many people who simply refuse to do it.  They refuse to believe in Jesus.  I have to think that makes God very sad.  God does not want anyone to go to hell.  That’s why God gave us the way to heaven.  But God allows us to make choices.  And that includes the choice to refuse the way to heaven that God gave us.  If people decide to make that choice, God will let them.  God is not happy about their choice, but God will let them make it.

Our reading for tonight takes place the night before Jesus was arrested and killed.  But as we know, Jesus rose from the dead.  And he appeared to the disciples on a number of occasions before he went back to heaven.  And on the last one, he said this:  “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

That’s our job now.  That’s the job Jesus has given us--to make disciples.  To show people the way to heaven.  To help people make the choice to believe in Jesus and be saved.  We won’t succeed with everyone--even Jesus did not do that.  Again, God allows people to refuse the way to heaven.  But God does not want anyone to make that choice.  And so, God wants us to do our best to help people choose Jesus.  To help people choose salvation.  To help people choose eternal life.

Heaven has enough room for all of us.  Jesus is the way there.  May we all choose the way of faith in Jesus.  And may we do all we can to help others choose that way, too.