So I have been troubled for some time by this
statement. My husband and fellow theological thinker has always taken
the side that Jesus meant that he was one way but not the only way. But I
just can't shake this and when I get into deep theologically conversations with
people much more conservative then myself I always end up flopping over words
and truly feeling like I don’t have a good reason, except belief and instinct to
believe that Jesus truly meant he was only one of the many ways.
Until recently that is.
I was reading in John 8 about Jesus’ testimony of himself to the high
priests in the temple. There Jesus makes
a claim that he is indeed the light and they go on to accuse him of lying or
making false testimony. Jesus says that
he isn’t testifying falsely at all and eventually goes on to tell them that
they would know his “Abba” if they only got to know him. Another way of Jesus saying that he is the
way.
But this got me thinking…what is Jesus really trying to say
here? And what if it is MUCH more
profound than just confessing Christ to be your Lord and Savior to get into the
Kingdom – what if instead he is saying that WE might EXPERIENCE GOD in HUMANITY
in order to truly know the divine.
What I mean is that, in order to fully and truly know that
there is a God – something greater then all of us we must first experience the
Holy. It is easy for the mind to tell us
there is no such thing as a God. It is
easy for our brains to tell us science can indeed explain it all. It is pretty easy for an atheist to make the
claims that the Divine doesn’t exist.
But once we have experienced this amazing presence – we believe. Be it as a child worried about monsters under
our bed and praying to a God to protect us or as an adult sitting at the death
bed of a loved one – those who are faithful have experienced this Holy Divinity
in our lives. Maybe it was through the
birth of a child, the battle with an illness, the completion of a marathon or a
mission trip to help others – whatever it was those who believed have experienced.
Most of our experiences haven’t been actual encounters with
the Holy or Christ. They haven’t been
walks side by side with God as Abram was able in the Old Testament or
conversations with Jesus like the disciples must have had; instead our
encounters have looked much different.
But one thing remains the same – we experience God in humanity. We are touched by God when we help others and
hear the words “whatever you do to the least of these, you have done to me.” We are reminded of God’s love when a stranger
provides comfort in an unexpected place.
We experience God all around us.
Many of us choose to follow Christ and experience God’s
humanity through Jesus’ teaching; but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways
to experience God in humanity and come to truly believe. What it does mean is that to truly come to
know “abba” we must experience!
The divine is not found in our heads – or the rational
self. The divine is not something we
choose to believe in “just in case” there really is a Kingdom of God. The Holy is not something we should pray to
because we want to be seen as moral or any other mind reason. We know that Abba exists because we have experienced
Abba in our life.
Experience of the HOLY in Humanity is the WAY.
