The Alpha Course has been the world’s most popular evangelistic course of the last 30 years or so. At last count, approximately 28 million people had attended one, in every kind of church, right across the globe. Its opening session poses the provocative question: ‘Christianity: boring, untrue, irrelevant?’
The answer lies in the famous verse we encounter in this passage. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To those who think that the Christian faith is boring, he is the Life; to those who think it untrue, he is the Truth; and to those who think it is simply irrelevant, he is the Way.
This last great description of Jesus is particularly important: the earliest followers of Jesus were known as ‘followers of the Way’. Before we coined the name Christian or Christianity, it was simply called ‘the Way.’
And what is so revolutionary about this statement of Jesus is that all of this is found directly in him. He doesn’t say, ‘this is the way;’ he says ‘I am the Way.’ He doesn’t say, ‘this is the truth,’ but ‘I am the Truth.’ He doesn’t say this is the kind of life God wants, but ‘I am the Life.’ It’s all found in him. It’s not religion at all, really, it’s relationship.
Imagine being the disciples first hearing this. I must confess I feel a bit sorry for them, as Jesus tells them: (v4) ‘You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Knowing what they did at the time, I think I would be asking exactly the same question as Thomas: (v5) ‘how can we know the way?’ We don’t even know where you’re going!
Jesus’ answer is both altogether easier and more mysterious at the same time. On the one hand, he is the Way, so the solution is right there in front of them. On the other, how can a person be the Way? This, of course, is the heart of our good news. Jesus achieves on our behalf what we cannot do for ourselves. When we follow him, all of this is given to us, and thereafter we have the great privilege of being with him, becoming like him, and, ultimately, doing what he did. The Way is Jesus’ very self: his presence, his character, his vision for life.
Today, give thanks that this Way is open to us. And may the Lord grant us all grace to practise the Way, in faith, hope and abiding love.