David Orendorff · John 14:1-7

We live in the amazing shrinking world. What used to be months of travel by horseback is now 4 hours away by air. Vegetables that used to be out of season are now imported and available year round. Foreign products used to be small treasures but are now so common that it is hard to find a truly local product.

And what is true of the stuff of our world is also true of the spirit of our world. People who used to live on another continent and practice strange religions now live next door, work in the next cubicle, are the parents of our children’s friends, are our friends, and are the doctors, mechanics, and merchants we trust.

One of the questions this shrinking world raises one of faith, “Is being a Christian the only way to know God? John 14:6 has been used as Biblical proof right from the mouth of Jesus that indeed “no one comes to the Father but by me.” So the answer would seem to be that only Christians are welcome in God’s house.

But our being close to those we used to be able to judge with ignorance from a distance creates in us a spiritual disconnect. Though “Christians only” appears to be Biblical it strikes us as wrong. How can God only love Christians forever when we know non-Christians who are clearly kinder and more loving people than some Christians, or even perhaps than ourselves? How could God damn someone just because they are Moslem or Buddhist when they are good folks and at the same time eternally save someone who claims to be Christian but is really bad folk?

I believe John 14:6 has been read incorrectly for much of its history. There are those who will disagree with me and remain convinced that only Christians go to heaven and that surely then, everyone else goes to hell. I admit that this is the orthodox and traditional understanding and that I am obviously in the minority. I affirm our differences and I promise to not burn you at the stake even if you would burn me at the stake. Don’t laugh, history is full of just such fiery inquisitions over this question.

I come to my conclusion by a careful reading of the Bible, looking at the grammar (don’t groan), the context and the audience. I know this tedious in Jr. High and may be tedious today but a careful examination is the only way to gain understanding.

Jesus says to the disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” The syntax makes this a request not a command. Jesus is asking them to not be worried. When John wrote this passage for his congregation in about 100 CE Jesus had indeed been back in heaven for nearly 70 years. Thus John is having Jesus invite his congregation to “Let not your hearts be troubled” and says to us later disciples, “Please, don’t worry.”

And then Jesus tells his disciples and us why we don’t need to worry. The usual translation of the first part of verse 1 is something like “Believe in God, believe also in me.” By this imperative translation Jesus speaks a command “Believe!” I have several problems with this usual translation. The word translated as “believe” (πιστευω) does not exactly equate to what we mean when we say believe. What we mean by believe is something like “making our minds think something is true.” What πιστευω means is something like saying, “I belief, trust and have faith in …” all at the same time. The single word trust is a closer translation of πιστευω than believe. The disciples trust of Jesus comes from being with Jesus for three years; hearing his words and seeing the healing love of his action. They believe, trust, and have faith in Jesus because they know him and through him they know God.

Secondly, the Greek is not in the imperative (command voice - trust!) but in the active present which means Jesus is not telling them what to do but telling them what already is. A closer translation would then be “You trust God and you trust me.” Jesus is reminding them that they can be without trouble in their hearts because even though he is dying and will eventually leave them, they trust God and they trust him.

Finally, the usual translation of following a request with the imperative leaves us with something like, “Don’t worry. Trust me!” This is sort of a used car salesman approach to trust and we are rightly skeptical of anyone who says it to us. The context rather suggests a request followed by supporting facts so we get something like, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You trust God and you trust me.”

Jesus goes on in verse 2 to tell them exactly what it is they can trust saying “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” Now the word rooms doesn’t really do justice to just how big God’s house is. It is hard to capture in English. Often instead of “rooms” the translation is “mansions.” So imagine a house so big that inside it are more really big houses with lots and lots of rooms. This is a big, big, big, very big house with lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of rooms. We don’t need to worry because we trust God and we trust Jesus and there are lots and lots of rooms in God’s very big house.

And then Jesus is back to the fact that the disciples, the early church and we have learned to trust God and to trust him, saying, “If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” And he continues in verse 3 “And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am going you may be also.”

We don’t have to worry about being left by Jesus because we trust God and we trust Jesus, because God has a very big house and because Jesus is going to get a place ready for us in God’s very big house and will then return to take us with him. We don’t have to worry about our future ever again, but of course we do.
Now note what Jesus has not said. Note that Jesus is not talking to the non-disciples but only to the ones who most closely follow him. And Jesus is not judging those who don’t know or trust him but is comforting those who do. Jesus condemns no one. He promises a place in paradise to those who trust God and trust him and makes no statement about anyone else.

This passage is not about those who don’t know or trust God or Jesus. It says nothing about what might happen to them. This passage is meant for disciples from long ago and for today. It is a promise to us that Jesus always goes before us to prepare the way (prevenient grace) and returns to us to take us with him (redeeming and perfecting grace).

Have patience, I am getting to verse 6 but there are still verses 4 and 5 to go and I find them kind of funny. Jesus surprisingly says, “And you know the way.” And Thomas not surprisingly says, “No we don’t.” And it is to this that Jesus now says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

John’s gospel is noted for Jesus’ “I am” statements. You can easily remember others like “I am the bread (John 6:35), “I am the light of the world (John 9:30), “I am the gate for sheep (John 10:6),” I am the good shepherd (John 10:11),” “I am the vine (John 15:5),” Now, no one of thinks Jesus literally meant he was a gate, or bread, or a good shepherd, or the world’s light. All these “I am” statements are metaphors trying to guide us to the meaning of Jesus’ relationship with God and his disciples. So why do we when we get to “I am the way, the truth and the life” go so doggedly literal?

“I am the way” could as easily be translated “I am the road” and is a metaphor guiding us to understand that the proper road for disciples to the Father is seen in Jesus. “I am the truth” is a metaphor that guides us to understand that truth for disciples is not in facts well related or creeds well stated but in the loving person of Jesus. And “I am the life” is a metaphor guiding disciples to understand that the way and the truth of Jesus’ living is the way and the truth of the disciple’s life. Jesus is the way, truth and life for disciples.
Now verse 6 and the icing on the cake; Jesus then says, “No one comes to the Father unless they come through me.” I used to hate this verse because it seemed to make Jesus, whom I knew as broad inclusive love, suddenly terribly and even cruelly exclusive. I hated this passage because it has been used to divide and burn, not unite and heal. I find it sad that this verse has been used to make the name of Jesus into a password to heaven regardless of the rest of a person’s life. Use the password and you are in but without the password you are out forever. I would have been happy had this verse been struck from the Bible by divine intervention. The way I understood it meant that Gandhi couldn’t go to God and I know darn well that Gandhi not only went to God, but also brought God closer to me. I know atheists that have lived better lives than I have not to mention the Dalai Lama or the Sufi poet Rumi.

But now I love this verse. I have come to believe and trust that God only cares about creeds when they lead to the way of Jesus. And the way, and the truth and the life of Jesus, as John’s gospel and letters attempt with redundancy to beat into our recalcitrant souls is servant love. (You knew I had to get there.) To be a follower of Jesus, to be able to go with Jesus to God’s house is to live to the best of our abilities and by the tender mercies of God’s grace, as loving servants.

I have grown up in a world of pluralism in which I, and I think most of us, have come to believe that there are many mansions in God’s very, very big house. There are rooms for all sorts of God’s children, be they Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu or atheists. Contrary to the common understanding of Jesus and this passage, I don’t think Jesus is saying that folks who don’t use his name as a password are doomed “for the utter darkness of a Christless eternity (as one church puts it).

When Jesus says, “No one comes to Father unless they come through me” I believe he is saying that there is no room on the ways to God’s house for greed, envy, hatred, hunger, illness, war or anything else that is not of Jesus’ way, truth and life.

Jesus says in verse 7, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” Jesus uses his life as the example of knowing God, and Jesus’ life, particularly in John’s gospel, is all about servant love.

A few verses before today’s passage Jesus powerfully demonstrates this by washing the disciples’ feet. Though he is obviously their Master and their Lord he humbles, even humiliates, himself to serve and care for them in the most demeaning way. This is the way, the truth and the life and we know the way to God through such servant love.

And not long after today’s passage Jesus gently gives himself to death as an act of compassion that inevitably leads to the healing and forgiveness of the world, not just the Christian world, but the moves towards God’s house except through such servant love.
Far from being a judgment upon the non-Christian world, “No one comes to the Father except by me” is the pronouncement that servant love is the only way to heaven no matter what is or isn’t your religion. If a word or action is not in the loving way of Jesus then it is not of God, and those that do not know the love of God do not know God even if we call them rabbi, mullah, or pastor. Servant love is the way to heaven and there is no other way.

Jesus was so inclusive in the way of servant love that he frightened the exclusivists in politics and religion and they killed him. His radical understanding of the universal and forgiving love of God still scares the exclusivist. To know this Jesus is to know God. To know anyone willing to die serving the real physical and spiritual needs not only of their family or friend, but also for the stranger and even the enemy, is to witness the way, the truth and the life and to be led to God.

I now love this passage because it liberates me from my limits on God’s universal love and invites me to see all people and all life with the eyes of Jesus’ great servant love. I love it because it removes religious prejudices to unite all people in the very big house of God. I love this passage because it makes Holy Communion open to everyone and I mean everyone. May God bless you with this word.

Shalom and Amen