Narrow-Mindedness
The Way, The Truth, The Life
I have been accused of being narrow minded.
More accurately, I have been called “narrow minded” – but I did not think of it as an accusation, even if that was the intent.
How could I when we have been advised by God Himself to choose the narrow way so that we can enter into the small gate that leads to life! Well, unless life is not what one is trying to achieve.
(I wonder sometimes why being narrow-minded is used only when we are trying to justify doing something that we know may feed our “self-interest”; I mean it is not narrow-minded to drive on the right-hand side of a two-way street in America – on the contrary it is the most effective way to get to where you want to go!)
And speaking of Life.
When Jesus had gathered His disciples together as He fulfilled the Passover and instituted the New Covenant in His blood, He made the following declaration:
“I am the way and the truth and the life…” John 14:6a
I think we sometimes (or maybe it is just me) forget the scene where this very famous statement is made – Jesus is speaking to the eleven – Judas has already gone to do quickly what he would do.
The article should not be treated as generic. He is definitively stating that He and He alone is the way and the truth and the life.
Again – this is being spoken to those who were walking with Him – whose feet He had just washed because He was “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God.”
He had just been comforting them – after making it clear that their time together was short:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s home are many places to dwell; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” John 14:1-5
It is important that we remember that anytime that Jesus makes statements regarding His return, He is speaking only that which the Father gave Him to speak (in actuality He tells His disciples that that is always the case – that He only speaks those things that the Father – Who abides in Him – gives Him to speak). But regarding the details of His return, we know that only the Father held that knowledge – that He had not shared it with Jesus or His messengers.
Based on what time has revealed since His ascension, it is likely that what Jesus is referring to here is His return after His resurrection, and not His eventual return at the end of the Age – though like many “last things” declarations we can derive facts that pertain to either event. A little later in this exchange, after promising the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, He says as much:
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” John 14:18-20
After His resurrection, when He sees them again, when it was evening and the doors were locked for fear of the Jews:
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:19-22
Back to how He replied to Thomas’ question. If anyone doubts His intention to make that statement a definitive statement, they need only follow it up by noting how He ended that sentence:
“…no one comes to the Father but on account of Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” John 14:6b-7
The language in the original is as clear as it is in English above. There is not a single person who will be able to enter the Father’s presence without relying on what Jesus has done for them – for us all! There is no alternative way, no alternative means of access to the Father’s house. On account of Jesus, there is more than enough room for everyone – He would that none perish and that all come to the knowledge of truth. AND there is but one way – to accept His ransom and be added to His book of life!
He then adds another shocking statement. The Father (Whose Face could not be seen – see Ex.33:20-23), is now to be seen by them! Oh wait, they had already seen Him!!
Confused anew, Philip asks Jesus to show the Father to them – that would suffice.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you, and you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how say you, ‘Show us the Father’?
And then to them all He clarifies exactly how serious He is about His authority:
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do. John 14:9-14
The narrow way, the way that Jesus is (along with the truth and the life), He is unapologetically – at least to His own.
But certainly He was less direct with others – more broad minded and inclusive.
At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, Whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp. John 10:22-39
So, with His disciples and with the Jews He was unashamedly “narrow” not allowing any variations from His doctrines regarding the source of His authority and the implications that that has when it comes to His declarations of what is true and acceptable in the sight of God.
But certainly, when He was speaking to the Gentiles (or even about them) He was understanding of the fact that since they were not raised under the Law that they would be allowed their own forms of worship. How could He not recognize their rights to their own beliefs, their own cultures?
Here we do have a slight dilemma. By His own words we know that His mission was not to the Gentiles – the nations – that would be the responsibility of His followers. (Though having said that, that fact itself may speak of His narrow focus.) What we do have however, in that vein, are a few occasions when a gentile approached Him and His instructions to them.
There was the Syrophoenician woman:
Jesus went away from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall come into being for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. Matt.15:21-28
Syro-Phoenicia was never a part of the kingdom of Israel, not even during Solomon’s reign. It was where Lebanon is today and was centered around Tyre and Sidon. Jesus and His disciples had just left the region of Galilee after the events that included the feeding of the five thousand, His walking on the water (being joined briefly by Peter) and the healings of the crowds in the district of Gennesaret.
The account tells us that a Canaanite woman who referred to Him by the Messianic name “Son of David” was crying out for His pity for her demon-possessed daughter. There were three very grievous violations of protocol here; Jesus made a point of noting them. His response to her passionate pleas was to declare His mission: He was there in search only for those lost sheep from the northern 10 tribes of Israel. And yet her actions and pleas revealed such a faith that Jesus could not refuse her.
We also have the Centurion. In Luke’s account we are told that this Roman had sent Jewish elders to Jesus to request that He come to the centurion’s home to heal a slave who was dying. The Jews let Jesus know that the Roman soldier was “worthy for You to grant this to him for he loves our nation and it was he who built our synagogue.” Jesus honored their request; though likely not for the reasons they believed He did.
As they drew near,
…the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. Luke 7:6-10
Whereas the Syrophoenician woman went directly to Him and even invoked “sacred” Jewish titles, the Roman centurion demonstrated both humility and a keen understanding of authority.
But for them all (including His disciples and the Jews), the consistent message was that of faith! They showed (in the case of some) or were challenged to show a level of confidence in Him that included the recognition of the source of His authority.
The disciples were being required by Jesus to “believe in God, believe also in” Him. With the Jews – they too were required to believe, to have faith, to place their confidence in Him. But if that was more than they could muster – to at the very least have faith in the works that He was doing in front of their very eyes. And for the Gentiles, on the rare occasions that Jesus reached over the wall of partition (the very wall that He would soon break down altogether) He did so solely because of the faith, the confidence in Him, that they demonstrated.
Faith in Jesus. The Son of God. The Way – the Only Way!
Likely after the events in Syro-Phoenicia, as they traveled eastward toward the district of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks His disciples, who the people in general said He was? The list the recited included John the Immerser (which is a bit odd, since they had been seen together), Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. (This is very interesting in that it implies that there was a general belief among the Jews that resurrection could occur under certain conditions.)
Jesus then asks them: “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter was the first to answer:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Matt.16:16
It is noteworthy that out in the northern edges of the Roman province of Judea we find two declarations of Jesus’ Messianic revelation – the Son of David (which, from where we are on the timeline of history clearly speaks of His humanity – though for the Jews of the time it was believed to be a pronouncement of renewed national dominance) and the Son of God (which, we would think, could only imply His deity).
[In truth, as the passage above from John 10 indicates, there was a context in which what Peter declares, in Jewish standards, could be understood to mean “son of God” and speak of the human assignment of a commission from God.
What the John 10 passage shows, by Jesus’ shift of the implication of the term to the perception of a God-given assignment, the religious leaders were forced to recognize exactly what it was that they were actually accusing Him of being! They were not allowed to hide behind a nuance - they had to admit that their original accusation was that He had blasphemed, that He had equated Himself to God.]
To Peter’s invocation Jesus responds:
And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Petros (a stone), and upon this rock (“petra” = a bedrock) I will build a house for the assembly of those belonging to Me; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. Matt.16:17-20
All of that to say (and what is proven by Jesus’ response to Peter), it is clear that Peter’s invocation of this title was intended to speak directly to Jesus’ equality with God and therefore impose a shocking modification to the long held understanding of the Lord their God being One.
(Allow me to quickly add that He is One and in the mystery of His interacting with us within the constraints of time and space, His Oneness is expressed in what is best described as a Tri-Unity.)
In this they (and we) are introduced to an idea of Who the Messiah was truly intended to be; and it was very different from what the religious leaders and common Jews had manufactured.
What the verses from John 14 show us is that His closest followers were still unclear as to how exactly they were supposed to reconcile their vision of the Messiah as the one who would re-establish Israel’s earthly kingdom as dominant over the whole earth (wait…why does that sound so familiar) with Jesus’ continuing warnings of His suffering and death and His promised resurrection.
This point is proven by what we are told happens shortly after:
From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. Saying, “God be merciful to You! This shall never be.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but of man.” Matt.16:21-23
Peter, in a short time, receives what Jesus refers to as a revelation from God in heaven regarding Jesus’ mission – to be the Anointed One that the Father sent; and is used by the adversary of God to dissuade Jesus from doing just that: fulfill His mission as the Anointed One sent from the Father. The mission that required that He go to Jerusalem in order to fill up the cup of judgment on the city that “killed the prophets”, to suffer at the hands of the Gentiles and the Jews to the point of death, and to be raised from that death on the third day.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life, will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the world (“kosmos”) and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His messengers and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Matt.16:24-27
Jesus is the Only Way. And He advocates our own narrow mindedness – it is there that we find the Way of Life. And just as His way would lead Him, in obedience to His calling, to fulfill God’s mission; we should also recognize that the way we are to walk is the way of willingly elevating God above every need, want, and desire.
It is in fact the one choice that matters: will we recognize Him as King of kings and Lord of lords; as our ransom and our redeemer; as the way, the truth, and the life? We are told later that He is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles – but the wisdom of God to those who believe – for God’s ways are higher than our ways – and His way, His only Way, leads to Eternal Life!
Narrow is the way and we’re told that directly. It appears that like Peter was used by Satan to attempt to thwart His sacrifice; when Jesus returns, there will be many misled from recognizing Jesus is Christ returned. At that point Satan, like the cabal ‘appears’ today, will understand the end is coming and will give his all to prevent his destruction. But, God gave Jesus His sheep and nothing will prevent Jesus from them.
The centurion would, if of course, understand authority and his place in the system of authority as a military man. Yet, it didn’t prevent him from having faith (a certainty) that Jesus was the Messiah. The woman, too, exhibited exceptional faith, and would not be deterred from her plea for Jesus’ help. What examples of pure faith.
I’m thrilled with the approach you use in your book (Revelation) and keep going back to reread earlier sections. You have (as God no doubt intended) found the best way to (first learn, then) teach what it means, with the actual meaning of the words/phrases. What a blessing this is!