"Is Jesus the Only Way to God?"

John 3:14-21 and Jo0hn 14:1-14

Fourth Sunday in Lent + March 18, 2012

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

Do you remember that zany fellow with the multi-colored Afro, wildly waving two flashlights and holding up a sign with “John 3:16” on it? He managed to get a front-row seat at nationally televised football games where he knew he had a good chance of being on camera. When the television camera turned in his direction he jumped up and went into his act. I doubt that anyone ever became a Christian because of his bizarre behavior, but he was convinced he was a witness for Christ.

Our zany fellow is in good company with people who put up signs saying “John 3:16” along the highways or asking a direct question: “Where Will You Spend Eternity?” Frankly, I’m not too sure I want to spend eternity with them, nor I expect, do they think that I, a liberal Christian, will be there anyway. Jim Bowden recalls some years ago when he was having lunch with Dr. Arnold Slater, our long-time former pastor, Arnold shared how he had been called by the then-head of Tennessee Temple University. “He implied that I wasn’t a Christian!” Arnold said, more in sadness than in anger. As Jim says, if Arnold wasn’t a Christian what hope is there for the rest of us?

We have to admit, though, that you and I and other liberal Christians are very much in the minority these days. There is a  point of view – one that enjoys tremendous popularity not only here in Chattanooga but also in our nation – that unless you and I accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and believe literally everything the Bible has to say about him, we will go to hell. It is that point of view, unfortunately, that lies behind such gala events as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, The Scopes Trial, and, indeed, the Holocaust. That point of view – has an uncanny talent for using its narrow view of religion in the service of conservative domestic or foreign policy.

The Christian Church has claimed, with tiresome tenacity for more than nineteen centuries, that Jesus believed he was the Messiah; believed, indeed, that people had to agree that he was the Messiah in order to gain entrance into God’s “heavenly paradise;” and believed that he would come again on the clouds of heaven to bring human history to a close. But modern biblical scholarship, along with more enlightened ways of understanding the Bible, have shown us that, in fact, the copyright on this point of view belongs to the Church, not to Jesus. While the New Testament certainly contains some historical data and biographical detail, the authors are interested in faith, not facts. The writer of the Gospel of John makes this crystal clear: “These (words) are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31) This is the stated belief of the early Christian Church, not the self-understanding of Jesus.

There are several gospel texts, in fact, that suggest Jesus had no intention of founding a new religion centered upon faith in himself. Whatever the Christian Church proclaimed after the resurrection, Jesus in his own lifetime saw himself in the great line of Hebrew prophets, particularly the unknown prophet of the Exile we call the Second Isaiah. His task was to call the Jewish people of his day back to faith in a God of infinite compassion, love and forgiveness. In his own lifetime he also reached out in acceptance to those who were not Jewish: Samaritans, Romans, and other foreigners. The radical inclusiveness of Jesus flies in the face of every crusader, inquisitor, missionary, or evangelist who has ever persecuted, excommunicated, burned at the stake, or otherwise forcibly sought the compliance of non-believers, even Christian believers of a different brand than theirs.

But someone must be squirming in his or her seat now and wanting to ask me, “If what you say is true, Dave, then what do we do with our gospel lesson for today. John 3:16? ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.’ And, Dave, how do you explain away that explicit verse, John 14:6, where Jesus says, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’?”

As my fundamentalist friends might say, “How do you wiggle out of that one?” Well, first, by reminding ourselves that you and I are not here to wiggle out of anything. We are here to seek clarity and illumination from the life and teachings of Jesus as a whole. In a liberal church like Pilgrim we are challenged to use our minds as well as our hearts, our intelligence as well as our emotions.

I want you to understand that I, with other contemporary biblical scholars, do not believe that the Gospel of John is a word-for-word account of the events of Jesus’ life. It is not a transcript of what Jesus actually said. John’s gospel is the author’s statement of personal faith. John’s gospel is a profound theological reflection, a symbolic poem on the divine nature of Jesus, and the way people were touched and moved by him. Perhaps, Jesus did say, “No one comes to God except through me.” Or, perhaps, the people around Jesus simply believed he was the only way to God because no other approach had such power for them. In other words, this passage was intended to be prescriptive of the Christian faith, and not necessarily descriptive of what Jesus actually said.

And let us consider that even if Jesus said, “I am the way.” He did not say, “I am the destination.” In his own time, Jesus was, indeed, the one way for many people to get close to God, because they had experienced in him something transcendent, an outpouring of something more powerful than human life alone was capable of creating. They could not meet Jesus without experiencing God; they could not envision God without seeing Jesus. As others have said before me, “Jesus gave a human face to God.” So it is that for generations of Christians the words of Jesus are true:

“If you know me, you will know God also. From now on you do know God and have seen God.” (John 14:7)

For Christians, Jesus is the way. He is the way that I have chosen. But I do not believe he is the only way to God. I do not believe he wanted to be the object of our worship. Through his life and ministry and teachings, Jesus pointed beyond himself to the only worthy object of our devotion: the infinite God.

I believe that there are many human ways to approach this infinite God. Jesus is one, but so are Buddha and Muhammad and Baha’u’llah and Moses and Confucius and all the great prophets of religions past and present. Every person may walk in one of those ways but only one. We have chosen to walk in the way of Jesus because that is the tradition that has been handed down to us by our mothers and fathers before us. It is the way we promised to follow when we joined the Church and became part of that enormous search party that is the Christian Church. This is the way that you and I have given our lives to. We have chosen Jesus. But we need not be threatened if others make a different choice. And if others have no way or are dissatisfied with the Way they now have, we will share with them our satisfaction with our choice of the Christian way, but we dare not confuse persuasion with coercion. I believe true faith is humble, not arrogant.

Is Jesus the only way to God? Yes, for me he is, I hope he is for you, too! Let us continue to follow the way, let us seek the truth, and let us share the life of the One who invited us on the journey.