Easter 5. “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
Jesus is speaking to his disciples. “I am the way, the truth and the life.” This is one of Jesus’ most well known sayings. In broad terms it is easy to understand what it means. If we want to go to God we must go by Jesus. If we want to go to heaven when we die we must go on the road which is Jesus. Is this simply a promise that if we are good Christians and try to follow Jesus we will end up with God? Yes; but we may find ourselves asking, what does it mean to be a good Christian? Is it enough that we are baptised and believe? Is it enough that we go to Church on Sundays? Those are minimalist answers. That may be enough. But we are not minimalists. All of us here have chosen to do something more – quite a lot more: train for the priesthood, live as a monk. We ask ourselves from time to time “Am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things?” Or in simple terms – “How can I be a really good Christian?” Must I study more? Must I do more? Perhaps. But I think today’s text gives a specific piece of advice: Whatever we do, we must remember we do it with Christ. Jesus is not just a road on which we walk. Jesus is the person who walks with us telling us the important things about his life. The story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is always exciting to hear since it reminds us, Jesus is alive, now, walking with us and teaching us. This way and truth and life, is not simply the way we get to heaven. The way and the truth transform our lives and show us that Jesus is here now if we open our eyes and look. The way that Jesus speaks of is not just a road leading up into the sky and on to heaven. This road begins immediately after the Resurrection when Jesus comes back from the dead, against all expectation to send his disciples out on their journey from Jerusalem, to Galilee, to Antioch, to Athens, to Rome and eventually to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel. And he tells them in Matthew’s Gospel, “I will be with you till the end of time.” That is a really exciting promise. When Jesus leaves the disciples and ascends into heaven he doesn’t simply go and sit with His father, waiting for the time his disciples will turn up there. He walked with them in their ministry in Palestine and around the Mediterranean world and he walks with us in our Christian lives today. We do not see him in the flesh but we have plenty of evidence that he is here with us, made present by his Holy Spirit. Our question today is, how do we live with that truth? Last week I was identified, to my great delight, with the counter-reformation. Today I would like to turn to that great counter-reformation society, the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, for some answers to this question.
Their founder, Ignatius wrote a remarkable set of spiritual exercises which still, 500 years later, turn people’s lives radically towards Jesus. The Exercises begin with a week of meditations on God as creator, on human kind as sinners and on God as one who forgives everything out of his passionate love for the people he has made. It is fundamentally a story, not of sin, but of love. We then have an exercise where Christ invites us to work with him in his great mission of telling the world about the God who loves us. How do we learn to do this? It is quite simple. Over the next three weeks of the exercises we simply walk with Christ through Galilee and Judaea. We learn from him. We listen to his preaching. We watch as he talks to old people and young people, rich and poor, Pharisees and tax collectors, respectable ladies and prostitutes. He is our teacher. We must simply look at how he does it, then go and do likewise.
Jesus’ first concern is for the poor. In Matthew’s Gospel he starts his teaching with the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit. In Luke’s he begins with the prophecy of Isaiah: the Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. How does he do that? He heals them when they are sick. The poor cannot afford doctors so Jesus takes that place. He also heals lepers who are completely outcast. He cares for prostitutes whom no good Jew would be seen with. Jesus does not worry about his reputation or what people would think of him. He goes to the people who are desperate, who will listen to what he says. They need him and he will care for them. The rich do not think they need hm. They have what they want. Why should they listen to an itinerant preacher with a Galilean accent?
Where do we stand? Most of us are really stand with the rich. We may not think we are rich but we are secure. We are in no danger of falling into the gutter. The NHS will look after our health. As priests or monks we will not be unemployed. That is good, of course, but it leaves us with the question how can I be like the poor, weak, vulnerable, of no importance, truly dependent on others? Or rather, how do I find that I can only depend on Christ? Is Christ really a kind of hobby, or am I desperate to know Christ as a poor man is desperate for food.
The Ignatian Exercises encourage us to enter into the Gospel stories and find out where we are. We use our imaginations to find out what Christ really wants to show us – to find the truth about ourselves. When we do this, we can find ourselves somewhat discomforted. Or I can. When I hear the parable of the Prodigal Son I realise I am the older brother. I resent seeing people make such a fuss of this boy who has caused so much grief. The Good Samaritan identifies me as the priest or the lawyer. How many beggars have I ignored at Kings Cross Station? How many homeless people have I walked past on London streets, uncaring? The Pharisee and the tax collector always leaves me the Pharisee. My prayer is not that of a prodigal son or a dishonest tax collector. Yet as an older brother, a passing priest or a Pharisee I must say “Lord have mercy”. It’s the only prayer that really works
So Jesus walks with us on this way and he shows us the truth about our lives. This truth is not comforting, but it is curiously exhilarating. Jesus shows us who we really are, and that being sure of our goodness will never get us to heaven. However good we may look to outsiders we know the truth is different. If I had to deserve the Kingdom of Heaven by being good, I should fail. I would remain in the hell created by the self-righteous for themselves. It is only when I discover the real truth, the real poverty of my life that I can turn to Jesus and accept what he has been offering me all the time – the forgiveness and the welcome that is the life of God.
And that’s the odd thing isn’t it? This way we walk with Jesus confronts us with truth about ourselves which sounds really depressing: despite everything we are still sinners. But we are forgiven sinners. If we look at Jesus we find he is giving us new life, a life which is quite exhilarating because it is, already, a life lived in God.