Easter V

Easter V (John 14:1-14) “I am the Way…”

In Jesus, God unites His Divinity with our humanity- never to be divided.

If you are looking for a solution to a problem you must first be sure you understand the problem. The problem Moses and the Prophets identify is the choice we as a species and each of us individually made and continue to make to separate from God.

This is a fundamental problem because separation breaks the basic design of our species. Our Heavenly Father created us by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern, plan and purpose of the co-eternal Son.  The One God eternally manifests as a relationship of three persons in an active, dynamic and creative community of love. God created us in His image and likeness, in the pattern of personal relationships forming a community of universal unconditional and holy love.

Separation is the basic problem confronting our species and defining our species. Separation breaks the three fold set of relationships the Triune God imprinted on our souls.

Moses and the prophets observed the problem in all of its expressions in human behavior: war, crime, conflict, theft, murder, injustice and blasphemy. Moses and the prophets concluded that based on their observations and their own experience, the only solution to the problem was for God to reset the pattern and then offer that solution to humanity as a gift. Jesus is that gift.

This is the context for all that Moses and the Prophets observed and recorded. This is the context for all that Jesus said and did and was and is.

Jesus is not just a religious teacher who offers his insights into the Way of life. Neither is Jesus just a prophet who receives a word from God to convey to people. Jesus is the Word of God.

Jesus is the union of divinity and humanity in a single person. As that unity of two natures in one person, Jesus is the only solution to the problem of separation, sin and death.

Hear the statement again. Jesus tells the apostles that they already know the Way. Thomas speaks from the place of confusion when he asks: “how can we know the Way?” Thomas and the apostles are still thinking in the old paradigm. The old paradigm looks for external structures such as Law, Ritual, Religion or Institutions to provide the solution to life’s problems.

Those things have their place. Those things are not the solution. External structures and systems can only restrain and direct. They cannot convert and transform. We need conversion. We need transformation.

That is why Jesus never addressed the issue of which of the many sects of Judaism was the one true religion. That is why Jesus never engaged in political, economic and philosophical debates. Jesus Himself is the solution. Jesus is the Way- the new way of life that produces a new Way of living. Jesus just doesn’t speak about truth. Jesus is the personal incarnation of the eternal pattern of truth.

Since the apostles knew Jesus they already knew the Way. They just had to unlearn the categories of fear, self-will and pride that inhibited their ability to recognize what they already knew.  Salvation is an inside job. Salvation is a gift. Salvation is an active, dynamic, creative and personal relationship with a very specific person: Jesus Christ.

Jesus once said: “You cannot place new wine into old wineskins.” The Apostles failed to understand Jesus because they wanted to define him from the old way of living- the way of separation. We can only understand Jesus as we begin to accept the reality that He himself is the original pattern of the original blessing.

The original blessing is the pattern of the three fold set of personal relationships the Triune God created us to experience. Jesus teaches and demonstrates these relationships in the Summary of the Law. Love God through worship, love others through acts of kindness and compassion, love yourself by living the Way of personal transformation.

 Personal transformation is the path of growth and develop through change. If you don’t want to change you can’t transform. If you don’t want to change you are lost in stagnation. A personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ inspires change and facilitates change. The basic change is the transition from merely existing to abundant life.

Apart from the source of life there is no life. Jesus is that source. Faith in Jesus is reunification with the Triune God that is producing a result in the way we relate to each other and in the way we form our own personal identities.

Salvation is a process. It is a Way of living that produces transformed attitudes and actions. In the most astonishing teaching Jesus gives he tells us that as we enter into the Way, the Truth and the life we are becoming transformed. We change. We will in fact do greater works than Jesus did when he was on Earth. The great problem facing the followers of Jesus is not that we think too highly of ourselves. The great problem is that we think too little of how we can transform in union with God in Christ.

We will do these greater works in union with the Father, through the Son by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit as we take our eyes off our little ego self and focus on the One by whom, through whom and for whom we were created.

The reality is the relationship. The relationship manifests in worship, compassionate service to others, and personal transformation. The relationship is God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life of steadfast, holy, universal, personal and unconditional love.