The Scandal of Particularity

John 14:1-7

 1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 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. 3 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”  5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  NIV

     Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. AMEN. Scandals it seems are hot stuff these days. TV after TV show are attempting to cash in on scandalous activity and it’s not just soap operas any more – but prime time shows. And it isn’t just the sensational tabloids that are selling papers with scandalous articles, but also mainstream newspapers and magazines. And radio hasn’t escaped either. It seems that no matter which direction we wish to look we are confronted with various scandals. But there is one scandal that I am reasonably certain that you haven’t heard about in the main stream press – and that scandal is the one that I want to talk about in my message for today – It is the scandal of particularity. But before we talk about this scandal I need to explain a few things. The first is the uncomfortable fact that we are now living in what the scholars call a postmodern world. The postmodern world view is characterized by a denial of values such as truth, justice, reality and morality. It involves a rejection of the “discipline” of knowledge and rationality, of society and authority. It celebrates relativism or the idea that truth varies from time to time for different groups or individuals. A baseball joke makes clear the progression from the biblical view of objective truth to a postmodern view of truth. The joke goes like this:

The old time umpire used to said: “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I calls ‘em as they is.” The postmodern umpire would state: “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and they ain’t nothin’ till I calls ‘em.” 1

Or, to put it another way, postmodernist believe that no truth exists unless we create it. Canada has gone a long way down the post-modern road. One of the ways we can see this in the fact that “tolerance” is supposed to be such a great Canadian virtue. Tolerance is a primary virtue for a postmodern person. Tolerance for all is their creed – well at least for all who share their postmodern view of the world. The reality is that postmodernist tend to be extremely intolerant of those who believe there are such things as absolute truth, divine and earthly justice, objective reality, and morality. And therein lies the scandal. Christianity you see, stands for all these things. It supports and teaches the opposite of what the postmodernist support and teach. Nowhere is this more true than in the scandal of particularity. So this morning I would like to take a few minutes to talk about this peculiarly Christian scandal.

Let us turn to our text John 14:1-7. To begin with, we find in our text for today the wonderful promise of our Lord that those who trust in Him don’t need to worry, not even about death, for they are safe in His hands:

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 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. 3 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.

Now this is a beautiful picture painted by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is a promise that has given great comfort to millions and millions of people over the millennium. In and of itself this portion of our text isn’t very offensive to the postmodernist. But then, then our Lord goes on to say:

 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Stop for a minute and think about what our Lord is saying here: If you want to get into heaven I AM THE WAY. He doesn’t say I am one of many ways – He says I AM THE WAY. And He doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say: I AM THE TRUTH. He doesn’t say I have a portion of the Truth – He says I AM THE TRUTH. Then He states clearly I AM THE LIFE. He says in effect that if you want to go to heaven – you need me. It is important to remember that these are the words of our Lord Himself. This is what Jesus Himself tells us. And it isn’t found just in this place. This teaching is found all over the New Testament. For instance St. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, states this fact very clearly in Acts 4:12 when he says:

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (NASB)

To one who believes that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that there are many ways to get to heaven and that tolerance of others (even of those who are clearly wrong) is some sort of great virtue these words are a scandal, they are horrible. But they are the words of our Lord and they are the truth, as scandalous as they may be to those holding to postmodern beliefs. The sad reality is that these false beliefs are so pervasive that they have even invaded Christ’s Church – perhaps you have even fallen for one of these false beliefs, these myths. This morning I’d like to mention just two of them:

1.  MYTH: It Doesn’t Matter What You Believe, All Religions Are Basically the Same
• St. Peter describes the exclusiveness of Christianity by claiming that “there is no other name” that can save us (Acts 4:12). That line doesn’t play well in our Canadian society where tolerance of others is often seen as our chief virtue. As a matter of fact. In our Canadian context it is sometimes even interpreted as racist, or hateful to suggest that salvation is found in Christ alone. Apparently, most Canadians would like to think that salvation might be found in Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed or simply by belief in some god, goddess or gods. As popular and tolerant as this belief is – Jesus states that it is dead wrong. Jesus says, I am the WAY. As offensive, as exclusive as this statement is. It is the truth and there is an extremely important point to be made here: Namely, the fact that the Christian Church did not invent the claim of Jesus being the only way. This is not our claim; it is His. To dispute this claim is to call Jesus Himself a liar. As a Church we are merely relating His claim, and the claim of the writers of the New Testament. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6, NASB) and, “For unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24, NASB). The apostle Peter echoed these words as we have heard, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, KJV). St. Paul agrees, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…  . ” (I Timothy 2:5, KJV). It is the united testimony of the New Testament that no one can know God the Father except through the person of God the Son, Jesus Christ. To deny this is to deny what the Bible clearly teaches.
• But the false belief that there are many paths that lead to heaven persists among those who reject Scripture. And sadly, this false belief, this myth leads many people to feel that a serious commitment to any religious system is pointless, since they assume that all religions are basically the same. Most of us would never apply such simplistic and flawed reasoning to any other realm of life. Imagine a student saying, “It doesn’t matter what answer I give on my algebra, French, history, or geography test. All the answers are the same in the end, after all.” But they apply this flawed logic to the most important area of all – their faith. “It doesn’t matter what the Buddhists, the Moslems, the Mormons or the Christians teach about salvation. They are all the same in the end, after all.” Of course it matters. Just try and give the answer to a history question on your algebra test and see what happens! Just try and share the way of salvation taught in the Bible with a Buddhist, a Muslim, or a Mormon and see what happens! The answers differ. They can’t all be right. So if both scripture and logic declare this concept to faulty, why do people buy into this falsehood? Probably the main reason people adopt the all-religions-are-the-same line of thinking is that it helps them avoid a decision. If all religions are the same, they don’t have to choose one. They can pick and choose what suits them. Or, they can avoid religion, and any serious contemplation of the claims of Christ altogether. How convenient this is for those who seek to avoid the truth!2

1. MYTH: What really matters in religion is that you are sincere in your faith!
• Have you ever been or perhaps heard of someone who was sincerely wrong? Here is one example: Each year hundreds of people die accidentally because someone sincerely thought that the firearm they were handling was unloaded. But it wasn’t and someone died. Does the sincere belief of the person handling the firearm that it was unloaded make it unloaded? Of course not. Here is another example, let’s say that I sincerely believe that I can fly. I can demonstrate the sincerity of my belief by climbing to the top of our bell tower and jumping off – does that sincere belief give me the ability to fly? Of course not. I’d sincerely kill myself. Sincerity of faith, you see, isn’t the main issue. The main issue is what you have faith in. You need to have faith in the truth.
• Probably the main reason people accept this myth of sincerity of faith as being what is important, is because they think have been lead to think that faith by itself is what really matters. One can believe in anything, they reason, as long as one believes in something. I challenge you to find a single passage in Scripture that says you can believe in whatever you want and still get to heaven! There is no such passage. What we do have is many people who misunderstand what the bible teaches about faith. Faith, you see, is only as good as what is believed in. Like a rope, it matters enormously what one attaches it to. In my climbing days we were urged to attach the rope to the solid rock – since anything else might fail. One can believe in anything—but not just anything will deliver what is promised. Only those things that are true will deliver what is promised.3 We need to anchor ourselves to Christ, our solid rock! He who is the truth!

So where does this leave us? It leaves us with a scandal – the scandal of particularity. And this scandal has some serious implications for the Church of Christ. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus gives us some instructions concerning what we are to do with this scandalous news. He tells us: 

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in* the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Here in the Great Commission our Lord lays out for us a task - the task of sharing this scandalous news with the world with the expressed purpose that they may come to faith in Jesus Christ. As pastors you will be particularly called to preach this scandalous message so that people everywhere may have faith in Jesus, who is alone the Way the Truth and the Life. Jesus wants us to share this news so that all may enjoy with us the beauty and glory of heaven for all eternity. That is the good news of the gospel – the news that God the Son, Jesus Christ came, suffered died and rose again so that all those who believe in Him might go to their true home, their heavenly home. The scandal of particularity is the best news that a sin-filled suffering world has ever heard. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life! May we all believe in Him. AMEN.

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1 For more information see Dawn, Marva, J. Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, Eerdmans: 1995 pages 33ff.

2 This material was taken in large part from: Thomas Nelson, Inc., Word in Life study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1996.

3 This material was taken in large part from: Thomas Nelson, Inc., Word in Life study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1996.