I Am the Way

One of the most controversial of the I AM statements, found in John 14, leaves little doubt Jesus claimed He was God and the only source of salvation. He said, “I AM the way, the truth and the life.” People criticize Christianity for being “exclusive”. How dare Christians claim to have the only way to God when there are so many different religions out there? What makes Christianity so special they can make such a claim?  Well, Christianity/Christians don’t make the claim. Jesus does. If I choose to follow Jesus then I am choosing to take Him at His word. He claims to be the only way, the only truth and the only giver of eternal life. So what do we do with that? To help us navigate these statements, I want to take each of them separately over the next couple of blogs.

“I AM the way.”  When I wrote about shepherds last time, I also noted Jesus saying he was the “gate” or the “door” – an entry point. (John 10:9) As the shepherd has a way into safe haven for his sheep via a single gate, so does Jesus offer a way to safe haven, and it’s not just a way, it is the way, the door, the entry point to have a relationship with God. And that entry point is Jesus. He is the Way.

I love GPS. I love being able to plug in a destination and have the GPS lead the way. For the most part, GPS can be trusted, although once our old Garmin directed us toward a body of water rather than a road, but that might have been an entry error.  Prior to GPS, we used maps. I have always enjoyed maps because they show me where I am and where I am going in time and space. If there are maps in a book I am reading, I always go back and refer to the maps. I like knowing my location (or my character’s). But maps are not exactly safe if you are the driver and don’t have a navigator. When I was a kid, I was my Dad's navigator on trips. I enjoyed that he needed my assistance, but always feared I would get it wrong. That’s what makes GPS so wonderful; it’s hand’s free and mostly correct, and we can use it without a navigator. 

Sometimes in seeking directions we are given choices, several ways to go. Sometimes these choices are driven by traffic, or construction or just direct versus indirect routes. But when given several choices, we can pick the one that best suits us. So we could say, “I chose a way out of those offered.”  The phrases in John 14 do not offer us a choice, like Jesus is one of many options for eternal life and salvation. The wording is very clear, Jesus is the way, period. That doesn’t set right with a lot of people. They want more options. Or they think it’s arrogant and audacious for someone to make themselves the only way. This was true in Jesus day as well. And it would certainly be an audacious statement if Jesus isn’t who He says He is. 

C. S. Lewis has a famous conclusion regarding this. Lewis said our choices, in reading Jesus’ declaration that He is the Way, are to see Jesus as a liar, a lunatic or The Lord.*  If Jesus is a liar, why would anyone who believed him a liar also claim He was a good man, good teacher, good role model? A lot of people see Jesus as just that. They don’t believe He is who He said He is, God. But they do believe He has a lot of good things to offer, like telling us to love one another.  But why accept statements from someone claiming to be God, if we don’t believe he is God? Why would we accept anything from a known liar?  And what type of person would lie to us about such important things? Certainly not a good person. That person is surely not someone to follow or listen to. In fact he’d be as imposter trying to trick us.

And if Jesus is not a liar, what other type of person makes such claims? Lots of people have claimed to be Jesus, or the Messiah. Most of them are declared mental, insane. All of them are ignored by most sane people. No one claims that a lunatic’s words are profitable for living a good life. They are crazy.to claim they are God.  Who believes a crazy person, other than other deluded people (like those who have followed so-called Messiahs to their death)? Yet, lots of people take Jesus’ words and trust them, saying He is a good teacher, a prophet, but do not believe true what He claimed about being God. If they like what Jesus has to say, but disbelieve his assertion that He is God, are they not trusting in a liar or a lunatic? What other choice is there? Jesus was either speaking truth, or He was deluded, or worse, a liar.

If Jesus is not a liar or a lunatic, the only other explanation for the claims he made is that He was sanely telling us the truth. Jesus is God, who came in the flesh and offers us the way to eternal life. That is exactly why His words ring true and hold such power, because they came from God, not a mere human.

If I like Jesus’ words and sayings, but don’t believe He is God, the singular Way, I really need to reexamine my premises. Jesus claimed to be God and the only way to salvation. I can’t just like many of His words and ignore these pivotal I AM statements. Jesus doesn’t leave us room to pick and choose regarding Him. He either is or isn’t Who He claimed to be.

Jesus said “I AM the Way. What a comfort to have the Way laid out for us. We don’t have to make a path, or even find a path. It’s right there in the Person of Jesus. If we are searching for answers to life’s big questions; if we are looking for peace and reassurance in these tumultuous times, we need look no farther than Jesus. He is the Door and He is the Way. All I need do is accept and believe He is Whom He claimed to be, and follow Him through the door.

 

*quote taken from Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis