John 14:6-14: "The Way as Truth and Life" -- a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Ray Pickett, LSPS Associate Professor of New Testament and Associate Academic Dean, delivered in Christ Chapel on May 2, 2005

"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me". It's a claim that needs to be understood in relation to other things Jesus says about truth in John. It is a major theme in this Gospel. When Pilate interrogates Jesus and asks him whether or not he is indeed a king, Jesus replies: "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth". To which Pilate replies: "What is truth?" There is reason to suspect that Pilate's tone is sarcastic. He is an agent of imperial power who is guided by a vested interest in the order over which he presides. The Romans equated justice with order. They called it the Pax Romana, but it was really just tyranny masquerading as justice. Real justice is predicated on truth -- not just knowing the truth but doing the truth.

Of course in the Biblical tradition justice is inextricably tied to God's character and intentions for creation. As with the prophets of old, the Jesus of John's Gospel bears witness to and indeed embodies the truth so as to expose the dysfunction of a system that is at cross purposes with God's creative and redeeming work. For the record, what is dysfunctional in John's account is not Jewish practice and belief per se, but rather leaders who say "we have no king but Caesar", that is, people for whom there is no longer any way but the imperial way.

The Jesus of the Fourth Gospel is the "true light" who not only reveals the Father, but who also illuminates what is wrong with the world. These are two sides of the same coin. This is the difficult part of his work because we human beings are always blurring the distinction between "the world" as we know it and God's creation. The worlds we inhabit are nothing more than social constructions of reality, and yet they appear to us as absolute. It becomes difficult for us to imagine reality in any other form. We lose sight of the goodness and beauty of creation. And so the prologue reminds us that the life force, the Logos, has been operative in and through Jesus from the beginning: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of humanity. The primal light of creation shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

There are three important things to remember in interpreting any Biblical text. The first thing is context. The second thing is context. And the third thing is context! Indulge me one last time seniors. First, let me say a word about what John 14:6 isn't about. This is not a prophecy in which Jesus attempts to warn his followers that some day in the future there will be other religions that promise salvation, but be warned that I am the only ticket to heaven. He is talking here about truth and life, not about life after death but a quality of life now. Some times the most pastoral thing to say is: "Pardon me, but it seems that you are misreading that text. Let's reread the passage together". Who is going to stop the perversions if not those who know something about the hermeneutical circle?

Okay, context number one: the world of the text. This is part of the farewell discourse. Jesus is about to "depart", that is to say executed in the service of Roman justice, and his followers are anxious and concerned about what they will do when he is gone. So Jesus tells them, "Let not your hearts be troubled (don't worry); trust in God, and trust in me … I have shown you the way of truth and life, continue to walk in it." Context number two: the world behind the text. The beloved disciple has died, and once again Jesus' followers are apprehensive about being left bereft without the spiritual leader of their community, and so the Fourth Gospel reminds them that Jesus has embodied and born witness to the way of truth and life. The risen Christ is present and active in the community, and his followers know and have everything they need to abide or remain in him and do even greater works than he did (14:12).

I imagine Jesus' conversation with God about his departure going something like this: "You know Father, there a lot of things about this life that I am enjoying, and actually I could see myself staying longer than planned. But it's clear to me that my presence here is impeding the maturation and empowerment of your people, so I think it's time for me to go so they can blossom". There is nothing sadder than a bunch of co-dependent followers waiting for their leader to tell them what to do, and yet that is often the kind of faith we foster in the church. All the metaphors and images in this Gospel are organic, which implies that those who belong to Jesus are supposed to grow up to become themselves agents of grace and truth. In the farewell discourse Jesus tells them what they need to know to carry on. He has shown them the way of truth and life.

Context number three: the world in front of the text. There is no need for you to be anxious or afraid, I have shown you the way of truth and life -- walk in it! Those who have witnessed the truth and basked in the light can't live as though they haven't. The truth that Jesus reveals is not some big mystery or esoteric gnosis that distinguishes those who have special knowledge from those who don't, as if faith were ultimately a matter of getting the right answer on a quiz. More often than not the problem is not that we don't know the truth, but rather that we don't do the truth that we know!

The truth which Jesus reveals is way of life lived in community that is at odds with hegemonic power and imperial practices that hinder life rather than nourish it. The Johannine corpus presents a coherent and consistent vision of shared life in Christ in which there is no pecking order or hierarchy and members take care of one another. The only community rule is to abide in His love and love one another. Hey, I am all for love, but I am not sure that word love the way we use it in this culture can convey what Jesus is talking about here. Love is a verb, something one does, and not a matter of sentimentality or emotion (not that there is anything wrong with that). Perhaps it is the Johannine language of friendship that best expresses this alternative praxis of mutuality and compassion. From the time of Aristotle friendship or philia consisted of koinonia, or partnership. "I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (15:15). In other words, I have made you partners.

Jesus appears in this Gospel as if from another realm to show us what is real. Some times it takes an outsider perspective to see things with some clarity. The "world" and it ways are not as real as we think. Quantum physics tells us that the physical world which appears to us as matter is really energy, wave and particles presenting themselves to us in space and time from another dimension of reality. Appearance is not reality; it's not to be taken at face value as the way things really are. In showing us the truth, Jesus shows us what is real. And there is nothing more real in God's kingdom than how we relate to one another and to God, how we embody and enact the truth that leads to life. Just as in the material world, so in our relationships, appearance and persona often divert our attention from what is authentic and genuine. The antidote to unreality is to practice the truth that leads to life!

That's not as ominous as it sounds because the truth is the truth and all anyone can really do is bear witness to it. That's all Jesus does. He does nothing on his own. All he does is bear witness to the truth. The pressure is off. You can't possess the truth, though you can be possessed by it. Try though we might, we can't really even manipulate the truth. All we can do is yield ourselves to it. I love what Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians: "For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth" (13:8).

I first learned of the inextricable connection between truth and justice from Simone Weil. She was a mystic who devoted her life to doing truth and justice. In her book Waiting for God she says: "It seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer the truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms."
Let those who have ears listen; better yet, let them speak and bear witness to the truth in word and deed!