John 14- Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life
In the midst of an incredible diversity of cultures and religions, Christianity claims to know the exclusive path to God. In John 14:6 Jesus says,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In Acts 4:12 Paul says about Jesus,
“there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
To the modern person this all might seem pretty intolerant and offensive. There are some who think that Christianity should change its tune if it doesn’t want to be considered bigoted and close-minded.
There is an important detail that is worth teasing out. Christians are saying that Jesus said of himself that he is “the way, and the truth, and the life. [and that] No one comes to the Father except through [him]”. We aren’t making the claim about Christianity. We are saying Jesus made this claim about himself. We aren’t saying only Christians are saved. We aren’t claiming to know who populates heaven or hell. We are just saying that Jesus said he is the one who saves. If someone is saved, it is because of Jesus. If an atheist, or a Hindu is saved, it is not because of their atheism or Hinduism- it is because of Jesus. That might still seem offensive to some, but that is where traditional Christianity takes its stand because of the words of Jesus.
We shouldn’t see this as unusual for religion, though. I spent 4 years of university getting a bachelor’s degree in the study of world religions at a secular university. I have spent a lot of time and energy looking at this thing we call ‘religion’. … All religions make claims about spiritual truth. For example, Buddhism teaches that you will not reach Nirvana without practicing Buddha’s 8-fold path. Nirvana isn’t the same as heaven. They do have a heaven and a hell (though, they aren’t permanent). Buddhism wants to find a way to escape continuous rebirth into a universe of suffering. … So, religions make claims about having spiritual truth. All religions make claims about knowing spiritual truth, not just Christianity.
Some religions try to have a broader inclusion. So, for example, some broad-minded Buddhists will try to see Jesus as a Boddhisatva (which is sort of a Buddhist saint who helps others along the path towards Nirvana). The Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh reinterpreted the Eucharist saying,
There is an important detail that is worth teasing out. Christians are saying that Jesus said of himself that he is “the way, and the truth, and the life. [and that] No one comes to the Father except through [him]”. We aren’t making the claim about Christianity. We are saying Jesus made this claim about himself. We aren’t saying only Christians are saved. We aren’t claiming to know who populates heaven or hell. We are just saying that Jesus said he is the one who saves. If someone is saved, it is because of Jesus. If an atheist, or a Hindu is saved, it is not because of their atheism or Hinduism- it is because of Jesus. That might still seem offensive to some, but that is where traditional Christianity takes its stand because of the words of Jesus.
We shouldn’t see this as unusual for religion, though. I spent 4 years of university getting a bachelor’s degree in the study of world religions at a secular university. I have spent a lot of time and energy looking at this thing we call ‘religion’. … All religions make claims about spiritual truth. For example, Buddhism teaches that you will not reach Nirvana without practicing Buddha’s 8-fold path. Nirvana isn’t the same as heaven. They do have a heaven and a hell (though, they aren’t permanent). Buddhism wants to find a way to escape continuous rebirth into a universe of suffering. … So, religions make claims about having spiritual truth. All religions make claims about knowing spiritual truth, not just Christianity.
Some religions try to have a broader inclusion. So, for example, some broad-minded Buddhists will try to see Jesus as a Boddhisatva (which is sort of a Buddhist saint who helps others along the path towards Nirvana). The Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh reinterpreted the Eucharist saying,
“[Jesus] knew that if his disciples would eat one piece of bread in mindfulness, they would have real life”.[1]
It seems open-minded, but they are actually changing Jesus and making him into a Buddhist. He stops being the Jesus of the Bible and starts being a Buddhist teaching mindfullness. …
In a similar way Islam seems to embrace Jesus, but he is not the Son of God, and he didn’t die on a cross and he didn’t have a bodily resurrection. They reinterpret Jesus and make him into a Muslim prophet- he is not the Jesus of the Bible. … So, what seems tolerant at first glance, soon shows itself to not be tolerant because it forces Jesus to be someone else and doesn’t accept him on his own terms. … All religions claim to have the truth. They all claim to see reality rightly.
There is a kind of parable that is sometimes told about the various religions of the world. They symbolically imagine spiritual truth as an elephant. Then they imagine these blind men approaching the elephant and each man attempts to understand and describe the elephant. One blind man approached the elephant’s leg and he says, “An elephant is like a tree”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s trunk and says, “An elephant is like a snake”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s side and says, “An elephant is like a wall”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s tail and says, “An elephant is like a rope”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s tusk and says, “An elephant is like a spear”. This parable is often told to talk about how each of the religions mistakenly knows a part of the spiritual truth, but they don’t know the whole truth. Each of them only has a part of the truth and it is a mistake to think any one of them really understands an elephant by only knowing the elephant’s leg.
It seems like a wise image. The story is often told to point out the foolishness of the blind men- and so the foolishness of the world religions. They arrogantly claim they have knowledge that is superior to the other religions, just as it would be arrogant for each of the blind men to think they have the full understanding of the elephant. …
The problem is that there is another person in the parable. The person who is watching the blind men is the only one who sees the whole elephant. The observer is the only one with superior knowledge- the observer is the only one that is not blind. The person who says the religions are ‘ignorant’ for claiming superior knowledge is, in that moment, claiming superior knowledge over them all. In other words, they take the very ‘all-seeing’ position they just criticized. The one who is watching the blind men claims to be the only one who can see. The observer is in the position of being right and all the other religions (the blind men) are ignorant. The one watching the blind men is making the same claim as the blind men- that they understand the whole elephant. Only, they are claiming to not be blind. What seems open-minded turns out to hypocritical in claiming to have exclusive knowledge of the truth- they are the only one who can see- everyone else is blind.
The statement that “all religions are basically the same” is a claim to know the truth. To the various religions who say, “this is the way- this is the truth- this is the life”, the person who says ‘they’re all basically the same’ is, in effect, saying: “you’re wrong”. It implies that the Buddhist who says the 8-fold path is the way to Nirvana, and that Nirvana is what we should all be aiming at, is wrong. And the Muslim who says there is only one God, and Muhamad is his prophet, and the Quran is the literal words of God, and describes the proper way for human beings to believe and live … is wrong. And the Christian who says Jesus is the only way to the Father is wrong.
You can’t get away from making claims about the truth. We all do it. And when we claim something is true, we are automatically implying something else is false. We all have a way we view the world that includes a specific kind of belief system.
Some people say all religions are paths that lead up the same mountain to God. They are different paths, but they have the same destination. … Well, what is it that we arrive at when we get to the top? Is it the Triune God of Christianity? Is it the one (non-Trinitarian) God of Islam? Are there thousands of Gods that express the divine reality of the Brahman as many Hindus believe? Or, is the mountaintop empty because Buddhism doesn’t really believe in God, or at least doesn’t see a relationship with God as the goal of life? Or, is there a new age idea of the impersonal Force?
I’m not saying that religions don’t have similarities. We do. There are tremendous similarities among modern religions in some areas. Especially when it comes to morality. Usually, the various religions of the world will agree when they are presented with moral questions about that to do. There’s usually a lot of overlap when it comes to morality. There is wisdom. There are beautiful things in other religions. We should be willing to applaud the deep insights of other religions. We should be willing to recognize where we overlap in our moral convictions and even be willing to work together in those areas.
If you think the whole goal of religion is ‘morality’, then you might be led to say things like “all religions are pretty much the same”. But that is really a surface issue. Most deeply religious people will see morality as a side effect of what they believe, but not the end point. If someone says “all religions are basically the same” they are showing that they haven’t spent much time studying the various religions of the world. We should recognize our similarities, but we should also recognize our differences. We should also recognize that at times we will think each other are wrong.
To use an extreme example, I don’t think any of us want to support the sincere religious beliefs of someone who would crash a plane into a building killing thousands of people. Nor would we want to approve of the practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism as a valid part of a spiritual path. I hope we would all consider those beliefs as mistaken, regardless of the sincerity of the practitioners.
The desire to be kind and gracious to those who believe differently than us is a good instinct. That doesn’t mean we have to give up what we believe to be true. Loving people doesn’t mean never disagreeing with them.
Jesus said,
In a similar way Islam seems to embrace Jesus, but he is not the Son of God, and he didn’t die on a cross and he didn’t have a bodily resurrection. They reinterpret Jesus and make him into a Muslim prophet- he is not the Jesus of the Bible. … So, what seems tolerant at first glance, soon shows itself to not be tolerant because it forces Jesus to be someone else and doesn’t accept him on his own terms. … All religions claim to have the truth. They all claim to see reality rightly.
There is a kind of parable that is sometimes told about the various religions of the world. They symbolically imagine spiritual truth as an elephant. Then they imagine these blind men approaching the elephant and each man attempts to understand and describe the elephant. One blind man approached the elephant’s leg and he says, “An elephant is like a tree”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s trunk and says, “An elephant is like a snake”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s side and says, “An elephant is like a wall”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s tail and says, “An elephant is like a rope”. Another blind man approaches the elephant’s tusk and says, “An elephant is like a spear”. This parable is often told to talk about how each of the religions mistakenly knows a part of the spiritual truth, but they don’t know the whole truth. Each of them only has a part of the truth and it is a mistake to think any one of them really understands an elephant by only knowing the elephant’s leg.
It seems like a wise image. The story is often told to point out the foolishness of the blind men- and so the foolishness of the world religions. They arrogantly claim they have knowledge that is superior to the other religions, just as it would be arrogant for each of the blind men to think they have the full understanding of the elephant. …
The problem is that there is another person in the parable. The person who is watching the blind men is the only one who sees the whole elephant. The observer is the only one with superior knowledge- the observer is the only one that is not blind. The person who says the religions are ‘ignorant’ for claiming superior knowledge is, in that moment, claiming superior knowledge over them all. In other words, they take the very ‘all-seeing’ position they just criticized. The one who is watching the blind men claims to be the only one who can see. The observer is in the position of being right and all the other religions (the blind men) are ignorant. The one watching the blind men is making the same claim as the blind men- that they understand the whole elephant. Only, they are claiming to not be blind. What seems open-minded turns out to hypocritical in claiming to have exclusive knowledge of the truth- they are the only one who can see- everyone else is blind.
The statement that “all religions are basically the same” is a claim to know the truth. To the various religions who say, “this is the way- this is the truth- this is the life”, the person who says ‘they’re all basically the same’ is, in effect, saying: “you’re wrong”. It implies that the Buddhist who says the 8-fold path is the way to Nirvana, and that Nirvana is what we should all be aiming at, is wrong. And the Muslim who says there is only one God, and Muhamad is his prophet, and the Quran is the literal words of God, and describes the proper way for human beings to believe and live … is wrong. And the Christian who says Jesus is the only way to the Father is wrong.
You can’t get away from making claims about the truth. We all do it. And when we claim something is true, we are automatically implying something else is false. We all have a way we view the world that includes a specific kind of belief system.
Some people say all religions are paths that lead up the same mountain to God. They are different paths, but they have the same destination. … Well, what is it that we arrive at when we get to the top? Is it the Triune God of Christianity? Is it the one (non-Trinitarian) God of Islam? Are there thousands of Gods that express the divine reality of the Brahman as many Hindus believe? Or, is the mountaintop empty because Buddhism doesn’t really believe in God, or at least doesn’t see a relationship with God as the goal of life? Or, is there a new age idea of the impersonal Force?
I’m not saying that religions don’t have similarities. We do. There are tremendous similarities among modern religions in some areas. Especially when it comes to morality. Usually, the various religions of the world will agree when they are presented with moral questions about that to do. There’s usually a lot of overlap when it comes to morality. There is wisdom. There are beautiful things in other religions. We should be willing to applaud the deep insights of other religions. We should be willing to recognize where we overlap in our moral convictions and even be willing to work together in those areas.
If you think the whole goal of religion is ‘morality’, then you might be led to say things like “all religions are pretty much the same”. But that is really a surface issue. Most deeply religious people will see morality as a side effect of what they believe, but not the end point. If someone says “all religions are basically the same” they are showing that they haven’t spent much time studying the various religions of the world. We should recognize our similarities, but we should also recognize our differences. We should also recognize that at times we will think each other are wrong.
To use an extreme example, I don’t think any of us want to support the sincere religious beliefs of someone who would crash a plane into a building killing thousands of people. Nor would we want to approve of the practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism as a valid part of a spiritual path. I hope we would all consider those beliefs as mistaken, regardless of the sincerity of the practitioners.
The desire to be kind and gracious to those who believe differently than us is a good instinct. That doesn’t mean we have to give up what we believe to be true. Loving people doesn’t mean never disagreeing with them.
Jesus said,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).
We have to decide what we are going to do with that. Are we going to accept what Jesus says about himself? Is he right or is he wrong?
In the end, every one of us has to decide what we will do with Jesus’ words. The Christian claim isn’t that we possess all truth- it’s that Truth has come to us in the person of Jesus. And the One who makes this exclusive claim is also the One who stretches out His arms on the cross in love for the whole world- praying forgiveness over His enemies who put him there. So, in imitation of him, we hold conviction and compassion together. We speak truth without arrogance, and we love without condition. In a world longing for peace, Jesus’ teachings are a powerful force for good in our world. AMEN
In the end, every one of us has to decide what we will do with Jesus’ words. The Christian claim isn’t that we possess all truth- it’s that Truth has come to us in the person of Jesus. And the One who makes this exclusive claim is also the One who stretches out His arms on the cross in love for the whole world- praying forgiveness over His enemies who put him there. So, in imitation of him, we hold conviction and compassion together. We speak truth without arrogance, and we love without condition. In a world longing for peace, Jesus’ teachings are a powerful force for good in our world. AMEN
[1] Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step, (New York: Bantam
Books, 1992), 22.
Comments
Post a Comment