For the next few months, Director of Faith Formation and Pastor Margo will preach on scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary. Although this week’s worship service and devotions will feature these scriptures, Pastor Margo will preach on John 14:1-7, and you will see why on Sunday!
Read John 14:1-7 (The Message)
“Don’t let this rattle you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”
Eugene Peterson translates these famous self-describing words of Jesus as “the Road, the Truth and the Life.” The road is a powerful image in the book of Isaiah, especially in the prophecies in chapter 42. Isaiah 42:14-16 describes God as a mother giving birth, transforming creation, bringing light to the blind, and leveling a road for the people to travel to God.
For a long time I have held my peace,
I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
I will gasp and pant.
I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbage;
I will turn the rivers into islands,
and dry up the pools.
I will lead the blind
by a road they do not know,
by paths they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.
Envisioning Jesus as a level road leading to God is the essence of John passage. Jesus does not create the road; Jesus is the road. Jesus does not walk people down the road; Jesus is the road. Jesus connects humanity to God. We must be careful to believe in Jesus, not in a method or way of following Jesus. Christians must take care not to believe in a particular leader, or in a particular method of knowing God. We must believe only in Christ.
Pray: Heavenly Father, heal our blindness and cast your light on Jesus as the only way to You. Amen.