How do we know the Way?

Last year Susan and I journeyed through New Zealand, from deep in the south up to 
Auckland. There were many places to see along the way. There was no real destination, 
but many different points we must arrive, where accommodation was booked or there was 
a tour or something we were scheduled to see. Each morning, we checked the itinerary to 
work out where we were going that day. Then we could determine the way to go, plug it 
into the maps app and head off.  
Sometimes we don’t actually know where we are and can’t work out how to get where 
we want to go. One night I left a Church Meeting in a place I’d not been to before. I had 
arrived whilst there was still light and took in the surroundings. When the meeting 
concluded it was quite dark and nothing looked the same. I headed off in the direction I’d 
come desperately looking for an important intersection where I had to turn left. I drove 
through the first one as it seemed too soon and didn’t look right. I drove on, and on, and 
on until I was completely lost. It was completely unfamiliar territory, and it was in the 
days before maps apps and mobile phones; I only had the street directory. I didn’t know 
where I was. Everything was dark and I didn’t know how to find my way out. I ended up 
turning in the broad direction towards home, hoping if I drove far enough, I’d eventually 
come out somewhere that was familiar. And so, it was. I eventually recognised some places 
and place names and was able to find my way. 
Life is a lot like this! Sometimes we realise we have no idea about where we’re going, 
so cannot know the way to go. Sometimes we discover that we don’t really know where 
we are, let alone where we are going. We feel lost, confused or suddenly disoriented. 
Sometimes this comes as a sudden realisation, an awareness that our life direction in 
confused because we’ve been following everyone else and the assumptions of society, 
with its seductive voices and convincing advertising. Sometimes a deep crisis breaks into 
our life and completely unsettles everything. We recognise that everything we’ve believed 
about life, and what is important doesn’t stack up. There is a deep yearning and awareness 
that we don’t know where we are going or how to get there. We may recognise that we are 
actually lost. 
John wrote his story of Jesus at the end of the 1st century, and it addresses the particular 
issues that confront the relatively young and vulnerable Christian community that has 
experienced persecution from Rome and tensions with their Jewish roots. They were 
awaiting Jesus’ ‘imminent’ return as he seemed to have promised – but it still hadn’t 
happened. They seemed to be lost about where to go, what to do… John reinterprets Jesus’ 
story for his own community and context. In this week’s passage (John 14:1-14) Jesus 
continues to prepare the disciples for his death. He speaks of preparing a place for them in 
the Realm of God where there is a place for everyone. He is going and they are to follow 
but Thomas pipes up, saying, ‘We don’t know where you re going, so how can we know 
the way?’ How can we know the way when we don’t know where we are going? How can 
we follow to the destination that remains confused? What is this way and where will it 
lead? So many questions lie beneath this. How does this fledgling community live? What 
destination is there for it, what future? Do they simply wait for Jesus to come and ‘take 
them home?’ What about us? Where are we travelling to? How are we travelling? What is 
the point of our journey, as people, as churches, as communities? Is there a purpose to life 
beyond the rampant accumulation of wealth, power, status, experience, knowledge etc, 
and how do we find it?  
Jesus’ words speak into theirs and our confusion, offering a different way. He says: ‘I 
am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except by me.’ He continues 
on to describe how he is in the Father and the Father in him and… There’s a lot of ‘Father’ 
talk, which can cause us confusion or uncertainty as we wrestle with fatherly images and 
experiences, which for some people are devastating and brutal. 
His description of being the ‘way, the truth and the life’ is another text that becomes 
interpreted, re-interpreted, used and abused in all manner of ways. Most often it seems to 
be used to prove and justify particular belief systems and doctrinal principles that must be 
affirmed and believed. These are understood to ‘be the way.’ If you believe this or that 
about Jesus, then you will get to heaven when you die. 
I’m not sure this is what Jesus’ is saying to us. I visited the leaders of a church as part 
of my work. They were in a time of deep change and transition. Several key people had 
moved away and at least one very significant leader had recently died. There were change 
sin their property, a long-term renter had moved on and they had new opportunities, but 
they felt lost. ‘What do we do? Where do we go? In my words they were asking, ‘What is 
the way for us?’ They wanted a plan that they could follow and would lead them to the 
right ‘place,’ the correct ‘destination.’ As we talked, we realised that they didn’t really 
need a detailed plan or even the correct ‘destination.’ They needed the ‘way’ in a different 
sense. As we talked, the discussion shifted and we looked at how they might live into the 
‘way of Jesus.’ What characterised his living and being? What did he do and say and how 
did he engage with people? 
As we brainstormed around this, the clarity that emerged for them was to live into this 
way of Jesus, a way grounded in love, justice, peace-making, reconciliation, relationship, 
belonging, hope. It is a way that lifts the vulnerable and poor up, providing support and a 
hand up. It is a way that is inclusive and enables people to belong. It is a way of liberation 
and peace through forgiveness, reconciliation and justice. They could stand alongside 
people who needed a voice; welcome the lonely or outcast; share meals and activities with 
people who had nowhere to belong. As we talked the way opened before them and we 
recognised that the ‘way’ of Jesus is not a belief system or detailed plan but is a lifegiving 
way of living. There is a deep truth in it that defies the diversity of voices, seductive and 
loud that seek to convince us to accumulate and consume. 
In this way into life, we recognise that the journey is life, and life is filled with 
moments, each one an opportunity to live and be. Each moment has the capacity to be life
giving and beautiful, filled with simplicity and beauty. God imbues each moment of life 
with love and grace if we are able to stop and receive such beauty in everything. Jesus’ 
way is an opening into deeper life, love, hope and peace – in God’s gracious embrace.