Jesus is My Way

John 14:1-12

 

1. Many people around the world think that American people are crazy for shopping when they watch the news on Black Friday. TIME editorial pointed out that holidays in the last quarter of year from Halloween to Christmas are merged and mixed by American commercialism. However, we Christians have to wait for Christmas in focusing on Jesus Christ our Lord in this season of Advent.

2. Why we have to wait for His coming? Why does our human race need Him? Why is His coming worth to be celebrated in the whole world? Why is His coming “Joy to the world”? I wish that all of you would concentrate in Jesus and prepare your children for Christmas, not simply waiting for big gifts and merry mood. In these Advent series sermons, I will give you several reasons why and how we have to wait for Him.

3. From birth to death, we have to travel the wilderness of life without any road. In some sense, there are too many roads to travel the right way. Like a driving machine game, or like busy streets in a big city, crossroads of life approach too quick to make a right judgment and choose the right way. We don’t know the way to live on, and we simply guess and drive on. Parents and teachers give advice, but in fact they too are travelers without clearly knowing the right way through. Many people claimed that they know the right way, but they too were mere travelers without reaching the end. Nobody died and came back to let us know which way is right. Humans have tried to find the way, but all human races desperately needed it. Jesus is the Gospel to the human race, because Jesus is the Way!

4. When the departure of Jesus approached, His disciples were troubled. Even though they followed Jesus for three years, they did not know the way. Jesus regretted their ignorance: “Don't you know me, even after I have been among you such a long time?”(9) And he clearly stated it: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”(6a) Why is Jesus the Way? It is because “No one comes to the Father except through me” (6b). Because our life is given by God with a mission, the right way is the one that reaches to God. If we lose that direction, our life will be lost. And Jesus is the Way, the only way through which we can come to God.

5. Because our life is not ours, not our creation, we may not make our own way. Life is a question that has a clear and right answer. It is the way to satisfy our Creator. Animals like salmon or turtle return to the starting point and die. We humans may not be the one who left home in the morning and did not return home in the evening because he lost the way back to home. Confucius taught that the right way is to follow the will of God, but he limited his teaching within some social relationships, confessing his ignorance in eternity and divinity. Lao-tzu persistently resisted any arbitrary fabrication of the divine Way, but he could not explain it. Many wise men searched for the way but found only some clue, not the reality.

6. Frank Sinatra popularized his autobiographical song “My Way”, but it was only a quite subjective self-justification. It became one of the most popular songs in the funeral. Many old people love to sing it, comforting and justifying their way of life. But is it justifiable? Who is the judge to distinguish the right way from wrong ways? It is God our Creator and Judge who will make the judgment after we finished our race. Jesus faithfully followed the way of mission: “I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day--for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!”(Lk 13:33) Paul faithfully followed the way of mission: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”(2Tim 4:7)

7. Sinners lost the Way and wandered in darkness. Therefore, their life is lost and confronted with punishment and death. Jesus came to the world to show the Way. As the Son of God from the Heaven, He is the only One, in the whole human history, who is beyond human knowledge and knows the whole picture of eternity. Jesus not only knows the Way, but also He is the Way, because He opened a New Way for sinners to come back to God by His atonement on the Cross: “by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.”(Heb 10:20) Without through Him, His body torn for us and His bloody sea of baptism, we cannot go back to God and become His forgiven children.

8. And when we walk through Him, we follow His Way. His Way is not easy to follow, for it is the Way of the Cross. But it is the Way of salvation. Jesus is the Gate for the sheep. His gate is narrow: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”(Mt 7:13-14) His way is that of righteousness that leads to glory. It is “the most excellent way”(1Cor 12:31), the way of faith, hope, and love.

9. In this season of Advent, let us check our way of life. Do we faithfully follow Jesus Christ our Lord? Do we choose the Way of Jesus in every crossroad, at least in every important decision, or we choose our selfish desires? Do we take the narrow way of Jesus rather than the broad way of the world in our everyday life? Does our church follow the way of Jesus or our interest and comfort in every decision and practice? Do our children follow the right way of Jesus? Let us check our way and return to Jesus as soon as we find ourselves to walk a wrong way. Jesus is our Good Shepherd who goes to look for one lost sheep, leaving ninety-nine sheep.(Mt 18:12) May God richly bless you to correct your way of life in this blessed season of Advent! Amen.