Famous last words (part 1)

As we enter the month of April, the time draws closer to Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and ultimately Easter (or Resurrection) Sunday.  The chaos of these days will not steal my focus from these monumental events.  While I do want to return to the content that still remains unfinished regarding the examination of Genesis 3:15, I felt led to submit a few blogs under the banner of famous last words.  Jesus Christ said some very noteworthy statements in the final hours leading up to His eventual crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven.  For today, I want to look at some verses in John 14.  Jesus, speaking to His disciples, said these words:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place I am going.”  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 the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:1-6; New International Version)

I wonder if you’ve ever had this experience: you are in conversation with someone, and they casually mention a fact with the assumption that you already knew it.  So you blurt out, “Hold on.  I didn’t know that.”  This happened to me.  A few months ago, before all of this covid-19 madness, I learned that we had changed a procedure at my job.  We had done it the previous way for many years, but not anymore, and somehow the information didn’t get to me.  It was a fresh reminder that ignorance is not bliss.

Sometime last week, to make conversation, a coworker asked me if I was religious.  I answered that I didn’t really like the word “religious” because it implied a list of do’s and don’ts.  I went on to say that I prefer to think in terms of whether or not a person has a relationship with God.  Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 is liberating.  He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Do you want a relationship with God?  Jesus is the way to do so.

You might be saying, “I always thought it was rules.  I thought you had to check off all of the boxes. Jump through all of the hoops.  And then maybe you could come to God.”  That’s why I shared what I did earlier: ignorance is definitely not bliss.  Jesus said that He is the way; no one comes to God except through Him.  1 Timothy 2 says that there is one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus; the passage goes on to declare that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all men.”  

In conclusion, I don’t know where it originated, but someone once gave this acrostic for the word faith: Forsaking All I Trust In Him.  My prayer is that if anyone reads this that sees they need to forsake trying in vain to work to impress God, would instead trust in Jesus, the One who shed His blood for us all.

Kevin