“And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.” Luke 9:6 ESV
Reflection: what did Jesus mean when he said that he is “the way”?
I love to travel. There is something very exciting to me about the proverbial “unknown road ahead”. To explore and experience new things. While I love to experience nature, I am especially curious about observing people in their own culture, wherever I go. And I have found that blending in as much as possible, meaning not being a “typical tourist”, not only shows respect and appreciation for others, but it actually improves my own experience. Locals are easier to meet and engage with, if I show interest in them.
Now there are a lot of people who love to travel, but are typical tourists. Easy to pick out in the crowd, because they are often demanding and comparing everything to their own culture. And might therefore miss what a new culture or location has to offer. While two people can travel to the same destination, the way they behave will change their experience.
The road and the way are different.
We generally think of the word “way” as a road, a physical path, but we forget that it also has a metaphorical meaning of behavior, mannerisms, course of conduct, even way of thinking, as it was also meant in the original Greek text.
Jesus sent his disciples out to share the good news. But the way they did that was different. Jesus gave them a different way to do that. He “sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” Luke 9:2 ESV. He equipped them with power and authority, to preach the gospel and to heal. People in the villages had never seen this before. It was a new way, not the way of the religious or the way of man.
I am sure you are familiar with the verse where Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6b ESV. He is telling us that, by being a Christian, or more correctly, a disciple of Jesus, we have a new pattern to live by, a new way to approach life. The old is gone. It is in His image we approach the road ahead. Not like the typical tourist, but that we engage with those we meet. Those that God puts in our path, where he has prepared good works for us to do. So how can we figure out what this new “way” is?
We study Jesus. And we absorb his words, let them saturate our thinking so that they become part of us. He says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” John 8:31-32 ESV.