The following is a transcript from an interview in “ONE – The Movie” in which Wayne Teasdale beautifully addresses the spirit in which Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
"It is not those who say Lord, Lord who will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father. And what is that will? He illustrates it in Matthew 25:40 when he talks about the final judgment and how to be saved. He says that then the King will say, meaning God, Come ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the Kingdom that was prepared for you from the beginning. Because when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was naked you clothed me, when I was a stranger, you welcomed me, when I was imprisoned you visited me, when I was sick you consoled me.
"When, Lord, when did we do this? When you did it to the least of my brethren. It doesn’t say anything about faith in himself, faith in Jesus. Now, the Scripture scholars tell us we only know six sentences Jesus actually spoke – maybe even less than that. And to say…they will always bring up this I am the way, the truth, and the life. Okay, let’s take a peek at that, and illustrate that in spirit rather than in the letter. If God is love itself, infinite love, and Jesus is the incarnation of that love, he is come to reveal the essence of that love through his actions more than his words. That by being loving in that way – that selfless way – that is leading to the mystery of the Father, who is infinite love itself. To the extent that he is teaching that, illustrating that, he is the truth of that reality. And to the extent that he embodies that – that is the way of life. If a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Jew, an animist, an atheist, achieves that level of love in their life, not only do they know God, they know Christ…because Christ and God are that love.
"So you see this kind of narrow kind of interpretation leads to a kind of ossification of understanding. And I like to say narrow is the way that leads to eternal life, but it’s not narrow-mindedness. It’s love in action – you, know, it’s much deeper than that. And they don’t talk about love too much…they talk about, you know, do you know Jesus Christ. Well, do you REALLY know Jesus Christ? In that deeper, Biblical sense of intimacy with the Divine – do you embody that? Do you incarnate that? Do you radiate that? I think that’s closer to what Christ was talking about – to what the gospel was talking about."
3 comments:
I like how you said, "narrow is the way that leads to eternal life, but it's not narrow-mindedness". That resonates with me now. Mental narrow mindedness is one of the causes of judgement and division among the brethren.
Well, I didn't actually say it, Wayne Teasdale did. But it resonated with me, too. And you're so right, the way of narrow-mindedness does cause division. The way of LOVE is the narrow way that leads to eternal life!
Oh, by the way, thanks for commenting - it's exciting to have my first comment!
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