The Way

 "I am the Way". Jesus.

Listening to a sermon this morning which underlined just how distant the "discipleship" of those who travelled with Jesus left them from actually following Him (none of them wanted Him anywhere near Jerusalem and the crucible that awaited Him there), I was pulled up again about how often we miss-hear, miss-read and, of course, miss-understand the nature of 'the Way' Jesus calls us to belong to.

Part of the problem is the manner in which we fail to perceive and live with the key idea of 'kingdom' in today's world.

In Roman times, it was evident what that meant continually. Rome stamped its seal on everything - local, national and globally, so whatever you did, from buying groceries to travelling abroad, it all involved the empire, and the power of that domain was present at every level. Living in a province like Judea meant constant engagement with that power, so when Jesus tells them that another kingdom is present amongst them, that really got their attention.

The last few years have made many of us aware in a palpable way of what happens when a 'power' begins to impress its requirements upon the very commonplace aspects of our daily lives. Routines become put aside, normal everyday things become interrupted, and everything we accepted as ordinary and typical is placed into a state of suspension. A new order has moved in, and we have become entirely subject to its priorities.

That is the radicalism of the authority of the new Kingdom. It shows us, as Paul unpacks it in Romans, that we were subjects of a particular domain, tyrannically and totally controlled by the malevolence of sin and death, but the first act of the new is to kill us to these. We still know and live in the domain where these powers are very real, even inside us (Romans 7), but the good news is that although, naturally, these things would destroy us, the birth of the new reign in us at baptism (Romans 6) means that the day of total liberty is coming, and that we have now - here in this present realm - tasted of the splendour that is to come.

The waters that flow in the new realm issue from the Throne of the Lamb, because in that everlasting realm, it is the death and life of Jesus Christ alone that sustains us and all things.

The ones that travelled with Jesus on that journey to Golgotha and the tomb were a mess. They failed to truly see Him, to hear Him, to do what was good, but the Lamb of God rescued them!

So, when we 'do' all that we do this week, let's look to 'Christ, and Him Crucified' as the one and only sufficiency we need in our days here. That's why living matters, and that's what makes our dying a coming home. He is the Way, and the destination.