In Spirit and in Truth
By
Stephen Terry
Sabbath School Lesson Commentary for September 3 - 9, 2011
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6,
NIV
Almost everyone that has ever visited a
fast-food restaurant has discovered the disappointment that comes from
receiving a product that in no way measures up to the one in the advertisement
that brought you to the restaurant in the first place. In the advertisement,
you see a bun covered with sesame seeds. In the restaurant, you receive a bun
that obviously had every seed counted for portion cost control. In the
advertisement, you see several thick juicy slices of
ripe tomato. In the restaurant, you receive a single, anemic slice of tomato so
thin it is translucent. We could go on, but you get the idea.
From burgers to automobiles, from personal
care items to celebrity photos, everything is not as it seems. Everything seems
planned to turn us into a nation of skeptics and cynics. Marketing it seems is
very much the art of the lie. But perhaps this is human nature. After all don’t
we all look for the best photos of ourselves to share with others, and don’t we
prefer to talk about our successes rather than our failures with the result
that we create an unrealistic picture of who we are and what we have accomplished?
If you have doubts about that, you need only visit any internet singles website
and you will see old photos taken when people felt they were at their most
attractive. You can also see background
resumes that make a plumber look like a civil engineer and a nurse look like a
neurosurgeon.
All of this has become so common that we
expect it in our daily interactions with others, whether for business or
pleasure. If we were to point out the discrepancies we are met with rolling
eyes and an attitude of “Which turnip truck did you just get off of?”
Is it the natural condition of man to
misrepresent and deceive? Isn’t that the definition of a lie? Is this how a
Christian should operate? Lying has become so common that maybe we don’t even
remember where the lies all began. Jesus told us where it all started. He
pinned it straight on the Devil. He said, “When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44, NIV
Did you catch that? He is the father of
lies. They all came from him. He is an expert at marketing a false image. You
can be sure that in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, that when he
offered him all the cities of the world, he showed Jesus only the best parts.
He certainly would not want to show him the slums and degradation of people
caught in hopeless misery. That would not serve his purpose. However, Jesus was
not deceived. He knew what to expect from Satan. He knew that Satan was happy
to offer a plump, juicy looking hamburger but in the end would leave his victim
holding a soggy bun containing a skinny burger under a wilted piece of
lettuce. That is what we have come to
expect from a world run by the Devil.
But that is why Jesus came. He stepped
into the pile of lies and disappointments we call life to show us that it does
not have to be that way. Audaciously, he not only refused to accept the lies of
this world, but he offered something novel. He offered us truth. He told us
that He came to give us abundance in our lives. (See John 10:10) When we are
tempted by the false promises of this world and are left holding only ashes, He
promises us beauty for our ashes. (See Isaiah 61:3)
The Devil’s marketing has trained us to be
cynical about these promises. Often we reply, “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all
before.” And we go our way, with our skepticism not allowing us to believe that
such a thing could be possible. We want proof of every claim lest we be
suckered yet again. We overlook that the very fact that so many lies exist is
proof that there is also truth. Counterfeiting a counterfeit makes no sense.
Deceit is only effective if it mimics the truth. This is where we find the
abundance that Jesus was talking about.
If we avoid everything that might be good
because we have learned to trust no one and nothing, we will live a miserable
life without joy and abundance. But if we tell ourselves that all those poor
burgers out there are only mimicking a good burger that really exists
somewhere, and we go looking for that burger, we will have more abundance in
our lives when we find it, at least as far as burgers are concerned.
But that abundance is not simply limited
to burgers. It is a world view that can be applied to every aspect of life. You
see, Jesus did not come simply to offer better burgers. He offered a new life.
This is where we encounter the audacity of His offer. He not only offers us
truth in place of lies, but He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
John 14:6, NIV
He does not say that He is a truth. He says that He is the truth. We have learned in life that
there are many, many lies. We encounter them everywhere. But Jesus says that
the truth is not plural but singular. In a world of lies, relativism makes
sense. We can speak of something being relatively true. For example we can say
that one burger is more relatively like the burger in the marketing
advertisement than another, but that is the same as saying it is relatively not like it. Relatively or not, a relative lie is still a lie. Ergo a relative truth is also a lie. But Jesus’ statement is not relative. It is absolute.
You cannot say that maybe His statement is
true, because to even admit the possibility is to challenge our world view. We
must follow up on that possibility. If I was told there was a possibility I had
inherited a million dollars, all others would consider me a fool if I had no
interest in following up and finding out if the possibility were true. What Jesus
is offering is worth far more.
When faced with an absolute, we cannot
relativize it. It either is or it isn’t. In Jesus’ day the religious leaders
decided that He was not the truth. Today, we look back and ask how they could
be so closed to that possibility. Yet, today many others are making the same
decision. The Bible says “The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who
cherishes understanding will soon prosper.” Proverbs 19:8, NIV
The wise person will search out the truth
and will prosper in finding it. No wonder Jesus could confidently offer
abundance to those who seek Him out. A person can eat hundreds of false
hamburgers, and none may stand out in his memory, but the taste of even one
true burger will be remembered for decades, and we will compare all other
burgers we encounter to that one. That is what makes the search for what is
true so rewarding. That is why what we decide regarding Jesus’ claim to be the
truth is so important. It will make a lasting, eternal difference. No matter
what we encounter after Jesus, no matter what claims to be the truth, we will
find that nothing else measures up.
If you are tired of all the lies, all the
falsehoods, maybe you are ready to try Jesus. He has been waiting for each of
us to do just that. You only need to tell Him that you want the Truth, you want Him and the abundant life He offers. Tell
Him that you are tired of the lies and you want to walk in the truth and ask
Him to make that happen. He will you know. Try Him and see.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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