Simon Peter said, "Lord, we do not know where you are going"...Thomas said, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

-- John 13:36--14:6 (J.B.)

____________

Have you ever gotten lost or felt anxious because of the absence of someone on whom you depended? That's what the apostles felt one day, shortly before the death of Jesus, as the Master talked with them in the upper room where the Lord's supper was instituted.

The apostles were like children who had wandered away from a parent in a large crowd. Confusion and anxiety resulted from Jesus speaking about leaving them. "Where are you going?" Peter asked.

In answer to Simon Peter, Jesus said, "I am going to my Father." In answer to Thomas who asked, "How do we know the way to the Father?" Jesus answered, "I am the Way...to the Father." He added, "I am also the Truth (which sets free -- John 8:32) and the Life (which enables action -- John 3:21).

This saying, "I am the Way," gave rise to the earliest name by which Christians were known -- "followers of the Way." Christians are followers of the Way. They are not the Way; they claim absoluteness for Jesus, not Christianity. Followers of Jesus point beyond themselves to him. He is the way.

The Way to what? The Way to the Father! Jesus gives us access to the Father. Shakespeare, although he can show me a way to write poetry, is not himself the way for me to write poetry. Michelangelo, although he can show me a good way to paint, is not himself the way to painting. Saint Peter, although he can show me a way to draw close to God, is himself not the Way. Jesus is the Way. He not only walked the way, he is the Way; Jesus is the One who knows from whence he came and where he is going. Jesus gladly shows us where he has been and where he is going. Since we have a tendency to get lost or stranded, it is good to know that we have a guide on the way.

The Christian life can be described as getting on the way and staying on the way.

Getting On The Way

Many of us got on the Way to eternal life as babies through Holy Baptism. I don't remember it, of course, but my mother told me that she took me to a Roman Catholic church in Chicago one Sunday afternoon shortly after I was born. There I was baptized and began the Christian life. I was "baptized into Christ" as Paul says. It was like starting a long journey.

It was not until 18 years later, after I had wandered away from the Way, that I saw the Way clearly and said, "I know that's the Way I am supposed to go." My commitment to walk that Way was an important step in the journey. As Christ was the central figure in baptism, so he was the central figure in the commitment which I made at age 18. I certainly would not have made a commitment to the church. I believed that it was full of hypocrites. I couldn't make a commitment to God as I knew him then, because he seemed too far away and distant. But Christ was real to me. I read about him in the Gospels and I sensed his presence as One who understood me and affirmed me. Had Jesus been a goal toward which I strove, I could not have reached him. He met me where I was, away from the road, and showed me where the road was. He also stayed with me on the road as a guide.

Jesus is the Way. A poem puts it this way:

Thou are the Way.Hadst Thou been nothing but the goal,I cannot sayIf thou hadst ever met my soul.

-- Alice Meynell

We do not need to reach God as the end of our striving. Jesus puts an end to our frustrated striving to reach God. As Paul writes, "It is not a matter of achieving, but believing..." (Romans 3:27, Phillips translation). It is a matter of trusting Jesus who is one with the Father (John 14:10).

Other ways to reach God do not work. For example, the way of hedonism is a dead-end street. Hedonism is the philosophy of pleasure. I saw this philosophy expressed on a bumper sticker recently: "If it feels good, do it." In searching for the good life through pleasure, the hedonist is really searching for God. The "eat, drink, and be merry" way of life that many try is an attempt at ultimate happiness, a happiness which can only be found in God. The philosophy of sexual liberation which we see all around us in the movies, television, and books is a search for fulfillment which ends in despair. Hedonism is a dead-end street because sex and pleasure, while good, were never intended to be ultimate.

So is humanism. Humanism may be defined as a philosophy of life centered in human effort. Unlike the hedonist, the humanist will frequently center many of his energies on giving pleasure to others instead of just seeking pleasure for himself. Unlike the hedonist, the humanist will generally try to be moral and concerned about what is right. Unlike the hedonist who is free-wheeling and self-centered, the humanist will frequently be uptight because he will have repressed many of his natural feelings for what is considered the greater good. But like the hedonist, the humanist at best considers God a distant point of reference. He will discover that he is on a dead-end way. He has no one to show him the way. He, too, will be lost on the long journey of life.

Frequently, the humanist will center much of his life on reason. He will live by ideas, many of them good ideas like "love your neighbor" and "keep the law," but he will not be able to maintain his walk through life based on reason because reason has its limits too. Jesus said, "I am the Truth," which means that ultimate reality is not a set of logical propositions, but a person. A life based on facts and logic isn't all bad, of course, because God made our minds, but it cannot bring us ultimate fulfillment because of the absence of the quality called faith or trust. That brings us to consideration of religion as a way.

But religion is a dead-end street too. Jesus never taught that religion would get us to God. Religion, as I'm using the term here, represents man's attempts to wrestle with the questions of life in reference to some kind of ultimate reality through some kind of faith or loyalty. Certainly no one would say that this attempt is all bad. The religious person, unlike the hedonist, is not only concerned about his own pleasures, but the happiness of others. Unlike the humanist, he has values beyond the human realm. But like both, he discovers that his way of religion does not fulfill his ultimate desire. At its best, religion is man's attempt to think about and live by some reference to God. The reason why no man-made religion works is because it is man-made. Religion is not the way to God.

Jesus never said religion is the way to God. He spoke of himself, not religion, as the Way. I wish I could introduce you in person to Jesus as a friend. He always had a way of helping people who had built barriers between themselves and God. He came to overcome those barriers. This young God in the garb of a nobody is our Way to personal fulfillment and relationship with God.

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." You were made by his hand. "All things were made through him and nothing was made without him," the Gospel of John says. You will one day return to him. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," Jesus said. The only way we get onto the road that leads to eternity is through him. And the only way we stay on that road is also through him.

Staying On The Way

Once we are awakened to the limited nature of every otherphilosophy, we may be awakened to the eternal nature of Christ and our call to follow him. Thus awakened, we may start out with some hesitation walking the Christian way. These first steps of walking the Way of Christ are like the first steps we took when we started to walk as babies. We stumble and fall. We bruise ourselves. We need assistance. At times we go back to what appears to be "an easier way," only to realize that the "easier way" doesn't get us anywhere.

It is one thing to begin our walk with Christ. It is quite another to stay on that walk with him. That was the problem which the Apostles experienced. They had begun their walk with God through Christ. When he told them that he was going away, they did not know how they could continue the Christian walk without him. What they didn't remember was that the living Christ would return in the form of the Holy Spirit. The apostles felt lost and stranded.

Have you ever gotten lost on a trip? Have you ever been stranded? Both of these experiences have happened to me. As a little boy, I remember being lost in the Chicago Stadium while attending a sports show. It was frightening.

I also remember that back in 1972 when I took over the leadership of a tour group in Rome, Italy, we were stranded for what seemed like days in the Rome airport. Being stranded gave me a terrible feeling of helplessness. In the journey of the Christian, sometimes a feeling of being lost or stranded can lead us away from the Way we should be going. That's why commitment to walk the true Way is so important.

The first step toward the kingdom of God is awakening to the dead-end nature of every other walk; the second is to commit ourselves to the long walk before us. This commitment is not a once and for all decision. It must be made and remade hundreds of times throughout a lifetime.

That's one of the reasons why I love old Christians so much. Like all of us, they have temptations to leave. Like all of us, they are disappointed when things don't work out well on the journey, when there is a fellow traveler who is a phony or a sickness or death of a loved one which is hard to understand. But the old Christian is someone who has stayed on the road through all of the temptations and disappointments, or more accurately, one who has returned to the Way, even when he has been overcome by disappointments. Old Christians have had to come back to the Way many times. They are an inspiration to all of us because we all know how easy it is to get off the Way onto side roads leading nowhere.

Dr. Sam Shoemaker helped many people get on the way and stay on the way. He summarized his life as standing by the door to the Way. He said that he was very concerned not to go too far into this Way because he was afraid that then he would forget those who are outside, but he was equally concerned that he not stay too far out, lest he leave the Way. He spoke of standing right at the most important door of all -- the door to God -- so that he could help others find the door, put their hand on the latch and go into the Way. He spoke of standing at the door to help those who become frightened and start out away from God. The people who are deep inside terrify some frightened people because they seem so pious and holy. Dr. Shoemaker, who helped many find the Way and many stay on the Way, was one of the prime movers of the small group movement in the twentieth century. He knew that it was not possible to travel the Way alone, that we need traveling companions. He started koinonia (fellowship) groups in the churches where he was pastor and he encouraged others to join in these study and prayer groups. "Dr. Sam," as he was affectionately called, was one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, the best organization I know about to help alcoholics get back on the road to the good life.

One of the basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous is that we need fellowship in order to stay on the right path. That's also one of the principles of Christianity. In fact, that is why Jesus created the Church. We need other Christians in this walk through life. We cannot stay on the Way alone.

In the person of Jesus, our guide, and in other Christians who travel with us, we sense the eternal life toward which we are moving. Both our guide and our group give us the encouragement to go on toward that life. We encourage others to move toward eternal life. Jesus is Life. His followers reflect that quality of life called eternal.

When you feel lost or stranded on your way through life, recall the words of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me..." It is as if he says, "I know where I'm going. I've walked this way before."

Jesus goes before us as our guide. We go together as a group. We can therefore go forward confidently because we are following him and he knows where he is going.

Questions For Reflection Or Discussion

1. Have you traveled on the wrong road as you traveled by car? What resulted?

2. Some people say about religions, "You travel your road; I'll travel mine. We are all going on different roads to the same destination." How is this true? How is it false?

3. "Hedonism and humanism are roads to nowhere." Do you agree or disagree? Why?

4. Is religion good or bad?

5. What is attractive about old Christians? Do you know some?