Jarrett McLaughlin
“I AM, So You Can: The Way, the Truth and the Life”
April 13, 2025
John 14:1-13
Cold Open:
When Meg and I first completed Seminary, we moved to Kansas City for our first call and quickly discovered that directions just are not the same in the Midwest.
She, a native of Charlotte and I hailing from Raleigh – we were accustomed to traveling on winding roads that could take you in all four cardinal directions – roads that just changed names three times before they either dead-ended or dumped you onto some highway.
Everything might be up-to-date in Kansas City – but taking directions was a real adjustment.
You see, when you have the great plains stretching out in every direction, city planning is…a bit easier. Kansas City is one giant grid. Numbered streets run east-to-west, named streets north-to-south.
“How do you get to Gates Barbecue” I might have asked in those early days of living there.
Locals would say, “Well, you go east on 51st street until you hit Troost, head north and then east again on 47th Terrace and Gates is on the south side of the street…got it?”
Meg and I would nod but have no idea what they were talking about.
Once back in our car one of us would mutter, “Doesn’t anybody just say ‘turn left’ or ‘turn right’ in this town?”
After a while…6 weeks for Meg, 6 months for me…it started to make sense as the city grid came into focus. Eventually, you could tell me that Garozzo’s – the old fashioned Italian restaurant that I am convinced was a front for the Mafia – was at Sixth and Harrison and that’s all I needed to get there. Eventually – I came to know the way.
Today we arrive at the penultimate “I Am” statement of Jesus –
“I am the way, the truth and the life.”
This text has an unfortunate interpretive history so perhaps some house-keeping is in order. Everybody wants this text to be about salvation, about who goes to heaven (Christians) and who does not (non-Christians). In some ways that is understandable –
Jesus does speak about going ahead to prepare a place for us.
He does promise that in his Father’s house there are many rooms.
We do read this text an awful lot by gravesides.
So by the time we get to “I am the way, the truth and the life – no one comes to the father except through me,” many have assumed that Jesus means to tell us that he is the only path to salvation – your one and only hope of making it into heaven, so you best accept him as Lord and Savior and secure your seat on the train.
There’s a glaring reason why this is problematic, though.
Heretofore, all of the “I am” statements have been gifts or promises –
I am the light of the world, I am the bread of life, I am the
resurrection and the life.
These are good things that anybody would welcome – light for your path, bread that erases hunger forever, new life bursting out from dead ends.
These are all promises of abundance.
So why would Jesus suddenly switch to making threats?
Why would Jesus shift from making promises of heavenly abundance to drawing up a deportation list to Hell?
It’s inconsistent with his character, with his message and with all the preceding “I am” statements.
So let’s sweep out all of the damnation dust that has settled on top of these words and ask ourselves anew – what might it mean for Jesus to say “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
A reading from John, chapter 14:
Scripture:
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.’
Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’
Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
Sermon:
Is your heart troubled?
That’s my question for you this morning.
Is your heart troubled?
Chapter 14 is just the beginning of what is often called Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. Beginning with our reading this morning and stretching for an entire four chapters of John, Jesus begins to prepare the disciples for what life will be like after he is gone.
Incredulously, he begins with the words “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
So let me repeat the question – Is your heart troubled?
Because mine is! I don’t even know where to begin.
I’m troubled by a war well into its second year – a war waged on the same ground where this gospel story was first told, not to mention the war in Ukraine now in its third year.
I’m troubled by the collapse of a functional government in Haiti where I have many friends who wake up every day wondering if they will survive; who close every day in prayer – praising God that they did.
My heart is troubled.
I’m troubled by the erosion of what I trusted to be bedrock American values – due process in a court of law; the right to free speech and a free and open press; the right to a quality education provided by the State.
I’m troubled by masked officers seizing people off the streets and detaining them indefinitely or shipping them overseas.
I’m troubled that when mistakes are made there’s a collective shrug and a “nothing we can do about it” reaction.
My heart is troubled.
I’m troubled that the lives of already confused and vulnerable young people have become the battleground for a culture war about gender identity.
I’m troubled that women are assaulted and children are abused and instead of putting more safeguards in place we continue to give perpetrators a pass.
To say my heart is troubled is an understatement.
What about you? Is your heart troubled?
Of course your heart is troubled.
I know that your heart is more than troubled – by all of the things I named AND a whole host of others that I did not.
Contrary to the popular saying, me asking “Is your heart troubled?” may be evidence that there are in fact dumb questions.
Speaking of dumb questions, Thomas may have also asked one.
As Jesus assures the disciples that he goes to his Father’s house to prepare a place for them, Thomas asks “we don’t know where you are going – how can we know the way?”
I for one think Thomas gets a bad rap in this Gospel – especially later in that so-called “Doubting Thomas” episode – he’s just a concrete thinker is all. So little wonder that he doesn’t understand all this abstract talk from Jesus.
But evidently it was a bit of a dumb question – because by now they should probably understand that the answer to most any question is going to be “Jesus.”
Jesus has already said I am the light, I am the bread, I am the good shepherd, I am the gate.
They should have seen it coming – now Jesus is the way as well.
Phillip follows on Thomas’ heels with another request that tells us the disciples still don’t get it. “Show us the Father,” he says, “and we will be satisfied.”
Again, Jesus looks at him like he’s obtuse and says “you’ve been seeing the Father all this time. When I taught and changed the hearts of many – that was the Father.
When I restored sight to the blind man, that was the Father, too.
When I turned all that water into wine at the wedding and kept the joy flowing – that was the Father.
When I stuck my neck out for the woman caught in adultery – that was the Father.”
Phillip – You’ve been seeing the Father this whole time – I AM in the Father and the Father is in me.
Thomas – you know the way because I am the way and you’ve been following in my way this whole time.
I guess this is the sermon when I talk about all the places I’ve lived before.
Our second call was to a Church in Northern Virginia – and in the great metropolis of Burke we lived on what’s called a Pipe Stem. It’s like developers were driving through neighborhoods and said – you know, if we put a really long driveway in between these two houses and clear out that land back there, we can put four more houses up. We lived on one of those Pipestems.
It was kind of great in a way – you had what was essentially a road to yourself with no cars driving on it. I say it was great, except when it snowed then you had to shovel the longest driveway you’ve ever seen.
But otherwise, it made for a great playground. We could set out Pools and water tables, scooters and bicycles. And it was perfectly safe.
One time Meg’s uncle George was visiting. George is an avid cyclist. None of our girls were riding bicycles just yet, though we had begun to do a little bit of training.
As we were sitting out on the pipestem in some lawn chairs talking with George, suddenly out of my peripheral vision I see Naomi tootling by on her bicycle. At first I didn’t think much of it – but then I realized “WHOA – Naomi is riding a bike…she’s never done that before!”
We chalked it up to the spirit of Uncle George but it’s as if she suddenly realized that she knew how to ride that bike all along. She knew the way.
I think John is trying to tell all us disciples that when it comes to following Jesus – we already know the way. We already know how to do this.
Just keep doing the things that he did.
Jesus healed and he shared and he wept with those who grieved.
Jesus fed and he welcomed and he defended the most vulnerable.
So when hearts are troubled – yes our own but those around us, too –
We know what to do:
We bind up and we share and we weep with those who weep.
We break bread and feed. We welcome and defend the most vulnerable.
The entire concept of this sermon series was for us to recognize who Jesus is (I am…) and that when we do, we realize who we are called to be (I am…so that you can). Nowhere is that more clear than in this “I Am” statement.
I am the way, the truth and the life.
And you will be too.
It’ll be like riding a bike – once you know how to do it, you never forget.
It’ll be like finally figuring out the mental map of your new home and knowing the way to any place in the city.
We know the way because we know and are known by Jesus.
Let the people of God – the followers of this Jesus way – say in once voice. Amen – AMEN.