No Blunt Instruments
John 14:5-7 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father too. But now you know the Father. You have seen him.”
“Truth” is an interesting concept. We understand it to be objective – something’s either true or it isn’t. But it can be offensive, hurtful, to the point where we don’t want to receive it.
I used to be undeniably morbidly obese – hugely overweight, prediabetic. This wasn’t going to end well. So what did I do? I avoided looking in the mirror. I stayed out of photographs.
There’s a big difference between knowing the truth and accepting it; between giving intellectual assent to it and allowing it to change our lives. That’s why truth as a blunt instrument rarely works. You can’t beat someone over the head with the truth and expect them to change. And that’s why God chose to make the Truth … personal.
John 14:5-7 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father too. But now you know the Father. You have seen him.”
Jesus didn’t say, “That’s the way, over there.” He said, “I am the way.” He didn’t say, “This is the truth” and then rattle off a series of platitudes into the complex and oppressed lives that people were leading. He said, “I am the truth.”
And if God made the truth so intensely relational, maybe just maybe, that’s not such a bad approach for us as we share His truth, the Good News of Jesus, with others.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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