A few years ago I was reading through John’s Gospel with a man who did not follow Jesus. Our conversations were surprisingly positive as we walked through John’s account of Jesus. There’s a lot to like about Jesus. And my friend could clearly see that.
But those sunny talks turned dark the day we covered John 14. I was reading the text out loud and had just finished Jn. 14:6:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (ESV).
I am the truth.
Jesus is speaking of the truth about God. Just after making this claim Jesus explains,
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also (Jn 14:7 ESV).
To know Jesus is to know the truth about the Father. The truth of which Jesus speaks in Jn. 14:6 is truth about who God is and what God wants. In fact, John’s first description of Jesus centers on this element of truth. John writes,
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (Jn 1:18 ESV).
Jesus makes God known. Thus, when Jesus says, “I am the truth” he is saying “I am the truth about God. If you wish to know who God is and what God wants, you’ll find those answers in me.”
I am the truth.
But the claim was too much for my friend. He blurted out: “Here’s what I need to know. If I decide to follow Jesus, do I have to accept that statement? Because if I do, I don’t think I can follow Jesus.”
My friend held a perspective on spirituality called “pluralism.” Pluralism says that no single religion can claim to be the Truth. We can’t know what is true when it comes to God. There are many truths, not just one Truth. And to hear Jesus say, “I am the truth” was more than my friend could stomach. Eventually, he cancelled our weekly conversations and never returned.
What do we do with a Jesus who claims to be the Truth about God in a culture that believes in many truths? Here are three considerations:
First, Jesus’ Truth is more credible than we might imagine.
Not every claim is credible. Perhaps you’ve seen the contemporary Christmas classic “Elf.” It narrates the story of Buddy, a regular-sized human who’s been adopted and raised at the North Pole by elves. When Buddy finally learns that his birth-father lives in New York City, he makes a pilgrimage to the Big Apple. Naive about normal human life, Buddy believes everything everyone says in the city. One day he sees a diner with a sign in the widow that reads “World’s Best Cup of Coffee.” Buddy runs inside and exclaims, “You did it! Congratulations! World’s best cup of coffee. Great job everybody! It’s great to meet you.” We know what Buddy doesn’t. That diner doesn’t brew the world’s best coffee. The sign just claims they do. Anybody can hang a sign like that. But there’s no validity to it.
What about Jesus? Is he just hanging a “World’s Best Religion” sign–the kind that any other major world religion could also post? Is there any validity to his claim to be the Truth?
Jesus’ claim is more credible than we might imagine. At least three things verify it:
- Jesus lived this Truth completely. Even Jesus’ hardest critics agree that Jesus lived an extraordinary life. He practiced all of what he preached. He walked all of what he talked–like none before or after him. We can believe what Jesus says about God because we see it lived out so completely in his life. It’s hard to argue in the face of a life so well-lived.
- Jesus died for this Truth compassionately. Others have died for truth claims. Yet none died as compassionately as did Jesus. None took on the sin of sinners with the innocence of a saint. And no person’s death so perfectly illustrated the truth for which he lived. P. T. Forsyth once wrote “Christ is to us just what his cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what he did there” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 43). Jesus believed in his Truth about God so deeply that he volunteered to be tortured for it. And his compassionate death became a mirror, reflecting the very Truth for which he had died.
- Jesus rose to verify this Truth conclusively. No other world religion claims that its leader died and rose bodily from the dead. Christianity does. And there are numerous reasons to believe that this resurrection took place place. Once stipulated, the resurrection stands as the ultimate verification of Jesus’ teaching. What Jesus said about God rang so true it brought him back from death. We may be able to dismiss a dozen living men. But we cannot dismiss a once-dead-now-living man. We’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Jesus’ Truth is more credible than we might imagine.
Second, Jesus’ Truth is more charitable than we might imagine.
Most claims of “I’ve got the Truth” sound intolerant and narrow-minded. They ring of “Us v Them” and “I’m Right and You’re Wrong.” But the Truth which Jesus came to teach is one of the most charitable, tolerant and generous truths ever offered.
This becomes clear in a text like Jn. 4. At a well Jesus meets a woman. Religiously speaking, she has several red flags on her resume:
- Red flag number one: she is a woman. Many in Jesus’ day believed a truth which said that God viewed women as inferior to men.
- Red flag number two: she is a Samaritan. She is a half-breed. Bi-racial. Bi-spiritual. And everyone on the right side of God in Jesus’ day knew that God did not care for Samaritans. Later, when Jewish leaders looked for the worst insult they could sling at Jesus, they spat this: “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (Jn 8:48 ESV).
- Red flag number three: she is divorced. She is damaged. Tainted. Stained. And God, everyone knew, hates the divorced.
- Red flag number four: she is sleeping around. She is living with someone to whom she is not married. She’s immoral. A threat to the moral fabric of the culture.
In many any other religions, the truth about God is that this woman has no chance. Yet Jesus embraces her and speaks the gospel to her.
When you accept Jesus’ Truth about God and reject all other truths, you accept a Truth that is more charitable than you could ever imagine. Embracing Jesus does not make you intolerant. It makes you more tolerant. It doesn’t make you closed-minded. It makes you open-minded. You embrace a Truth that says that God doesn’t evaluate the worth of people by gender, birthplace or race, marital status, or even by their moral goodness. He loves them all. He wants them all.
That’s the point of the most famous verse in John’s Gospel, John 3:16:
For God – the greatest Lover
so loved – the greatest degree
the world – the greatest number
that he gave – the greatest act
his only son – the greatest Gift
that whoever – the greatest invitation
believes – the greatest simplicity
in him –the greatest Person
should not perish – the greatest deliverance
but – the greatest difference
have – the greatest certainty
eternal life – the greatest possession
Jesus’ Truth is more charitable than you can imagine.
Third, Jesus’ Truth is more challenging than we might imagine.
In Jn. 8 Jesus encounters another who, in many other religions, would have no chance. She’s “been caught in adultery” and is condemned to die at the hands of the Religious Right (Jn. 8:3). Jesus, however, refuses to condemn her (Jn. 8:11). His Truth is more charitable than we might imagine.
Yet, it’s also more challenging. Because Jesus concludes his encounter with the woman in this way:
…go, and from now on sin no more (Jn. 8:11 ESV).
Jesus will take people just as they are. But he refuses to leave them there.
Elsewhere, Jesus taught about the radical commitment required of his followers:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (Jn. 6:53)
The Truth is that we’ve been called to consume Jesus, and be consumed with him. We’ve been called to make him so fundamental to our existence that he is the source of all we do and say. Jesus cannot be one part of many spiritual options, someone we turn to only when it suits us. A necklace we wear around our neck when we want to feel spiritual. The Truth is that he’s meant to become someone so necessary that we, literally, cannot live without him. To go a few days without Jesus and his way becomes like trying to go a few days without food or water.
But this was not a popular Truth. John reports,
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him (Jn. 6:66).
Jesus asked his closest friends,
Do you want to go away as well? (Jn. 6:67).
Jesus was in danger of losing his core supporters. That’s how challenging it is to follow him.
Yet such challenge was worth it. Peter replied,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God (Jn. 6:68-69).
In other words, “We have no choice. Your Truth is so compelling we cannot turn away. No challenge is too great.”
If you decide to live by Jesus’ Truth and only by Jesus’ Truth, it will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Yet it will also be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done. Perhaps this is, in part, what Jesus meant when he said that the truth will set us free (Jn. 8:32). Embracing what Jesus says about God and life will cost everything. But it will, in a strange and mysterious way, also set us free.
The New York Times told recently of a Christian convert named Josef. Josef fled to Germany with his family to escape civil war in Afghanistan. There, he met Christian missionaries who introduced him to Jesus. He had already turned away from his family’s faith and had been exploring numerous other religions. It wasn’t long, however, before he was overwhelmed by Jesus and was baptized. He was soon deported to Afghanistan. Now, he and his family are hiding from other family members who have vowed to kill him for renouncing their faith. The article concludes in this way:
For Josef, who has recently changed hiding places, the time passes slowly now, with little company other than his Bible. He can hear the muezzin calling Muslims to prayer, a reminder of danger’s proximity and the paradox he lives now. “When I threw away my convictions … It was like an imaginary prison. [But] now it is the other way around. My body is in prison, but my soul is free.”(Azam Ajmed, “A Christian Convert, on the Run in Afghanistan,” The New York Times (6-21-14))
It may seem as if he’s lost everything to follow Jesus. Like he’s living in a prison. But he’s actually freer than he’s ever been. And that’s the Truth.
