May 10, 2026 · Rev. Judy · John 14:1-14
Rev. Judy takes on one of the most troublesome lines in the Gospels, 'No one comes to the Father except through me', and reads it as John meant it: not a test of who's in, but a picture of the cosmic Christ in whom every seeker is one with God. To believe is to give your heart to, and the way is to love one another.
Transcript
Wrote. Last week, I joked about having to preach a three hour sermon to do justice to the complexity of our Scripture passage. And this week is no different. So I'm going to build my remarks around one phrase that has proven troublesome to Christians and non-Christians alike. Jesus answer to Thomas's question how can we know the way? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.
The story goes that Saint Peter was showing new folks around heaven. It was full of many rooms, rooms for all different kinds of people over there. He says that's the room for the Buddhists. And here's room for Jews. And across the way there. That's the room for the Muslims. But please be very quiet when we pass the next room. Don't make any noise. Why is that? Said the visitors. Because that's the room for the Christians. They think they're the only ones here.
Well, you know, when we hear words like Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me. What are we to think? How often have we heard that as a justification for our understanding that the Christian belief is the only true faith? Ours is the only way to God. Our whole political system is beginning to move in this direction.
Now I call myself a theological liberal. I'm a pluralist. I do not believe that Christianity has the whole truth or the only truth, nor even that there is one unified Christianity. I've also always been troubled by this exclusive theology theology. It seems out of character for that radically inclusive Jesus who said, I have other sheep who are not of this fold. And I'm going to bring them in also. And whoever is not against us is for us. And what we heard today in my father's house, there are many dwelling places.
So how do we reconcile this seeming contradiction. Well, most importantly, we need to put this phrase in context. First of all, the Gospel of John is not a tract for evangelism. The Gospel of John is a text for catechism class. Anybody attend catechism class? All right. Or any kind of Christian formation? I hear you using that term in this congregation. It's it's a text written for Christians about Christians to enable them to become more effective Christians. Snippets of it were not meant to be picked out and handed out on street corners. In order to convince people to convert to our way of thinking. This is not a tract for evangelism.
Second, the Gospel of John is an exploration of the meaning of Jesus as the resurrected Christ. Written. It's written decades after the death of Jesus, and it reflects the experience of those early Christians, those early believers. They weren't called Christians then. They had a continuing experience of the Post-easter resurrected Christ, the Jesus who continued to be revealed to them. As Jesus continues to be revealed to us, God is still speaking. The Gospel of John differs greatly from the other three, which resemble each other in the stories about the peasant Rabbi Jesus, his works, and his teachings. John, on the other hand, presents us with Jesus as an exalted, mystical teacher and and spirit guide. One of my favorite professors in divinity school, Krister Stendahl, said in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we have a Jesus who gets down with us, walks on our muddy, messy earth in John. His feet hardly touch the ground.
The Gospel of John opens with this beautiful passage that I know we've heard so many times. We hear it many times at Christmas Eve. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. This light, this word that was God. This is Jesus, the Christ who the early church, came to recognize as one with God so spiritually glorified that he is subsumed into God's being. Preexistent at the beginning of creation, the Cosmic Christ. As the theologian Richard Rohr calls it, so this means that all the seekers on all their quests to find unity with the divine, no matter what form that might take, are also one with Christ. It's inclusive, not exclusive.
Okay, this seems like kind of heady stuff for a sermon on Mother's Day. And if you're starting to get a little lost, join the Disciples Club. They never seem to get what's going on. Throughout the gospel, Jesus speaks on one level, an exalted spiritual terminology, and they consistently miss it. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Here we are, the night before Jesus will be put on trial as an enemy of the state. And all the disciples can think about is the opposite of life death. It's scary. They know that Jesus is going to leave them. They know that he will suffer. They'll be alone. They'll be helpless and uncomforted without Jesus. How can they fulfill his mission? Can they be brave in the face of persecution without Jesus. Will they shame themselves and their leader and their movement?
Thomas. After hanging out with Jesus for three years and listening to countless hours of table talk on the relationship of God and humans, and seeing Jesus, feeding the hungry and curing the sick, Thomas is still mystified. Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? And then there's Philip. Show us the father, and then we'll be satisfied. They need assurance. And Jesus responds, kind of like an exasperated parent. Have I been with you all this time, Philip? and still you do not know me.
Those frightened, skeptical disciples were with Jesus on earth. They watched him scoop fish and lentils out of the same bowl they ate from. They sat at the table with him and watched him stare into space, thinking what. They traveled with him. They endured the shoving crowds that pressed him for wisdom and healing. And earlier that same night, they sat with tears in their eyes as he knelt before them and washed their feet.
And now they hear him say, if you know me, you know my father also. Can this be. Is this what God is like? This is an astounding revelation. Jesus says, whoever has seen me has seen the father. Whoever has seen me, the healer, the. The lover of the lowliest, the foot washer, the crucified One. Whoever has seen me has seen the father.
And he goes farther than seeing. He says, I will not leave you comfortless. I am in my father, and you are in me, and I am in you. The goal of the religious life is not to see God, but to truly be brought into unity with God. And Jesus shows the way and beckons them to follow. Believe in God. Believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you.
Now, this metaphor is not about a room in a heavenly mansion. This is about a place in the heart of God. Believe in God. Believe in me.
Marcus Borg says the word believe seems too passive. It should be translated. Give your heart to. Whenever you see the word believe, it means give your heart to. And it's Abundantly clear what it means to give your heart to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, comfort the forlorn, bring peace wherever you are. Jesus puts it succinctly. Love one another as I have loved you.
A missionary in China once visited a town far in the interior. He was convinced he was the first one to tell them the story of Jesus. When he talked to them about Jesus life and love and compassion. People listened intently and then one said, oh yes, we knew him. He used to live here. He was a little taken aback and said, oh, no. He lived centuries ago in another land. But the villagers insisted that they had seen Jesus. Not so. They said he lived right here in this town and we knew him. And the crowd led the visitor to the cemetery and showed him the grave of a medical doctor who had lived and served and healed and died in that community. Jesus said. You will know that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I am in you.