Introduction
This message was preached during a baptism service, right after four people publicly committed to follow Jesus. Pastor Benjamin starts from a popular hit song, "Chacun sa route" ("Everyone Their Own Path") by Tonton David, the theme song of the film Un Indien dans la ville, to question the central message of our era: "everyone has their own truth, everyone their own path, do what makes you happy." Then he opens to John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Three claims in one, like a shampoo slogan, but above all three claims that explain why getting baptized isn't just one more ritual: it's a choice of path, a choice of truth, a choice of life.
Message Outline
1. "Everyone Their Own Path": our society's message : and its exhaustion
- Tonton David's song (1994), which went gold as soon as it was released, sums up our society's central belief: everyone should live as they see fit, follow their own path to be happy. Thirty years later, this message is even stronger.
- In one sense, it's true: everyone heads in a direction. Some live for success, others for family, pleasure, a cause, a passion, a religion.
- But the question remains: what is the path of your life? The one you chose? For what reason do you live?
- A recent sociological study shows that choice has become a fundamental value: we should be able to choose what we eat, where we live, who we live with, what identity we claim. Choice gets equated with freedom.
- Except the more choices there are, the more many people end up exhausted, stressed, paralyzed by the fear of getting it wrong. Young people don't know what to do after graduation.
- And that freedom is an illusion: we choose among options already decided by society, fashion, social media. We think we're carving out our own path, but we're walking on roads already laid out by a consumer society.
2. Jesus says "I am THE way" : a countercultural claim
- Jesus doesn't say "I know a way." He doesn't say "one of the ways." He says "THE way."
- In a world where everyone wants to carve their own path, this is an exclusive, radical claim. On a TV panel or a YouTube channel today, he'd be accused of being an extremist.
- Yet Jesus dares to say it. And he dares because his way rests on truth.
3. Jesus says "I am THE truth" : the compass in the night
- Imagine: you're the captain of a ship, in the middle of the ocean, in total darkness. You have two options, trust your impressions, or trust the compass. Impressions change like the wind and the waves. The compass always points north.
- Our desires, our emotions, our cultures, the environment we grow up in change from person to person. This very morning, the women who were just baptized come from very different backgrounds, Cameroonian, Haitian, Breton (God even manages to convince Bretons), Congolese, Angolan. But truth stays fixed.
- If Benjamin followed his cravings, every day at noon he'd eat chips, fries, kebabs, and pizza. But the truth is, if you eat greasy food all the time, you end up in poor health. And his wife wouldn't be happy about it.
- The question to ask yourself this morning isn't about your food choices. It's: what determines the path of your life? Your desires? Society? Your family's culture? Your wounds? Or the truth?
- In a street-interview video on YouTube, a man asked passersby: "How did you come to the conclusion that what you're looking for in life is the truth?" People were thrown off. Many answered: "my family has always done it that way," "in my culture, that's how it's done," "society pushes me to have more in order to be happier." Rarely: because it's true.
4. Jesus says "I am THE life" : not one more spiritual idea
- Jesus doesn't say "here is a way, here is a truth, here is a life." He says "I AM." That's not an ordinary claim.
- "No one comes to the Father except through me": the Father is the one Jesus calls God. With this claim, we understand that Jesus isn't merely a philosopher, a sage, a guru, a prophet, a moral or spiritual guide. That's what people have projected onto him since. Either Jesus is what he claims to be, or he's a madman. There is no middle ground.
- Like in The Matrix: Morpheus offers Neo two pills, the red one, and you keep living comfortably in the illusion; the blue one, and you discover the truth, but it changes everything about your life. Jesus does something similar. He doesn't offer you one more spiritual idea. He confronts you with the truth, and truth involves your whole life.
5. Why this truth changes everything: the cross and the resurrection
- From the very first book of the Bible, God created human beings to live in relationship with him, not as a pawn in a system, not just to survive day to day, but to live fully in peace, trust, and love.
- But very early on, humanity said: "we want to decide for ourselves what is good and what is bad." That's what the Bible calls sin, not just moral failings (a piece of candy stolen from the bakery), but this separation from God.
- Ever since, people have been searching to recover that lost connection. Some in money (Benjamin was a banker, so he knows this well). Others in religion, morality, success, pleasure, knowledge. Pascal, the most clear-sighted French philosopher in our history, himself recognized this emptiness in humanity that nothing can fill.
- That's where Jesus enters the story. He's the only one who has opened the way back to God. Not a method, not a new religion, but his own life given up. He died on the cross for the forgiveness of our wrongs, to carry on himself everything that separates us from God, so that the road would be open again.
- And Jesus didn't just say this, he proved it by rising from the dead. Historically, the existence of Jesus is better attested than The Gallic Wars. Jewish and Roman historians of the 1st and 2nd centuries confirm his death under Pontius Pilate. As for the resurrection, it was proclaimed by hundreds of witnesses who went out into the whole world and died for what they had seen.
- An essential difference with other martyrs: political or religious martyrs die for a conviction they were taught. Jesus's disciples, by contrast, didn't die for something handed down to them, but for an event they had personally witnessed. You can be wrong about a belief passed on to you; you don't willingly die for what you know to be a lie.
Today's Baptisms: Four Commitments on the Path
This morning, four people were publicly baptized. They aren't "crazy people" who lost their minds, a cosmetics biology analyst, a lawyer, a law student, a biology teacher. Women who live, work, and think in today's world. They've experienced that what Jesus did in their lives is real, and he can do it in yours too.
That's what baptism is: a commitment to walk on Jesus's path. It isn't a human invention. It's Jesus himself who asked for it, in the 1st century, of those who chose to follow him. Getting baptized means saying: "I no longer want to carve out my own path. I trust the truth, what Jesus has shown me." After fifteen years of ministry, Benjamin says it plainly: he's seen people disappointed by money, hurt by their family, hurt by their children, hurt by their career. Hurt by Christians too, and by the Church. But hurt by Jesus's own words, never. Not once.
Key Takeaways
- The slogan "everyone their own path, everyone their own truth" looks like freedom, but it often leads to exhaustion and loneliness. We choose among options already laid out, with no shared reference point.
- Jesus doesn't say "one path among others": he says "THE way, THE truth, THE life." Three exclusive claims that hold together.
- Truth is like a compass: it stays fixed while our emotions, cultures, and desires change. It alone lets you reach the right harbor.
- Jesus isn't just a sage or a spiritual guide. He says "I AM", either he is what he claims, or he's a madman. There's no comfortable middle ground.
- The cross opens the way; the resurrection proves that this way leads somewhere. Hundreds of witnesses died for an event they had seen, not for a belief handed down to them.
- Baptism is a public choice: "I'm no longer carving my own path; I'm committing to the way called Jesus."
Personal Application
- What is the true path of your life today? For what reason, very concretely, do you live each morning?
- What determines your important decisions: your desires, your emotions, the society around you, your family culture, your wounds, or the truth?
- How did you come to the conclusion that what you're looking for in life is true? If you've never asked yourself this question, now might be the time.
- Are you ready to consider Jesus not as one more spiritual option, but as the one who confronts you with a truth that involves your whole life?
- If you've called yourself a Christian for a long time: does your life outside of Sunday show that Jesus is truly a path you're walking, or just an intellectual belief and a tradition?
- Have you ever considered baptism as a public commitment to walk on this path? If not, what's really holding you back?
Scriptures Cited
- John 14:6 · "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
- John 10:10 · "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
- Genesis 1 · God created human beings to live in relationship with him.
- Matthew 28:19 · Jesus asks his disciples to be baptized.
Further reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Jesus say "THE" way and not "a" way?
Because he doesn't present himself as one spiritual guide among others, but as the only one who has reopened the passage to God. This claim runs against the grain of a society that repeats "everyone their own truth," but it's consistent with the rest of his message: he doesn't offer one more spiritual idea, he says "I AM", either he is what he claims to be, or he's a madman. There's no comfortable middle ground that would make him just a likeable sage.
What is baptism really for?
Baptism is not a magic ritual or a mere family tradition: it's a public commitment to walk on Jesus's path. It's Jesus himself who asked for it, in the 1st century, of those who chose to follow him. Getting baptized means saying before witnesses: "I no longer carve out my own path; I trust what Jesus has shown me, and I commit to following him." It's neither a performance nor an exam, it's a public "yes" to a path already opened by Jesus.
How can we be sure that Jesus's resurrection is a fact and not a legend?
Historically, the existence of Jesus is better attested than The Gallic Wars. Jewish and Roman historians of the 1st and 2nd centuries confirm his death under Pontius Pilate. As for the resurrection, the decisive evidence is this: hundreds of witnesses went out to proclaim across the whole world what they had seen, to the point of dying for it. Now, one can sincerely die for a belief that was handed down and turns out to be false. One does not willingly die for an event one knows to be a lie. That difference (a handed-down belief versus a witnessed event), changes everything.
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