“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:6
If you have ever tried to find more than one way to the home of a friend who lives on a dead-end street, you will know the frustration. You circle around realizing by the numbers that your destination is very close. Yet streets don’t go through. Soon house numbers pass the one you are looking for and you know you've gone too far. The only solution is to find the one way that leads to your destination.
Jesus’ answer to Thomas’s question, “How can we know the way?” shows us we’re in a similar situation when attempting to find our way to God and heaven. Jesus’ reply, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” is a text we tend to quote as proof that Jesus is the only way to God. But in our current culture, we often feel not a little squirmy when we do. For common wisdom – in Canada at least – is that there are many ways to God, it’s sincerity that really matters, and doing your best.
If you were asking directions to your friend’s house, whose directions would you follow – the person who told you, “I strongly believe this is how you get there. But it doesn’t really matter. You’ll get there in any case, no matter which route you take”? Or your friend, who knows the exact way because he has been there and has an intimate knowledge of the road in and out?
In the end it’s a matter of faith. Whose directions about how to come to God and get to heaven do we trust? The voice of common wisdom (which also happens to be the majority)? Or Jesus, who gave instructions on how to get there from the vantage point of someone who had already traveled the road and was familiar with the way (“And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also”)? What a shame if, after we die, we find that we missed our destination because we didn’t follow the right directions.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for providing the way to God. Help me to be uncompromising in declaring You the way to my fellow travelers. Amen.
MORE: Today the church celebrates the Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James. Philip’s conversation with Jesus in today’s reading is part of the liturgy. It begins with this moving and powerful Collect prayer:
Almighty God, who gave to your apostles Philip and James grace and strength to bear witness to the truth: Grant that we, being mindful of their victory of faith, may glorify in life and death the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? They might like Bible Drive-Thru.
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