Imagine, if you will, that you are standing on a street corner in a certain town. A bus with a full load of passengers pulls to a stop beside you. The driver gets out and asks, “Say, can you tell me how to get to Dallas from here?”
“Yes, of course,” you reply. “Just keep going north to the edge of town. When you get there, you’ll see Interstate 20. Turn right onto the interstate and keep going until you reach Dallas. It’s about 300 miles.”
The bus driver looks confused. He’s rubbing his chin. “You know, I kinda’ had the impression I was going to turn left. Are you sure I should turn right?”
“I am sure!” you state emphatically. “You must turn right. If you turn left, you’ll go to El Paso.”
Now the bus driver is worried. “I’m pretty sure I can turn left and get there,” he says.
“Listen,” you tell him, “you have a whole busload of passengers there.” You point dramatically at his coach. “They’re trusting you to get them to Dallas. You MUST turn right!”
He scowls at you, shaking his head. “That’s pretty narrow-minded of you,” he says. “I think I can take any road I want to, and I will get to Dallas.”
“That’s ridiculous,” you say. “If you want to go to Dallas, turn RIGHT!”
Muttering to himself about biased, bigoted, bumbling rubes, the man climbs back into his bus and drives away.
You watch the disappearing vehicle in amazement. The man asked a simple question. You gave him the simple answer. What ticked him off?
The Way
That was a silly story, right? But it’s not much different than quoting John 14:6 to someone, then getting blasted with angry rhetoric.
Jesus said very simply and explicitly, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6) So, when we tell unbelievers Jesus is the way to the Father (and Heaven), we’re not being narrow-minded or arrogant or stupid. We’re being factual.
It would have been absurd and uncaring to tell the bus driver to turn left onto I-20. And it would be equally absurd and uncaring to tell a lost soul they can arrive in Heaven without Jesus’s intervention. He is the one and only way to Heaven.
A Scene Change
Now, imagine Jesus, hanging on a Cross, suspended between Heaven and Earth, between past and future. He has been mocked and beaten. He has been cruelly crowned with thorns. He is bleeding. And He has submitted Himself to this humiliation and agony for only one reason – in order to be the Way.
He is the Way for paupers and kings, for maids and mistresses, for men and women. Jesus is the Way – the only Way to Heaven. But only for those who choose to receive Him as the Way.
We all know we’re unworthy. We all know we don’t deserve this kind of sacrifice from anyone, much less from God Himself. And Jesus knew it too. Hanging on the Cross that day, bleeding and in excruciating pain, He understood that He was paying the price for every kind of despicable sinner.
Open Door
Unbelievers don’t much like the idea of Jesus on the Cross. It seems foolish to them that long, long ago a man died on a Cross, and that Man is their Way to Heaven. If He’s really God, couldn’t He have come up with a logical way to accomplish the salvation of humankind?
We’ve probably all heard multiple sermons explaining “Why.” The reasons for the Cross are valid and compelling. But for me, the bottom line is – He’s God. By definition, being “God” means He can offer salvation any way He chooses.
And the fact is this: the broken, bleeding figure on the Cross – silhouetted against the sky, silhouetted against history – is a Door. Jesus is the Door into the Father’s glorious Kingdom.
The veil of the Temple split from top to bottom. The stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And the way to God – both figuratively and literally – was open.
Because Jesus bled and died on a Cross, then rose on the third day, the door is open. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is an infinite event. It transcends universes of space and eternities of time to embrace every soul ever conceived.
The door is open. You can go in or stay out. The choice is yours.*
[*If you want in, please read my blog, “Highway to Heaven.”]
Photo credit: mcmurryjulie on Pixabay