The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 22, 2011, St. Paul’s Church Franklin

“You know the way to the place where I am going” (Jo. 14:4).

It’s curious that there’s no question mark at the end of this sentence. In my household, when it comes to directions, it’s always a “question”: “Do you know how to get there?”; “Do you have the directions?”; or even (now that we have a GPS device) “Do you have the address?”. It all boils down to “Where are we going?” Mind you, the person with the question is usually me, because I haven’t been paying enough attention, and the person with the answer is usually my very organized wife Caroline, who does pay attention. When I drove the Presiding Bishop to our parish in Smyrna a couple of years ago I actually took her to Murfreesboro (very embarrassing, but easily corrected), and over four years into the bishop-business and even armed with modern direction-finding equipment I can still get lost on a parish visitation. Apparently these devices are not fool-proof.

But there’s no question mark at the end of this sentence in our Gospel today. Jesus is confident that the disciples know the way to the place where he himself is going. There’s no “question” about it. This confidence is echoed a bit later in the reading when Jesus again confidently asserts, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (Jo. 14:7). Again no question mark. They have the knowledge, they know the direction: no question about it.

The person who’s not confident about the direction is Thomas, and here I think Thomas stands for all the disciples, rather than being particularly dense himself. “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (Jo. 14:5). Now here’s someone I can identify with, someone who’s casting around both for the destination and the directions. I suspect that if there were a Mrs. Thomas and she had been nearby, Thomas would have asked her which way to go. It’s Thomas who puts a question mark at the end of the sentence, who makes the direction doubtful. There are four points to the compass, so how can we know the way? We can almost hear Thomas say, “I’m sure I wrote the address down. Where is the GPS?” Thomas has no confidence that the disciples will ever be able to arrive because he does not believe that they know the way.

Now Jesus makes another confident assertion in reply to Thomas’ confusion about destination and direction. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jo. 14:6). This verse generates a lot of heat amongst Christians, but we ought to please note that this is no claim for restricted access, the formation of an exclusive religious “club” that generates confidence amongst the members, but rather the confident expression that Jesus is the Messiah of God. He is the One who was looked for and expected by the People of God. He is the One who was promised long ago, and who has come into the world from the family of Abraham to establish God’s Kingdom. Prophets looked for him and taught about him. He brings life and truth to those who need it, and establishes the way in which they should walk and the direction and destination as well. In fact, you might say he is both direction and destination, and what Jesus is confident about is that those who follow him will arrive. It’s not about our confidence but about his confidence.

But let’s go back now to the place where Jesus is going, the point at which we began this sermon, because it will bring all of this discussion of confidence into perspective. Let’s suppose that there are two meanings here. The first and most obvious meaning of “place” is his Father’s house, where there are many dwelling places, and where Jesus is going in order to prepare a place for them (Jo. 14:2-3), as our Gospel says. This is the Kingdom, the place of the promised reign of God. But let us suppose that the “place” he is going is also Mt. Calvary, the hill of crucifixion, that necessary “place” where salvation is won. The disciples will have to travel there too. Here we can draw on the Gospel of Mark for some help. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mk 8:34-35). So following in the way of the cross, the way that Jesus followed and “the way, the truth, and the life” that he is, is less like “a club of the smug” than a fellowship of followers, those humble enough to travel with Jesus to the difficult place he is going. Whatever confidence we have is the confidence of humility.

If we have confidence, it’s source is our fellowship with Jesus, our communion and relationship with him. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and we need to know him. Our confirmands today are reminding us of this truth. They are re-affirming the promise made at their baptism to follow Jesus as Lord. To do that we will need to be in relationship with him, through prayer, communion, and relationship with Jesus’ other followers in a life of service. That is the way that we must follow. Today you confirmands are inspiring us by your humility and faithfulness in making these promises, and we thank you for it. You know the way to the place where he is going, and you are helping to show us the way. There’s no question about that.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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