The Way, The Truth, The Life

As much as the Star Wars prequels get a bad wrap, they do a great service in showing us the path of Anakin Skywalker. Upon the realization in The Empire Strikes Back that Darth Vader had once been a promising young Jedi and the father of Luke Skywalker, people began asking the question, what would lead such a person to become the most ruthless and dangerous person in the galaxy?

In episode 1 we learn that Anakin Skywalker was born as a slave on the planet of Tatooine. He had deep attachments to his mother and desired to alleviate her pain and suffering in whatever way he could. However, despite being talented and skilled in many areas, he was unable to free he and his mother from slavery.

One day a man came to them. This man, a Jedi Knight, had supernatural abilities and was able to free Anakin from his slave master. He was unable to rescue Anakin’s mother, but he promised Anakin that he would learn to be a Jedi as well. To a young boy that wants only to protect those he loves, this was essentially a promise that he would one day be able to rescue his own mother.

Fast forward many years and Anakin has grown in his knowledge and skill of the force. Circumstances bring him back to the planet of Tatooine, and he sees the opportunity to free his mother. However, he is too late and watches as his mother dies in his arms. He had finally learned enough to rescue her from her slavery, but he was not able to rescue her from death. For a man who values these relationships above all else, this is devastating.

He continues to pour himself into his studies. He falls in love and secretly marries his childhood friend, Padme Amidala. However, not long after discovering that he will become a father, Anakin is plagued by a vision of Padme dying. Flashbacks of his mom run through his mind again. He had lost her, and he was in danger of losing Padme as well.

It’s at this point, along with a series of events, that he decides for himself that he knows what he must do. He will do anything within his power to save those whom he loves, but he doesn’t have enough power. With all of his knowledge of the force, he is still unable to save those he loves from death. He determines that he must do whatever it takes to achieve that level of knowledge and power, even if that means venturing toward the dark side.

His closest friends have warned him of the dark side. They’ve told him of its dangers, but he has determined that that is the way he must go. It is the only chance that he has of saving those he loves. However, through this quest for power and knowledge, he ultimately brings about the death that he had fought so hard to prevent. He had chosen his way, but like he’d been warned, that way had led to death.

Many of us can relate to that story. Maybe your story doesn’t end in the death of those closest to you, but we each have determined for ourselves which way is the right way. Be it right or be it wrong, we’ve each forged our own path to bring about the outcome we desire. Each of us has determined for ourselves which way is true and right. However, as we can see from Anakin’s tale, even the most well-intentioned paths aren’t always right.

As we’ve been studying through the book of John over the past six weeks, we’ve seen many declarations and statements from Jesus. We have seen that he is the bread of life. He is the light of the world, and he is the true vine. As we conclude this sermon series this morning, we come to John 14.

It was on the night that Jesus was to be betrayed and arrested. He had gathered together with his disciples to celebrate the passover meal. Trying to explain to them one last time what was about to happen, he tells them, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:2-4).

If you’re confused by that statement, you’re not alone. Jesus’ were much like any average person of the day. There were many things which Jesus said to them that they didn’t understand at the time. But much like us today, they were often too proud to ask. However, in this case Thomas, who was not one to let anything go by without his comprehension, spoke up saying, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5).

It was through this question of doubt that we receive one of the most profound statements of Christ. In John 14:6, Jesus makes a declaration that is unprecedented; a statement that only he is able to make truthfully. This was a controversial statement in those days, but it’s even more so now. In today’s era of inclusiveness, we fight to ensure that nobody is left out and everybody’s ideas are validated. In this spirit of inclusiveness many declare that there is no one way to heaven. Each of us must find our own path. Maybe you find your way through Buddha while I find my way through Jesus and yet others find their way through Allah. Every way is validated and every belief is true.

However, as we discussed last fall, this cannot be the case. In the spirit of inclusiveness we like to declare that all beliefs are true and that all truth is relative, but in reality, this can’t be the case. To demonstrate this we looked at a tactic coined by Dr. Frank Turek as “The Roadrunner Tactic.” This tactic seeks to apply a claim to itself in order to show that it has no ground upon which to stand.

All truth is relative. In order to apply the Roadrunner Tactic to this claim, we simply need ask the question, “Is that a relative truth?” The claim that all truth is relative is a claim to absolute truth. This claim seeks to apply itself to all truths yet claims that no truth can do so.

In our study on this topic of truth, we tackled the age-old phrase, “It’s true for you but not for me.” This is at the heart of this inclusive “every way leads to God” mindset. However, if we apply the Roadrunner Tactic we find that “It’s true for you but not for me” can’t be true because “It’s true for you but not for me” is a claim to absolute truth and therefore can’t be true for everybody.

If someone says to you, “It’s true for you but not for me,” a fun way to combat this argument is to simply tell them to go try that with their bank teller. When money gets tight, go to your bank teller and tell them, “I’d like to withdraw ten thousand dollars.” Your teller will pull up your account and say, “I’m sorry, you only have $36.27.” Try telling them, “Well, that’s true for you but not for me. Just give me my ten grand.”

It’s absurd when you think of it that way, yet when it comes to inconvenient truth claims such as, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” suddenly we get the idea that we pick and choose what is truth. If Jesus is the way, then Allah and Buddha can’t be, and likewise vise versa. We’ve seen plenty of evidence to back up this idea that Jesus is who he claimed to be. I don’t have time to get into all here, but if you’re interested, I’d encourage you to check out the Prove It series.

If Jesus truly is God as he claimed, then he is the way. What does this mean? Suppose you’re in a new town and your GPS is broken. You’re trying to find a particular place and you do the one thing that every guy is forbidden from doing, ask for directions. You find a person, and they explain to you, “Go to the second stoplight and turn right. Then go about three blocks and take another right. After you pass the bank, the place you’re looking for will be on the left.”

In that moment they have told you the way. Chances are that you’ll be lost before you get halfway there. However, if that person says, follow me and I’ll get you where you’re going. In that sense, that person has become the way. You cannot miss your destination as long as you follow them.

That is what Jesus does. He doesn’t simply give us directions and advice on how to reach the Father. Instead he takes us by the hand and leads us, day in and day out. He strengthens and guides us. He doesn’t simply tell us the way. He is the Way.

You may say, “That’s all good and well, but why should I believe that Jesus is the way? Mohammed claimed to know the way as well.” That’s true, but once again you have to look at the evidence behind each claim. As I said, we have much evidence that the narrative given by the New Testament is true. Likewise, Jesus not only claimed to be the Way, he also makes claim to being truth.

Truth can be known. We all inherently know this to be true. It’s self defeating to say that it can’t. Many men have come and have claimed to know the truth, but no man has embodied it like Jesus. There is a striking importance to moral truth.

If a man stands before you and tries to teach you Spanish, calculus, or astronomy, the moral character of the man is of little consequence. However, if a man proposes to teach moral truth, the moral character of that man is of the utmost importance. A thief that teaches the importance of property ownership or an adulterer stressing the importance of purity won’t be effective. Moral truth cannot be conveyed merely by words but must be lived out in the real world, and that is precisely what Jesus did. Many great men and women can say, “I have taught you the truth,” but only Jesus could say, “I am the truth.” Not only has the statement of moral perfection found it’s peak in him, but the fact of moral perfection has found its realization in him.

Jesus has also declared that he is the life. If there’s one thing than mankind seeks above all else, it is life. Even our quest for knowledge is not a quest for knowledge itself but a quest for that which makes life worth living. A writer makes one character in his novel fall in love with another only to say, “I never knew what life was until I found it in your love.” Love brings life.

This is what Jesus does. He brings abundant life to those who are dead. Jesus puts it this way, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the way to God. We can make our own way by following Allah or Buddha or trying to do enough good things, but just like Anakin Skywalker, our own ways will lead only to death.

Only in Jesus can we see who God is and what he’s like. Only through Jesus can we find our way to the throne of God without fear or shame. Only through him will we know the truth and have life.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He’s the only one that could claim that because that is who he is. You don’t have to believe it. He gives you the freedom to reject him and his claims. You can go about your life believing that every way leads to eternal life or that if you’re a good enough person you’ll earn it. However, you can’t deny what Jesus has said or the life that he’s lived.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. The only question remaining is whether you’re going to follow the truth or remain in darkness. There are really no other choices. Either you accept him for who he is or reject him for your own reality. The choice is up to you.

The Door

We in America like to tout our freedom. We like to wear our freedom as a badge for all to see. We want everyone to know that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. That is who we are as Americans.

We have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But when you start to think about it, what does that mean? What does it mean that we have freedom?

I heard it all the time as a kid. Your brother or sister is being particularly annoying, either singing obnoxiously or “not touching you.” You tell them to stop and their response is always the same, “It’s a free country. I can do what I want.” Is this true? Does living in this free country give us liberty to do whatever we want? Of course not.

While we may have freedom of speech, there are still such things as libel laws. You can’t just go about spouting lies about people. Likewise, inciting an unlawful riot will land you with some criminal charges. So, even though we have freedom of speech, you still can’t say whatever you want.

In regards to freedom of religion, we’ve already seen the implications of abortion inducing drugs in the Affordable Care Act. Yes, there are limits to what the government can impose upon someone, but it’s possible that the law will override your religious beliefs. Does this mean that we don’t truly have freedom of religion?

What does it mean to be free? As we look at this topic and try to answer this question, we come back to a passage we looked at only a few weeks ago. As we continue in our study of the “I am” statements of Jesus, we’re going to revisit John 10 in a little more detail.

Last time we looked at this passage, we discussed how Jesus is the good shepherd that knows and cares for his sheep, but that’s not the only thing he says in that discourse. Looking back at the events that lead to this discussion, we find that Jesus had healed a man who had been born blind. This was a feat that was unheard of. Moreover, he had done it on the Sabbath.

As the Pharisees try to wrap their heads around what has happened here, they’re split. Some argue that nobody had ever healed a man born blind, so whoever did this had to have been from God. However, the others argued that this man healed on the Sabbath, thus breaking one of God’s laws, and therefore can’t be from God. Their investigations lead them to this meeting with Jesus.

It’s at this point that Jesus tells them a parable about the sheep and the shepherd. He explains to them the relationship between the two, but they didn’t get it. They didn’t seem to understand, so instead he has to spell it out for them.

When we looked at this a few weeks ago, we jumped down to the part in the conversation where Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd.” But I want to take a step back and look at the paragraph before that where Jesus begins to explain what he meant. As he begins to explain it to them, he makes another profound statement (John 10:7-10).

As we begin to look at this passage, we’re immediately taken back to what we discussed last time. We spoke before about the sheep pen, a place in which the shepherds would keep their sheep at night. There were actually two types of sheep pens. Within towns and villages you might find a communal sheep pen. Flocks from all the different villagers would be sheltered here. These pens had a large, strong door that locked. The watchman would be the only person with a key.

The second type of sheep pen is the one discussed previously. During the warm season, when the shepherds didn’t always bring their sheep into the village at night, they would collect their sheep into a sheep pen on the hillside. These sheep pens didn’t have a fancy gate with a strong lock. Instead they were merely a wall with an opening for a doorway. At night the shepherd would act as the door or gate by sitting or lying across this opening to prevent the sheep from getting out. Likewise, anyone that desired to enter the sheep pen would have to confront the shepherd.

This is the image that Jesus is giving when he declares, “I am the door.” He says, “All who came before me are thieves and robbers.” Often when Jesus refers to “those who came before” he’s referring to the prophets of old. However, in this case, thieves and robbers doesn’t sound like terms Jesus would use when referencing the prophets.

We see reference to the people of whom Jesus speaks in Acts 5. After Jesus’ resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the apostles began preaching and healing in Jesus’ name. This drew the attention of the Jewish courts which brought them in. Upon hearing their testimony they decide to put them to death. However, an honored teacher of the law, Gamaliel, speaks up (Acts 5:36-37).

What he’s describing here are those that came before Jesus. Ever since going into exile, the people of Israel waited for the messiah to come and liberate them. There were some that believed that it was their duty to bring about this liberation and possibly the coming of the messiah. The Zealots sought to overthrow their Roman oppressors through military means.

These were the people Jesus was speaking about when he told of the robbers and thieves. They were not above war, murder, and assassination. Instead, their ways drove people further from God and led only to destruction. However, Jesus’ way was that of love, peace, and sacrifice. It is only through his perfect sacrifice that we can be saved.

I was talking to my wife the other night about things I don’t understand (trust me, there are many). But I was recounting my days in Army Basic Training. During training, you are removed from everyone and everything you know. I’ve heard the goal of Army Basic Training as tearing a person down so that they might be rebuilt as they want them to be.

During that time you have little or no contact with the outside world. If you’re lucky you’ll get to call home once or twice. You don’t get a newspaper, radio, or anything. You are isolated for nine weeks. You are told when to wake up and when to sleep. You are told what to eat and what to wear. Your every waking activity is planned for you, and if you deviate from that plan, you will face the consequences.

So it was, many people came into Army Basic Training as habitual smokers. So it is clear, smoke breaks are not on the approved activity list. During the entirety of Army Basic Training, nobody is allowed to drink or smoke.

They say that the first three days after you quit smoking cold turkey are the hardest. The nicotine withdrawal can last up to two weeks. With that in mind, having been nicotine free for nine weeks in Army Basic Training, nobody coming out of training is addicted to nicotine. So it is that to this day I cannot understand why most, if not all, of the people who smoked prior to training went right back to it after they’d finished. They were free from the physical nicotine addiction, but they went back to it. Because you see, they’re not free.

Jesus says, “he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” This was a common phrase that the Jewish people would have understood. We see it numerous times throughout scripture (Numbers 27:17; Deuteronomy 28:6; 1 Kings 3:7; Psalm 121:8).

Jesus’ audience understood when this phrase was used, to come in and go out, it meant freedom. A man could come in and go out of his home without fear of being attacked or robbed. This scenario indicated that your country was at peace. Law and order ruled in the land. They enjoyed security.

Does this mean that it was a euphoric utopia? No, but in general the people were safe and free. In general, I can go out on the streets of Beulah and not have to worry about being attacked or robbed.

In general I have the freedom to worship my God in any way I choose. In general I have the freedom to say whatever I want. I don’t have to worry about saying something against the government or the president had being thrown in prison. I have that freedom.

There are limitations. I may be attacked or mugged in Beulah. There are some things I can’t do in worship and some things I can’t say. But I have the freedom to come and go as I please. This is the freedom that we talk about when we sing the Star Spangled Banner, but Jesus’ freedom goes beyond this.  

He says, “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” See it’s not just when you go in. If I told you that you were free to go anywhere as long as you stayed within this room, you’d say that’s not freedom. It’s not just that you are safe in that sheep pen, but when you go out the shepherd is still there, guiding and protecting you. It is only through that gate, the shepherd, that we find the freedom and security that he offers.

The thief comes but to steal, kill, and destroy. All those who have come before cannot offer the freedom and security that is offered by Jesus, the door. Whether great revolutionaries or great politicians, many great men and women have come before and have promised greater things, but none of them can deliver. Ultimately, their ways will lead to death, but Jesus’ way brings life.

He says that if you enter by the gate, not only will you have life, but you will have it abundantly. In the Greek the phrase translated here literally means, “to have a superabundance of a thing.” It’s more than just an abundance of life, it’s a superabundance. It’s a superabundance of freedom. It’s a superabundance of security.

This is what Jesus is offering when he calls us to enter through the door. Jesus is the door, the only way to peace and security. He is offering life in a superabundance. You don’t have to worry, if only this person is elected. You don’t have to worry, if only I would get that promotion. You don’t have to worry, if only I had more money.

In Jesus, when we enter through the door we will find freedom. We will come in and go out and find pasture. We will find everything we need. Maybe not everything we want, but you will find peace and security in the one who is the door.

The True Vine

I’ve never been great at caring for plants. I can keep them alive, but I never expect them to flourish under my care. When my wife and I bought our first house, there were big bushes outside the back door and spread throughout the backyard. One of the first things I did was to remove those bushes.

I’ve been trying to do better since moving to North Dakota. I bought a hedge trimmer and have tried to keep the bushes in the front of our house looking nice. The flower beds in our back yard have actually been weeded a few times, and although I didn’t help much, we actually had a successful garden last year.

While maintaining a yard takes effort, for the most part the plants just grow. It’s more a task of keeping them at bay than of helping them to grow. I’d dare say that many of the crops that grow in this area don’t take a lot of focus and attention to get them to produce a crop, at least not when compared to other crops.

We have an apple tree on the side of our house. I didn’t plant it, and honestly I haven’t done a whole lot to care for it. Last year it produced quite a few apples, and we enjoyed using them to make applesauce. However, the quality of our apples are nowhere near that of those grown by professional farmers.

Our apple tree is quite short. I typically will end up knocking a few apples off the tree every time I mow the yard. Even before the fruit begins to grow, I’m having to carefully maneuver the lawnmower around the tree in order to not get the handle stuck in the branches.

In order to address this problem, I decided to remove some of the lower branches. I don’t want to remove many, just enough so that I can more easily mow the lawn. However, I’ve never pruned an apple tree before, so I began looking online to guides and tutorials. I found that apple tree pruning is much more intense than I would have thought. You can’t just go in and hack of branches with no rhyme or reason. There’s a science behind it.

First, there’s a proper season to prune the tree. You want to do it during the dormant season so that the you don’t stimulate new growth while the tree is getting ready for winter. Additionally, you want to remove dead branches every year while maintaining the scaffolding branches. These are the main branches coming from the trunk of the tree. They should be at about a 45° angle from the tree trunk. You then need to begin removing the small buds on the scaffolding branches. However, you must be careful to properly distinguish between fruiting buds and vegetative buds.

The more I read about pruning apple trees, the more I realized that this was something way beyond my expertise. It takes a skilled gardener to be able to bring this tree to its full fruit bearing potential. This is the image Jesus paints in John 15:1-2.

Grapes and vines were a cultural norm for those to whom Jesus was speaking. Much like with an apple tree, the pruning of branches wasn’t a hack job but a meticulously thought out plan. In fact, as involved as it is to pruning of apple trees, grape vines are ten times worse.

Much like with any pruning, the pruning of the grape-vine removes needless growth and allows the branch to focus its energy on growing more fruit. Branches that bear no fruit yet continue to grow suck the life out of the vine yet are worthless. It’s entirely possible to grow grapes on a grape-vine without proper pruning, much like my apple tree. However, the purpose of pruning is to allow the branch to focus its energy on doing what you want it to do, bear fruit.

Jesus later goes on to explain, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5). The whole point of this discourse is not to explain to them how grapes grow but to use something they were familiar with to explain to them a spiritual truth.

Each of us wants to be that kind of person. Each of us wants to grow and bear fruit. We may not like it when God prunes here or there, but we trust that he is doing it so that we might grow stronger. However, as much as we want to grow and bear fruit, there are many people in this world that would be considered dead branches.

To be clear, a dead branch does not mean that the branch is decaying and rotting on the tree. A dead branch may certainly still be alive in a technical sense, but it doesn’t bear any fruit. In this sense it is worthless, because bearing fruit is the sole purpose of the branch. There are many ways in which we can become dead, fruitless branches.

First of all, we can refuse to listen to Christ at all. We’ve all known people like this. These branches are the easiest to spot as they bear no fruit and make no attempt at growth. These would be those people who openly reject and refuse to listen to the gospel message.

Second, we can listen to Christ yet only honor him with our lips. We don’t like to admit it, but churches across the nation are filled with people like this (not this church of course). These branches may look good, but without fruit they are worthless.

James the brother of Jesus put it this way, “As the body without spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26). Even Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21). Great emphasis is put on not only acknowledging Jesus with your lips but letting that manifest into action.

The church in America is hurting because we’ve become complacent in our salvation. We are content to sit in our churches and sing our worship songs without taking seriously the call to get out there and share the love of Jesus. We’ve become dead branches that fail to produce fruit.

Finally, we can claim him as our master yet fall away when difficult times arise. One of the greatest failures in the bible comes from a man who was completely on fire and sold out for Jesus. In Matthew 26:33 Peter declares, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” However, within the same chapter he has not only denied him but has done it three times.

It’s a given that difficult times will come. You will face trials of many kinds. The Father will prune you, and it will not feel good. During those times it is tempting to turn away and shy away. It can be tempting to throw in the towel or at least not do what you know you ought to do. But therein lies the danger. With these times of great difficulty also come the greatest potential for growth. We cannot allow our fear of being uncomfortable, mocked, or shamed keep us from producing the fruit we are meant to bear.

While it can be beneficial to look at these pitfalls of the fruitless branches, the truth remains that our goal is not to keep from being fruitless but to become fruitful. We must focus not on what keeps us from growing fruit but on how we can continue to grow and produce.

Amidst all this talk, it may be tempting to try making ourselves grow fruit. We may be tempted to take on more tasks and more responsibilities to prove that we are bearing fruit, but this idea of fruit is counter to Jesus’ message. While we are expected to bear fruit, that is not our job. The task of bearing fruit is not something that we must strive to do on our own. In fact it’s not something that we can do by our own power. Jesus declares, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4).

As any gardener or farmer can attest, we can’t make plants grow. We can provide the proper environment. We can provide water, fertilizer, and pesticides, but in the end a farmer has no control over whether a particular seed will grow and produce a crop. All he can do is to provide it with everything that it needs to do so.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. It’s true that our spiritual growth will lead to more good works and deeds for God’s Kingdom, but simply adding more items to our todo list won’t make you grow fruit. If we seek to bear fruit of our own accord, we are doing no better than hanging plastic fruit on living branches.

Instead, we must make the conditions right. The farmer knows that the seed will not grow unless it has first been planted in the ground. Likewise, Christ says that we must remain in him. Outside of that connection we cannot grow and produce fruit.

The farmer also knows that the seed will not grow unless it has received enough water and food. Likewise, we must daily be fed by the Father. Through prayer and the studying of God’s Word we receive the spiritual nutrients that we need.

If we are going to produce fruit, just like with any plant, we must be cultivated. We must cultivate a relationship with Jesus through prayer and studying God’s Word. Just as Jesus said, If we are to bear fruit, we must remain in the vine. This is our goal and our purpose, to stay connected to him, the source of all life. As we daily walk with him and remain plugged into him, he will produce the fruit in us that we could never do on our own. The gardener will prune and shape us, but it’s all in the name of producing fruit for him.

The Resurrection and the Life

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve dreamed about what it would be like to have super powers. I remember trying to learn how to fly and pretending I had super speed or super strength. Even today, there are still instances where I get the passing thought about if only I had this superpower or that superpower. However, as you grow up, you begin to realize that these superpowers likely aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

I was reading a blog post a few weeks back and it tackled this very issue. It was definitely one of those click-bait links on Facebook. The title was “15 Superpowers That Would Suck in Real Life.” It goes through the typical list and explains the downsides of each superpower.

Super strength, for example, doesn’t necessarily super durability. You may be able to lift a thousand pounds, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your body will be able to handle the stress. You may be able to punch through a brick wall, but you’ll likely break every bone in your hand in the process.

Likewise, invisibility would be cool for stealth and espionage. However, you then run into the problem of whether or not you could make your clothes invisible as well. In addition, looking at the science behind how our eyes use light to see, if you were completely invisible and all light passed through you, that means it would pass through your eyes as well making you completely blind.

The list goes on and on. Super speed, the ability to shrink, and even teleportation have severe drawbacks that greatly outweigh the benefits. The sad truth is that those crazy dreams that you had as a child, or maybe even as an adult, never seem to turn out quite the same as you’d hoped. The disappointment that we feel is the same disappointment felt by Martha when her brother Lazarus died. Although, her disappointment may technically be greater. I mean her brother did die.

As we continue in our study of the I Am statements of Jesus, we come to a well-loved passage in the church. But before we get to that, let’s set the stage. When we left Jesus he was having a discussion with a group of Jews. Using the analogy of the relationship between sheep and a shepherd, he explained to them that he would lay down his life for them.

From there Jesus went to the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. The Jews confront him and demand that he tell them if he’s the Messiah. Again, Jesus explains to them his relationship with the Father, and they prepare to stone him. Jesus escapes and travels back across the Jordan River to the place where John had previously been baptizing.

From here we pick up with the story of Lazarus starting in John 11. Lazarus had been a friend of Jesus. As the scriptures tell us, it was Lazarus’ sister, Mary, that had poured perfume on Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

As Lazarus lay sick, his sisters sent word to Jesus. Upon receiving the news, Jesus declares, “This sickness will not end in death” (John 11:4), yet he decides to stay where he is for two more days before making the journey. As he prepares to leave for Bethany his disciples object saying to him, “But Rabbi, a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet to are going back there?” (John 11:8).

Despite their objections, Jesus persists. He declares to them, having not received any additional messengers, that Lazarus was dead, yet he still intends to go to Bethany. At this, ever the optimist, Thomas declares, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” He’s like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.

When they finally arrive, Jesus is told that Lazarus has already been dead for four days. Certainly he already knew this. He had told his disciples the same thing before leaving. From the place where Jesus was to the city of Bethany was about one day’s travel. Even with Jesus choosing to delay two days and assuming that the messengers rushed to Jesus as quickly as possible, Lazarus having been dead for four days means that it’s highly likely that he died shortly after the messengers left to find Jesus. Certainly, by the time they found Jesus and gave him the message, Lazarus had already died.

It’s at this point that the story gets interesting. If you’ve heard the story before, you know what’s about to happen. If not, I’ll give the customary spoiler warning. If you don’t want to know how the story ends, you best stop reading now.

Jesus knows all along that he’s going to raise Lazarus from the dead. This was why he delayed. This is why when his disciples press him about going to Bethany he tells them, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” (John 11:14-15). Even while Martha is mourning the loss of her brother, Jesus tells her, “Your brother will rise again.” (John 11:23). However, before raising Lazarus from the dead, during his conversation with Martha, Jesus reveals to her a great truth, the I Am statement that we’ll be looking at (John 11:25-26).

We know later in the story, not long after this statement, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like one of the greatest superpowers of all time. This is the kind of thing that dreams are made of. Can you imagine being unable to die? That’s what Jesus says, even if you die, you live and if you live you’ll never die. Although, he doesn’t say anything about eternal youth, so you could end up looking like the Face of Boe (It’s a Doctor Who reference. Look it up.).  

So I guess just like other super powers, there could be some drawbacks to immortality. However, we often make the assumption that since Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, that this is the life that he’s talking about. We assume that since Lazarus died yet lived that this is the life to which he’s referring, but Jesus’ statement didn’t end with “he will live even though he dies.” He went on to say that he who lives will never die.

Certainly after Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, he lived. Yet, we’re certain that Lazarus eventually died. Did he stop believing in Jesus? What about Jesus’ disciples. Certainly they believed in him. They went to their graves professing his resurrection, yet they still died. How are we to understand Jesus’ words about life, and how does that all tie in to his declaration that he is the resurrection and the life?

Remember that we discussed how there are two different types of life in the Greek language. There’s the bios which is the physical life and the zōē which is the spiritual life. Every time Jesus refers to life in these verses, he’s using some derivative of the Greek word zōē. He’s not speaking of raising Lazarus back to physical life. He’s talking about eternal life, zōē.

But that’s not the end of it. I’m sure this type of eternal life hasn’t come as a big revelation for most people. When we think of eternal life, Christians typically think of life after death, a continuing spiritual life. But how does that fit in with Jesus’ revelation that he is the resurrection and the life? He doesn’t say that he gives resurrection and life but that he is resurrection and life.

Like I said, Christians typically think of eternal life as being able to keep on living even after we die. While this is partially true, it’s not entirely accurate. Jesus gives a completely different definition of eternal life in John 17:3.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Notice that Jesus says nothing about continuing to exist forever. That’s not the point of eternal life. The point of eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. According to Jesus, that is eternal life.

If we look at this in light of Jesus’ statements to Martha, it all begins to make sense. “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Eternal life is all about that relationship with him. There is no life outside of that. Outside of that relationship there is only death.

It reminds me of the movie The Sixth Sense. In the course of the movie the little boy, Cole, explains that he can see dead people. He explains that they are “Walking around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead.” The same is true today.

If the definition of eternal life is knowing God, if outside of that relationship there is nothing but death, then we have a lot of dead people walking around not even knowing they’re dead. Jesus wasn’t talking about bring Lazarus back to physical life. Without knowing God, such life is only death.

Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. This is what ties it all together. He didn’t come so that we could continue to exist for eternity. That’s not life. A relationship with God is eternal life. Because of our sin and disobedience, mankind gave that up. Christ is the means by which we can have that relationship once again.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life because through his coming to earth as a man and taking the punishment for our sins upon himself, he restored the relationship that was broken. He is the resurrection and the life because he is that relationship between us and God. Through his life and sacrifice we can truly know God and therefore have eternal life.  

The Good Shepherd

As much as I love technology, I haven’t always been a gadget geek. This part of me really began to develop in my late high school and early college years. It was during these times that I took an interest in running the soundboard at church.

At that point our church was using a photo slide projector or an overhead projector to project the song words on the wall in the front of the sanctuary. Eventually we upgraded to a computer running PowerPoint. From there, it was still quite a while before we even began to use Windows XP. However, by the time our church, and churches in general, began to fully understand how this computer projection system was supposed to work, I found myself deeply ingrained in that area of ministry.

It was during my time at Vennard College that my home church switched from using PowerPoint to a church media presentation software called MediaShout. In this software, the limits set by PowerPoint were shattered. We were now able to add new songs at a moment’s notice. We were able to use motion backgrounds and run in a dual screen setup. However, one of the features I was most excited about was the ability to overlay text across any slide.

While I spent much of my time dealing with tech stuff at the church, my wife typically spent her time in the nursery. I therefore was privy to many of the problems and frustrations felt by nursery works. This was why I was so excited about being able to overlay text across slides. The common usage being discussed for this feature was the ability to place a small number on the screen that would allow parents to know that their child in the nursery needed them. In my mind, this feature would stop nursery workers from needing to disrupt the service in order to find a child’s parent.

However, we never really utilized this feature quite like I thought we would. As we began to toy around with the idea of placing a number on the screen to alert parents, we ran into a few roadblocks. First, This meant that we would have to number each child. Parents would then have to keep track of their number so that they knew when their number appeared on the screen.

Second, we didn’t have a great way to communicate between the nursery and the soundbooth. A nursery worker could come into the sanctuary, but that still left the nursery workers one person short during that time. Also, if they were already coming into the sanctuary, they might as well tell the parents themselves rather than getting the soundbooth involved.

But the biggest issue was one that I hadn’t even thought of until I became a parent myself. Being a young man, I took it upon myself to tackle this problem for the parents and nursery workers only to discover that it wasn’t as big of an issue as I had thought. Maybe it is for bigger churches, but in that church the nursery was right next to the sanctuary. The walls were made of brick, but what I found during the course of a normal service was that most of the time parents didn’t need anyone to inform them that their kid was crying.

Call it maternal instincts, but mothers, and to a certain extent fathers, know when their child is crying. I’ve seen mothers and grandmothers get up and leave during the middle of a service because they could hear a faint cry from the nursery and knew that it was their child. As parents we’re so in tune with our children that we know them. A mother can be in a room full of children and immediately be able to determine if hers is the one that is crying.

It all comes down to that level of intimacy between a mother and her child, and it goes both ways. In many cases a crying child will stop crying upon hearing its mother’s voice. It’s much like what Jesus says about sheep knowing their master’s voice. There’s a special kind of relationship there.

Continuing in that line of logic, we come to a passage in John 10. As we look at the person of Jesus and try to determine who he says he is, we come to the passage in which Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd,” (John 10:11) but in order to understand what Jesus is saying we need to look at the whole passage in context.

In John 9 it’s recorded that Jesus heals a man who has been born blind. This causes great controversy since he happened to heal him on the Sabbath. This caused a huge investigation by the Pharisees. Some argued that nobody could have healed this blind man unless he had been from God while others argued that he could not be from God because he had healed on the Sabbath. This investigation leads to the healed man being thrown out of the synagogue.

Jesus then finds this man and begins to speak to him and teach him. Not far off, some Pharisees are listening and begin to object to Jesus’ teachings. This brings us to John 10:1-5. Again, he’s addressing the issue of the Pharisees and this blind man and using an analogy in which the Pharisees are depicted as thieves and robbers whom the sheep will not follow. Being a shepherding community, people would understand the scenario of which Jesus is speaking.

The sheep pen was a place in which the shepherds would keep their sheep at night. They typically consisted of a high stone wall in either a square or circular shape. The walls were often covered in vines and getting over them was no easy task. The only break in the wall was at the gate. It’s called the gate, but truthfully it’s not as much of a gate as it is just an opening in the wall. Once all the sheep were inside, the watchman or shepherd would lie down across the opening. This ensured that the sheep remained inside the pen and anybody going in or out would have to directly confront the one at the gate.

After completing this analogy, Jesus sees that the people still don’t get it, so he begins to spell it out for them (John 10:7-18). The people actually begin to understand what Jesus is saying. Some found his teachings difficult, but the parts that they struggled with likely aren’t the same as we do. If you’ve been in church for any length of time or even if you’re faintly familiar with the story of the Bible, this concept of Jesus laying down his life and taking it up again should come as no surprise, but this is exactly what gave many people reservations.

However, this whole idea of a shepherd is a foreign concept in our modern society. The closest thing most Americans get to caring for sheep is the viral videos in which a group herds their sheep in formations to make pictures or play pong. In fact, our typical image of shepherding is drastically different from the shepherding that Jesus is speaking about.

Most modern shepherding is done with dogs. The shepherds will train the dogs to follow whistle commands and the dogs will run and bark to get the sheep wherever they need them to go. We see videos of sheep shearing contests in which the shearers manhandle the sheep in order to see who can clear the wool as quickly as possible. In modern society, the sheep are seen as animals, which they are, and they are treated as such and with little regard. We may talk about shepherds in Sunday School or the kids might color a picture of a shepherd with a shepherd’s crook, but for the most part the shepherding that Jesus speaks of is lost and foreign to us.

The shepherding that Jesus is speaking of when he says that he is the good shepherd is much different from any shepherding we know today. To see the kind of shepherding that Jesus speaks of we must look across the ocean back to Israel. Two pictures accurately capture this idea of shepherding.

The first is of a shepherd walking down the side of the road leading his sheep. Cars go flying by as the shepherd walks along. He does not bark, yell, or blow a whistle at them. Instead he sings a song and gently whistles as the sheep follow him dutifully down the road. Despite the traffic and the commotion going on around them, the sheep stay trained to their shepherd’s voice and follow him wherever he leads.

The second picture comes in early morning. As the shepherds gather their sheep from the sheep pen. Flocks of sheep from a number of shepherds are all gathered together, but as the shepherd begins to sing and call to his sheep the large flock begins to dissipate at each sheep follows their shepherd’s voice. The sheep trust their shepherd and the shepherd is willing to fight for his sheep.

This is the picture that Jesus gives to the people when he relates himself as the shepherd. He contrasts this with that of the hired hand. As he says, the hired hand cares nothing for the sheep and when a predator comes is quick to run away. A shepherd, however, fights for his sheep. As David states in 1 Samuel 17:34-35, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.”

Let’s not get confused now and think that these shepherds were careless and reckless. They cared for their sheep, and they would certainly fight to protect them. However, this is not to say that the shepherd would trade his life and the lives of the rest of his flock for a single sheep. As David did, he would attempt to save his sheep, but he was not going to sacrifice his own life for that of a sheep. They were good, but they weren’t that good.

But Jesus is different. He isn’t just any shepherd. He is the good shepherd, as he says, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” This is what distinguishes a good shepherd from a normal shepherd. Any shepherd has that deep relationship with his sheep. Any shepherd is willing to fight for and protect his sheep, but the good shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. The good shepherd is the only one that freely lays down his life only to take it up again.

Jesus is the good shepherd. He cares for and protects the sheep in his flock. We’ve heard all of this before. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. But to see the beauty of this, we must look past the actions of the shepherd and look at his heart.

Yes, the shepherd cares for his sheep. Yes, the sheep follow the shepherd. Yes, the sheep know his voice, but it goes beyond that. The shepherd not only takes care of the sheep, he knows them. This goes beyond simply being able to identify them. The shepherd knows his sheep on a deep and personal level.

This is who Jesus is. As the good shepherd, he protects and cares for his sheep. He knows and cares about the sheep in his flock. Not only does he have a deep love for them, but they know him as well. This relationship that Christ is describing is the same relationship that he wants to have with each one of us. Just like the mother who can hear her baby’s cry from the nursery, Christ knows us, but he wants us to know him and trust him as well.

As a shepherd with his sheep, Christ wants that deep relationship with each one of us. He wants to know us and for us to know him. He wants to be our shield and protector. He wants to walk us beside still waters. This is the relationship he desires with us, but our sin kept him from doing that. Our sin kept us from him, so he did the only thing he could do. He did the thing that only he could do. He laid down his life for us that we might be his sheep.

He laid down his life that we might have that relationship with him. As the shepherd leads his sheep, no matter whether it’s by quiet streams or by a busy highway, the sheep know his voice. As he sings them a song and calls for them to follow him, no matter what chaos is going on around us, we follow him because we know he is the good shepherd.

The Bread of Life

As we begin the Lenten season and our journey to Easter, the focus of churches across the world shifts pointedly to the person of Jesus. Throughout the year we may address other topics, but in this season everybody turns their attention to the significance of the resurrection and the person-hood of Christ.

As with any person, the first question we must ask is, who is he? Obviously the church ascribes deity to Christ, but who does Jesus say he is? I’ve heard it argued many times that Jesus never claimed to be God. While it’s true that Jesus never pointedly said the words “I am God,” he makes it abundantly clear throughout his conversations and teachings.

The most apparent declaration as to Jesus’ deity as spoken by Jesus himself comes in John 8:58 in which he declares, “before Abraham was born, I am.” In passing this may not seem like much, but as it was understood by his audience, Jesus was clearly equating himself with God. I am was the same name that God gave to Moses when he asked who he was to say had sent him to the Israelites. What’s interesting is that this was not the only occurrence of Jesus using the phrase “I am.”  Throughout the gospel of John there are numerous occurrences of Jesus using this phrase, and that is where I want us to focus our attention from now until Easter.

A few weeks ago we looked at the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. As you can imagine, that event had a big impact on the people there. Looking at John’s account of this event, John 6:14-15 we’re told, “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”

John’s chronology of events is quite interesting. In the evening after Jesus fed the people and withdrew to the mountain we’re told that he sent his disciples away by boat across the lake. Later in the night he followed them on foot across the water. In the morning, when the people awoke, they discovered that, though Jesus hadn’t left with the disciples, he was no longer on the northeastern edge of the lake. They began to take boats across the lake to Capernaum in search of him. Upon finding him in John 6:25, they begin interrogating him as to when he had arrived, but in Jesus’ typical fashion, he doesn’t answer their question directly (John 6:26-29).

There’s no beating around the bush with Jesus. He’s direct and to the point. At this point he had amassed quite a following, at least five thousand people were following him around day after day. Jesus basically had a mega church following him wherever he went. Jesus’ ministry on earth lasted approximately three years. For a church to grow from twelve to five thousand in only a few years is quite an accomplishment. A church seeing that kind of growth today would certainly turn heads. You can guarantee that the District Superintendent would be on site, the pastor would be booked for speaking engagements on church growth, and it’d likely make the national news.

However, what’s even more spectacular is the end of the story. After a long dialogue between Jesus on these Jews, many of them fall away. If a church going from twelve to five thousand in a matter of years stirred up national news, you can imagine the publicity that would surround a church going from five thousand down to twelve in a single day. But what was it that caused such a thing to happen? For the answer to this question, we need to go back to the Old Testament to the book of Exodus.

My wife and I like to reminisce about how things were when we grew up compared to how they are now. We joke about how our kids will make a pretend phone and then proceed to pretend that they’re playing games on it. We watched the Mighty Ducks movie a few weeks ago and had to laugh at the excitement of the kids as they climbed into the limo and discovered a cellular phone. Cassette tapes, VCRs, and the old Nokia candy-bar phones, while staples of our childhood, are foreign concepts to our kids.

It’s strange because now with a DVR, I rarely watch commercials. My son will intentionally rewind in order to watch each commercial multiple times. We’ve begun to rely upon him to tell us about new products or movies because he’s the only one that cares to watch the commercials. I might catch the end of the one right before my show comes back on or I might rewind to watch one that is particularly entertaining, but for the most part I try to avoid the commercials.

With this being the trend among the average TV watcher, advertisers have begun trying to make their commercials stand out. Bland commercials with someone merely telling you the details of the product are likely to be skipped. Doritos has done a great job of making entertaining commercials as well have Geico and Snickers.  

I love the Snickers commercials because they so accurately capture real life. They’ll typically feature some famous actor like Gilbert Gottfried or Robin Williams. They’ll be loud and obnoxious until somebody hands them a Snickers bar. The tagline says, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

This is exactly what we see when we look back in Exodus. After being in slavery or over four hundred years, through the power of God, Moses delivers the Israelites out of Egypt. They cross the Red Sea and the people are excited. In Exodus 15 they begin to sing songs praising Moses for how he delivered them. This has got to be the height of Moses’ day. He’s leading a nation out of slavery, they just defeated their enemies, and the whole nation is singing ballads about him. It doesn’t get much better than that.

However, in the very next chapter, after everything they’d just been through, the people immediately start complaining. And what are they complaining about? Food. After miraculously being delivered from slavery in Egypt, they immediately forget about that and started saying, “In Egypt we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.” Doesn’t it just make you want to hand them a Snickers bar? “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

So what does God do? He gives them manna, bread from heaven, and they have their fill to eat. For forty years as they wandered in the desert, the Israelites ate manna. Even after they settled in the promised land, stories of God sending bread from heaven were told throughout Israel. These were the stories upon which these Israelites grew up.

Jumping back to Jesus’ discourse with those following him. After he tells them that they must seek after things that are eternal and won’t spoil and that they must believe in the one whom God sent, they ask him for a sign (John 6:31-34).

Throughout the discussion, it seems like they almost might be getting what Jesus is telling them, but as we can see, they haven’t made any progress. These people were just across the lake with Jesus when he used five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men. After finding him again he tells them that they must believe in the one whom God has sent, and they immediately ask him for a sign and make direct reference to the bread from heaven. He just fed them the evening before and here they are again telling him to prove he’s from God by feeding them. Jesus tries again to explain it to them (John 6:35).

In order to understand the breakdown in communication here, we need to take a quick lesson in the Greek language. The Greek language, the language in which the New Testament is written, is a much more robust language than modern English. While in English we may say that we love pizza, our dog, and our spouse (albeit to differing degrees), in Greek each type of love expressed used a different word.

Likewise, Jesus is speaking here of life. While we have only one word for life, Greek has two. The first word for life is bios (βίος). You can remember this as the prefix to the word biology. Bios means life and has to deal with physical life and your livelihood. Each of us has bios and sustain our bios by consuming food such as bread.

The second Greek word for life is zōē (ζωή). While bios deals with the physical life, zōē addresses the spiritual life. Within these passages as Jesus is going back and forth with the people, they keep speaking of the bread, and as they speak you can see that their focus is on the bios. They had just received a free meal and are looking to the next one. However, Jesus is trying to tell them that he is the bread of life (zōē). They’re thinking with their stomachs, but Jesus is trying to save their souls.

Jesus is offering them the bread of life. He says that whoever takes this bread will never go hungry and never be thirsty. Again, he’s talking about zōē, not bios. He’s telling them, the bread you ate last night, the things of this world will leave you hungering and thirsting for more. However, the bread the Christ offers fills us and satisfies. We may try to fill our lives with food, family, our job, our hobbies, but at the end of it all, these things will never satisfy. The newness of that new girlfriend will wear off. The excitement about that new job will fade away. The zōē is the only thing that will satisfy, and we can only receive that from Christ, for he is the bread of life.

As the conversation continues, throughout the next few verses, Jesus tries to get this point across to them. He tells them, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.” (John 6:48-50). He tells them, the bios will fade away, leave you hungry, and ultimately bring death, but the zōē the he offers will satisfy and bring eternal life.

Upon hearing this, many of them leave saying, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Jesus then turns to the twelve and asks, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” At this, Simon Peter, the spokesperson for the group, speaks up. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

It has often been asked, is being a Christian easy or hard? In short, the answer to this question is, yes. Being a Christian is the easiest thing in the world. Everything we need for eternal life in Christ has already been given to us. It’s not in our own power but in his. On the other hand, being a Christian may be the most difficult thing you will do.

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new life instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Each time we participate in the sacrament of communion, as we hold the bread in our hand and prepare to eat it, Christ says we are eating his flesh, the bread of life, zōē. However, many times as we partake of the bread in one hand, the other hand is holding onto the bread of this world, the bios. While we may eat the bread of zōē, all the while we’re holding onto the bios trying to find fulfillment.

Many people walked away because the teachings of Jesus were hard. So it is today. While we may say that we want the zōē, all the while we’re holding onto the bios until like Peter we say,  “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Which bread will you choose today? Will you choose the bios that will satisfy for a time but will ultimately lead to death, or will you choose the zōē, the bread of life that is Christ himself? Jesus declared, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 

Jesus Christ, the bread of life, is the only way that you will ever be satisfied. This world tells us that if we only had more money, more gadgets, more power, or a better love life that we’ll be satisfied, but Christ tells us that there is no lasting satisfaction in the things of this world. He alone has the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?