Jesus, the Only Way?

Jesus is Christ and Mystery for me, and holds that place of primacy over others who have been called incarnations of God, prophets of God, or intimates of God, in one sense or another. But it is also clear to me that many people find their way to relationship with God under the authority or with the guidance of a revered founding faith figure, a prophet, saint, or spiritual guide other than Jesus. And if I feel informed in a spiritual sense of Jesus’ singular and eternal unity with God, I also recognize that across the ages some other spiritual leaders, saintly or prophetically gifted individuals, have also enjoyed various and unique experiences of identity abiding in God, and have also been called uniquely to serve Him.

Be open to this reality—and also to the context, likely intent, and limits of Jesus’ well-known statement in the Gospel of John, interpreted by many as broadly excluding just such a reality. On the evening of His Last Supper, Jesus stated to His disciples that they could only come to the Father through Him. We read it or hear of it and, not knowing more, interpret it out of its context as applying to all people everywhere, throughout time. But don’t we have to ask the logical questions and observe the unassailable facts, then and now: Only through Jesus? As opposed to how else? Everywhere, through all time?

It must first be observed that Jesus' ministry was focused on God's people Israel, not those outside that place and the Judaic faith. Matthew 10 recounts Jesus first sending out his disciples saying,

Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jesus' ministry was an "in-house" corrective mission among Israel's Jewish people. And one of the prominent elements of this ministry was to challenge the evident spiritual waywardness of the Jewish religious leaders of the time: the Pharisees, priests and scribes. They were the self-serving defenders of their privileged place in theocratic Israel, a place, a role, too much embracing self-righteousness, their rigid, loveless view of the law, and judgment lacking compassion and mercy. Jesus assailed them as vipers and their faith life as akin to dried old bones in white-washed tombs.

It would seem at least reasonable that Jesus’ statements in John’s Gospel, as elsewhere in Scripture, might be interpreted in that context. And that context would suggest that the only way to God might be through Jesus, but only in the sense that the only way to God is through humble faith and agape love--as opposed to through the religious hierarchy and narrow teaching of the time, the spirtiually loveless administration of the law by the religious leaders. It would be expressed first through a consuming love for God, then a love for all mankind lived out through forgiveness, compassion and gentleness, the characteristics of Jesus and of God.

And isn’t it also important to consider the particular circumstances of Jesus’ statement? On that same night that he would be betrayed by Judas, and after issuing a new commandment that they should love one another, He informed His disciples that,

Where I go you cannot follow now; but you shall follow later…for I go to prepare a place for you…that where I am, you may be also.” Thomas asked, “Lord we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus then famously replied, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”

Isn’t it at least quite likely that Jesus is primarily assuring and comforting His disciples in those unnerving circumstances? And importantly, as part of that process, isn’t He also admonishing them that they should not backslide into the rigid, loveless faith life of the Pharisees and the Temple religious? They could not follow after Jesus in that way. Rather, they should hold firm to His example and His teaching of the New Covenant of Love—and in so doing find eternal relationship with Him and God. Isn’t that more likely what is happening here?

It is difficult for me to read into this general context and these limiting circumstances recounted only in John’s Gospel—most, a Gospel of love—the intent of God to limit His prerogatives in speaking through or to any of His people at any time, then or now. Reason, a spiritual sense for the nature and work of God, the past and present experiences of mankind, all suggest that such a conclusion is error—an error that has caused us to create distance and avoid community with so many others who also love God.

This in no way diminishes the singular and timeless shared identity of Jesus with God—nor the singular importance and implication of His coming, His ministry, His death on the cross and His resurrection, then or now. But it acknowledges that in other times, in other places in the world, God has spoken through special relationships with other people, as well. Certainly the history of God’s callings to His people Israel through special human relationships is clear throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament’s Epistle to the Hebrews. So many found their way to faith relationship with Him in that way. And there are similar relationships and experiences with God recounted in the origins and history of other faith traditions, as well.

In John’s Gospel, he also chronicles Jesus’ promise and explanation of the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus revealed that He had many more things to say to His disciples, but they could not bear them at that time—they were not ready to receive the further teaching. Jesus assures them, however, that when God’s Spirit comes, they will be guided further into the truth Jesus did not fully reveal.

And certainly more was revealed to the Apostles after Pentecost, as presented in the Acts of the Apostles and the various Epistles of Paul, John and Peter. But there is nothing in the Scriptures suggesting that the Spirit of God does not continue to reveal more of God’s truth to His people—for individual and collective understanding and edification—after the apostolic age. And as Paul in his epistle to the Colossians assures us that we put on a “new self” and are

'renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created [us],' he makes clear it is a renewal led by God’s Spirit 'in which there is no distinction between Greek, and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or freeman—Christ [God] is all and in all.'

And He speaks to all. Early in his letter to the Romans, a letter most about faith, Paul states unequivocally that what is known about God He “made evident” to all men.

'For since the creation of the world,' Paul elaborates, 'His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen , being understood through what has been made, so that they [all] are without excuse.'

If God so clearly reveals himself to all in this most natural and universal way—and if all therefore "have no excuse"—then surely, just as naturally, just as universally, His Spirit indwells, leads and teaches those who in this way accept His invitations to faith and relationship.

Surely also, then, reason and the broader spiritual experience of mankind compel us to acknowldege that God's Spirit has called to personal relationship with Him people in many faith cultures and traditions throughout time. A spiritual sense of God's nature and purposes helps us to understand that. And it's just as true today as it's always been.

As much as various religions try to deny it, try to define or limit the conditions and processes by which God calls and leads people—and in the process, try to define or limit people's access to Him—God will do what God has always done. He will love them all, call them to relationship with Him, each in his own way, show them compassion and forgiveness—all of them—whether the rest of us acknowledge or honor it, or not.

Why should we fail to acknowledge the broader work of God by denying His intention and willingness to continue to call to others of His people in different times and places through the different people and ways they best understand, before and after the incarnation in Jesus? It's quite simply what He has always done. Surely we shouldn't be surprised that people in other faith traditions have for millennia borne witness to this fact.

(But I do understand. We have our reasons—reasons based largely in defending our sense of identity in the too-human, too legalistic, organizational and theological constructs of our various religious cultures. And, of course, so many of us must continue the self-aggrandizing illusion of each of our traditions’ exclusive relationship with God. Humility, indeed.)

As a young man, I sojourned with an Eastern faith community. It was through them that God drew me back to Him. It was through them that I found a personal faith and first experienced God’s love. It would then be over a decade before God would lead me back to Jesus and the misunderstood faith of my childhood. If your faith orientation denies this reality, look into the eyes or read the writings of some of the many confessing lovers of God from other faith traditions. Listen to their earnest testimony of ardent love for Him and intimacy with Him. Understand that God is encountered there, too. And find joy in how many new brothers and sisters you have found.

This is difficult to communicate to the more orthodox brothers and sisters in Christ. They do not believe it, and don’t want to. They don't want to understand how or why it is true. But it is true. And the deeper my prayer life takes me, the more transcendent my spiritual life becomes, the clearer this is made to me.

But for those of us who God has invited to experience identity in Him through Jesus as spiritual Lord and guide, we should faithfully continue with Him, gratefully and humbly. His nature is Love and forgiveness, compassion and humility; His teaching and example are true in the greater, spiritual sense of truth; and His identity is of the same nature and reality as God’s. And through Jesus, we can move toward sharing something of the nature and reality of that identity, too.

First written: November 2006 – January 2007, updated November 2007 - March 2008
© Gregory E. Hudson 2007