I am the way, truth & life

John 14:1-14

One of the men behind the theories at the heart of the Da Vinci Code is Henry Lincoln. He's one of the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. An avuncular, mildly eccentric man, he was the subject of a recent documentary on Channel 5 exploring his theories. He described everything he's written as 'just a hypothesis' and then asserted that 'Mr Brown saying these things are fact, people saying that I believe there is a blood descent from Jesus are talking absolute screaming rubbish.'

So, where's the truth? Our culture is a bit like Pilate (John18:38) cynical and mistrustful. But what if the truth is out there – truth that helps us to live full and satisfying lives in world of troubles? Jesus claims to be just that and more in the second most well-known verse in John's gospel (the first being 3:16) 14:6:

1) I am the way

Christianity is not first and foremost a set of facts and dogmas. It's not an argument to win. It's a way of living that reflects something of the image of the creator buried in each one of us. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:17 that it's not just his teaching that the Corinthians should follow but his way of life.

Here Jesus claims to be the way to live:

✔ the way in – how we come to the Father and start the life of faith

✔ the way out – how we live life to the end and come home to the Father

The other two elements in this famous saying flesh out what he means by this with truth at the heart of it:

2) I am the truth

Jesus embodies the truth in two ways:

i) God: 1:14; see Exodus 34:5-7: God is grace and goodness and we see it perfectly in Jesus:

✔ stories of the Father: Jesus is the true story of God lived in our ordinary, workaday world: see John 5:19; 8:29; 14:7-10. When Jesus heals, makes wine, feeds people, he's revealing what God's like: gracious, good and on our side: this is such good news for those of us facing tough times in life!

✔ suggestion of trinity: truth about God includes Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 8-10 talk about unity of the Father and Son; 15-18 talk about the Holy Spirit being the presence of Jesus when Jesus is absent; 23 the Holy Spirit is the presence of the Father and the Son: the truth is, God's with us and for us now and always

ii) us: Jesus is God in the flesh (1:14). The tragedy of the Da Vinci Code is that it robs people the opportunity to see the humanity of Jesus as revealed in the gospels. Maybe the church has hidden that from people through the years! In v1, 6 the verbs are in the present tense – so this is not just about future but also about now:

✔ flux: the disciples faced pain and uncertainty: Jesus is the unchanging truth about the way we relate to the Father (6b) and live in the world. Flux ties us in knots – Jesus frees us because he's the truth (8:32) about God, us and the world

✔ grace: we are not abandoned – God in Jesus is recreating the world and there is a place for us 2f! The image Jesus uses here is of the temple, the place where heaven and earth meet. Jesus is preparing a new temple – elsewhere in the New Testament (especially Revelation 21) it's clear that that 'temple' is going to be on earth. V18 reminds us that Jesus is with us to guide us into truth, so every day we'll know how to live truth before our neighbours

3) I am the life

Here is John 10:10 in action – plenty of things in this world and our daily experience will unsettle us but Jesus is with us, so the adventure starts here!

✔ secure and trusting (1) – even on the rockiest of roads that his disciples are facing, they are secure in Jesus if they trust and follow his way of living – and so are we

✔ showing and telling (12-14) – there could be no greater works than the ones John has told us that Jesus did in his gospel, except that people see what those works mean: that Jesus is God in the flesh and saviour of all who trust him

The question we and our neighbours face is: will you trust him with your life, live his way?

Possible areas of discussion

What are the things that cause us to struggle most in our lives? How does our faith help us?

Do we see the Christian faith as something we believe in or something we do?

How do we understand and explain the fact that Jesus was both human and divine?

Do you think the church has sometimes played down Jesus' humanity?

What do we think Jesus is preparing for us in verse 2-3?

Why shouldn't we let our hearts be troubled given all that's happening in the world?

What are the greater works that Jesus says we'll be doing in his name? Are we doing them?

How can we persuade our neighbours that Jesus is the truth about God and humanity – given that the world seems pretty sceptical about truth of any kind?

Do you feel secure in the midst of trouble because of your faith in Jesus? If so, how do you talk about it to those who don't share our Christian faith?