The Sacred and Supernatural Way of Jesus

It is to the Lord Jesus you abandon yourself.  It is also the Lord whom you will follow as the Way; it is the Lord you will hear as the Truth, and it is from the Lord that you will receive Life.  (John 14:6)  If you follow Him as the Way, you will hear Him as the Truth, and He will bring life to you as the Life.  (Guyon, Jeanne; Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ)

I had always thought that when Jesus explained himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he was stacking metaphors to emphasize what he said next: "No one comes to the Father but by me."  What Jeanne Guyon wrote made me take another look at this verse.  I began to think that Jesus may have given these metaphors in order to give his disciples a path to follow him while he was not physically present.

Jesus is the Way.  He turned away people who would not follow his way, calling them to humble trust (Matthew 8:18-22).  Although Jesus told his disciples to respect the authority of the teachers of Israel by doing what they said, he warned them carefully not to do what they did (Matthew 23:2-3).

The Sacred Way of Humility

The humility of Jesus is best described in Philippians 2 as one "who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."  Just as Jesus entered human life, bringing God into every corner of human existence, so each disciple brings Jesus and his Father into each part of their own human existence.  We must not stand above or apart from our own lives, trying to grasp at something other than what we are given.

Within the stream of Christian tradition, we begin the way of humility with the call to Sacramental Living.  It starts small, perhaps with church attendance or Bible reading or habitually helping others for Jesus' sake, but like yeast in a lump of dough, it spreads and has effects far beyond its apparent quantity.  Sacramental living uses ritual and everyday life to grow in Christ.  Humble means for the humble way.

The Supernatural Way of the Spirit

The faith of Jesus, his utter trust in his Father, seems most amazingly obvious in his statement, "Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)  Human beings we intended to act with power far beyond themselves.  With a trust like Jesus, we find that the finger of God comes to lift burdens, cast out demons, and heal the sick in ways that are not explainable by normal human activity.


Within the stream of Christian tradition, true humility leads to deep trust and power.  This is life directed and empowered by the Spirit of Christ.  Those who follow Jesus must follow him in the Spirit.  We begin and finish with the Spirit.  Jesus explained how in the life of his disciples the filling of the Spirit would cause many things to happen, like seeds growing into plants all by themselves (Mark 4:27-28)  We are meant to do all things far beyond our own capability.

Wide and Deep and High

Sacramental living spreads the presence and work of Christ horizontally through one's life - wide.  The way of Christ may start in church, but it will spread into family and work.  The rituals and everyday practices become doors through which Jesus can enter life.  If they become too important in themselves, however, such practices lead to a constricted and dry life.  They must be jars to be filled and used instead of bricks to be labored over and made into walls.

Spirit-empowered living expands each part of life higher and deeper, giving it a vertical dimension.  At first it may seem life lightning striking out of nowhere, but then as trust deepens, so the higher ways of the Spirit become more evident and understandable.  Although disciples of Jesus follow him in the Spirit, they must never lose their grounding in everyday life.  Power without humility intoxicates the mind.  Daily living with rituals and practices keep power from overwhelming us.

The way of Jesus is a way of humble trust.  It is grounded in daily life and meaningful practices, where human life exists.  It also expands and explodes all human definitions through a dynamic life in the Spirit, who deepens our trust in God by his every action.  The way of Jesus is both sacred and supernatural.