Lent Day #12

John 14:1-14 (ESV)
[Jesus speaking:] 1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

THOUGHTS:
It's an interesting exchange, isn't it?

One of the many books I'm currently in the middle of is "Organic Community" by Joseph R. Myers. It's mostly old-hat about working in dynamic non-hierarchical ways rather than with a master plan and a chain of command. Then there's this chapter on language where he says we are moving from a noun-centric culture into a verb-centric culture. He asks how that might change our understanding of the Bible. Here in John, we have Jesus saying his is "the way, and the truth, and the life."

Traditionally, these have been given static interpretations. Christians try to devise a specific prayer for using Jesus as the way to God -- like a password you have to know -- and if you haven't said the password, you aren't "in". We talk about "truth" as an immutable and dogmatic "thing" we need to know and attempt to perfectly understand. We end up with a "life" that must be lived by an accumulation of rules. What if these terms were dynamic?

What if "the way", "the truth", and "the life" are verbs being acted out for you, in you, or through you right now?

Why do we limit Jesus to only being "the way" in one way? Do we really have to treat him as the express lanes on a highway, where you have to get on at a specific point and then stay in your lane until you reach the destination? What if Jesus as "the way" is more dynamic than that? What if Jesus is "the way" to God in the way that highways lead into a metro area like spokes on a wheel? Instead of a particular rigid lane, what if Jesus is the highway system, where different people enter from different places going different directions, and through improbable detours or in ways we never thought possible, we are led to God? What do you think about Jesus as "the way"?

Why do we see "the truth" to a formulaic and rigid type of "thing"? In the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Pilate's line to Jesus from John 18:37-38 comes out as: "What is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths? Are mine the same as yours?" What exactly is the "truth" to which Jesus bears witness? Is it every little detail that we glean from the parables or scripture as a whole -- literally or interpretively? Maybe it is a broad sweeping truth like "God loves you" -- which is true, but also works dynamically in our lives. If Jesus is the embodied form of God's Word -- the fleshy version of God's love -- and "the truth", maybe they are all the same thing. How do you understand Jesus as "the truth"?

What is "the life" we find in Jesus? Is it a litany of rules prescribing what we may and may not do? Or is it a dynamic adventurous journey of a life, where we are free to live as God's children: playing, loving, learning, and even making a mess of things? Is this "life" one in which we need to struggle to be good enough, or is it one where our struggle is to be open to letting Christ live through us? Who are you, and how do you live, if Jesus is "the life"?

PRAYER:
Dear Lord, thank you for community -- for people who journey with us. Help us to work together for the good of Your kingdom. In, through, and with Jesus the Christ, AMEN.