Disclaimer: I’m going to the edge in this one, only using the “voice” that challenges Jesus. Here’s a suggestion. Listen as I read this on the Substack link (or follow along as I read it.) Sometimes the spoken word carries more meaning than only what is in print. Let me know what you think.

Dear Jesus, you said this was ok, so here it is. Ask anything in your name, and you’ll do it. Right? Cool. So here’s what I’m asking: explain this one. “No one can come to the Father except through me.” You really mean this? Or did you mean this like it sounds? ’Cause it hits cold, callous, rough, like you really don’t care who gets left out, shutting the door on folks who don’t fit the criteria. God is love, so the Bible says, but this doesn’t sound all that loving. Couldn’t you rephrase it and leave out words like “no one” or “except”? Why this barbed-wire language in the mix? That’s the kind of thing that makes people bounce, pushing people away. If you do that, I have to ask myself if I want to be counted in the polls as one of your team.

Now, I’ll give this much to you; you start smooth. “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me,” you say. I really need that right now. I need to know that somebody’s steering this thing, that you’ve got this, even if the road ahead is all fog. You even promise you’ve got a place for me to stay that you are getting ready, like a heavenly Airbnb. Making my reservation now! That’s the god I need. Make my life secure and safe and give me an eternity of good times from there. I can roll with that.

You even said in your Dad’s place there was lots of space, many rooms. That’d be great, too. And the way you call God “Abba,” like “Dad,” “Pops,” “My Old Man” — that’s intimate. That’s love-level closeness. It’s your special word for him, a tenderness, intimacy in love as well as a playfulness. When you’ve been with someone for a long time, the way you say their name or what you call them says a lot. You and your Father are not just close but fused. Like you say, “Just believe, I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” One knows the other like oneself. Or one is the other. Or something like that.

But back to the question. Now, don’t blame me for asking. It’s clear your own crew was confused too, not all on the same page as you either. Thomas was mystified by the way you said they should know where you were going and how to get there. Phillip also didn’t get it when you said they should know the Father and have seen him. These guys were your inner circle and still couldn’t track what you were saying. But this holiday Passover meal wasn’t going according to code for them. I can relate. You don’t play along with our expectations either. You want us to think and grapple with your words, until we spin around and see things differently.

Then you drop: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Funny, you don’t give a blueprint, a rulebook, a checklist. Just you. You start with “I am…” Are you saying then you want to get into us like you and your Father are one together? If that’s the “way”, it could mean a road or path to take, but also a practice, a period of learning, or maybe walking together on that path. So you’re saying the “way” isn’t a map? It’s a relationship? A walk? A whole lifestyle? Like we move with you, learn with you, walk the road step by step?

A path can take you someplace, but paths don’t teleport you. You’ve got to walk it. Who would do that except for the reason of going somewhere important, a destination that was intentional or would give meaning to the way? Some place that matters, has significance, some truth to reach for, a revelation of God that provides some purpose. Purpose based in this kind of truth gives life meaning, and life is worth living when there’s meaning in it. So starting with you, that is, believing or trusting you, brings us closer in knowing you and your Father, not as one added to the other, but as in knowing you is to know God. Wow. I need a moment here.

But please, what about everybody else? What about the “no ones”? Even if I choose you as way, truth, and life, don’t you care about those who haven’t? You’d think the one whose birth was in a barn because there was “no room in the inn” would make a place for everyone in your Father’s big house. What chance do they have otherwise if you insist on “except through me”?

You’ve known how this was from your own time here. “But despite all the miraculous signs he had done, most of the people did not believe in him.” (John 12:37) Nothing’s changed. Still, you keep putting the invite out. “Anyone who believes in me…” Believes you, trusts you, betting their life on you—that’s huge. “…will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

So is that the point? Not just “believe,” but do? Do the same, like following you into the hard stuff, the cross stuff, or helping others find the Father stuff? Is that what this is about, as much about those who do believe as those who don’t? Are you saying, “If you’re with me, then act like me”? Keep putting your message out there of forgiveness, mercy, grace, that is, the whole truth about what God wants and will do for anyone?

You promise anything asked for in your name, you’ll do. Because it’s not about us, but because it brings glory to the Father. Yeah, it’s all about you and your Father. It’s not a wishlist prayer; it’s a mission prayer. It’s a work, a message, a purpose blessed because it is asked in God’s will—thy will be done.

And God’s will?

That through your way, truth, and life everybody gets a shot at knowing God and stepping into those rooms you prepared for them.

So bottom line? In other words, you want “no one” left out.

You weren’t trying to shut people out.

You were trying to make sure no one gets left behind.

John 14:1-14 

Named 2024 Notable Book Award by Southern Christian Writers Conference!

The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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