+ 5th Sunday of Easter – May 3rd, 2026 +
Series A: Acts 6:1-9, 7:2, 51-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When Jesus says, “I AM the Bread of Life,” your nose remembers the smell of a fresh-baked sourdough and you can imagine Jesus’ words.
When Jesus says, “I AM the Vine.” Your tastebuds recall the rich, full-bodied, well-aged wine and you can picture what Jesus is saying.
But what about when Jesus says, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? How do you imagine that?
One way to understand Jesus as the Way is by walking along the pathway of a good story.
In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Silver Chair, a little girl named Jill Pole finds herself in the magical, imaginative world of Narnia. Early on in this story, she finds herself lost in the lonely, quiet woods of Narnia. Eustace her friend had fallen over a dreadfully tall cliff, and she was all by herself. Afraid. Bewildered. And terribly thirsty from crying. She soon discovers a stream. But there’s a problem. A lion (the great lion, Aslan) stands between her and the water.
“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.
“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.
“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”
“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
For Jill (and everyone else in these stories), Aslan is the way. And the only way to life is through the Lion.
So it is for us, only not in a fairy tale, not a fantasy, but in truth and life and reality: Jesus, the Lion of Judah, is the Way. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Door, is also the Way. Truth. Life.
There is no other stream. No other road. No detours. No HOV, toll roads, or express lanes.
When it comes to Truth and Life, there is only one way. By the time Jesus says this in Holy Week, he has already told his disciples time and again exactly what his way is and where his way is headed and what it means that he is the Way.
His road and journey leads straight ahead to Jerusalem. To the place of the skull. To the cross. To his bloody death, to his becoming sin on a cursed tree. This is the way of Jesus. The way of his disciples.
And yet, Thomas and the disciples don’t understand this yet. They will, but not until his cross and resurrection shed light on the path. Jesus’ disciples think it’s a one way trip into Jerusalem. Jesus will be killed and that’s it. End of the road. Dead end. “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
This is the way it is for sinners apart from Jesus. Thomas and the disciples aren’t alone. We’re right there with them. Confused. Bewildered. Scratching our heads. Lost and wandering in our own thoughts. Apart from Jesus and his dying and rising, the way, the path, the road to God is not only closed, it’s impossible to find.
Apart from Jesus, our Old Adam is a drunkard wobbling down the hallway, staggering from one wall to the other. Separated. Lost. Estranged. Cut off. And the worst thing to do when you’re lost is to try and find your own way out. But that’s exactly what we love to do.
Our Old Adam thinks himself a master architect, an award winning engineer, always building new roads to God, creating endless detours around God’s ways, laying tracks in every wrong direction.
We build our own towers of babel. We stoke the forges hot for our golden calves. We’re constantly turning back to Sodom and Gomorrah.
If we’re to be rescued, God must accomplish it.
If we’re to be set free from slavery, God’s truth must ring forth in our ears.
If we’re to be delivered from death, God must give life.
And he does. He promises.
For we who are lost, Jesus goes the way of the cross.
For we who are lost in lies, Jesus is the Truth enfleshed. His word of truth sets you free.
For we who are lost in death, Jesus lays down his life raise you out of dust and ashes.
There is no other stream. No other way. For no other way saves. In Jesus the Way, in his dying and rising, here is Truth and Life.
Jesus goes the way of the cross for you. Jesus goes to Jerusalem, not on a dead end, road to nowhere, but a round trip, up on the cross, down into the grave, and out alive again. Do not be afraid. Let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus carries you along his way.
When we find ourselves sitting with Thomas and the disciples in fear, uncertainty, and confusion, Jesus leads you this way. Jesus carries us along the way, as he makes the way for us upon the tree, into the earth, and out of the grave again.
When we find ourselves standing alone in the woods with Jill Pole, lost, alone in our sin, and dying of thirst, Jesus the Lion of Judah stands between us and the water and says. “There is no other stream.”
Come on in, the water is fine. Drink deeply. Draw from the well of salvation. Swim in the rivers of redemption.
Jesus knows you’re dying of thirst, so he quenches it with the cup of his own blood. He knows your starving for salvation, so he feeds you his own body in the bread.
I AM the Way, and I have found you; you are mine. I AM the Truth, and I set you free. I AM the Life, and I have conquered the dragon and the grave for you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
