What I Want
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
The Fifth Sunday of Easter – April 24, 2005
Rev. Carrie Kreps Wegenast
[Texts: John 14:1-14, Acts 7:55-60]

A dying man gathers his loved ones around him to share his final words.  This group has been through many adventures together.  They have relied on one another for prayer, comfort, laughter, and hope.  These people have been faithful in ministry together.  The dying man feels it is his duty to make the people understand his life’s purpose.  It may be his last chance.  So, in the course of four chapters and 117 verses, the author of John lays out Jesus’ farewell discourse.  Part one is today’s reading.  It directly follows the Passover meal and foot washing Jesus shared with his disciples.   His words reinforce his actions.  He demonstrates his love for them by washing their feet and now he must explain with words who he is and what he must do.

The first thing Jesus says is an assurance.  He tells them, I can be worried for both of us.  Do not be worried but believe in God and in me instead.  He then tells them about his Father’s House.  This reference to a house would not have surprised the disciples.  They would have heard this in the synagogue from the Psalms and the prophecy of Isaiah.  The reference would have made them think of heaven or the spiritual steps one takes in life.  They may have thought, Jesus is referring to the various rooms we move through in our relationship with God.  In the beginning we are in one room but as our faithfulness increases we move from room to room until we come to the place that Jesus has prepared for us.  As his followers, the disciples would have looked upon Jesus as one who had reached an esteemed place in the house.  It may have been their hope (and we are told that some of the disciples fought over a place at Jesus’ right side) to follow a man who they hoped would be able to put in a good word and thus grant them a better spot in the House. 

There is also some fear in this exchange.  Jesus is talking about leaving his group of faithful travelers.   Loosing one’s leader is often a reason for concern, just look at the stock market when a CEO or President of a company is replaced.  This pattern is also demonstrated in the church.  A minister may build a church up but once that minister leaves and another comes as the leader, some of the followers move on to other places.  The vision might change or there is fear that the vision will change.  People get attached to their leader – it becomes familiar and we all know how much we like change.  So, the fear expressed in Thomas’ question is understandable.  Jesus tells them that they know the way to where he is going.  Thomas, always the doubter, wants to make sure he does know the way.  He wants to clarify the address of this House Jesus is talking about. 

And, Jesus gives him the address; only in a cryptic sort of way.  “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6a)  Try looking up that on Mapquest.  It will not get you very far. 

Five years ago my dad and I took a father/daughter trip to Italy.  I was on my way to a college semester exchange program in Wales and he gave me the option of going anywhere in Europe.  We started in Rome and moved up the Mediterranean coast.  We had heard of a hike connecting five villages on the coast of the Mediterranean.  The guidebook promised amazing views and a train to bring you back to the starting point.  We decided to attempt this ambitious hike and set off with some snacks, water bottles and a camera.

The guidebook was right.  The views were amazing.  The Sea was the bluest blue I have ever witnessed.  As our trail led us higher and higher we could see a country lined with vineyards, rolling hills, and cute little cottages.  What the guidebook did not tell us was that the trails were not well marked.  While trying to take the lower trail that worked its way from village to village we ended up on the higher trail – isolated from other hikers (because everyone does the lower) and without the conveniences we expected to find available in each village.  By the time we realized our mistake we were miles out of our way and to our last drops of water.  The hot sun and long walk left us wishing we had spent more time investigating the way.  We needed map quest direction from our starting point to our ending point.  

Thomas also needs Mapquest to understand what Jesus is trying to say.  How do I get to where you are going, he asks.  I want to make sure I get to the right place.  But, Jesus is telling them, “I am the way…”  Jewish wisdom tradition identifies “the way” as a life lived within the law or one who has a will and desire to live with God.  “The way” is an expression of a faithful person’s unity with God.  In a time when the law, the Torah, was the way to God, Jesus is saying something quite controversial.  He is saying, I am both “access to and the embodiment of life with God” (NIB’s John 14:1-12 Commentary).  As “the way,” Jesus is not the starting address or the ending address.  He is the road from A to B. 

What is more, Jesus calls himself the ‘truth.’  Up until this point, the Law was truth.  The Law, with a capital L, provided the yes and the no to the community’s needs.  It was the final answer, to use Regis Philbin’s term.  So why is Jesus countering the Law’s position in society?  Because, Jesus came to replace the Law.  He came as the Law embodied.  What is the Law really?  The law is God’s relationship with the people.  God set forth guidelines for the people so that they would obey God.  The Law outlines God’s love for the people of Israel.  Jesus, as God’s Son, comes to expand the law.  He comes as the Law, as God’s love for the people.  He presents himself as the truth because that is what he is, the guidelines, the outlines, the law of God’s relationship with the people. 

He also says, “I am…the life.”  The Jews lived with 634 laws.  Each had to be followed as explicitly written in the Torah.  As you can imagine, living out the laws was time consuming.  First, one had to learn the laws.  Then, one had to be conscious of not breaking one of the laws.  Food had to be prepared in a special way.  Men could not talk with some women.  Women had to worry about being pure and not making others unclean.  It was a 24/7 job.  Jesus calls himself the life.  He says, focus your daily energy on me.  Worry about what I say, love God and your neighbor, instead of the written Law. 

In this sentence, Jesus radically changes the system of the day.  He calls himself the law and tells his disciples that they should give up the Law, with a capital ‘L,’ to follow him. 

After such a claim, Jesus must explain where he gets the authority to say such a thing.  Philip opens the door by asking, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  Is Philip asking for a sign?  Is he hoping for some sort of work that will prove what Jesus is saying?  Jesus seems to think that this is what he is asking for because he addresses Philip, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me…?  It is as if he asks, “Who do you think I am?”  So, Jesus gives them permission to either have faith that he is the Son of the Father or to believe in him based on the works.  Either through Faith or through his works Jesus asks the disciples to believe in him. 

And, what will they get if they believe?  Whatever they want.  “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:13-14)  Why would Jesus be willing to do something if it is only asked in his name?  Jesus will do it to give credit to the Father. 

Last week there was an article in the Wall Street Journal (April 14, 2005) on parents who are too involved with their kids’ lives.  The writer suggested that one is too deeply involved when, and I quote,

You get a case of the blues over your child’s failures

You begin sentences about your child’s endeavors with ‘we’

You write your teenager’s college application essay

Other spectators stare when you yell from the sidelines at your child’s games.

This list is based on study in which 20% of the parents interviewed directly related their own self worth to “their children’s performances.”  “Overinvolved” parents live in the successes and failures of their children. 

In a related way, Jesus is engaged in an overinvolved parent/child relationship.  He is willing to do things, such as heal, multiply loaves and fish, and walk on water, in order to make his dad look better.  He wants to give his dad something to brag about at the office on Monday morning.

Jesus offers his disciples the way to the Father.  He tries to be clear – come through me.  I am the way.  Do what I have told you to do, what I have encouraged you to do and you will arrive at the place I am now going to prepare for you in my Father’s House.   

Imagine that you have been called to the bedside of a dying friend.  He wants to tell you how to get where he is going.  He tells you, believe in me.  I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  Do you ask the questions Thomas and Philip had the courage to ask?  Do you wonder, Jesus just said that he will give me anything I ask for.  Does that include the next item on my wish list? 

It is easy to want.  When my dad and I were hiking it Italy I had a list of things that I wanted – a map, clearer signs on the paths, and water.  Verses thirteen and fourteen are almost an open invitation to give Jesus a list, with the hope that he will grant the favors in order to impress his Father.   He says, use the magic words and I will do it.  So, what do you want?  Think about it for a moment.  If you could have anything, from Jesus, what would you want?  (pause)

Now, take a moment to think about what Jesus would most like you to ask for?  (pause)

I think Thomas, good old doubting Thomas, the one who best demonstrates humanity’s temptation, asks for what Jesus hopes we all would ask for.  He asks to know the way.  He asks for the map to get from where he is now in his spiritual journey to where Jesus will meet him in the Father’s house.  He asks which road to take.  He asks for the way.  He asks to live within Jesus.  Thomas declares his intention to entwine his will and desires with the will and desires of God.  He asks to be united with God. 

Would you like to change your earlier thought? 

Jesus promises hope in his statement, “if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”  He opens the door for us to ask for the way.  He gives permission for us to ask Thomas’s question.  What wonderful news.  Centuries later, we, too, can gather around the man who is near death.  We can hear his farewell discourse and learn the way to the Father’s House.

That is what I want, for us to gather around our leader to learn the way.