On The Fast Lane To Where?
“Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up a signal over the people…” (Isaiah 62:10 ESV).
Coming from the church after service on a Sunday, we had to drive on the Interstate motorways. At a point, I noticed the car in our front had a sticker on its rear screen with a bold NOVICE DRIVER written on it. It says something about what it means to drive on Interstate motorways.
Essentially, one needs to have some basic knowledge and understanding of road signs, and possess the skills for navigating the routes. Remarkably, there were stories of newly licenced drivers making the wrong turning at intersections and finding themselves far away from their intended destinations. Such were the experiences of many, prior to the advent of the GPS.
The introduction of cutting-edge technologies, however, changed the narrative. Driving on the highways has become a seamless exercise. All you have to do is download the GPS app on your mobile phone, plot in your destination — watch, listen and follow instructions. You are on your way to your destination.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed key themes relating to God’s Kingdom, who he was, and the principles guiding believers’ lifestyle. He drove his messages home with similes and metaphors.
Responding to Christ’s words of comfort for his disciples about his imminent departure, Thomas said to him, “Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Jesus here, points the way to God, the Father, and the need to go through the right way; to knowing the truth about the way and the source of life here and in eternity — all found in him.
Let’s take a close look at what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the way.” We hope to probe into what he meant about being the Truth and the Life in another article.
The Way
Humans are always in search of the way. Students are in search of the way to success in their academic pursuits; Politicians are in search of the way to win elections. Business men in search of the way to make more money. In developing countries, young people are looking for a way to get out of their country in search of greener pastures. They look for easy ways to success and accomplishments in life. What’s more, many are frantically searching for ways to get rich!
Invariably, people are either looking for a way into a system or out of a system; the way to a better life situation or out of their situation.
Usually, there are legitimate ways to getting into a system or achieving a goal. And there are also many illegitimate ways. Standard requirements for entering an educational institution or a country are intentionally set so that only qualified people are allowed in. For honest people seeking the way, and doing the right things — finding the way and going through the way are no issues. But those who do not meet the stated requirements and are determined to have their way usually resort to using illegal means and to gatecrashing.
Illegality is an all-comers way that thrives on falsehoods and manipulations. It is a Fast Lane in a Broad Way.
The journey of a seeker of The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven and that of a newly born again Christian can be likened to the new driver trying to find his way to his destination along the hydra-headed broad roads and highways of our world.
The horizon is not always clear to a new comer to the faith. He or she becomes vulnerable and at the mercy of “hirelings” and the “good shepherds” alike. She stands to be instructed and directed by the pastor/teacher of her church or fellowship. What she ends up believing and comes to understand as the meaning of Christianity and his or her role as a believer depends very largely on the theology and personal agenda of her church leadership.
Down through the ages, people have associated Christianity with different things. In modern day Africa, for example, some preachers are presenting Christianity as the fast lane to success, prosperity and the good life, while a few others project the Christian faith as the King’s highway for pilgrims traveling through the enemy’s territory to a home beyond the here and now.
Christ declared, “I am the way.” By the same token, Christianity is a way of life. A life driven by a commitment to walk within the narrow road that Christ has laid out for his followers.
Jesus admonished his listeners (Matthew 7:13) to:
“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 is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
The broad roads and wide gates have rooms for all-comers, but lead to nowhere but destruction. Jesus spoke about many that are seeking life, driving on the fast lanes of broad roads, heading toward the wide gate, but “only a few find it.” — only a few find eternal life!
What does that mean?
Please note that Jesus said: “I am the way.” Not one of the ways or a way, but the way — the ONE WAY to the Father.
The book of psalms severally put in words God’s revelation of Himself to humankind through the work of His hands, and the manifestation of His power in the universe. Psalm 29: 3–4 states:
“The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful, the voice of the LORD is majestic.”
Psalm 104: 2–6 has this: “The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes wind his messengers, flames of fire his servants.”
Psalm 8:3–4: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
Peoples around the world have responded to the natural phenomena in different ways. Human problem has always been the way we respond to God’s manifestations and purposes in creation and to His outreach to mankind after the fall.
Quite a number of people-groups who were overawed by the vastness of the universe, and the forces of nature, respond by worshipping them. So men worship the sun, the moon, mountains, rivers, the lightening and the thunder — placating natural forces represented by graven images and gods — offering sacrifices to them.
For instance, Hinduism alone has 330 million gods and goddesses. In Allahabad in India, (AP reported) one holy man walked naked among his disciples, offering sacred ash, blessings and cardamoms as consecrated host. Not far away, another holy man delivered a religion believed to have been practised since the third millennium B.C.
What appears common to all the religions in the world prior to the advent of Jesus the Christ on the scene, is the preoccupation of their adherents with daily provisions and with seeking the favors of the gods in their battles with their enemies.
The coming of Christ, however, introduced an entirely new dimension to the content and goals of religion. He came with the message of God’s kingdom, emphasizing the transient nature of human existence on earth.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has “set eternity in the human heart.” In every human being is a God-given awareness that there is something more than this transient world. With that awareness of eternity comes a hope that we can one day find a fulfillment not afforded by the “vanity” of this world.
“In the human heart” is an expression of inaudible cry for the divine that is deep-seated in the mind, soul or spirit of each person. God places eternity in our hearts and soul, and has sent His Son to show humans the way to satisfying the longing in our hearts — longing that men have sought to satisfy with idols and material stuff.
Jesus came to fill the vacuum in human hearts meant for God, and offered himself as the way to getting them back to their Creator. He asked, in essence, “Are you looking to reach the One behind the roaring ocean, the lightening, the thunder, the volcanoes and tsunamis?” “I am the Way.
When you find Jesus, you find the way to God, and to life eternal.
Stay focussed!
