John 14:1-14        “The Road To Somewhere”   

 Someone’s made a list of five things you will never hear a man say:

1. We haven’t been to the mall for ages, let’s go shopping and I’ll even hold your purse for you!

2. Forget “Monday Night Football.”  Let’s watch Melrose Place.

3. Your mother’s coming to stay with us again?  Great!

4. Do these jeans come in lavender?  And finally,

5. I think we’re lost.  We’d better pull over and ask for directions.

     Perhaps all of us have had the experience of being lost in a strange town, even those of us who don’t mind asking for directions.  A lot of times streets simply aren’t marked very well and getting back on the right route isn’t always easy.

     We all know how important it is when taking a trip to have good directions so we can find our way and reach our destination.  We need good directions so we don’t waste time getting there by becoming side-tracked and making wrong turns along the way.  We need good directions so we can plan our trip wisely.

     Thank goodness modern technology has given us handy little gadgets called navigation systems.  It doesn’t get any easier than plugging in an address, pushing a couple of buttons and a having a route automatically mapped out for you.  A pleasant female voice even, without criticism, gives you turn by turn guidance along the way.      

     In this light, we can fully understand the question of Thomas in our Gospel reading for today.  When Jesus told his disciples that they knew the place where he was going, Thomas was confused.  “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”

     I think Thomas gets a lot of bad press.  Thomas has always impressed me as being an honest, bottom-line disciple.  Think about it, Thomas was committing his life and his destiny to following Jesus and he wanted to be sure he was on the road to somewhere, not nowhere.  He wanted to be sure it was the real thing.  

      As the fourteenth chapter of John opens, the disciples are really discouraged.  They’ve just gone through a profound experience which challenged them to the very core of their being when in the Upper Room Jesus demonstrated the nature of true servanthood and discipleship with a towel and a basin by washing the feet of his disciples.  They saw Judas mysteriously leave.  Jesus then lays a bomb shell on the disciples by telling them that he’s going to be betrayed and put to death.  There was no turning back.  The disciples wanted Jesus to turn back, but Jesus confidently and obediently set his face to Jerusalem, trusting in the Father’s will.  

     Jesus then declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  In so doing, Jesus wanted to reassure his disciples and us that the ultimate reality of life, the ultimate reality in life, the ultimate reality about life is found in him. 

     Jesus had said just a few days earlier, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32)  Real life doesn’t happen because you conduct a ceremony or ritual in the prescribed way or follow a set of rules as best you can, but real life comes from having a personal relationship with God and a personal commitment to God’s purposes revealed in Jesus Christ.  This is the road that will lead you home.

     As you sit here in church this morning, I don’t know all what you’re going through in life.  I don’t know what’s causing you pain or conflict or confusion or trouble in your life at this moment, but I do know that his way – his truth – his life can help you in some way.  I realize that the claim found in our gospel lesson is a big and bold claim, but it is a true claim.

     Throughout history many men and women have sought to make their names unforgettable, but now their names are only a faint scribble on the pages of history.  Jesus Christ, on the other hand, who sought no fame or fortune or notoriety is the greatest name of all.

     More has been written about Jesus than any other person.  And every one of us who hears and reads the vast information we have available about Jesus ultimately has to make some judgment about him.  You have to determine if Jesus Christ has left a mark on you.  Are you on the Road to Somewhere – or are you desperately lost – frantically searching for that which is true and eternal?  

     I probably don’t need to tell you that under the guise of religious tolerance there are many in society today who maintain that it doesn’t matter what you believe because all religions lead to the same place and they’re all equal.  But every road is not the same!  Jesus wouldn’t have warned us about a wide road and a narrow road if there weren’t some roadblocks to watch out for.  So Jesus comforts Thomas by reassuring him that he is the Way – the Truth – the Life.

     One of my favorite “Peanuts” comic strip columns features a conversation between Lucy and Linus.  Lucy and Linus are looking out the window and it’s raining quite hard.  Lucy says “Wow!  Look at it rain.  What if it floods the whole world again?”  Linus says with confidence, “Lucy, God promised Noah in the ninth chapter of Genesis that it would never happen again.  The sign of the promise is the rainbow.”  Lucy exclaims, “Linus, you sure have taken a great load off my mind.”  Linus shares with Lucy, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

     Jesus shares with Thomas sound theology in our Gospel today.  He reassures Thomas and the other disciples that he is the Way – the Truth – the Life.  And he is, still, today!

     Yes – Jesus was a great teacher!  Yes – Jesus worked miracles!  Yes – Jesus was an excellent moral example.  Yes – Jesus was a persuasive preacher.  Yes – Jesus was a lovable human being.  However, if that was all he ever was, he would have been just a footnote in our historical records.  But because he was the Son of God, and died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins and rose again to guarantee our salvation, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, he is still the Way – the Truth – the Life.  And because Jesus is still the way and the truth and the life our hearts need not be troubled and we need not fear whatever comes our way, because we’re on the road to somewhere and our future is secure in God’s hands.

     The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer would challenge his students and congregation by saying, “Who is Jesus Christ for you today?”  May God give us the ability to say “the way – the truth – the life” and the courage to live it out.

                                                AMEN