When I was a kid, I used to want to be a writer. A songwriter specifically. Could I play an instrument? Nope. Could I sing? Not well. But at the ripe age of 8, I was convinced that I would grow up writing hits. I remember writing a song about the Canucks. My grandparents loved it so much, they wanted to send it to the team. Who knows, they thought, maybe they would play it on TV or something? Then, as I grew up, my focus shifted to becoming an actor. I thought maybe I could act in a movie I wrote (and directed). I think since the age of 14, I have had about 5 movie scripts floating around in my head. Now obviously, I haven’t written a hit song (that you know of!), and my script never was written (writers block obviously), but I have listened to enough songs, watched enough movies and read enough books to know that we as humans love a good story. Our hearts actually crave to be immersed in a story that inspires, evokes joy, and brings us deep hope. One other thing I have learned about stories is that unless you are into obscure foreign films, you like your hope-filled stories to follow a relatively linear fashion. You want the story to begin with a protagonist, who though they may have some baggage, they are an essentially “good” person. You can root for them! You then want a conflict or opportunity to arise that forces them to face a challenge, whether that be internal or external. If the story is any good, there must be a point where you as the audience aren’t sure if they will be able to accomplish what has been placed before them. Maybe they doubt themselves, or the enemy is too great. They are struck down, but in a moment of internal strength they rise back up to conquer what lies ahead. In the end, they have discovered something about themselves deep within while also making the world a better place. Throw in a love interest of some sort and you have a story that you and I can get behind! This is Disney. This is Lord of The Rings. This is Star Wars. This is Shawshank Redemption. This is Love Story by Taylor Swift.
Alright, maybe you have a more sophisticated palate. Maybe you don’t like your cookie cutter endings. Less Marvel, more Martin Scorsese. But I bet, at the very least, you like your stories to have a satisfying ending. Think about it, is there anything worse that being totally engrossed in a TV show and they ruin it at the very end? No matter how much you liked the lead-up, the end frames your perception of the entire thing. You may be able to say that there were certainly elements of the story that were compelling, but I would venture to say that unless you were at least somewhat satisfied with the ending, it would be tough for you say you enjoyed the story.
Now I say all of this not to vent about that last season of whatever show frustrated you, but instead to understand the scandal of the Easter story.
This past week in Youth, we have been taking a look at the “I AM” statements of Jesus. These are loaded statements that Jesus made about Himself, that make a claim both about His divinity and character. We did this mini study in order that we would better understand who Jesus was as we head into Easter. For Friday, the statement of the day is from John 14. In this passage, Jesus makes the following claim to His disciples:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. Noone comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14 and 15 recounts Jesus’ departing teaching and instructions to His disciples before His arrest, trial and eventual crucifixion. He tells them that they aren’t to let their hearts be troubled, as He is preparing a place for them. When the disciples, seemingly frustrated and confused, ask Jesus how they can know where He is going, Jesus’ makes the bold claim that He is the way, the truth and the life. If they want to come to God, they are to continue following the way to God (Jesus).
This claim of Jesus to be the one true path to God may be the most controversial claim of all. This runs counter to a world full of subjective realities, spirituality that preaches “many paths lead to one god” and alternative “gospels” that place the self at the centre. If you track the gospels, you see that the disciples spend the entire story playing catch up to Jesus. In Matthew, for example, they don’t name Jesus as the Messiah until the sixteenth chapter. And even after they begin to see who Jesus truly is, they can’t accept the story. Jesus gives them glimpses into the future, and they don’t want to hear it. They reject the idea of a messiah having to die. As you and I would too. Here is the beautiful thing about Jesus, however. He is patient with His followers. He doesn’t make them sign an agreement ensuring that they are all on the same page about the journey. He doesn’t begin by giving them the run-down on His divinity. He begins with a simple invitation: “Follow me”. And yet, we see at the seeming end of this walk with the twelve, Jesus spells out the reality plainly.
I am the one way to God.
I am the truth of God.
I am life embodied.
There is one path to God, and I am it.
Now track with me for a minute. I will get back to this claim in a moment. The story continues, and it isn’t what Peter the others want or hope for. Their rabbi is arrested. The twelve flee, and in fear of their own lives, they inevitably deny any association with Him. He is accused, tortured, ridiculed, forced to carry the instrument of His death up to Golgotha. Then, in a shocking twist, the hero doesn’t escape. He doesn’t discover any inner power to get Him out of the bind He is in. He dies. At least that is how the spectators see it.
We as 21st Century followers of Jesus have the benefit of the full scope of the story. We know that Sunday comes. We know life conquers death. And I am very glad to know this, but I think because of this, the potency of Friday maybe doesn’t hit us quite as intended. To those on the ground level, this was not a good Friday. This was disappointment and disillusionment. The climax of their three-year journey was that the other guys won. This was not the story they wanted. We wouldn’t want it either. We wouldn’t write something like this. If I stopped the reading story here, you could consider me an unsatisfied reader. In fact, I would go as far as to say that If Jesus came merely as a choice for us to choose from to help us on our life journey, there are likely better options out there. Sure, Jesus was a great teacher, but His story leads to death. More than that, He tells His disciples that in order to truly follow Him, they must too pick up their cross. There must be a better narrative that brings me what I long for at only a fraction of the cost. At first glance, with no knowledge of what’s to come, it would appear that following Jesus leads to a kind of suffering that you and I would not accept for ourselves. Even Jesus’ closest associates backed out at the last minute.
Thank God this isn’t how the story goes! First, Jesus knew the full story. He knew that He had to die. But He also knew He was going to be raised up! Second, and this might rub you the wrong way, this notion of Jesus as an option was not given to us. Jesus made sure of that. In the last moments of His life before death, He spelled it out plainly. He made it clear that He wasn’t a choice, or a perspective, or a path to truth. He was (and is) the way, the truth, and the life.
It was as if Jesus was saying “In a few hours, the single greatest event in history is about to take place. Whether you agree with me or not, everything is about to change. Your opinion will not change reality. What I am about to do will make a way for a relationship with God, which is the sole reason for your existence.”
This is a strange story. It is brutal. It is unpolished. It is unexpected. It does not fit into my boxes. Being that I value my self-preservation, I may not have chosen this story. It doesn’t jive with where I am going. Good news is that Jesus doesn’t give me the option of it being A story, but THE story above all stories. It is either true, or it is wrong. He was who He said He was, or His followers are fools. Thankfully, through the work of the Spirit, and my own experience with His love, I have come to believe that in spite of my resistance, Jesus is who He says He is.
In the west, Easter has become a cultural staple. That time of the year where, for a day, we take a moment to reflect on the story of Jesus. For many of us, we are touched by the story of Easter, so it is a special day. Or maybe you don’t even believe God is real, but you come to Church or say a prayer on Easter because it is what you have always done. And that is okay, just like the disciples, Jesus is patient. And while I do not intend for this to be overly confrontational, I am aware that it might sound a bit…. heavy. That is because the true story of Easter has a certain weight to it. Right in the middle of the story of Easter are these claims:
Jesus is one way to God.
Jesus took on all our wrongdoings on the cross. He suffered in our place.
Jesus loves you so much He DIED for you. Let me say that again: He died for you.
Jesus rose again. He defeated death.
Jesus calls His followers to give their full allegiance to them.
However, you slice it, those are big claims. Claims that beg a response.
Easter is an invitation to be a part of a story. A strange story. A beautiful story. A story that’s climax changes the entire way we frame who we are and why we are. I have come to see and believe that the best thing about life is this story. Freedom is found in surrender to a God who sacrificially loves. You may not agree, and that is okay. My hope in writing this is to simply challenge us to not skip past Easter season like it is background viewing. An old story that we go through once a year. It is as potent today as it was 2000 years ago, and it has the power to transform lives in the same way it did for those who first experienced it. In a world crying for inspiration, joy and a deep-hope, I don’t know of a better story to be engrossed in.
I would like to leave you with a quote from the 20th Century thinker C.S. Lewis. An accomplished scholar and atheist, who came to know believe in Jesus later in life.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Brandon Donnery
Youth Director
