John 14:5-6 Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going,
so how can we know the way?  Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth
and the life."

 Seriously, the problem with Christianity is that it is just too simple!
Mind you I am talking about the Christianity that is clearly laid out in
the Bible.  It is a simple and pure message, a message of our sins and
God's solution to that sin, Jesus Christ.  But it is such a simple
message that almost everyone tries to add to it and (so-called) make it
better!
 Take for instance a recent book that I got in the mail.  It has a thing
on it saying that this is it's second printing and has over 5 million
copies in print.  The authors in the introduction tell you they believe
it is the most significant book you could ever read.  While I'm sure the
book has many fine points in it just by the introduction alone I will
tell you that there are going to be some real problems with what is found
in that book.  Let me share with you what I mean.
 Several times in the introduction as the one author is telling you how
they got involved in writing this book they made statements like:
"Reflecting on his comment, I recognized it came as direction from the
Lord."  That statement came because a person at a seminar this author was
teaching at falsely accused the author of sin because a book on the topic
he wanted to learn more about wasn't written.  It is this false
accusation that the author calls "direction from the Lord."  Repeatedly
the author of this book makes such claims, that God did this, guided
here, spoke there and the like!  In other words the author claims that
God speaks directly in their life apart from the Words of Scripture!  To
me that's pretty brassy!  To claim to know the mind and will of God, to
claim that you are the very instrument of God beyond the teachings of the
Bible and to make this claim based on your feelings is total nonsense and
falsehood.  That's a warning sign that something is amiss.
 Then, still in the introduction, the author says this, "Perhaps the most
outstanding lesson I learned is that obedience is the pathway to His
blessings."  The author claims that they are going to teach you about
your Christian faith but has already concluded, "obedience is the pathway
to His blessings" a pure work-righteous teaching.  If obedience to God
was the way to his blessings, if following the Lord was the way to heaven
then what is the point of Jesus?  If we could work our way into God's
goodness, earn our wings by our lives then again what is the point of
Jesus?
 See what I mean?  God's Word and his message of salvation is so
wonderfully simple that mankind can't leave it alone.  We keep trying to
improve on it.  We keep trying to "make Jesus relevant" to our lives.  We
keep trying and in that trying we keep losing the real point.  The real
point is what Jesus tells us.  The real point is what God's Word
proclaims.  Let's then consider these words of Jesus under the theme: THE
FACTS OF JESUS.  1st. He is the Way.  2nd. He is the Truth.  3rd. He is
the Life.
 I want you to know that these words occur as Jesus is having a
conversation with His disciples.  They are in the Upper Room on the night
of Maundy Thursday.  Jesus has just washed his disciples' feet, just
revealed again that one of them would betray him whereupon Judas left!
Now Jesus begins to speak of what is coming, that is about the glory that
would be his and that he would be with them only a little longer.  In
that conversation he again warns Peter of his coming denial with the very
specific words: "I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will
disown me three times."  We dare not over look the importance of what is
said here.  The simple importance is that what Jesus is speaking of is
going to happen before the morning comes.  Before the rooster crows or
morning comes Peter will deny him.  Before the morning comes he will be
gone!  Before the morning comes his path of glory will have begun.
Everything was now, not later!
 Next Jesus speaks to his disciples about not letting their hearts be
troubled.  You know those famous words, at least I hope you know them.
"Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms; if
it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a
place for you."  It was the fact that Jesus said he was going away that
prompts Thomas to ask, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how
can we know the way?"
 That's right, it is following this question that Jesus speaks the words
before us.  Words of utter importance for not only the disciples but for
the world.  It is now that Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and
the life."
 What is Jesus speaking of?  Take the first phrase "I am the way."  The
word way means "road", then by extension "journey", then by further
extension "way of life."  It always saddens me when people just naturally
assume the furthest extended meaning of this word and thus figure that
Jesus is simple saying that he is the one who shows the "way of life."
But that's not what he is saying.  He is saying that he is the very road,
he is the path that takes one straight to one's destination.  I would
imagine that if Jesus lived today he would say something like: "I am the
train."  You get on me and I take you where you need to go.  Perhaps he
would have said, "I am the people mover", that walkway in airports that
moves you along.  Jesus' point was not that he was a road for you to walk
on so you could work at getting yourself to heaven but that he is the way
to get to heaven.  He leads to heaven, he takes to heaven, and it has
nothing to do with how you must live and behave.
 Or take the next phrase that he spoke where he drives home his first
meaning, "I am the truth."  What's fun is to realize how truth and the
Word are so closely linked in the Bible.  To know Jesus is to know the
truth.  To know God's Word is to know Jesus.  To know the Word is to know
truth.  To know the truth is what sets one free.  Jesus is what sets one
free.  In other words the truth referred to here is not some sort of
relative, agreed upon harmony of mankind but rather the reality and
foundational facts of God.  The truth of God, that is Jesus, speaks of
two undeniable facts.
 Fact one is that the world is full of sin and that every human being is
by nature lost in sin and a slave to death and the devil.  That's the
fact.  It's the fact of sin.  Sin is revealed when we look at the law of
God and in studying that law we aren't moved to realize that "obedience
leads to His blessings" but rather that we fall far short of the glory of
God.  We don't do what God wants.  All our righteous acts are nothing
more than filthy rags (that is, worthless to God)!  That's the truth of
God and Jesus that is undeniably and really truth.
 (Of course our biggest problem is that we don't want to hear this truth.
 We don't want to admit that our faults and sins are real.  So we spend a
great deal of time denying, ignoring or pretending that we're all okay
and that only occasionally because of lack of education, money or some
other extraordinary circumstance do we do bad things.  But the fact of
sin is why we die, why kids join gangs, why humans do drugs, why
murderers murder and on and on.  And if you've been paying attention
please note that sin is getting bolder and bolder every day!  Sin is a
fact!)
 Fact two is that Jesus is the solution to sin.  Not because he can show
us a better way to live, but rather because in grace and mercy he
forgives our sins and opens for us the very gates of heaven.  What we
couldn't, Jesus did.  What we wouldn't, Jesus was.  What we've done,
Jesus forgives!  He came to be our atonement.  He came to give us the
gift of eternal life and salvation.  But we are really already speaking
of that third part that Jesus spoke, "I am the life."
 Jesus is the life.  Not a message of how to live the right live and do
right, but the message that he is the source and provider of eternal life
in heaven.  Remember Jesus was talking about going to heaven and
preparing a place for us.  He gets us there.  He doesn't lie about the
facts.  He is the very source of eternal life.
 There is the purpose of Jesus.  He came to suffer and die and then to
rise from the dead to let us know that eternal life and heaven is
ours...ours by faith...ours not because we have been good...but ours
because He was perfect for us.  Ours because we truly and absolutely
believe that he is the way, the truth and the life.  There is only one
way to the Father.  There is only one truth of the Father.  There is only
one heaven and the joys that it holds.  All of this is found and given in
Jesus.
 Yes, Jesus is the life.  He changes hearts and minds.  I have a changed
heart and mind.  I know my own personal failures and shortcomings.  I
know I can't and won't get to heaven by what I do or accomplish.  I know
that anything I have and am is just a pittance to God.  Yet because I
believe in the grace and mercy of God, because I know that Jesus paid for
my sins (I know this because Jesus says so!), because I know I am
forgiven I have a different view of life, a new heart and mind in Jesus.
I work at serving Him, knowing I will fail and He will forgive.  I work
at loving Him, knowing that I will only make a mockery of love compared
to Jesus and yet He will forgive.  I work at doing right, even when my
best is like rotten bologna to God.  But God forgives.  God pours his
love upon me.  God accepts my service because of Jesus.  That's the life
that is found in Jesus.  A life that really is about Jesus!
 Now I'd like to claim that I got all this knowledge and perspective on
my own, but I didn't.  I learned it from the Word.  I learned it because
God sent His Holy Spirit into me, just as He promised, through the gospel
in Word and sacrament.  I am what I am only because of God working in me
through Word and sacrament.  Again it is what Jesus has done.  It is
exactly what Jesus was speaking of when He said, "I am the way, the truth
and the life."
 The message of God is simple.  We have a problem and He has provided the
solution.  It is not a solution about living right or being right or
dying right...it is the solution of God.  How His Son has done everything
for us.  How Jesus lived right.  How Jesus died right.  How Jesus rose
right from the dead to bring us eternal life.  God's gift to us.  May
these words always direct your hearts and minds to the Savior and the
wonder of his salvation for us.  Amen.