Village Shepherd

Many years ago I met a churchwarden who had grown up within a Jewish background but who had converted to Christianity quite late in life. She had had an amazing conversion experience which had affected her deeply and as a result had become an ardent Christian. She was particularly zealous about Christian mission to the Jews, wanting to convert all Jews to Christianity. When I asked whether she thought Jesus was the only way to God, she looked astonished and said yes, of course! She believed all non-Christians to be outside the kingdom of God, and was quite angry with me when I disagreed with this verdict. She quoted John 14:6 where Jesus says to Thomas, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

It's but a short step from such certainty that Christianity is the only religion, to blaming the Jews for their rejection of Jesus and for all that happened to him. And sadly, it's this kind of thinking that has fuelled anti-Semitism throughout the ages.

But now we have another cause for alarm and the feeling of threat to Christianity, for Islam has spread in the West and some young, hot-headed fundamentalist Muslims are all for destroying the West in acts of terrorism and suicide bombings. Naturally this causes great fear in those who are the most likely targets of such acts, and some in our country are in danger of becoming anti-Muslim as well as anti-Semitic, for there is apparently a subsequent rise in membership of nationalistic organisations in the UK.

In today's reading from the first letter of John, the author says, "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." It sounds a bit like a statement which gives us permission to be anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic and indeed, urges us along the track to make converts of all other religions.

This was the stance of those intrepid 18th and 19th century Christian missionaries, who set out to explore previously undiscovered parts of the world. They set up Mission schools and brought Western medicine to undeveloped countries, but in hindsight many Christians feel uncomfortable with some of their activities. This ambiguity has had an effect on modern mission agencies, even though the stance of missionaries today is much softer and mostly they go out to other countries as highly skilled professionals in fields other than religion.

So what are we to make of these statements in the Bible which claim Christianity as the only path to God? Marcus Borg in an essay for the Search for Jesus series, points out that John's gospel was the latest to be written and was responding to the circumstances of the day. The first letter of John is thought to have been written after the gospel, and may be a theological debate on the interpretation of John's gospel.

The Gospel was written at a time of intense conflict between Jews and the new Jewish "Jesus" sect. In John 9:22 we read of people being "put out of the synagogue" and this clearly caused enormous fear to those who were at risk. Marcus Borg says in his essay, "In that world, to be "put out" from the synagogue was far more serious than being expelled from a Christian congregation or denomination is in our world. To be expelled from the synagogue meant no longer to be considered a Jew (or at least not an acceptable Jew). In a traditional society where most people lived their entire lives in the same village or town, it was a powerful social sanction. Those expelled faced social ostracism. Among other things, it disrupted relationships within families and with neighbours, and made marriage to "proper" Jews difficult or impossible."

No expulsions from the synagogue happened until some ten or twenty years after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, so this was long after the time of Jesus, when Christianity was beginning to develop. When John's gospel and the first letter of John were written, followers of Jesus were facing expulsion from the synagogue and therefore were facing becoming social pariahs in their own community. Many must have been tempted to return to the orthodox Jewish fold, so the gospel writer has Jesus urge them to remain true to the new faith.

Marcus Borg also points out that a "way" is not a set of beliefs, but a path to follow. So when Jesus refers to himself as "The Way" he isn't expecting people to subscribe to a particular set of beliefs but is expecting them to follow his path, the path which led to crucifixion. In other words, Jesus is saying that we must face pain and difficulty and distress with integrity and love, just as he faced crucifixion with integrity and love. People of any religion or none can follow such a way, but Christians are helped along this way by Jesus, and Jesus gives Christians the rationale for following such a demanding path through life.

For Jesus, at the end of the path came resurrection, and this continues to be true for us as well. The pathway which leads to crucifixion also leads to resurrection and new, transformed life. And this is the message of Christianity; that we can be transformed, changed, and enjoy a wonderful new life forever. And so the writer of the first letter of John is absolutely correct when he says, "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." By saying this, the writer encapsulates a basic Christian truth which is at the very centre of Christianity. But in no way does he exclude people of other religions.