John 14:1-6
If you were to choose three words that would describe how to be an effective person, which three would you choose? They would have to be three words that would get at the heart of what you would need to build the best person you could be.
Back in the early 1970’s, family therapist Virginia Satir wrote a couple of books that were popular in helping people understand some answers to the questions I just raised. In her book, Peoplemaking, Satir wrote the following:
Over the years I have developed a picture of what the human being living humanly is like. He is a person who understands, values, and develops his body, finding it beautiful and useful; a person who is real and honest to and about himself and others; a person who is willing to take risks, to be creative, to manifest competence, to change when the situation calls for it; and, to find ways to accommodate to what is new and different, keeping that part of the old that is still useful and discarding what is not.
All that is still important, even though we are nearly 40 years away from when this was first written. Those are important qualities in what Satir calls “peoplemaking.”
The apostle Paul keyed in on three words that he felt defined the Christian life: peace, hope and love..."and the greatest of these is love." Most of Paul's writing about the qualities that should mold every believer had to do with those three words. Peoplemaking, for the Apostle Paul, involved faith, hope and love.
For Jesus, peoplemaking involved 3 words, also. But they were different from Paul's. Jesus' three words were, way, truth, and life. Jesus used these three words to describe himself. But in describing himself as way, truth and life, he was at the same time describing what he has to offer people as people struggle with what it means to be a human being.
Jesus always new what is best in helping people figure out being human. If people are going to give themselves to Jesus, and follow him, that means allowing Jesus to adjust our focus on how to become the best as people.
The question is: Why did Jesus choose these three words to describe himself and how these three words can lead people into their best life? Jesus must have felt these three words are strategic to who we are in relation to himself.
Let’s look at these three words and how we can figure out what Jesus was trying to get across to the disciples and us.
“The way.” Notice that Jesus said he is “the way.” Not a way. Which goes well with the meaning of the word in Greek. “Way” here means “primary road, way or person.” It isn’t just a way, but the primary way. Jesus is the primary way among all other ways.
Usually in mythology or other religions there are two or three ways. Especially in mythology these two or three ways have to do with a person’s destiny. Which ever way you choose it is your destiny to go that way. So fate always has a part in this mythological multiple pathways.
Not so with Jesus. No choices. No fate. Just one way. The primary way.
What’s important to hear in Jesus’ words is that Jesus is the way. The way is not a road or path. Or a bunch of rules. Or a clever little book of wise sayings. Instead of following a path in life, we follow a person. We don’t look down at the path, trying to find our way. Instead we keep our eyes focused on the one ahead of us; we go where he goes; we follow where he leads. No matter what the path looks like—or even if there is no path—we follow the way, Jesus.
One of the big questions I know people struggle with most is, "What is God's will for me?" What is God's will in my life? We think if we could just discover the answer to that question, we would know which path to take in life and we would feel fulfilled as a human being.
Again, notice we are thinking path in that question. We are wanting God to put us on our personal and unique path, and once we figure it out and start out on that path, life will be good. But as Jesus is saying here, life isn't about a path, it's about him. Life is about following him in all things. God's will for each of you is the same: Follow Jesus who is the way. What you make or don't make of your life is your choice. But the primary thread in all your choices has to be following Jesus who is the way.
It appears at least a couple of the disciples didn’t understand that important distinction. In their minds, when they heard Jesus say he was the way, they went right to a path with a destination. "Tell us the way you are going and where you are going," they told Jesus. Jesus' reply was, basically, it's not that easy. What he is trying to warn them about is the human penchant to take over the trip. Once we know the way and the destination, we can take it from there and we don't need Jesus. Jesus was trying to make it clear to the disciples (and possibly us) that he is both the way and the destination. We have to trust Jesus as he leads and not get all anxious about where we're going or the path we're on. "I am the way," said Jesus. The only response to that statement is get up and follow. That's how you live a good life.
Secondly, Jesus said, "I am the truth."
It's hard to try and talk about the truth in a presidential election year. It seems, the more any of the candidates open their mouths, the less truth comes out. It's like they don't care what the truth is--they just want to fill the air with their inane words, as if they think that's what we want to hear.
It was Mark Twain who said, "It is by the fortune of God that in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the prudence never to exercise either of them." I think the sentiment behind that quote has to do with all the drivel and lies that come out of our mouths. Falsehood has mostly to do with our mouths and our speaking.
I think you will agree with me, sadly and with self-judgement--if we are honest--that we are not capable of telling the truth all the time. Lying seems to be a way of life for many people. We lie at the drop of a hat. The book The Day America Told the Truth says that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses.
Here are some basic untruths you may hear a lot:
- The check is in the mail.
- I'll start my diet tomorrow.
- We service what we sell.
- Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back.
- Money cheerfully refunded.
- One size fits all.
- This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.
- I just need five minutes of your time.
- Let's have lunch sometime.
What happens is when life is saturated with lying and untruth, we end up being skeptical of everything people say. St. Augustine once said, "When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful." And that's exactly what has happened. All things remain doubtful. We assume, to some degree, what others tell us is not total truth. In the television show, "House", Dr. House's favorite line was, "Everybody lies." Sadly, that may be one of the only truths we can tell.
Also, when Jesus says, "I am the truth," we have to believe that also is one of the only total truths there is. Can we accept with certainty that Jesus not only tells the truth, all the time, but is the truth, all the time? And that only as we totally immerse ourselves in Jesus will we become part of that truth as well as truth-tellers? That being in Jesus we will live a life of truth and not lies?
In your struggle with your humanity, and what it means to be human, and what it means to be the best you humanly can, truth has to be a big part of that. You can't, as I have stated, be a person of truth on your own. It's not humanly possible. The only way to be a person of truth, is to immerse yourself in the only one who is the truth. You have to immerse yourself in Jesus, face his truth, and be that truth.
Lastly, Jesus said, "I am the life."
How about a physics lesson? Does anyone know what entropy is? It is the measure of the amount of deterioration within any system. Basically, whether you knew it or not, the universe, as a system, is in a state of entropy. The whole universe, and everything within it is breaking down. Every piece of the universe is in a steady decline into disorder. You might like to think that life is about order and stability and safety. That's the assumption we make about our lives, our world, our universe. The universe is predictable. It is predictably destabilizing and disintegrating.
You can rest easy though. According to science, this won't completely happen for billions of years. But keep in mind that entropy is going on right now in your life, in the lives of those you love, your world and the whole universe. And the universe doesn't care. It's just marching onward toward that fateful day when everything will totally fall apart.
Cheery little thought, isn't it? Now, let's go to the movies. Remember the first "Jurassic Park" movie. Jeff Goldblum played a mathematician in that movie named Ian Malcolm. At several points in the movie, Malcolm is trying to tell the founders of the park that all kinds of things, mathematically can go wrong. But he's just brushed aside.
Then the team he's with finds a nest of dinosaur eggs. That wasn't supposed to happen because the dinosaur's were genetically altered so they can' reproduce. Malcolm looks at the team members and the founder of the park and said, "Life always finds a way."
That seems to be another truth along side entropy. Life always finds a way. When I'd go hiking in Olympic National Park in western Washington State, I'd see these huge, fallen Douglas Fir trees. Dead for decades. But growing up along and within that dead trunk were new baby trees. Within the death of one organism, others found life.
I think that's what Jesus was getting at by saying he is the life. Yes the world, and us, and the universe is ultimately ruled by entropy. All things die. But in Jesus, life finds a way.
The Resurrection is the great reversal of entropy. Jesus should have remained dead. But he did not. Through Jesus, God made life find a way. The great thing for us, as Paul wrote, "When we die with Jesus, we will be raised with Him." Because of Jesus, because of the Resurrection, entropy has been negated. Life, in Jesus, has found a way.
Are you afraid of death? Afraid of entropy? Afraid of coming to an end, disintegrating and decaying? Thank God, through Jesus Christ, and his Resurrection, we don't have to live by that fear, anymore. As we are in Christ, we are in life. And it is a vital, vigorous, robust, entropy-busting life that no one can take away from you.
Those are Jesus' three words about peoplemaking at it's best. If you want to be a person of God, remember those three words: find and follow the way; immerse yourself in truth of Jesus and live that truth; embrace the resurrected Jesus and bust your fear of how all things end. Because there is no end to the story through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment