Not A Way, But The WAY

 

The Way

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:6

I woke this afternoon with the phrase the way in mind.  Usually that means there is something I need to look into to see if there is something I need to concentrate on.

We know that the early believers in Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah were referred to as followers of The Way.

To me, the designation The Way sounds practical.  This is how you do it when you want to follow God.  The Way was easy to understand and freeing. I think though, that it surely took a leap of understanding!

Then I thought to focus on how The Way was different from the old structure of Judaism.  What we call the Old Testament is full of references to walking in the way, so it was not a new concept to the Jews of the first century.  They had been hearing about it all along.  In English letters the word is derek for a road or pathway.  What they had to do to be faithful was follow the laws and instructions.  It's not really true what we hear about them not needing faith.  Of course they had to have faith, or hope in the coming one.

This is a very big subject, and I am certainly not going to get very far into it.  The world is full of scholarship about the scriptures pertaining to The Way. I will include a link to a nice set of lessons.  

What it boils down to is the Person of Jesus, or Yeshuah in the language he spoke during his time as a man. 

The centuries of practicing the way of God as laws and philosophy IMO prepared the minds of faithful Jews for this flowering in the Person of Jesus.

In a sense he said to the people of his day you have heard all your lives about the way, now I AM the way.  He had all the prophecies backing him up too. The miracles marked him as the one we have been waiting for also.

So, I arrive at the same conclusion LoneStar advised, putting my hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee. The Way indeed.