During the Passover Seder Yeshua told His disciples, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3

Life on this earth, all of it, is the way to that glorious, eternal, and shining home, where He is the Host and we won’t just be guests but rather members of His family. And we read on, “ And where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way.” John 14:4-5

Oh, I’m with you, Thomas! Unfortunately, I would often let out Thomas’s cry.

I would say, “Lord! I don’t know where You are leading me. How can I know the way? You say that I know the way, that I am Yours and You are mine, but I don’t feel that, Lord! You say that You hold me by my right hand, but I feel so lonely, abandoned, and lost!

But we are not alone. The Apostles experienced the exact same feelings. The Lord was sitting at the same Passover table with them, He was revealing all of Himself to them, He was making the Father known to them in a way only He could. And they went, “Lord, How can we know the way? And where do You go, Lord?” So many times I shouted this to God! And even more often I stifled it because I was ashamed, I was afraid to reveal what I really felt. But more than anything He knew my heart. I could share my genuine emotions with Him: my confusion, lack of understanding, and even bitterness.

Bitterness towards God? That’s right. And It took me years to realize those things do not repel Him. He won’t be abashed if I say what I really feel.

He knows that, but He appreciates it when we tell Him the truth. So, when Thomas spoke his mind Jesus replied,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

Yeshua doesn't just teach us faith in the theory. He reveals Himself. He lets us experience His heart. He is not repulsed by us pouring out our heart to Him about everything that disturbs us, worries us, and hurts us. And when we do that, He can answer exactly the way we need it.

Yeshua paves the living way

What does ‘I am the way’ mean anyway? Only years after reading this scripture was I able to grasp that we aren’t just on THE WAY, we are inside THE WAY, inside this main way. It’s the way that has taken us in. It’s not some passive and lifeless way. This is the way that is also inside of us. We are inside of the way and the way is inside of us. So, as we move in this way, this way moves in us. Yeshua paved this way and it lies through our hearts. This way is alive and personal. This way, on one hand, is one for all but at the same time, it is personal for everyone, who walks in it. This way is paved between that last Passover Seder on earth that Yeshua and His disciples celebrated, and the final triumphal Seder in the Heavenly Yerushalaim. The same Divine Person who was at the beginning will wait for us at the end.

He Himself is the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, as the last book of the Bible puts it. He is also the way of connecting the beginning and the end of everything. All things were made through Him, by Him, and for Him.

The way of the greatest love and compassion

When it’s revealed to you, when you understand how real every Word of His is, that His every Word can become your life and make this stream of living resurrected life of the Mashiah in you even more powerful. Then you find yourself filled with compassion for our Jewish brothers, who failed to see the way and put their trust in the blind guides of Israel and try to reach the goal with their own strength.
And of course, no one could be more precise in describing that than Shaul/Paul a genuine pharisee and the great Apostle

Brothers, my heart’s deepest desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation; for I can testify to their zeal for God. But it is not based on correct understanding; for, since they are unaware of God’s way of making people righteous and instead seek to set up their own, they have not submitted themselves to God’s way of making people righteous. For the goal at which the Torah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts.
Rom. 10:1-4

We shouldn’t condemn even those who condemn us for no good reason. When you experience the love of the Almighty when you experience the immensity of God's love who is one, perfect, eternal, and glorious. When you experience His mercy that’s being renewed every morning when you become one in your heart with His way and this way becomes a part of you - and this way being more than just the way of salvation, but also of the greatest love and compassion - then you yourself start showing compassion to those who haven’t yet found the way.

The way of grace

Only He Himself, Who is the beginning and the end of the way, can take us with Him to the end. And all attempts to replace His grace with our own religious efforts and concepts are doomed to fail. As we read in the Gospel of Yohanan,

“I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit...for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me...because apart from me you can’t do a thing.”
John 15:1-5

This word tortured me for years. I thought I could do many things on my own. And before I encountered the Lord it’s exactly how I would do things. But when you become the part of His way, when He is in you and you are in Him - you begin to realize what it really means. Only the things you do with Him, in Him, through Him, for His glory, bears fruit that will last forever. And even the most religious efforts of all kinds outside of Him will molder away and disappear.

The main condition for our ascent

That’s why the first generation of His disciples, who were mainly Jews, called their new Jewish faith “The Way”. Numerous chapters of the book of Acts confirm that. Many texts of the Epistles where we read "act", "so that you do", "so that you will do", in original texts it’s: “so that you walk”, “Walk in the Spirit”(for example Galatians 5:16 – “πνευματι περιπατειτε”\”walk in the Spirit” “ you walk circumspectly”, Ephesians 5:15 “βλέπετε...πώς περιπατείτε”,” See then that you walk”) It was something strange for the traditional church, that’s why it was translated differently in the Russian Orthodox version of the Bible. But it was the Jewish understanding of life and profound Jewish experience, the experience of the Jewish New Covenant.

As soon as a person surrendered to God through His Son Mashiah, they stepped on this way. And the most important thing for them was not to go astray from the way. That’s why the prophetic movement of restoration that we are participants of by the mercy of the Mashiah is really the movement of ascent in the way both ancient and new. As a commandment of love, ancient and new, it was given to Israel long before the appearance of the Messiah but only in the Messiah was it fully revealed.

Friends, if we truly ascend in His way, we will rely less and less on ourselves, and more and more on Him! "Less of me and more You!" - This is the condition of our ascent. This is the condition of the fact that those who came out of their "egypts" will never die, they will not perish, they will not remain in the wilderness, but they will ascend into the ultimate Glory of the Lord!

We must take risks. The weakest, the most fearful can take risks when he is inside of this way because it isn’t his own courage anymore! Not my courage, but the courage and zeal of my Lord, Who finished the whole way till the end. He Himself finished the whole way and eliminated on the cross all the obstacles that stood before me on this way.
He broke all barriers, tore my bonds and shackles, set me free, so that, when I start this way, I will never be lost by a wayside, but will certainly win the ultimate victory and will be accepted by Him into the heavenly glory!

© Boris Grisenko, the Senior Rabbi of KJMC