A Path Wide Enough for All

Readings: John 14:1-14, Apocalypse Revealed 613 (see below)
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Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash

Today’s text begins a section in John’s gospel that is called the Farewell Discourse. Jesus and the disciples have just finished a meal together, what we now call the Last Supper, and Jesus has just predicted that Peter will deny him three times. It is a heavy moment, after which Jesus begins his final teachings to his disciples.

He begins by trying to comfort them, they who had always, very understandably, resisted Jesus telling them he was going to die. He talks to them about the ways that he will continue to be with them, to lead them and to work for them. And he utters some of the most important words in the Christian faith: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Now, the Christian tradition has often used these words to say that the only way to salvation is to believe in Jesus. These words have been used to justify hatred or dismissal of other faiths, used to justify colonialism and the cruelty that has been the hallmark of colonialism. These words have been interpreted to say that millions of people are going to hell for eternity for the crime of simply not being Christian (or even, not being the right kind of Christian).

But of course, what kind of God would set things up in this way? Not the God I believe in. So, what is another way to interpret Jesus’ words?

In our tradition, we see Jesus describing a process not a particular religion; a path of spiritiual development, not belief in a particular set of doctrines. The way, the truth, and the life is a three-fold process by which we can evolve and grow as human beings, and we can do it in any religious context, and even (the horrors!) a secular one. Because, if a God of love was going to provide us with a path towards heaven, then a God of love would provide a path that is applicable and effective in as many contexts as possible.

First, “the way.” The story of Jesus is a powerful one, because of the way that he walked through his life. But where did the story of his public ministry begin? With John the Baptist and his baptism of repentance. The way into spiritual life always has to begin with humility. An essential openness to learning. If we approach our faith with arrogance, certainty, a hunger for dominance and power, or a need to be right, this will always lead to harm for ourselves and others, and particularly, a kind of harm that impacts the vulnerable and the marginalized most acutely. This is exactly the kind of harm that Jesus was working against. So a stance of essential humility is the first step on the way. The following steps involve building on humility with repentance, an openness to seeing what in our life needs to change. What we need to question or give up. What we need to apologize for. This is a difficult phase, not only because getting started with anything can often be difficult, but because this is the phase where we need to willingly and actively put down our defensiveness. We cannot move on to the next stage until we do.

But if we do, then we are ready for the second stage: “the truth.” Humility has started us on “the way” and so the next step is to seek clarity and enlightenment. We have opened ourselves to seeing patterns, perspectives, habits, that we need to let go of, and harm that we need to repair and heal. So we explore “the truths” that guide us in doing so. We might ask ourselves: where did this pattern come from? What is it protecting? We might ask ourselves: where did this perspective come from? Do I truly believe it? We might ask ourselves: Why do I act in this certain way? What story about myself is it perpetuating? We might ask ourselves: what harm have I caused and why? What can I do to make it right?

In our tradition, we call this part of the process “reformation.” We see the pieces of ourselves that may have assembled in maladaptive ways, usually protecting something painful or sad or vulnerable inside of us, and we try to re-form ourselves, and our thinking and our acting, in healthier ways. This will often involve re-framing of certain ideas and perspectives that will then filter down into how we feel, allowing for shifts that we might describe as healing or relief or finally coming home to ourselves. This stage takes courage and patience, as we untangle our defenses, as we let go of inherited narratives, as we face the reality of our failures. But it also brings liberation, and a chance to create something new.

And so finally, Jesus says he is “the life.” After we have reflected on our patterns, after we have re-framed our thinking, then it is time to make different choices. It is time to live differently. We won’t always do so perfectly. But every tiny decision builds the foundation of our new selfhood. Every small act grounds us in the reality of new growth. In our tradition, we call this stage “regeneration,” a metaphor anchored in nature. We picture seeds sprouting in nourishing soul, new buds appearing in the spring-time, the miracle of a salamander growing a new tail, or a caterpillar embracing the full dissolution that is the cocoon, in order the emerge as a butterfly. With God, we are making ourselves anew. We are being reborn though the way, the truth, and the life. 

But why does Jesus then say: No one comes to the Father except through me? This does sound rather exclusive, it does sound ripe for a kind misinterpretation that is interested saying certain people are “in” and certain people are “out.” 

We know, of course, from many many other stories about Jesus that this was not his viewpoint.  He was particularly focused on the people that human systems of domination put on the margins. Jesus would never wish to create yet another system of exclusion based upon himself. So, this is how our tradition interprets this saying: that the only way to try to fully embody the Divine Love that created us, is to engage with the process just described, the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to Divine Love without walking the process of spiritual growth.

You see, we don’t understand Jesus and the Father to be separate, as indeed, Jesus makes clear in this very text. We see the Father as metaphorical language describing the Divine Love that is the essence of God’s being. We see Jesus as that Divine Love reaching for us, reaching so far as to take on a human body, just like our own. This reaching took on the shape of a person and a life, teaching us what it looks like to care for others, to speak truth to power, to sacrifice the self for a greater cause. 

There is such universal and foundational truth to be found in Jesus’ life, and so Christians hold the gospels with reverence, we turn them this way and that like a precious stone in the light, trying to perceive each new sparkle that might enliven our mind and comfort our heart. We read them to each other in community so that our individual interpretations might bless each other, and might expand our perspective. For us, Jesus is a source of Divine Truth, Jesus is a companion on the journey, guiding us in the way, the truth, and the life, in humility, reflection and application. Jesus embodies this process, because he walked it himself. And there is no way to Divine Love that doesn’t engage this process in some way and in some form.

But it is the process that is the key, not the words that we use to name it, not the religion we have formed to practice it, not the beliefs we have created around it. Humility, reflection, and application, are found in many traditions and in many contexts. Jesus was one embodiment of it. But a God who “so loved the world” would give us many ways, many truths, and many means of living a good and loving life. God welcomes every beloved child who walks the process, regardless of how they came to it, regardless of how far along the path they are. 

It is truly heart-breaking that we human beings have used Jesus words as tools of domination rather than a means of connection. As a way to pretend we have co-opted God’s favor, as a permission structure to indulge our worst tendencies. We should see this clearly, we should mourn it, we should repudiate it. And then, lend our hands and our hearts to the project of healing, and living a different way. What a gift it is to have God’s guidance on this path. Amen.


Readings:

John 14:1-14
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
3 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.
4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.


Apocalypse Revealed 613

The name of the Father means the Lord in respect to the Divine called the Father from which springs all else, and at the same time in respect to His Divine humanity called the Son, since the two are one and the same person, united like a soul and body…the Father also means the Divine goodness of the Lord's Divine love, which in the Gospels is everywhere meant by the Father when referred to by the Lord, while the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom is meant by the Son. When the Lord glorified His humanity, these two were united like a soul with its body and a body with its soul.