This morning at Cherry Tree Court we looked at John 14:1-6, the famous passage where Jesus says ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’
When we travel to different destinations, we use different roads: for speed and efficiency, we often use motorways which tend to be straighter and more direct:
If we are not as concerned about speed, we might prefer to take ‘A’ roads where the scenery might be prettier; sometimes, we may even end up on ‘B’ roads or even bumpier roads to reach a specific destination. Whatever the road, however, it matters that we know where we are going if we are going to end up at the correct destination!
Thomas was not so sure that he knew where Jesus was going: ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ (John 14:5) Jesus knew that the only way we could reach God, and heaven, was if we followed Him and did things His way. The only way to God the Father, he said, was through the Son. We can’t just take any old road to God and expect to arrive at the right destination, any more than we can take any old road to arrive at any destination. If we want to arrive at a particular destination, we have to go a particular way.
Whilst we may all have come to God through different routes, we cannot know God unless we are prepared to come through His Son (see also Mark 1:15, 17; Acts 4:12). He is the gate through which we come (John 10:6,8), because, being both God and Man, He is able to bridge the gulf between us and God caused by sin. We have to ‘enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ (Matt 7:13-14)
As Tim Hughes sings,
‘I was nowhere: You came to my rescue.
From the grave I’ve been raised.
When I needed a Saviour to save me,
Jesus, You made a way.
I was blind, but these eyes have been opened.
Now I walk in the light.
Every step on this road I will follow.
Jesus, You made a way.’ (‘The Way’, Worship Central)