Why Jesus Is More Than Self-Help | Crossroads Church

You know, there's a lot of opinions, assumptions, and ideas out there about who Jesus is. Culture has opinions. Religion has opinions. Even people who don't follow him usually still have some kind of perspective on him. My name is Miko, the prison director here at Crossroads Church, and over the next several weeks, we're going to take a deeper look at the I Am statements of Jesus. The moments where Jesus, out of his own mouth, tells us exactly who he is. And I'm going to be up front with you. He said what he said. These aren't just inspirational sayings or vague religious metaphors. These are bold, personal, and at times controversial claims about the identity of Jesus and the kind of life he's inviting us into. The people hearing him at the time, they understood the weight of what he was claiming. Some were drawn in. Others were offended by it. Some were just confused. Some worshiped him because of it. Others wanted him killed because of it. No matter where you're coming from spiritually, our hope is that you wouldn't just react to these statements. That you actually wrestle with them. Sit with them. Ask honest questions about them. Because the truth of the matter is, his words are not without consequence for any of us. Whether you believe Jesus was the son of God, a wise teacher, a prophet, or you're still just figuring it out. There's no denying that his words have shaped human history unlike anyone else's in the world and continue to confront, challenge, and draw people in today. Why? Maybe there's a deeper question. Maybe the question isn't, what did Jesus say? Maybe it's, what did Jesus mean by what he said? What did the people, the culture of his time understand him? Does that still mean who you are today?

That's lock in. This is a first-hand biography of Jesus by one of his closest friends. In it, John records seven iconic, I am statements that Jesus made. Seven metaphors, seven self-portraits of the living God. This week, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Here's how it goes in the book of John chapter 14. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Well, hello, hello. Happy Memorial Day weekend. I am, I gotta tell you, I'm really excited to get into what we're going to talk about today, but I have to start with the story that is really a confession. And it is this. If you get to know me, you'll know this. I am deathly afraid of heights. Not like a little bit. I mean like genuinely, embarrassingly, mercilessly teased by my wife and kids afraid of heights. And because of that, I want to take you to a place that is always a powerful place of prayer for me. It's at the top of this thing. So if you're not in the Cincinnati area, this is known as the Drop Tower. It's at the King's Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati. And even though I hate heights, I've been on this ride probably five times. And every time, it's a little kid's fault.

Whether it was my nephews and nieces when they were younger and would visit us in Cincinnati, or my own kids. Some kid, eventually when we take them to King's Island is like, Uncle Chuck, I want to go on the Drop Tower. And Maria looks at me and says, Uncle Chuck will go on that with you. And so I wind up in this ride. And here's the thing. Every time I'm on this ride, it's the same experience. They've got that pull-down bar that they give you. And I am gripping that pull-down bar so tight that my black knuckles turn white. I mean, if that's possible, then that's what's happening. I am death gripping. As if, if it all were to go bad on Drop Tower, the news story is going to be 34 people lost their lives on Drop Tower today. But one guy named Chuck Mingo survived because he was gripping to the bar tight enough to save himself. Like, it's not going to matter. It's not going to matter. And the reason that I was thinking about that story is, there is something that you and I have a death grip on. We're gripping something in our lives. I'm not talking to the person next to you. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. You have... You have something that you're gripping. Maybe you're gripping a relationship. Maybe you're gripping a career. Maybe you're gripping a number in a bank account. But there is something in our lives that we are white knuckle gripping, hoping that it can hold the weight of our lives.

Spoiler alert, it won't. It was never designed to. There's only one way, only one person who can hold the weight of your life. And his name is Jesus. And that's what we're looking at in this series. This is week one of our series, The Jesus Exhibit. Jesus describes himself through these seven self-portraits that we see written down in the Gospel of John. Who was John? John was actually one of Jesus's 12 disciples. But more than that, he was one of Jesus's closest three disciples. John was really close to Jesus. And so John is writing these down for us to help us understand who Jesus is. And what I find interesting is that all throughout John's Gospel, he's in the stories, he's right there. So he's telling the stories that he was firsthand witness to, but he never refers to himself by name. Throughout the entire Gospel of John, he always refers to himself by this title, the disciple who Jesus loved. And I think the reason for that is John had learned to release his grip on any other identity. He'd learned to release his grip on anything else that he would trust or put the weight of his life on. And he knew the only thing that matters is that I am a disciple who Jesus loves. And John wants you and I to be able to release our grip and receive the same thing. We know this because he tells us why he wrote his Gospel. He says this in John 20, 31. These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.

And there's two words for life in the Greek language. One is the word bios, which means biology. It's where we get kind of the basic functions of life. The other is zoe, and that's the word he's using here. It means abundant life, a fullness of life. John wanted you and I to know that in Jesus we can find abundant life. You know, you may not know this, but today is considered the birthday of the church of Jesus. It's Pentecost Sunday. And Pentecost means 50th, and it celebrates that 50 days after Jesus rose, the disciples and all his followers were empowered by the very Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit that gives us zoe life. So as we go through this series today, whether you're a skeptic, whether you are a seeker seeking genuine truth, or maybe you're like me, a follower of Jesus who, when I'm honest, I can death grip some things that aren't Jesus, I pray that every week in this series you would see Jesus with fresh lenses. And when you do, it would give you zoe life. Let me pray for that as we get started today. God, thank you for this series. Thank you for this weekend and the opportunity to be together. God, I am praying for our eyes, not our physical eyes. I'm praying for our spiritual eyes every week in this series to be opened to another aspect of who you are, Jesus, and what it means for our life. I just pray, God, that we would see with spiritual eyes today, that you would honor every person who chose to be here on a holiday weekend by meeting them with a powerful word that can give them zoe life. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're starting with probably the most controversial of the seven statements that Jesus makes in the book of John, John 14, 6. You saw it on the screen.

I want to read it to you again. It's an exclusive claim. And I was thinking about you and I was like, you know what? If you dragged yourself out of bed to be here on Memorial Day weekend, you're probably not just asking, is Jesus the only way? You're probably asking a way more foundational question. You're probably asking, is Jesus the better way? Like, does this Jesus stuff work for somebody like me? I think that's what made you show up today. You're here because you want to know that and hear this. I believe Jesus is going to answer you today. I believe you're going to get an answer today from Jesus that he is in fact the way, the truth and the light. These are controversial words. So it would help to understand the context in which Jesus said them to his disciples. It's 24 hours, less than 24 hours before Jesus is going to be brutally murdered and killed on the cross. And he's been telling his disciples over and over again, guys, I'm about to die. Guys, I'm about to suffer. And his 12 closest followers, his disciples, they don't know what to make of this. They are not just merely confused. Their hearts are deeply, deeply troubled. Go back to drop tower for a minute. You know, when I'm on that ride with my younger nephews, nieces, whatever, I've learned to have a poker face about how I really feel about being 400 feet up in the air. But this is what inside Chuck is really feeling at that time. Right? And there's a dead giveaway. There's a dead giveaway. If you were looking for it, of how I really feel, which is while I'm seated in a chair, 400 feet up, my phone. My watch starts buzzing me and saying, are we working out right now? Why? Because my heart rate is elevated, right? My heart is troubled.

The disciples' hearts were troubled. And I think our hearts can be troubled. I want to talk to Christians for a minute. People who would say intellectually, yes, I believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And my question is, when your heart is troubled, is he really the first place you turn? Here's some reflection questions that I know for me can be really, really eye-opening. First question, what do you check first thing in the morning? Somebody said, oh man. What do you check first thing in the morning? Here's one. What would devastate you if you lost it? Here's another one. What do you find yourself calculating and recalculating over and over again? Or how about this one? What do you never talk about? To another person. But it's either eating you inside, or it's this secret thing that you keep going to trying to find life, but you never talk about it to another person. I want to submit to you, again, I'm talking to Christians. That's the thing you're white knuckle gripping and hoping it holds the weight of your life. But trusting that is like trusting a glass staircase to be the thing that's going to support you.

Glass staircases will shatter. We've got this piece of art here, and it's all these glass arrows, right? And these glass arrows are kind of symbolic of all the places we look to life, all the places we look to try to support us when our hearts are troubled, when we think we're kind of doing well, where are the places that we go? And you'll notice that these arrows kind of go in all kinds of different directions, but none of that can support the weight of our life. All of those arrows are going to shatter at some point, but we keep putting the weight of our life on things that are bound to crack. And so I want you to know that in love, Jesus says these words today, in love, because He sees your troubled heart. He sees my troubled heart. And that's why He starts with these words in John 14, 1, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. See, Jesus wants us to know right away what He's after. And what He's after is trust. Because friends, you know what the opposite of a troubled heart is? A trusting heart. And Jesus wants you to have a trusting heart in Him. So He goes on to say these words, in my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Jesus is saying to His disciples in their moment of trouble, guys, I am the safest person for you. I am the safest place for you to rest the troubles that you have in your heart. You can trust me, believe in God, believe also in me. And you know, you can imagine that like, Jesus says those words and all the disciples just kind of kick back and say, ah, okay, we can relax. It's all good. And you know, they start to see puppy dogs and rainbows. And in fact, this is the moment when they get those yellow halos that we often see around their heads in pieces of art. But as Lee Corso used to say to all of us every Saturday morning on college game day, not so fast, my friend, not so fast. Enter Thomas. I love Thomas. I think Thomas is one of my favorite followers of Jesus. One of my favorite disciples. Thomas is the guy in your crew who says the quiet part out loud. And we need Thomases in our lives.

We need Thomases like that. And Thomas is willing to break up this moment with an honest question for Jesus. You know, you might've heard of Thomas, but you might've heard him attached to his unfortunate nickname, Doubting Thomas. That's like, man, can you imagine if the worst thing you ever did becomes the moniker that people know you for forever? How bad would that be? You forget one wedding anniversary and your wife calls you Forgetful Frank for the rest of your marriage. Like, man, that would be a bummer. That would be a bummer. You know what? You're in a small group. You ask one awkward question, then you're Awkward Annie for the rest of the time. Like, that would be really, really bad. It'd be like if you woke up and you missed a group assignment in school, in college, in high school, and then all of a sudden all your friends started calling you Lazy Susan. Oh, wait, man, Lazy Susan stuck. I don't know who Susan did it to, but somebody, she hurt somebody with her laziness. I don't know who that was. I don't know who that was.

But you might've heard Thomas called Doubting Thomas. I think that's really unfortunate. I call him Honest Thomas, because Thomas is willing to break in the puppy dog rainbow moment that is not happening and say out loud what all the disciples were already thinking. He says this in verse 5, Don't you have times in your life where that's your question? Don't things come up and you're like, Lord, I don't know what you're doing. I don't know where you're going. How can I know the way? I love Thomas's honesty here. Thomas might be the patron saint of Crossroads. We call ourselves a real place for real people. Like I said, I call him Honest Thomas. You can call him Keep It A Buck Thomas. I love Thomas. And Thomas asked the question and because he asked an honest question, we get this honest answer from Jesus. Again, I'm going to read this multiple times because I want these words of Jesus to sink into your spirit today. Jesus said to him and to us, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Now I have to admit that for many of you, that's not the first time you've heard those words and that maybe those words were used as a bludgeon or a billy club when you asked legitimate questions. I've got lots of friends in my life who don't follow Jesus. I've got friends in my life who are Jewish. I've got friends in my life who are Hindu. I've got friends in my life who are Muslim. And we get into these conversations and there's an honest question they ask me. Chuck, are you saying that even though I love and am pursuing a path that I think is

the path of God, because I don't say Jesus is God, you're saying I'm going to hell? That's a legitimate wrestle and question. And I want you to know, I'm sorry if someone returned this verse to you as a slap in the face to say, just shut up and get with the program. Because that's not how Jesus is using these words. He's using these words to comfort his disciples in their troubled heart times of need. This is not so much a truth claim to defend as much as it's a promise to grasp hold of. Jesus is being what Brene Brown called kind in his clarity. She says to be clear is to be kind. Jesus is being exclusive. He is saying there is no other way to the life with the Father that you want. There is no other way to what you might want to call heaven or eternal life. He is absolutely saying that. But Jesus isn't saying that as a power grab. He's saying it because he's making a promise. A promise that only he can keep. You know, every one of these seven I am statements has inherent in them an invitation and a challenge. The invitation with Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life is actually the invitation to find the life you really are looking for, to find the life that you really are longing for. The challenge is to believe him, to trust him, to trust him, if you will, exclusively. One of the things my family is going to do tomorrow is we're going to go see the new Mandalorian Grogu movie because we love the Mandalorian in our house. We're big Star Wars fans. And the thing, if you, if you know anything about the Mandalorian,

one of the big things they say over and over again is this is the way. Jesus is saying to his disciples in their troubled hearts, I am the way. This is the way. So can I just level with you for a few minutes? Cause my name is Chuck and I'm your friend. I just want to tell you self-actualization is not the way. Our culture tells us that if you can just focus on yourself, if you can just manifest, if you can just find your inner self and fix yourself, you're going to be able to achieve this life that you always wanted. And I'm here to tell you that is not the way. You cannot fix yourself with more of yourself. It's not the way. It's not the way. Therapy alone is not the way. I believe in therapy. I'm in therapy. So I'm not anti-therapy. What therapy can do really well is it can help you expose and understand your brokenness, but we need God to heal our brokenness. So therapy alone is not the way. Following religious rules is not the way. You can get really, really good at doing the dutiful things that you think make you a good Christian and you can have a prideful heart. You can have a jealous heart. It does not change your heart. Following religious rules alone is not the way. It's not the way. Money is not the way. Money can buy you a lot of things. I'll take some more money. But you talk to anybody who has way more money than you and they will tell you money cannot buy you peace. Money is not the way. Success, achievement is not the way. Boy, did I think that was the way. Boy, was that my story. But I'm here to tell you that once you climb the mountain that you thought was the thing,

you'll get to the top and realize either it was the wrong mountain to begin with or there's a whole other mountain to climb. When does it ever stop? Success is not the way. Jesus is the only way. And here's why. Because Jesus offers a better way. He offers a better way. Tim Keller is a pastor who has been really impactful in my spiritual journey. Passed away about a year ago. And I'm always struck by what he says about this. He said this, he said, these are Christianity's unsurpassed offers, meaning this is why Jesus is the way, the truth and the life that we're all seeking. He says Christianity's unsurpassed offers are a meaning that suffering cannot remove. A satisfaction not based on circumstances. A freedom that does not hurt, but rather enhances love. An identity that doesn't crush you or exclude others. A moral compass, justice that does not turn you into an oppressor. And a hope that can face anything, even death. Because to be clear, meaning, purpose, hope, justice, those are good ends. Those are things we are created to desire and long for. It's just that there's only one means to those ends, and his name is Jesus. And I want to help you understand this by walking through these one by one and more specific. So let's start by talking about freedom. Why is Jesus the better way to experience the freedom you long for? It's because every other way that promises you freedom says this, the way that you get free is you remove all constraints. We just got to admit, this is part of how we think about freedom in American terms, right? My freedom is I get to do what I want to do on the terms that I want to do it. Nobody can tell me what to do. I get to be independent.

And my question is, have you ever tried to live that way? Have you? I'm serious. Have you ever tried to spend on whatever you want to spend for sex? Whoever you want to sex, drink and party. However you want to drink and party. Pursue greed and stuff as much as you want to. If you've ever tried that, and oh, by the way, I have tried those things. You know where they lead you? They lead you to a place where you are exhausted and empty. It just doesn't work. Andy Crouch is a great thinker and he says this about any addiction, anything that would want to be a thing that grips our life. He says this, Every addiction makes the same promise, which is this is how you can be like God. This is how you can escape your vulnerability. This is how you can have control over your life. This is how you can get all the pleasure, all the things that you want. And he says the problem is every addiction works the first time, but it doesn't keep working. And over time it demands more and more of you while delivering less and less of the promise. There's an early church father, his name was Augustine, African man. And St. Augustine, you may have heard him by that name, he wrote a book called Confessions. And in Confessions, he's honest. I love how raw and honest he is. He's like, Guys, before Jesus, I tried everything. I tried everything. He talks about his sexual conquest. He talks about his career pursuit. He talks about how he even joined a cult. All of those things, trying to find the way, trying to find the life he was looking for,

trying to be free, only to come to this conclusion. I love these words. He says, Only the way of Jesus leads to true freedom. Because here's the plot twist when it comes to being free. Your freedom is not based on independence. You think that independence is the way to freedom and it's not. Your freedom comes from being in dependence. Independence with the creator who knows you, with the creator who understands you, with the creator who through his sacrifice has offered you the only thing that can really deliver the freedom that you and I are longing for. Jesus is a better way to freedom. Let's talk about meaning. When it comes to meaning, we wind up pouring our life's meaning into things that can almost hold the weight until they don't. Anybody in here thought that a career, a specific job, was going to be the thing that got you meaning? And you achieved it, and maybe it worked. So you lost that job. Maybe it worked. So you realize, oh my gosh, I don't even like this career. You know, for others of us, we thought that the approval of others, if I could just get this person to approve me, if I could just get this affirmation, then that was going to do it for me until the affirmation goes away. You know, for some of us, we thought it was body beautiful. We thought if we could just take care of ourselves and be beautiful or be strong, kind of have control of our physical domain, that was going to be the thing that satisfied us until the diagnosis took that away from you. For others of us, we're like, man, if we just find the right soulmate, if I can just marry the right person, man, I'm going to be so happy if I can just

find my boo. If I can get booed up, I'm going to be great. Until you get booed up and one day you wake up and realize, I don't really like this person. And either you leave them or they leave you, but it doesn't give you the meaning that you sought for. See, every other basis of finding meaning is based on circumstances. And that means when those circumstances change, your meaning will collapse and your circumstances will change. It's called human suffering and none of us get to avoid it. But only the way of Jesus offers us a basis of meaning that actually isn't only not collapsed through suffering, it's actually strengthened through suffering. We just went through this as a church. We did this thing called the run journey. It was based on the life of Paul and we were kind of talking about how do we get to the hope that we want? And you guys might remember this verse. We talked about it every week, Romans 5, 3, and 4, it says, suffering, in the way of Jesus, suffering produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope, hope. Only the way of Jesus, suffering is actually metabolized, not to take away from your meaning, but actually to strengthen your meaning because Jesus is a better way to meaning. Let's talk about identity. We live in a context right now where we view everything through the lens of whatever our primary identity is. We view everything. Here's what the world teaches us. The world basically says, here's how you find life. You look inside yourself, find the thing that feels most true to you, and then build your whole life identity around that thing. And build a tribe of other people who share that identity with you, and anybody who doesn't agree with that identity, well that's your enemy and that's how you live your life.

And I want to tell you, every other source of identity is a performance trap and a lie. Because every other form of identity asks you to do this. It says, hey, before you get the label, you got to agree with the doctrine. You got to line up with what we say. And we do this all the time. We do this with our national identities. We do this with our racial identities. We do this with our sexual identities. We do this with our political identities. And all of those identities force you to prove it, to say that you're down, to make the right statements, to have the right lifestyle. And if you don't, if you do anything out of step with what the tribe has spoken, you will get canceled faster than a New York minute. It's because every other identity is a performance trap. Only in Jesus do we have an identity that is given and not earned, which means it doesn't crush you because you don't have to feel like you got to maintain it by doing all the things that the tribe says is right. But it also doesn't exclude other people. It enables you to have a wider circle of love. The good news of the gospel of Jesus is that your worth was already decided before you even believed in Jesus. I'll put it to you even better. Bible says it this way in Romans, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I have an uncle who's a great preacher, Uncle Otis, and I love his translation of that verse. He says, Chuck, while we were busy hating God, he was busy loving us. Not just before you believed Jesus, but when you hated Jesus. When you didn't want anything to do with Jesus. He already had proven how much your life is worth by dying on a cross in your place. So before you ever accepted the identity of beloved, like the disciple who Jesus loves, like John talks about, before you ever accepted that title, Jesus had already proclaimed over

your life that you are worthy, that you are worth it, that you are loved, that you are forgiven, that you will never be alone. So when we step into this identity with Jesus, what a relief it is. It enables me to love myself and it enables me to love you. And oh, by the way, it even enables me to love my enemies. We talk about justice, a moral compass. Most justice movements eventually eat their own. This is true on the left and on the right. If you look at anytime there's been something like that, oftentimes, not all the time, but oftentimes they wind up eating their own. Because here's the thing. If your moral compass is based on us being right and them being wrong, all you're doing is replacing one oppressor with another when you get to power. That's all you're doing. And we see, this is what's going on in our country right now. This is what's been going on in our country for all this time, is that once they're in power, they say, okay, now we got power, now we're going to oppress them. And then when it switches, they're like, okay, now we're in power, we're going to oppress them. Because when it's about you being right, you have to have an enemy on the other side of that. But only the identity and the justice of Jesus helps us understand two things at the very same time. Every person, me included, is more broken and fallen than I can imagine. And every person, me included, is more vulnerable. more valuable and loved than we could ever dream. That's the beauty of the justice of Jesus. And that's why I can fiercely fight for justice and still extend grace. It's why I can tell the truth and love my enemies too. Because Jesus offers a better way to justice, one more hope. Every other way gives you hope with an expiration date. Only Jesus gives us a hope that even death can't destroy. I want to share an example with you of this.

This is why Jesus says, this is why Jesus doesn't say, I am a way, I am a truth, I am a life. He says, I am the way, the truth, the life. Why is Jesus cutting off other options? Because he's the only way that can make these promises and keep them. That's why he's so exclusive with this claim. Because you know what we're really longing for underneath all this stuff? Underneath our quest for meaning and satisfaction and freedom and identity, underneath our desire for justice and hope, underneath all of that is we're longing for home. That's what we're really longing for. But what is your home? C.S. Lewis, great writer, he wrote a book called Mere Christianity, and he has a powerful metaphor about what we're really longing for. And he puts it this way, he says that younger people haven't lived long enough to understand this, but older people inherently understand this. And now that I'm in the older people category, I get it. I get it more. He says, if you live long enough, you'll learn that whatever it is that you thought was going to satisfy you, won't. And he's not talking about bad stuff, he's talking about the best stuff. So if you thought it was going to be marriage, you can have the best marriage in the world. And you'll still have a longing that marriage can't fill. If you thought it was travel and different experiences, you can have all the experiences in the world. But at the end of them, you'll still be longing for something else. You can have an utterly successful career that you love and are highly successful with, and at the end of that, there will still be something in you that's longing for more. And he says when you get to that point where you realize that your desires will never be satisfied by anything in this world, you have three choices.

Choice number one, you can keep hunting. I'm going to leave this life and find a different life. I'm going to leave this career and find another career. I'm going to have these set of experiences because maybe those set of experiences will get me what I'm looking for. And he says, and if you do that, you're going to end up where every addict ends up. You're going to end up exhausted and empty, and it will not work. You have a second choice, and that's just to close yourself off to joy altogether. Just resign yourself that this life's going to suck, there's going to be pain, and I will never be satisfied. He says if you do that, you basically begin to die from the inside out. He says, but you have a third choice. Third choice is when you begin to understand that you have desires this world can never meet, maybe it's time to come to the conclusion that you were made for another world. You're made for another world. He puts it this way. He says ducklings desire water because water exists. Babies desire to suckle their mother's milk because there's such a thing as milk. And he says you and I long for home because there's such a place as home. But maybe our home is beyond this world. That's why Jesus says this in John 14, 3, after he says all this about way, truth, and life, or before it, he says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. Jesus is saying he is the way home. He's the true way home. He's the only way home. And he's the way home that leads to life. We're going to finish in a different place today, and that is we're going to admire a work of art together. I'm going to particularly look at this painting right here.

This is called The Incredulity of Thomas. Here's Thomas again. And later in the story of Thomas, after Jesus was raised from the dead, all the disciples that had seen him, Thomas, hadn't. And Thomas is like, look, unless I put my finger in his wounds myself, I'm not going to believe he rose from the dead. And this is the moment when Jesus comes to Thomas and says, hey, put your finger on my side. And I want to use this to do something that has been a practice the church has had for centuries called visio divina. It means divine seeing. And what it is, is you look at a piece of art prayerfully and allow God to use that piece of art to help show you something about himself. And so that's what we're going to do together. Before we do, I just want to give you a little bit of help on this. I feel like an art teacher right now. Don't trip over the fact that these are old white guys in this photo, because I know some of us are tripping over that. Let me help you understand. Caravaggio, the author, the artist here, wanted to bring Jesus to the people of his day. He wanted them to see Jesus as one of them. So the models for these men are actually street workers in Italy. Like that's where this came from. So if it helps you, think about these folks as wearing Bengals jerseys, or wearing Reds gear, or living in your neighborhood. Whatever that does to help you not trip over that.

The point is Jesus comes to us in our real worlds. So let's reflect on this piece of art together a little bit. First thing I want to ask you is, what do you notice first? Where are your eyes drawn first? Most people go straight to Thomas's finger in Jesus's side. Caravaggio drew this in a way that you really can't avoid seeing that. And it feels a bit uncomfortable, right? It almost feels like, am I supposed to be seeing this intimate moment? The answer is absolutely. So I want to encourage you to take a look again, and particularly to notice Jesus. I didn't realize this the first time I looked at this painting. It's actually Jesus's hand guiding Thomas's finger into his side. And Jesus is the least clothed person in the painting. You know why? Because Jesus comes to us in full intimacy. That's what he's looking for from us. And that's what he offers to us. Jesus is like, Thomas, if it takes you literally putting your finger in my side, I will open myself up so that you can trust me. I will open myself up so that you will know I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus comes to you because he wants intimacy with you. If you just break down that word, into me see, Jesus is saying, into me see, see my heart for you. So let me ask you another question. Who are you in the painting? Are you Thomas? Are you a I've got to see it for myself kind of person? Because if you are, I want you to know Jesus is open in that. He welcomes your questions. Or maybe are you one of the other two disciples? You're around this moment, but you're kind of curious. You're a little bit removed. You're not quite sure. Maybe that's where you are in your journey with Jesus, or just where you are in your relationship with Jesus. It's like, I'm not sure. Things feel a little unsteady. Or are you just an outsider looking at the painting like all of us are? Maybe not knowing if this is an offer for you, or maybe you're not ready to receive it. So there's a part of you that's looking away. Here's what I want us to see in this piece of art. Jesus comes to you and to me, not with rules to follow. He comes to us with the offer of relationship. You know, after Thomas had this moment with Jesus, he says, my Lord and my God. He's basically saying, you are the way, the truth and the life, I receive it. And that's what Jesus is after with you and I.

That we would say, my Lord and my God, Jesus, I trust you with my life. I've been putting the weight of my life on things that will ultimately crack. I wanna put my life in your hands. And so if you wanna respond to that invitation today, I wanna give you a chance to do something physical to represent a spiritual response. Maybe you're doing this for the first time. Maybe a penny has dropped as we've been talking and you're like, man, I do understand how the way of Jesus is different. I do understand why he's the only way and I wanna receive him today that way. Maybe this is the first time receiving for you. Or maybe you're a Christian and you're like, oh gosh, I've been white knuckling this thing. I've been going here and not to Jesus. And I wanna return, I wanna repent and say, Jesus, I just wanna just trust you. I'm gonna give you a physical opportunity to do that. Just make a fist with whatever your dominant hand is. And when you put that fist over your heart. And this is just a symbol. That there are things we white knuckle when our hearts are troubled. I don't know what it would be for you. but that's what this fist represents, but maybe today you want to release that. And if you do, I just want to invite you to open that hand as a sign of release

and put that hand back over your heart saying, Jesus, I don't want anything between you and me. You are the way, the truth, and the life. And with every eye closed, if your hand is open and you want to receive, I just want to invite you to say this simple prayer after me. You can just say, Jesus, I'm done finding my own way. I believe you are who you say you are. You are the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. We invite you to stand, all of our sights. We're going to sing those words, because I want this to be an earworm that we can go back to when we are struggling to white knuckle in a way that we can release ourselves to trust. Let's sing these words again. I believe you are the way, the truth, and the life. I believe you are the way, the truth, and the life. Oh, I believe. Come on, sing it. You're the way, you're the truth, and the life. Oh, I believe you are. You're the way, you're the truth, you're the life. Oh, I believe you are. Listen, I hope this message has blessed you. I hope it's challenged you. I hope it's helped you to grow deeper in your faith and closer in your relationship with Jesus. I want to encourage everybody, everybody watching on Pando,

don't just passively listen to this message. Wrestle with it. Sit with it. Open the scriptures for yourself. Have the conversations. Ask the hard questions. Because if Jesus really is who he says he is, that changes everything. We genuinely love to hear from y'all. If there's topics you'd like me to cover on future episodes of Mornings with Mico or questions you're wrestling with, content you'd like to see more of, a prayer request, or even feedback on this I Am message today, write us, let us know. What's been standing out to you? What's God been revealing to you? Keep pressed on your heart. The testimonies are coming out of this season. What are you wrestling with right now? Write us at prisonsatcrossroad.net. One of the things we love most about this community is hearing how God is moving in your lives from all across the country. So hear me when I say this, please reach out to us. We genuinely want to hear from y'all. We love y'all. We're praying for y'all. And I'll see y'all next week on Mornings with Mico.