I finished Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fourth book was a little too much on transubstantiation and the uniqueness of priests for me (I'm completely Protestant in that regard) but there was still a lot to learn from even this about the right frame of mind to take when partaking of the Lord's Supper. Several of the phrases in the book are still running through my mind and especially the passage in Chapter 56 of Book 3 about John 14:6 where Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." À Kempis says about this passage, "Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living."
I read a few years ago a letter in the local paper that was attacking what the author thought was a false view of Christianity. In it the author said, "Some of you Christians act like Jesus said , 'It's my way or the highway.'" And I remember thinking, "No, he said, 'I am the way, and there is no other.'" Without the Way, there is no going.
There are so many in the world today who deny that Jesus is the only way. They want to make many different ways to the Father with Jesus being not the way but simply a way. Some do this out of malice but many out of ignorance by studying books they believe to be new revelations and understanding the one true revelation to be corrupted, for without the Truth, there is no knowing.
A holiday is coming up when people will celebrate the resurrection of this same Jesus who is both the Way and the Truth. Without his resurrection, according to the apostle Paul, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:17) So without his resurrection he is nothing to us, we are still in our sins and our faith is useless. With his resurrection we have hope for resurrection as well, we have hope against the sting of death, which is sin. Without his resurrection not only do we have no hope for a life after death but in fact then we are "of all people most to be pitied" (1 Corinthians 15:19), for without the Life, there is no living.
