Jesus as the Way

I have quite distinct memories of an occasion when I took six young people on a hike through the woods. We didn’t have a map, but I did have a compass. We were just going to do some point to point work making our way into the bush and finding our way back out. I was quite sure that I knew what I was doing. I didn’t.

We hiked for about 45 minutes in what we thought was a straight line, but apparently it wasn’t. This insight dawned on us when we became aware that we were seeing things that we had seen before. This meant that we had done some kind of big loop and were actually following our own tracks. We im­mediately began to distrust the compass, thinking that either there was something wrong with it or that some kind of magnetic anomaly in the geology of the area made it read incorrectly. But rather than staying still (which, if you are really lost, is the best thing to do), we decided to trudge on and try to find our way out.

This was a fairly large forested area in northern Ontario and we walked for the better part of two hours. Once again, we found ourselves back at the same land marks we had seen earlier. Eventually as we kept walking and walking, we came across a path through the woods.

I was very grateful for that path. As long as we were wandering in the woods we had absolutely no sense of direction even though we had a compass. We didn’t know where we were going, but once we hit the path all we had to do was choose right or left, one way or the other. My best reckoning suggested we should be heading east, so we turned down the path in an easterly direction. Sure enough, before too long, we came to the road that led to our campsite. Other than having trudged around in the woods for the better part of four hours, we were none the worse for wear and all was well.

I think of this situation when I read John 14:6. In that verse we read that Jesus was talking with His disciples. One of them had just asked: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” So Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In the morass of possibilities offered by our culture, people blunder about, ostensibly lost, not sure of where they are going, not sure they even have a destination. This is reminiscent of that day when we hiked off into the woods. We didn’t have a clear sense of where we wanted to go; we were just going for a walk.

That is, we didn’t have a clear sense of where we were going until we knew that we wanted to get home. Then we were unable to find our way because there was no path, no way to line ourselves up and make our way to where we wanted to be.

Jesus declared Himself to be the way - the way to God. Just like my little group of explorers lost in the woods, a lot of people are wandering around without a plan. They don’t have any particular desire to head toward God until something comes along in life which calls their attention to the fact that wandering around indefinitely is not useful in any way.

The early Christians distinguished their spiritual exercise with the name “the Way.” We read about it in Acts 9 and 21. Like the path my group and I found in the forest, Jesus gives us choices to make. Do we move along the path toward the Father? or away from the Father? or do we ignore the path and just keep wandering around?

Jesus identified Himself as the path. He clearly had in mind those who were desirous of going towards the Father. The quote is “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me.” It would be nice to think that we could make our own paths, that there would be other paths perhaps more enjoyable than the one we are on. There is no indication in the Bible that this is the case.

For the Christian there is only one path and it is not always an easy path. When we relate to the Lord Jesus as “the way,” we understand that He is taking us to the Father. But as we follow Him, live by His precepts, and follow His teaching, we are moving toward God. If, on the other hand, we choose to ignore, or worse yet defy, His teaching, we will find ourselves moving away from God.

To approach God there is only one way and that way is Jesus.

Ron Hughes
© July 2006