John 14:5-6
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.Acts 4:10-12
Then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,
In the 1969 rock opera “Tommy”, by The Who, the title character sings the following words as he attempts to get people to follow him: “But you’ve been told many times before, Messiahs pointed to the door, And no one had the guts to leave the temple!” And therein lies the problem: all these false Messiahs simply pointed to a door. But the true Messiah, Jesus, said that in fact he is the door! See John 10:7, where Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.”
In answer to Thomas’ question, Jesus says simply and unmistakably that he is the way to the Father, the only way. How can guilty sinners even dare approach a holy God? We need a mediator, a perfect mediator. We need a priest, a perfect priest. And we need a sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice. Jesus is all of those. As the catechism reminds us, he offered himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and to reconcile us to God, and he continues to intercede for us (WSC 25). As Peter told the rulers and elders of the Jews, Jesus is the only way of salvation, the only name by which we must be saved. And as Paul reminded Timothy, there is only one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus.
Jesus didn’t simply point to the way; he didn’t just show us the way: he IS the way. Yes, Jesus does teach us the way (Luke 20:21); he guides us in the way (Luke 1:79); and he opens the way for us (Hebrews 10:20); “but all this is possible only because he is himself the way.” (William Hendriksen) Well and truly did the herald angels sing “God and sinners reconciled!”
The world tries to tell us there are many ways to God. That should not surprise us; Jesus told us that the road to destruction is broad, and many find it (Matthew 7:13). But the small and narrow gate is the one that leads to life, and that is Jesus himself. As we draw ever closer to the celebration of his birth, praise Jesus that he is the way, that he showed you the way, and that he will keep you in the way until the day when he takes you home to the place he is even now preparing for you (John 14:2-3).
Thou art the Way: to thee alone
from sin and death we flee;
and he who would the Father seek,
must seek him, Lord, by thee.
(George W. Doane)
None other Lamb, none other name,
None other hope in heaven or earth or sea,
None other hiding place from guilt and shame,
None beside thee!
(Christina G. Rossetti)