Jesus, the way to God
An opening reading: Acts 10:34-43
A. Jesus at the centre
1. It seems obvious to say that Jesus Christ is at
the centre of the Christian faith. In the last session, it was
emphasised that God has communicated with us in Jesus. We now need
to go further than this and say that God has come to us in Jesus.
We call this 'the incarnation'. God has made his way to us in
Christ: 'The Word [Jesus] became flesh and lived for a while among
us' (John 1:14).
2. To this we need to add the complementary truth
that Jesus is now 'the way' in which we ourselves come to God. We
speak of Jesus as a 'mediator' between God and human beings: 'For
there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings,
Christ Jesus, himself human' (1 Timothy 2:5). Through Jesus there
is two-way traffic: from God to us and from us to God. He is like
a bridge or a ladder between God and us. This is why Jesus is so
central.
B. Who Jesus was
1. There are certain things that are fairly
obvious from the four Gospels which speak about Jesus' earthly
life. He was a man. He was a devout Jew. He was a carpenter. He
was brought up in Nazareth, in Galilee, in northern Israel. At
about the age of thirty, he took to the road as a preacher and
teacher. He told wonderful stories (parables), and healed those
who were physically and mentally ill. He gathered a group of
disciples around him and taught them to do the same. For a time he
was very popular, but then powerful religious people turned
against him and decided to get rid of him. He was betrayed, tried
on false charges, handed over to the Roman occupation forces and
crucified as though he were a common criminal or rebel leader.
Some days after his death and burial, his disciples were claiming
he had come back to life and that they had seen him.
2. Christians believe this summary, but they
believe more. They believe, for instance, that Jesus is:
-
a 'prophet'. He spoke words from God.
Jesus believed this about himself as is clear from his words
(in reference to himself): 'Only in their own homes are
prophets without honour' (Mark 6:4). However, it was not just
Jesus' words but his whole life that spoke of God. If Jesus is
a prophet from God, then he should be listened to.
-
a 'king'. When Jesus was crucified, a
written notice was fixed to the cross which read, 'The king of
the Jews' (Mark 15:26). The Jewish people were expecting a
king, a liberator, to arise whom they called the 'Messiah'.
This is the same word as 'Christ', and means 'one who is
anointed by God'. Jesus once said to his disciples, 'Who do
you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ' (Mark
8:29). The freedom Jesus brings, when he rules over people, is
not from political oppression, but is first of all spiritual
and inward. He offers freedom from the power of sin.
-
a 'priest'. The role of a Jewish
priest was to 'mediate' - to act as a go-between between God
and people. Jesus does this between God and us. The priest
also offered sacrifices to God to open up the way to God.
Jesus did this also, but the sacrifice was the offering of his
own life. 'Therefore, since we have a great high priest who
has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold firmly to the faith we profess' (Hebrews 4:14).
-
the Son of God This means that Jesus had
an intimate relationship with God as his Father which began
before all time in eternity. It is possible to say therefore
that the Son of God 'came down' and became a part of our human
existence. 'No-one knows who the Son is except the Father, and
no-one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him' (Luke 10:22).
C. Jesus is the way
All of this helps us to understand that Jesus is
the way to the Father. 'I am the way, the truth and the life.
No-one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). This is
the truth we need to grasp. To know God as Father means coming to
God through Jesus Christ. This involves two things:
1. Jesus has opened up the way into the Father's
presence by dying for us. He has, so to speak, built a bridge from
the Father to us.
-
Jesus died upon a cross. We are told that at
the moment at which he died, 'the curtain of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom' (Matthew 27: 51). The curtain
in the temple in Jerusalem separated the people from the
presence of God in what was called the 'Holy of Holies'. When
it was torn in two, this was a symbol of the fact that through
his death, Jesus was opening up the way to the Father. He did
this by taking upon himself the penalty that we deserve
because of our sins, and bearing it in our place.
-
This can also be thought of as Jesus paying a
price to set us free. He himself said, 'For even the Son of
Man [Jesus] did not come to be served but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many' (Mark 10:45). A ransom is
a price paid to set somebody free. Jesus' death was the price
paid to set us free.
2. Jesus is alive now and is the living Lord who
mediates between us and the Father. To know him now is to know God
through him.
-
Jesus was raised from the dead. He is still
alive today and so, by the Holy Spirit, can become real to
those who put their faith in him.
-
Friendship with Christ now is the way in which
we come to God and benefit from what Christ has done for us.
'Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God
through him' (Hebrews 7:25).
Final reading: John 14:1-14
|
