Sermon Audio

Christians are elitists. They claim that only those who believe in Jesus Christ and trust in Him for salvation will get to heaven. A God who is loving wouldn’t deny entry into heaven for anyone, especially if they were good people. Furthermore, we are all generally good people.

Now, I don’t mean to espouse this ideal and philosophy, especially on this day after the predicted rapture (which doctrine, by the way, is not supported by Scripture). However, these statements are indicative of the religion of man; symptoms of the disease which has plagued mankind since Eve first took a bite of fruit from the forbidden tree.

You see, we live in a world that wants to believe anything and everything; that is to say, a world that wants to accept everybody’s opinion as that person’s own truth (little t); however, anything or anyone who teaches against this is denounced as intolerant and elitist. We live in a world that values situational ethics and relativism over absolutes. We live in a world that wants to shift blame and not accept responsibility. We live in a world that seemingly does not know the way.

When I spent a summer at the University of South Florida in Tampa, I took a class on world religions. The instructor professed to be wiccan; though it seemed as if she tried to hide her bias against Christianity, every once in a while she let it slip through that she was an adherent to this philosophy—that good people will enjoy an afterlife in paradise, regardless of faith or philosophy.

Near the end of the semester, we had an assignment for which we had to interview someone from a religion that was not our own. I set up an appointment to interview a Jewish Rabbi. He outright denied that a Messiah was coming—which he qualified by saying that there was to be no person who would be a Messiah. However, he did confess that there would be a coming messianic age, that they were to initiate it somehow, and in this messianic age, all people, regardless of confession or religion or faith would be saved. To him and his congregation, being Jewish was not so much about being right, being on the right side when judgment came, or worshiping the right god, but about being the ones through whom (and it sounded like by whom) this messianic age was to start.

And, lest we think that this is an illness that only affects those outside of Christendom, Christians, or those who claim to be, are not immune. I once read a quote by a pastor of a Church of the Brethren congregation, an anticreedal group from among the Anabaptist movement, in which he confesses adherence to relative truth. He said,

I believe that praying or worshiping with persons of other faiths implies that one recognizes that the Creator works in and through a variety of religious institutions and manifestations. Since I believe that no religion, including my Christian branch of the faith tree, contains all the truth, I am happy to participate in interfaith services. Isn’t it presumptuous to imagine that the Holy One has revealed all wisdom to only one group?

This idea is so common, we often hear of it referred to as “all roads lead to God.” It also goes by the fancy theological term syncretism, a term we may recognize as having been tossed about in 2001 with regard to a prayer service at Yankee Stadium.

Hearing this, thinking of syncretism, I recall an image used to combat syncretism from a Bible study during my vicarage. Imagine a ship filled with passengers crossing the Atlantic. The ship suffers an accident and is slowly sinking. Some of the passengers do not know about the lifeboats; these passengers are lost, and their deaths cannot be laid at the feet of the lifeboat manufacturer. Some of the passengers believe they can be saved by clinging to the smoke stacks or other items on the ship; however, these items do not float, so these passengers are lost as well, and their deaths cannot be laid at the feet of the lifeboat manufacturer. Still other passengers believe the lifeboats can save them; they use the lifeboats and are saved, not because they believed really hard that the boats can float, but because the boats float as they were designed.

That’s how the world is. There are some who do not know the Savior, Jesus Christ. Should they remain that way, they are lost. Some believe their savior is Allah or Krishna or some other false god. They, too, are lost, should they continue to follow the doctrines of these false religions. Others know and believe in Jesus Christ, and they are saved. They are saved, not because they believed really hard in Jesus Christ, but because Jesus saves, as He was sent to do.

And that’s the truth! Jesus saves. Only Jesus saves. He said it himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” There is no other way to be saved. Ignorance is not bliss, even if it is not the person’s fault. Allah does not save, nor does Krishna, these are false religions set up by the Great Deceiver, our enemy, Satan. So, to answer the Church of the Brethren pastor, “Isn’t it presumptuous to imagine that the Holy One has revealed all wisdom to only one group?” No, we don’t presume anything when we as Christians make that claim; we are simply repeating what the Holy One Himself said: that He is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life. It is His claim, not ours; why argue with the Creator and Savior of the world?

Still, the Truth is so readily ignored. When it comes to “everyday” life, that is, life outside of any religion, truth is readily accepted. In fact, truth is expected, even demanded. When filling our cars with fuel, we demand that when the meter reads one gallon, then we have filled our tanks with one gallon of fuel, not three quarts. When we’re in school learning math, we demand a teacher who believes 2 + 2 is 4, not maybe 5, 10, or 2000. When we go to the super market and ask for a pound of meat, we demand that when the scale reads one pound, there is actually one pound of meat on it, not 14 ounces. But when it comes to religious life, truth is rejected. There exists an attitude of “whatever works for you” when it comes to faith, spirituality, and salvation; an idea that each person’s truth is as valid as the next person’s—the denial of absolute truth is almost always done under the guise of tolerance, the ultimate truth in this philosophy. This turns the focus of a person’s faith or spirituality onto themselves and inevitably leads to works righteousness and the idea that a generally good person will live in Heaven.

What happens is that the person starts believing that he or she knows the way or otherwise has it. It’s like the classic story of a husband and wife on a trip with the husband refusing to ask directions because “he KNOWS the way.” When it comes to religion, spirituality, faith, or whatever they may call it, may people think they KNOW the way, too. They believe that they don’t need any help, that they will attain salvation on their own. This way leads to death however, just as clinging to the smokestacks on a sinking ship will.

Still, God wants all to be saved; St. Paul tells us as much in his first letter to St. Timothy: “God our Savior...desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) What is truth? That’s the question Pilate asked of Jesus. (cf. John 18:38) It is what we have been taught by every faithful preacher and teacher for as long as we have been kept in safety of the Holy Ark of Christendom: that God sent His Son to save sinners—that whoever believes in Him and trusts in Him for the forgiveness of sins will have eternal life. Or, as the Son stated, He is the Way...the only Way. While this may seem exclusive, it is not difficult. While it may seem elitist, it is far from it.

Yes, the true way to salvation is exclusive, insofar as there is only one. St. Peter confesses, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) The world complains that there is only one Way, and perhaps we too often use it as a hammer against the myriad ways that the sinful world comes up with. However, the fact that Jesus is the Way is good news, and the good news is this: There is a way to the Father, and He is it!

The way of the world, the way of works, is no way at all. It is the way to death. The good news is that Jesus is the Way, and His was the work. He has accomplished every single last bit of it, just as He said near His death on the cross: “It is finished!” (cf. John 19:30) Jesus Christ is the Way, and His way was to death, too: His death for you in your place on the cross. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Upon the cross, Christ shed his blood to cleanse the world of its sins; He won the merits of salvation there for everyone.

But it didn’t end there; His way was to resurrection, too. His death and our faith would be in vain had He not risen on the third day. From His resurrection, He had another important and joyful task to see to. He mentioned it in the first part of today’s Gospel lesson: He is going and preparing a place for His disciples in His Father’s house, that where He is, we too may be. We also see in this statement that it is not any of our work: Jesus is going to prepare the place, He is coming back to take us with Him, that where He is we may be. When? Well, no one knows—not the angels, nor the Son—only the Father knows, Jesus said elsewhere. (Mark 13:32)

The last thing Jesus says in this “I am” is that He is the Life. He is eternal life. This is the life He won for us by His death on the cross and in His resurrection from the grave. This is the life that is given to us in our Baptisms. Salvation is for all, because God wants all to be saved, and it was given to each of us individually in Baptism.

Still, it’s disturbing; a majority of people believe that a person who is generally good will earn a place in Heaven—they deny that Jesus is the Way. The Way is not elitist or exclusive; the merits won by Christ were won for all, and they are offered freely to all. It’s disturbing; a majority of people hold to the idea that every truth, no matter if they conflict, is valid—they deny that Jesus is the Truth. The Truth is for all people; God wants all people to come to a knowledge of the truth. It’s disturbing; a majority of people these days will die apart from knowledge of the Truth, denying that Jesus is the Way—they deny that Jesus is the Life. Death is not natural, but is the wages of sin; Jesus has come that all may have life, and have it to the fullest. (cf. John 10:10)

And, in order that we may have that fullest life, He has taken our sin into His own flesh and received the payment for it; then, to seal us into that life, He rose again from the dead. That is what we have been Baptized into, as St. Paul declared:

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:3-10)

Dear Baptized, that’s you! You have been Baptized into the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Therefore, being dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, you come here where you hear Jesus proclaims to you once again and all the time that He is the Way, that He is the Truth, that He is the Life. He does this out of His inestimable grace and mercy. He comes here, yes He is here among us to give these to you all—to set you straight in Him, the Way; to erase all doubt and error through Him, the Truth, to rescue you from death and the devil by Him, the Life. That is to say, He is come—He is here—and has forgiven you for all of your sins.