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I Am the Way Keith McFarren November 16, 2025 John 14: 1-7 They say it’s no fun growing old and the older I get the more I would have to agree – it is no fun. I remember sitting and talking with John Freimund at a church dinner and John said something to the effect of, “When I was younger, I wondered what it was like to be old…now I know.” Over these last few years, I’ve learned to accept the aches and pains that weren’t there a few years ago. I’ll accept the loss of flexibility…and I’ll accept the loss of endurance. But let me be clear on all of this…I don’t like it. I didn’t like the Medicare part of growing old, either. Somehow or another, every insurance company in the country knows when you’re about to be eligible for Medicare and they all start to contact you with information about Medicare and all the Medicare supplements that they have to offer. I remember getting phone calls from companies with area codes that came from all over the country…all wanting to sell us their Medicare insurance. I’ve always thought that it’s a good day when you don’t get any mail – which of course means that you don’t get any bills – but when insurance companies know your birthday and you’re approaching 65, it seems that something is always in the mail box – either a postcard or a normal sized envelope or sometimes even a big 8 x 12 envelope stuffed with insurance information. We found ourselves being inundated with all sorts of phone calls, and mailings and uninvited insurance salesmen standing on our front porch. And along with all these facts and figures that were thrown at us, we just weren’t sure what to do or which way to turn. What we needed was someone we could trust, someone who knew what they were doing, to help show us what to do and which way to go. For Jesus’ disciples it was going to be very personal. It would be like a death in the family. They didn’t know which way to turn because in a very short time, their world would be full of chaos and turned upside down right before their very eyes because Jesus would be gone. Jesus gave his friends some bad news, but to soften the blow he told them, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places (rooms or mansions).” Sounds like the scripture you hear read so often at funerals, doesn’t it? And it’s no wonder, because these are words that are meant to comfort someone who’s mourning or grieving, and that is exactly why Jesus spoke them the way he did. At a time like this, there was only one thing to do and that was to hold on to their trust in God. There comes a time in each of our lives when we have to believe in what we cannot prove and we have to accept the things that we cannot fully understand. In Jesus we see the face of God, and while our difficulties and our problems don’t necessarily always become easier, through him it becomes possible to accept the things that we cannot prove and don’t fully understand. By trusting in Jesus during the lowest times of our life we are able to retain a faith that helps us maintain our serenity. Even in our darkest hour the unbearable becomes bearable and in the darkness, we will find a glimmer of light (William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol II, Nashville, Tennessee; Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, p. 178). What Jesus did when he spoke those words was to present a metaphorical picture of heaven. And he followed that up by telling them that they knew the way to the place he was going. Now it’s easy for us to sit here some 2,000 years after the fact and nonchalantly say that we understand everything Jesus is talking about. But if I had been there on that day some 2,000 years ago, I’m afraid I might have been just like Thomas and I wouldn’t have understood a thing Jesus said either. I too might have asked “Lord, I’m not sure where you are going. How can I know the way?” How am I supposed to know the way to your Father’s house… the way to this place with many rooms…the way to this place with many mansions? How am I supposed to get to where you are going? It’s a lot like driving on the Toll Road. If you are going to go from Elkhart to Chicago or points west…or from Elkhart to Cleveland and points east…you just can’t get on the Toll Road wherever you like. You have to get on at a certain point. You have to get on at the toll gate. But you also can’t just drive on through…you have to stop and get your ticket and then the gate raises up and you drive forward. There is only one way to get onto the Toll Road and whether you want to travel on it today or tomorrow or next week, it is always going to be the same. The way to get onto the Toll Road never changes. Likewise, Jesus tells us that there is only one way to get to where he is going. Only one way into heaven or only one way into one of these dwelling places or rooms or mansions that he’s talking about. He doesn’t say you have to be a United Methodist, or a Catholic or a Baptist or from any other specific religion. Nor does he say anything about any other specific qualifications – nothing about income or family background or social status. As a matter of fact, in answer to Thomas’ question “How do I know the way?” Jesus simply says, “I am the way and no one comes to the Father except through me.” “I am the ticket taker and I am the gatekeeper. I am the one who raises the gate that allows you to go through.” When CS Lewis arrived late at a gathering of religious scholars he found them arguing over the difference between Christianity and all the other world religions. When he was asked what his views were on their differences, Lewis said that what separates Christianity from all the other world religions is nothing more than “God’s grace” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan, 1997, p. 45). Other religions may have certain concepts about forgiveness and other religions may have certain thoughts about compassion, but the point that CS Lewis makes is that it is God’s grace, nothing more and nothing less, that allows people to come to God. In other words, what gets people like you and me, people who continually make a mess of their lives, into heaven is not who we are or where we come from or how much we have or how much we have accomplished…but simply God’s grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us this morning that he is our access to God. Knowing him, accepting him, and believing in him are all necessary…but there is more to it than that. We must not only believe in him but we must also live as he lives. Living the way Jesus lives is to live the Godly life – the way that God intended for us to live…the life that is full of love and service and mercy and compassion. He calls for us to not only gain our salvation and our eternal life through him, but he also calls for us to go one step further and be like him…to make him our “way of life” and make him our pattern for daily living. And if we look throughout the New Testament we can see that the New Testament writers show us the ways in which the disciples along with other Christians made Jesus their way of life and their pattern for living. First, they stayed connected to one another through their faith community. The disciple were with Jesus for three years – learning about him and his ways – and at the same time learning about themselves as well. Through community they came to learn and understand that supporting each other as they went through both good and bad times brought them closer together and helped them not only sustain their faith but to strengthen it as well. “Personalities united,” writes author Dallas Willard, “can contain more of God and sustain the force of his greater presence much better than scattered individuals. The fire of God kindles higher as the brands are heaped together and each is warmed by the other’s flame” (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan, 1999, p. 186). Secondly, the disciples patterned their lives after Jesus by developing practices that brought them closer to God. “Teach us to pray,” they said. After watching him day after day, they must have seen something in the prayer life of Jesus that caused them to want to get closer to God. Living and modeling ourselves after Jesus means developing habits like his…habits like daily prayer and worship and study and meditation – habits that when performed on a regular basis not only strengthen our faith but bring us closer to God. To pattern our lives after Jesus is to learn to sacrifice for others…to pick up our cross and understand that a self-satisfying, rewarding life can be found by giving of ourselves to others. To sacrifice for others is to learn that there are some things in this world that money can’t buy. While at the same time to live a life of sacrifice is to find out that there are some things in this world that are priceless. Finally, the disciples learned that to pattern their lives after Jesus is to live a life of compassion for all people. To be like Jesus and live a compassionate life, is to notice and to help those people that others seem to overlook or ignore. To follow Jesus and to pattern our lives after him is to open our own eyes and extend our grace to others. That’s what it means to follow Jesus. We make him our way of living. If we make him our way of living then we are going to experience God’s power and we are going to let him define how we live and what we do day after day after day. We are to let Christ live within us. Or as Martin Luther said, “We are to be little Christs.” We finally got our Medicare stuff figured out by having a reputable insurance agent come and talk to us and lead us through the process. We ended up with the right Medicare plan, the right part C plan and the right drug plan and we’re still happy with it today. But even after all these years we still get advertisements in the mail and we still have to listen to the advertisements on TV that run during the Medicare enrollment season…all trying to lead us away from the policies we now have by guaranteeing us better results and carefree living with different policies. In the 5th chapter of Deuteronomy (v. 32-33) God said to Moses, “You shall not turn to the right or to the left. You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you.” That is exactly what Jesus does. He not only gives us advice and direction…he takes us by the hand and leads us…he strengthens us and he guides us. He doesn’t tell us about the way; he is the way. In him we see what God is really like. In Jesus alone, we know the way into God’s presence. |
Bethel United Methodist Church
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