the Way

Listening to: Mason Jennings

Feeling: Reflective

So. Here I sit, prepping for tonight’s lesson. We will be looking at some interesting words of Jesus. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” You will be my sounding board as I attempt to straighten out my own thoughts.

Earlier today I had a conversation about these exact words, not knowing I would be studying them later in the afternoon. We pondered about what Jesus meant by these words. If Jesus didn’t come to make a new religion, then what do these words mean? If he is the way, which way is he going, and where is he leading? Truth. What does it mean to embody it? Is this deeper than moral truth? Life. In what ways does Jesus bring the life that is more than eating, sleeping, and breathing? In such a simple and seemingly straight forward statement I found myself asking questions, unsatisfied with the easy answers. You know. Those answers that I used to say, “He was saying that if you aren’t a Christian than you go to hell, because Jesus is the way to God.” As I get older I know there is more going on than the foundations of a new religion… perhaps Jesus is embodying what all religions try to do; point to God. But, instead of pointing to it, he said, “Follow me! I am the way! God and I are one.”

So. Where is Jesus taking us? What is the way? Well. Where did Jesus go? What was his way? His was the way of the cross, death and resurrection. The cross, his death and resurrection, is about justice. Not justice in the sense of an iron fist, but justice in the sense of wrong things being put to rights. Wrongs being put to rights in everything. restoring not just me with God. Restoring US with God. Restoring US with ourselves. Restoring US with everyone. Restoring US with creation. The way is to and through the cross. The truth is that everything and everyone is deeply loved and living in the presence of God and nothing can separate us from it. The life is the restoration of old into new, broken into whole, perverted into pure, cursed to blessed. The restoration that brings heaven to earth.

Do we go through only one “death and resurrection”, as in baptism? Once, and then thats all? Im not sure this is the case. The way of life that embodies the resurrection will come to places where “deaths” need to take place, and where “resurrections” will bring new life. These battles inside of ourselves… the death of our own ego. Thats what carrying our cross is about. Dying to ourselves. But, if you’re like me you find that once you die to something your old self somehow creeps back in. It is a cycle. Life follows that cycle. Its not always about success. Some call this the path from orientation, to disorientation, to re-orientation. The problem is, is that our re-orientations become our new orientations, and get in the way… the trip us up along the way.

The way, truth, and life is not always external… but an internal struggle too.

The way,  truth, and life, Jesus is bringing people to the heart of God, pointing people in the direction of heaven. I hope we can follow Him there.

There are still many words to be added. As we travel the road towards restoration, might we be people of the Way.

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