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The Long Road to Heaven

A Lent Course Based on the Film The Way

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

(Isaiah 58.6, Ash Wednesday, Years A, B and C)

We know from the Acts of the Apostles that "the Way" was the name by which the Christian Church was first known. Followers of Christ "belonged to the Way" (Acts 9.2) and it was not until the founding of the church at Antioch in Syria that they came to be known as "Christians" (Acts 11.26). The Way was the way to salvation, the road that leads to life (Matthew 7.14).

Concern for salvation is at the heart of the Christian faith and is addressed throughout most of the New Testament writings. Christianity is a religion of salvation, although it is not alone in this; many (but not all) world religions have concepts of salvation. Salvation is not, therefore, a specifically Christian idea and Christianity is not in any sense distinctive or unique in attaching importance to the notion of salvation.

The Biblical concept of salvation is deeply rooted in the exodus from Egypt: God's liberation of the Hebrew slaves was the first defining episode in salvation history. In the exodus (from the Greek ex meaning "out" and hodos "road", literally "the road out"), God acted decisively to free his chosen people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, leading them out of captivity and forming them into a holy nation from whom one day would be raised a saviour for the whole world. Freed from Egyptian slavery, they began the long march from the land of bondage through the desert towards Mount Sinai, where Israel would receive the gift of the Ten Commandments and acknowledge no master but God. Eventually, after forty years wandering in the wilderness, they would finally enter the Promised Land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, the successor of Moses.

Seven hundred years after the exodus, the inhabitants of Judah found themselves once more under bondage in a foreign land, this time Babylon. The Babylonian exile, which lasted until the third generation of deportees, was followed by a homecoming – a new exodus – that elicits many parallels with the exodus from Egypt. This was the second defining episode in God's salvation history and an act of deliverance surpassing even the first in its glory:

Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ... to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. (Isaiah 43.18-21, abridged)

It is perhaps no surprise then to find, throughout the New Testament, images of salvation in Christ drawing on the motif of freedom from slavery and oppression. Jesus says, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8.34). And Peter writes in his Second Letter, "[False teachers] promise [people] freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them" (2 Peter 2.19). Slavery to sin and corruption, the default position in which human beings find themselves, has terrible consequences. Sin is a cruel master and offers only death to its slaves, as Paul makes clear:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you ... having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6.16-18, abridged)

Through Christ an alternative is available to slavery to sin and "slavery by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2.15): slavery to righteousness, which offers a life free from the power of sin and death. It is an absolute choice between two opposing masters, because "no one can serve two masters" (Matthew 6.24).

This idea of liberation from slavery to sin and death is extended also to release from slavery to the Law. Again Paul says, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5.1). The "yoke" was a rabbinic metaphor for the difficult but joyous task of obedience to Mosaic Law, a burden to be shouldered gladly by God's people in order to attain righteousness and salvation. One of the many requirements of the Law was circumcision: "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved," said some Jewish converts who had come from Judea to Antioch whilst Paul and Barnabas were there (Acts 15.1). This became a bitter dispute, to be settled later in the Council of Jerusalem, at which Peter stood up and said:

Why are you [believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees] putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. (Acts 15.10-11)

Making a clear contradistinction to the yoke of slavery to the Law, James "the Just", the brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem, used the phrase "the law of liberty" to describe the salvation available through Christ (James 2.12). Jesus himself also made use of the rabbinic metaphor for the Jewish Law: "They [the scribes and the Pharisees] tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others" (Matthew 23.4). And, most famously of all:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11.28-30)

So against the backcloth of history, of exodus and exile, Jesus, Peter, Paul and James all took up the motif of freedom from slavery – slavery to sin and death and the yoke of slavery to the Law – as images of God's salvation in Christ. The evangelists also drew repeatedly on details in the exodus story and turned them around to point towards Jesus.

In the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, which (according to the synoptic gospels) was the annual Jewish Passover meal commemorating the escape from Egypt, Jesus uses the great symbols of that ritual meal – the "bread of affliction" (unleavened bread) and the "cup of salvation" – as metaphors for his body and blood. According to First Corinthians, the earliest Biblical account of the Institution of the Lord's Supper, Jesus commanded his disciples to eat that bread and drink that cup in remembrance of him (1 Corinthians 11.23-26). I am the bread of affliction, the bread of freedom and redemption. I am the cup of salvation; it is my blood, my sacrifice, my death that will release you from your bonds and set you free.

The Fourth Gospel does not give us the Institution of the Eucharist in the same way because, according to John's chronology, the Last Supper was not the festive Passover meal but an ordinary supper on the previous day, "the day of Preparation for the Passover" (John 19.14). Accordingly, the symbolic bread and cup of the Passover meal were not present. John, however, does not miss the connection between the salvation of the exodus and the sacrifice of Jesus' body on the cross. The day after the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus contrasts his role as the true giver of life with the manna – the "bread from heaven" (Exodus 16.4) – that rained down on the Israelites in the wilderness to give them temporary sustenance. Jesus tells the crowd who came looking for him:

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. (John 6.48-51)

Except for two people, Joshua and Caleb, the generation that left Egypt never entered the Promised Land of Canaan, not even Moses their leader. They spent the next forty years wandering in the desert and died there. One of the things about manna was that it didn't keep. The Israelites had to gather it up within hours otherwise it went off; they were given it for the time of need not for eternity. Now Jesus declares that people's needs and longings are met in him: "I am the bread of life." Metaphors that pointed to God in the Old Testament now point to God through Jesus. Jesus reveals himself as the bread of life, sent from heaven by God, to feed us every step of the way and for eternity. He is the food that sustains us and nourishes us and gives us life. What people need for life is available in Jesus, and this bread never goes off and never runs out.

About the Course

As we have seen, salvation suggests deliverance, liberation, freedom, release, restoration and homecoming, powerful images of salvation firmly rooted in the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt and Israel's later return from exile in Babylon, the first two defining episodes in God's salvation history. And this is no mere escapism: "Deliverance belongs to the LORD!" (Jonah 2.9).

Yet salvation is not only about what God has done in the past; it is about what God is doing now and what God will do in the future. The story of the exodus has provided inspiration throughout history to people suffering under oppression and slavery, from the enslaved African people in the southern states of the USA before their emancipation in 1865, to the poor and marginalised of South America a century later who gave voice to what is known as "liberation theology". The lyrics of the Negro spirituals – the "spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5.19) of the enslaved Africans in America – return again and again to "my home", "Sweet Canaan", "the Promised Land". This free country was on the northern side of the Ohio River, which they called "the River Jordan". Michael Row the Boat Ashore is a well-known example of their dream expressed in spiritual song.

The story of God's people was taken up once more by Martin Luther King, the champion of racial justice during the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. In Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 April 1968, the eve of his assassination, he proclaimed:

I've been to the mountain top ... And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. (www.seto.org)

I'd like to take you on a journey to the Promised Land. It's a journey through Lent that starts in the Judean desert and leads to Golgotha. It's the journey that Jesus made from his baptism in the River Jordan to his betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion in Jerusalem, and it's the story of our salvation.

At the same time we'll take a parallel journey, following the fortunes of a group of pilgrims walking el Camino de Santiago, "the Way of St James". The characters are from the film The Way and on this pilgrimage, as on any other, the travelling becomes as important as the destination. Beginning with Abraham, the theme of journeying is an ancient one in the Church and provides a reason for the practice of pilgrimage. Like the story of salvation, which has always been told in the context of a deep emptiness and yearning, pilgrimage stems from an aching and longing to be nearer to God. The physical act of movement is seen to aid an inward journey of closer encounter with God; pilgrimage is a journey of inner transformation that brings us nearer to our true home.

Pilgrimage is a metaphor for life: an unsafe path towards the eternal home. "Being 'on the way' includes, and gives a name to, a fundamental situation of human existence" (Müller and Fernández de Aránguiz 2010:xv). Our whole life from cradle to grave – and beyond – is a personal journey that can be likened to a literal pilgrimage to a sacred place, on which we encounter many hardships and joys, highs and lows, along the way. The true path of pilgrimage is the course of one's life, and life as a pathway ends with the culminating experience of being united with God. Life is a journey crowned with a goal, and our true goal is the God from whom we have come and to whom we shall return. Yet many of the benefits of a pilgrimage are to be found not at the destination itself but on the road getting there – not least the kindness of strangers. There are many blessings to be counted, and when our hope of arrival is fulfilled we are just as likely to be giving thanks for what we have already received on the way as for what we receive when we get there.

The gospels tell us about Jesus' journey around Palestine; his disciples learn from him as they travel along and Jesus himself is challenged and changed by his encounters on the way. Eventually he sets his face towards Jerusalem and his destination on the cross (Luke 9.51). The one who has been sent by God, Jesus, the traveller-on-the-road, has called us to journey with him to the sacred place. As we follow some of the gospel readings set for the first five Sundays of Lent, we will meet some of the characters he encounters along the way: John the Baptist, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the man blind from birth, and Lazarus. With their help, and with the help of the characters we meet in the film, we will explore further the whole concept of salvation.

Pilgrimage, like salvation itself, is not a uniquely Christian concept; it is a religious devotion observed in all major world religions. Hindus make pilgrimages to the Ganges, Jews to Jerusalem, Buddhists to the Himalayas, Muslims to Mecca, and Sikhs to Amritsar. For Christians, the Way of St James is a spiritual journey that pilgrims (or peregrinos) have made for over a thousand years. Millions have done it and many have lost their lives in the process, travelling from every corner of Christendom to the Shrine of St James the Apostle at Santiago de Compostela in the region of Galicia in northwest Spain. In medieval times, the Camino Inglés, the "Way of the English", involved just a short walk from A Coruña after a long journey by sea. From southern Spain pilgrims took the Via de la Plata, which started in Seville, whilst further west was the Camino Portugués, the "Way of the Portuguese". But these were only minor routes. From all over the rest of Europe pilgrims converged on four principal routes traversing France, beginning in Paris, Vézelay, Le Puy and Arles. These branches of the Way cross the Pyrenees Mountains along the French-Spanish border and unite in a small Navarran town called Puente la Reina, "Bridge of the Queen". From here a single route, the Camino Francés or "Way of the French", strikes west through the cathedral cities of Burgos and León to the great Cathedral of St James in Santiago de Compostela, where a Pilgrims Mass is held at noon each day. The most popular route for pilgrims today starts just on the French side of the Pyrenees at St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, "St John at the Foot of the Pass". The distance from here to Santiago is 762 kilometres (474 miles).

Thousands of pilgrims of all ages and backgrounds make this journey every year, either on foot, on horseback or by bicycle, following the yellow arrows and stone markers that indicate the Way and staying overnight in the pilgrim refuges (refugios or albergues) that cater specifically for these weary travellers. Around 100,000 people each year register as having completed the final 100 kilometres of the route on foot or on horseback (or 200 kilometres by bicycle), either in a religious spirit or with a spiritual concern, to qualify for a certificate called the Compostela. On foot, covering an average of fifteen miles each day, one could walk the whole route across northern Spain in a month. Some (like me) "cheat" and do it in a week, largely by car or coach, but it remains a pilgrimage nonetheless.

Pilgrims travel the Camino for various reasons – religious, cultural, historical or sporting. Some are seeking healing or self-discovery, others adventure. In the film The Way we meet Tom (played by Martin Sheen), a Californian ophthalmologist, who comes to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to repatriate the body of his son Daniel (played by Sheen's real-life son Emilio Estevez) who was killed in the Pyrenees in a storm whilst walking the Camino. Rather than return home, Tom decides to have Daniel's body cremated and embarks on the pilgrimage himself, carrying his son's ashes, to honour Daniel's desire to complete the journey. Although Tom sets out with the intention of doing it solely for his son, he eventually becomes aware of what it means for his own restoration. He also discovers that he cannot make this journey without others – however much he tries initially to shut them out. Along the Way he meets a Dutchman, a Canadian woman and an Irishman, all carrying their own burdens and searching for a greater meaning for their lives. Tom's desire to be alone with his grief leads to growing tensions, and it becomes for all of them a journey of personal discovery that transforms their lives. It also proves to be the way in which Tom comes to terms – so far as anyone really can – with the death of his son.
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Long Road to Heaven by Tim Heaton. Copyright © 2013 Tim Heaton. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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