Way, truth, life

Matthew Huffman was the 6 year old son of missionaries in Brazil. One morning he began to develop a fever. As his temperature went up he began to lose his eyesight. His mother and father put him in the car to rush him to hospital. As they were driving and he was lying on his mother’s lap, he put his arm up in the air. His mother took it to push it down, but he pulled away and reached up again, and the same thing happened once more.  

Confused, the mother asked him what he was doing and he replied, ‘I’m reaching for Jesus’ hand’. And with those words he closed his eyes and slipped into a coma from which he never recovered. He died 2 days later.

It’s a tragic story, heartbreaking for the family I’m sure. There are few words of consolation to offer a family losing a young child, but the one consolation they had was that in his all too short life, he’d learnt to reach out to Jesus in all kinds of situations.

Our 3 New Testament readings today all contain similar ideas and at the heart of them is the knowledge of Jesus as Saviour. I’m spoiling something which is going to go in the magazine at some point (but it will be worth reading again then anyway !), but this week I was talking to a lady who told me a story about her friend’s son and grand daughter. The son is a Vicar in the North of England and after Good Friday his young daughter approached him and asked if he still spoke to Jesus. He said that of course he did, and she replied, ‘Well you don’t need to anymore because he died !’

Well Jesus did die, but of course she hadn’t got to the next bit of the history – that Jesus rose again ! And in this Easter season we continue to celebrate that fact which has changed history, and hopefully transforms our lives day by day.

That fact certainly changed the life of Stephen, known as the first Christian martyr, who we heard about in the reading from Acts (7:55-60), it changed the life of Peter and the early disciples as we see in his letters (1 Peter 2:2-10), and in the gospel reading (John 14:1-14) that we heard as Jesus describes himself as the way, the truth and the life.

And those three words resound powerfully through each reading.

Jesus is the way. Stephen knew this. As he stood before the High Priest and the Council who were ready to condemn him, he looked up, a little bit like Matthew that missionaries son, to Jesus. He knew the power of God to conquer pain and suffering and even death and he trusted – he knew Jesus was the way.

And in the part of his first letter we heard this morning, Peter points people to that same fact urging people to long for pure, spiritual milk in order to grow. He directed people to Jesus as the way of growth and the way of salvation.

And Jesus is the truth - Once, when a stubborn man seemed unconvinced, Abraham Lincoln said, "Well, let's see how many legs has a cow?"  "Four, of course," came the reply disgustedly. 

"That's right," agreed Lincoln. "Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?" "Why, five, of course," was the confident reply.

"Now, that's where you're wrong," said Lincoln. "Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." 

Truth is often relative in the minds of different people – and many have challenged Jesus as the truth, but the greatest demonstration of this fact comes in the lives of people who have tested that truth.

Stephen stood confidently, aware of his earthly fate, as he proclaimed the gospel message. Peter, who had denied Jesus, was now confidently standing up, spreading this gospel that Jesus had risen from the dead and he was to be the very cornerstone on which we are to build our lives.

And of course in the account of the stoning of Stephen we see amongst those organizing the stoning a man called Saul, who would go on to become Paul, the greatest Christian missionary – the man who realized, in spite of his hatred and opposition, he had nowhere to turn but Jesus.

Truth is lived out in lives transformed by God’s grace and power. It’s now and never has been a soft grace – accepting Jesus as the way and the truth demands our life. There will be times when life will not be easy, times when it’s not easy to cling to Jesus as our hope, but at those times there is often nowhere else to go for comfort and for love.

And there will be times when our faith is questioned, when we don’t seem to have the answers, but we cling to Jesus as the way and the truth, knowing like little Matthew, who raised his arm to Jesus, that he will be with us always.

Stephen, Peter, Paul and all of the early followers of Jesus had their lives transformed and, in turn, people looked at them, and how they spoke and behaved and how they lived, and saw the possibility of transformation for themselves.

Jesus is the life – he is our life, he is our hope, he is our inspiration and guide. Though time and time again we may get things wrong, he never turns away, he continues to love with an unconditional and powerful love.

That was the sort of love for others that Stephen displayed as the stones started to hit him in his execution – ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ It was the sort of love that led Peter to proclaim that ‘you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you might proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people…’

It was the sort of love Jesus showed time and time again in his earthly ministry, the sort of love that transformed lives, the sort of love that said to his disciples, ‘If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.’

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – he is the transforming and ever loving guide in our lives. He is the one who never leaves us in good times or bad. He is the one worthy to be proclaimed who offers a gospel message, good news for all people, that is worthy of being shared, through our words and our actions.

It won’t always be easy. The American evangelist Tony Campolo, tells a story about a man in Kentucky who always turned up at Revival meetings. At the end of each service when an invitation was given to come forward, he would come with arms raised, crying out ‘Fill me Jesus, fill me Jesus!’

Then within a week or two he would go back to his own ways which were not wonderful ways ! But when the next round of Revival meetings he would be back, going out to the front, crying out, ‘Fill me Jesus, fill me Jesus !’ This happened until one day he was there crying out ‘Fill me Jesus, fill me Jesus !’ and a lady at the back shouted, ‘Don’t do it Lord, he leaks !’

Of course, the truth is that we all leak at times and we all need refilling with the Holy Spirit, but God recognizes our weaknesses and he calls us back time and time again. Remember the story of the prodigal son. He had gone away and lived a fairly bad life, he had squandered all his father had given him until, in desperation, he had nowhere else to turn and so he went back to his father, ready to beg forgiveness, ready to work from the bottom up, just for a roof over his head, but his father was already there waiting for him without recriminations but instead with outstretched arms welcoming him back.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Once we were not a people, but received into God’s family we are his people, called out of darkness into his marvelous light. AMEN