In a busy Washington, D.C.
Metro Station a security guard observed a man asking for directions. “Can you tell me the way to the Washington Monument?”
he asked. The passerby eagerly gave the tourist detailed directions with
great clarity and precision, and then departed. The security guard was
surprised as the out-of-towner approached him and asked the same question. The
guard said, “I couldn't help hearing that man
already give you excellent directions.” Without blinking an
eye the tourist replied, “I always get a second
opinion.”
Such
is our human condition these days. We have been trained to have at least a
healthy sense of skepticism. We never know when someone is trying to take advantage of us,
sometimes even when we know our sources well. It is, therefore, a very
confusing and very unsure world in which we live. We yearn for clarity. We hope
for black-and-white answers. The rise of fundamentalism is no accident.
The same was certainly true
for the people who lived during the time of Jesus in our Gospel reading today.
Palestine was a Roman Province occupied mainly by the Jews, but they were
anything but a monolithic culture. They had the Sadducees, who were a small group of
aristocratic priests and Levites. They controlled the Temple, the politics, and
the culture. They were the great compromisers who wanted to remain faithful to
the Jewish traditions, but also enjoy the richness of the prevailing Greek
culture. They watered down the meaning of the Scriptures, lest anyone get any
radical ideas and try to rebel against Rome. Their faith centered on the
liturgy of the Temple, where the blood of the sacrifices and the religious rituals would keep
them right with God, though their behavior was always suspect. Some compare them to the Roman Catholics and
Episcopalians in our culture.
Then there was the largest
organized group called the Pharisees; those that knew the Scriptures
backward and forward and were rigorous at keeping the religious commandments.
They were the Protestants of their day. They had a Scriptural answer for
everything and were quick to condemn any who did not agree with them. Today, we
would call them Baptists, Church of Christ, Evangelicals, and fundamentalists.
There were also the Essenes.
They were priests and followers of priests who had been kicked out of the
Temple. They had strange and monastic views of sex, pushing for a life of total
abstinence, and they were into studying the prophetic literature of the last times. They were
caught up in the coming of the Messiah, and had complete libraries about who and when the messiah would come. In
our society some of the more radical fundamentalists, charismatics, and weird
religious cults fit within this description.
But
the majority of the folks of that Jewish world--known as the People of the Land--were pretty much religious
agnostics. With all of those confusing religious ideas swirling around them,
along with lots of pagan idolatry, these skeptics had learned to ask for a
second opinion.
It was
onto this scene that we find the Jesus in our Gospel reading this morning.
Jesus is eating his last meal with his disciples. Not only that, Jesus knows
that this is to be his final meal--period. The world is utterly chaotic and seemingly
falling apart. Most of the confusing and conflicting religious institutions are
temporarily united against him and seeking his destruction. He has already
pointed out his betrayer--Judas--and sent him out to do his work. Jesus has
also predicted Peter's denial, pointing out that even the strongest amongst
them would soon abandon him. Jesus has also told his gathered disciples about
his impending death, as well as how it was all about to end. In just a few moments
the world would say that he was a fraud--or a least a failed messiah! Yet, in
the midst of these circumstances, Jesus begins to give his disciples
directions. These were special directions; directions that offer clarity and
comfort to those who would soon be lost. “I go to
prepare a place for you.” he said, as well as those now infamous
words, “I am the way!” These are
astonishing words, but they are also among the last words that Jesus spoke. The disciples coming out of
the many religious groups of that day began to ask for further clarification
for this radically new second opinion. Instead of giving them more religious
dogma, or a lesson or two in proper liturgy, or even conjecturing about his
second coming, Jesus simply spoke of going on ahead of them, moving on to
prepare a "place" for them, a word some would translate as
"mansions." To use the word "mansions," however, is
confusing, for the words of Jesus were meant to be a clarification for those
seeking a second opinion. The word Jesus used was one that applied to traveling
caravans. At nightfall, when a caravan reached an oasis, the people did not
have to set up their tents nor make their meals. When the people in the caravan
arrived at the oasis, all they had to do was rest. Someone had already gone on
ahead of them to prepare a place for them at the oasis. The work was already
done for them. What Jesus was saying in the midst of the world that was crashing in on
him was that he realized that their worlds would soon be caving in on them as
well. Jesus was giving them comfort, giving them a new way to understand his
departure. He was merely going ahead of them to prepare a place for them where
they could rest in the oasis of the Father's love.
This
place where Jesus went was his Resurrection. It was this reality which eclipsed
the fancy rituals and sacrifices of the Sadducees, whose emphasis would lead
them to compromise away their very existence; or the rigid and judgmental
fundamentalism of the Pharisees, which left them void of compassion and love;
as well as the constant search for some mysterious messiah of the Essenes,
which kept them occupied in some sort of never-never land. And what of the People of
the Land whose cynicism continually required a second opinion? The Resurrection
of Christ gave them a bold new faith. While it did not give them all of the
answers--as promised by the Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Essenes--it gave them
a new way to be in a hopeless world.
The
Most Reverend George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, shared this story in an
article entitled I Believe. “A friend of mine
met up with a keen Christian woman whose life was a mess. Her marriage was on
the rocks, she had had a breakdown, her social life was in ruins and yet when
she came to ask for his help she was wearing a sweatshirt which had the slogan
on it, ‘Christ is the answer.’ He took one look at it and said
to her, ‘Jean, I think you should scrap the idea that Christ is the answer.’
He never said that. He said, ‘I am the way.’ I think that with him, you must seek the answer to your
problem.”
But
not only is Jesus the Way, through his Resurrection we are granted continual
access into his Presence. Dr. Irwin Moon of the Moody Institute of Science was
talking to a very famous scientist who said to him, “Dr.
Moon, I don't understand how you as an intelligent scientist can say you
believe in heaven. According to the Bible, the first man to die was Abel when
Cain killed him. If Abel had traveled at the speed of light for six thousand
years he wouldn't have reached the edge of the universe, which we can see with
our telescopes. He’d have thousands of years to go before he could get to
heaven.”
Dr.
Moon replied, “Am I not correct?” Are you not the
scientist who has put forward the notion that matter is
really porous and that it's possible to have a solid wall which really is
mostly space?” The scientist said, “Of course that's true.
I believe that.” Then Dr. Moon said, “Would
it not be possible to have two different worlds occupying the same space
provided they were synchronized so they were on different frequencies?” After
a moment, the scientist said, “Of course it would.
You could have thousands of worlds.” Then Dr. Moon said, “Sir, to go to heaven, I may not have to move an inch. All I'll
have to do is change frequencies.”
This
indeed is the truth of Christian existence. The Resurrection of Jesus was such
a change in frequencies! Through him God is always immediately present. Now
prayer is simply changing our frequency so that we can be at a different place without moving an inch.
As it
was true in the time of Jesus, which was filled with so many conflicting
theological beliefs and religious approaches to life, which simply left so many
living in a state of cynicism, along with the despair of surviving in a
decaying world, so the same is true for us today. In the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ went ahead to prepare a place for them, but not just a place for them, but a place for the rest of us, a place not just in eternity, but a place within our hearts. He gave
us not simply another set of
Sadducean rituals, or a bunch of Pharisaic rigid beliefs and religious laws,
nor a tantalizing preoccupation with another return of the messiah. No, as
Jesus did then, he does today! He cuts through our institutional silliness.
Through his death he has gone to on prepare us a place. Through his resurrection he
has brought a piece of this place back
to the very core of our beings. No other religion does that! No other faith
proclaims that! It can only be found in Christ Jesus! Through his direct
presence to us through the Holy Spirit, I dare say there is no further need for
a second opinion, though we are certainly free to ask for one!