I think that your ‘possible interpretation’ is on the right lines, but there is a point in the argument at which I think it ‘right’ or ‘proper’ to go in a different direction to the one suggested. I agree with Jacob that exegesis can be used in the manner he describes to defend prior doctrinal interests and prejudices; I don’t like the divisiveness any more than he does; and I think that it is entirely right and proper to deconstruct these power plays. But I would say, first, that it is not just conservative evangelicals who are guilty of this - we all do it in one way or another; and secondly, that the answer lies not in abandoning the search for right and proper interpretations, but to go about that search with greater humility and respect for the perspectives of others - in other words, with a desire to learn collaboratively. That includes listening to the conservatives. I haven’t read Yarnell’s paper yet, but from Jacob’s account, I suspect that I am more likely to agree with Yarnell than with McLaren, though as with J.R. Miller’s example, I imagine that the whole debate will have been misconstructed. Now there’s humility for you!

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6)

Jesus’ exclusivist statement about the salvation of Israel needs to be read, at least in the first place, in the context of the story that is being told. We do violence to Jesus’ intent if we cut it from that narrative and make it a universal, context-free, self-interpreting dogma meaning something like ‘if you want to go to heaven, you have to believe in Jesus’.

The statement occurs in the middle of a difficult and rather confused conversation that Jesus has with his disciples about his imminent death. Judas has just left the house with the intention of betraying Jesus to the Jewish authorities. Jesus then tells the disciples: ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him’ (John 13:31). By alluding to Daniel’s vision of the Son of man receiving ‘dominion and glory and a kingdom’ from the throne of God, he reminds his disciples that he and they are on a journey of faithful suffering that will lead to vindication and the giving of the ‘kingdom’ to the saints of the Most High.

At this point he must make that journey alone, but the time will come when they will have to follow him down that narrow and painful road leading to life: ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward (13:36). In fact, in a figurative sense he will come and take them to his Father’s house and the comfort and vindication that awaits them there. He will ensure that when they face the same hostility and violence that he is about to face, they do not need to be afraid: they can trust God at that; they can trust Jesus at that moment, because he has gone ahead of them (14:1-2).

When Thomas asks how they are to find this path of suffering and vindication at the right hand of the Father, Jesus replies, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (14:6). The only way that oppressed Israel will be vindicated and the reign of God restored will be through Jesus, who has made himself the Way to new life for Israel, and who has called his disciples to follow him down that road. The conversation then shifts from the question of the Way of salvation for Israel to the question of whether the Father is truly revealed in Jesus (14:7-11).

So John 14:6 is a statement about the salvation of oppressed Israel from the wrath of God. But I do not think that this then allows us to say that other religions and cultures have their own equally legitimate ways of reaching God. That is simply not the issue here. The historical significance of Jesus’ death is that the family of Abraham, in the national form that it had taken as Israel, was saved from destruction: Jesus provided an alternative Way, a Way of faithful suffering, that would lead to the life of the coming age. But what has been saved is a covenantally defined community that regards itself as uniquely called to be God’s ‘new creation’ or chosen people or authentic humanity in the midst of the nations. We should not lose sight of the uniqueness of this vocation just because we have contextualized the saving significance of Jesus’ death.