For the past few weeks, a church sign I've driven past has caught my attention. Sometimes church signs do that because someone has thought up some clever saying; sometimes because they say things that have meaning inside church circles but are completely meaningless to someone not familiar with or not caring about church jargon. I suppose there are still boulders throughout the South proclaiming "Jesus Saves," to which some wag once responded before opening a bank account, "Well, if Jesus does it, maybe I should, too."
This particular sign reads thusly: "Jesus said, 'No one comes to God but by me.'" It's comes from John 14:6, except that's not what Jesus said. I'm frankly a bit surprised by this misquote, because I know many of the people in this church, and they are normally quite particular about how they quote Scripture and how they view their doctrine. What Jesus actually said was, "No one comes to the Father except through me." This may seem like a rather minute detail, the kind of things that arcane theologians discuss in musty halls of old seminaries, but in fact, this text strikes at the very heart of Jesus' entire ministry and mission. Miss this, and you miss what Jesus is all about.
In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul was speaking to the philosophers gathered at the Areopagus in Athens. He had strolled around the area noting all the altars and idols scattered about the city. He noted that one of the altars had an inscription to "an unknown god." They were covering all their bases, making sure they didn't overlook a god, accidentally offending him. Paul said he was going to tell them who this unknown god really is, and proceeded to tell them about Jesus Christ. It's interesting to me that on this occasion he didn't tell the Athenians that all their gods were false and empty. In one of his letters, Paul indicates that the false idols are demons in disguise, but not here. He instead takes what they already perceive and builds on it, revealing the true God they instinctively knew existed even while not knowing him.
Our world is full of people who know bits and pieces about God, much as the Athenians knew something, albeit only a very little, about the One true God. I talk with people on a regular basis who understand that God is Love, who hope God is merciful to answer their prayers and overlook their faults. They see beauty in Creation, the vastness of the heavens, and know there is Someone or Something bigger than themselves. They see injustice and evil in the world and hope for some sort of reckoning that will someday put things right. Many of them even come to God regularly in their prayers. My Jewish friends even worship the same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as do I. Yet they do not do so through Jesus.
Jesus came to reveal through his life, death, and resurrection as Heavenly Father the God who is known through Creation and human conscience (see Romans 1:19-21). Many people already know him as God, but the only way anyone can know him as a Father who loves, receives, and forgives those who place their trust in him is through Jesus Christ. People don't need Jesus to see God's power in the fury of a hurricane, or his beauty in a sunset. I can see God's power in the heavens, his beauty in Creation, but the full extent of his love and forgiveness only in Jesus Christ. For someone like myself who has struggled with guilt and melancholy for most of his adult life, this is Good News, indeed, and for it I am deeply grateful tonight.
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