“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me’.” This was Jesus’ answer when Thomas asked him how people get into heaven and what happens to all the other religions in the world. Except this wasn’t the question Thomas asked and we should, therefore, be very wary of trying to make Jesus’ words fit into our preconceived ideas. And it is through studying the context of Jesus’ words that Brian McLaren attempts an alternative interpretation to John 14:6 as he tackles the ninth question in his book.

Troubled hearts

The question Thomas did ask was, ‘Jesus, where are you going?’ Indeed a version of this question is asked no less than three times in the section that includes verse 14:6 (John 13:31-16-33). It is asked as a response to Jesus saying to his disciples and followers that he is about to leave them but that after being glorified he would return to be with them. They found his discourse very disturbing and confusing, causing some of them to question him deeper. These men who had been following Jesus so closely, who had become very close friends of his, are now put into some confusion and fear as he tells them of the next steps. The context of 14:6, therefore, is not a theological treatment of where people of other religions go when they die or even how people get to heaven. Rather it is about where Jesus is going and how the disciples are to deal with the new situation they find themselves in.

Confusion and fear

In one of his replies to the question Jesus tells them that they would not be able to follow him nor could they do what was before him (be crucified) – but he did give them a new command, that they should love one another. Peter, however, ignores this command and insists on returning to the troubling question of where Jesus is going. It is here that Jesus foretells that Peter would deny him three times that night. The disciples must have been even more troubled at this point for Jesus goes on to say, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.’ And adds, ‘In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.’ McLaren suggests that at this point modern readers begin to read heaven into this passage. For most take ‘my Father’s house’ to be a reference to heaven. However, McLaren points out that much earlier in John’s Gospel this phrase is used by Jesus not to refer to heaven but to the temple in Jerusalem. Why should we not take the phrase to mean the temple here also, he asks?

Exasperation

But Thomas (being Thomas) was exasperated and asks, ‘Lord we don’t know where you’re going so how can we know the way?’ By understanding the context we can say quite categorically that this question has nothing to do with how people of other religions get to heaven. It was not in his thinking at this time. So when Jesus answers with John 14:6 we have to assume that it was not on Jesus’ mind either. Jesus was merely replying to a question that Thomas and the other disciples were asking out of fear for their own situation. Jesus was giving them reassurance at a time of confusion and fear.

Removing suspicion

By taking the context seriously and refusing to make the verse fit into a pre-conceived theological system about the fate of other religions, McLaren offers a very different perspective on the words of Jesus. John 14:6 has been used to make this subject black and white for many generations, that there cannot be any doubt about the fate of people of other faiths. But McLaren argues for a far more nuanced understanding of the story – ‘a story that sends us into the world with Christ-like love for our neighbours of other religions, not suspicion.’ And it is crucial that we do so, he argues, for far too much blood has already been lost due to that suspicion.


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