“I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life”
John 14:1-6

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Second Sunday in Lent—March 8, 2020

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

We continue our Lenten Sunday sermon series on the “I AM” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John:

“I AM the Door”

“I AM the Light of the World”

“I AM the Resurrection and the Life”

“I AM the True Vine”

“I AM the Bread of Life”

“I AM the Good Shepherd”

This morning we consider Jesus’ declaration in today’s Gospel Reading:  “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Have you ever heard the expression, “I wish I could be a fly on the wall,” meaning that you would like to be a silent witness to some event?  This morning you I have the chance to eavesdrop on a suppertime conversation between Jesus and his disciples.  We can actually be “flies on the wall” at the Last Supper in the Upper Room.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says.  “Trust in God; trust also in me.”  It is about 9:00 o’clock on Maundy Thursday evening.  The Passover celebration should be a joyous, festive occasion for Jesus and his disciples.  But, Jesus has just cast an ominous cloud over the festivities: “My children,” he said, “I will be with you only a little longer.”  In less than 24 hours Jesus will be condemned, crucified, dead and buried.  And for his disciples around the supper table, that means that in less than 24 hours their whole world will come crashing down around them.

First of all, their most beloved friend, the man who over the past three years has become more than their rabbi, has become their nearest, dearest loved one, will be dead.  And to his disciples it will seem that everything they’ve been working for the past three years died and was buried with him.  They had left everything to follow him, Matthew his tax collecting business, the many fishermen among them their boats and nets.  “Come, follow me, he had said on the shores of Galilee, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  Like many people today who start a new career, move to a new town, embark on a new life, three years ago they had embarked on an exciting new calling: fishers of men.  But, now, in less than 24 hours their hopes, their dreams, their expectations will be crushed, their whole world will come crashing down around them.

The writer Carl Sandburg said, “Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”  You yourself know from your own experiences what the disciples were going through, because in your own life you have faced or are facing right now the same kind of traumatic events that confronted them on Maundy Thursday.  There are all sorts of upheavals that can make it seem like your life is crashing down around you.

At times like that, we wonder: Why is this happening?  Does God love me?  Is God punishing me?  Imagine how the disciples felt on Good Friday: Was it all a lie?  Was Jesus just another false messiah?  Were the past three years they devoted to him all for nothing?

Like a beacon shining through the doubt and gloom, Jesus proclaims, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. . .  I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

“I am the way.”  He is the way to forgiveness.  Paul says in Colossians, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things . . . by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” 

Our sin caused separation from God.  Left to ourselves, we would remain in this separation forever.  But in the person of his Son, God himself atoned for our sin and abolished the separation, as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them.”

“I am the way.”  He is the way to peace, peace with God and peace of mind.  As Paul says in Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

And because you are at peace with God you can be at peace within yourself when you experience trouble and trauma and tragedy in your life.  It cannot be that God is punishing you, for he is not angry with you—he is completely at peace with you, you are completely at peace with him.

“I am the way.”  He is the way to eternal life, which is for us the glorious light at the end of life’s often dark tunnel.  “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. . .  I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

“I am the truth.”  Jesus is gently preparing his disciples for the shock of Good Friday.  Do not doubt God’s love for you in Jesus Christ, for he is not just another false messiah.  He is the truth, the only Savior, the true Messiah, God in human flesh.

“I am the life.”  That seems an odd thing for Jesus to say at the Last Supper.  For in less than 24 hours he would be dead and buried.  But, that was the not the disgraceful end of a failed ministry, as the disciples thought, but the glorious fulfillment of the Messiah’s mission on earth.  As Jesus declared, “I am the Good Shepherd . . . and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”  For your salvation he laid his life down of his own accord, only to take up again.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me. . .  I am the way, the truth, and the life.”