The Way, The Truth, and The Life. What is it?

6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Imagine, one day you hear someone nearby saying: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.

You pause, perhaps grin and think, ‘This guy is really nuts, or he has an incredibly healthy self esteem’.

What were Jesus’ Disciples thinking when Jesus said to them, “I am the way and the truth and the life…”? Do you think they were surprised? Do you imagine they began to think He was out of His mind? No. They knew exactly what He was saying.

From their childhood education, the disciples of Jesus understood that Jesus was telling them that they have been studying about him before they came to meet. You see, male Judeans began life learning and understanding the Holy Scripture. The core message of the Holy Scripture was of preparation and expectation of a Messiah. Aside from learning the scripture, which was their main goal, they also learned to live and function as a member of the Judean community. (There is a link for further reading, beneath the body of my text on this educational system. However, without confusing the issue with deep discussion on Judean Custom, I want to focus on explaining Jesus’ relationship with His disciples).

I imagine the three words Jesus says to his disciples have an immediate impact on them as to what Jesus is saying when He used the Aramaic words for “Way, Truth and Life”. I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what each one of these words meant to Jesus disciples. However, there is a strong indication, by virtue of Jesus having used these three nouns alone, telling the disciples that “Way”, “Truth” and “Life” are descriptive of a phase or phases of education in the Judean male’s life. For example, we know that Isaiah prophesied “The ‘Way’ called Holiness” in Isaiah 35:8. Or, “Way” could be a reference to the first five years of a Judean child’s life, where the “Way” was lived by the parents of a child and taught by virtue of constantly placing Judaism and scripture in front of the child.

In a second phase of the Judean male’s education, we learn that the next five years were devoted to “MEMORIZING” the Torah, (the first five books of our Old Testament). And this was called, “Beit-Safar” (House of the Book), from which we may be correct if we assign “Truth” as a descriptive word, as this phase of education begins the intelectual indoctrinating of the young Judeans in “Truth” or knowledge of Judaism. (Now, I want to be very clear. I have studied for not so brief an amount of time and was unable to come to any solid conclusions on exactly what the “Way”, “Truth” and “Life” represent to Jesus and His disciples. If you have suggestions, state them as suggestions. But, please be careful to not state something that you do not know to be 100% true and in accord with Judean custom. I’ve read several commentaries on this. And I feel that speculation is at the heart of all of their assertions).

In the third phase of the Judean male’s education, The Jewish teen would then learn the books of Joshua through Malachi. At the end of this phase, the rest of the young Judean’s life would be decided. He would, either go on to the rest of his life, working in the profession of his father. or pass the entire phase and go on to pursue a rabi whom would assess the young man’s learning and possibly choose him to be his student, "talmid" or ‘disciple’.

If a rabi were to accept the student, the rabi would say something like, “Take my yoke upon you”. Does this statement resonate with you?

In Matthew 11:30, Jesus says, “My ‘yoke’ is easy, and My burden is light”.
Jesus was called teacher, rabi. Those twelve students he chose were His. They are called ‘disciples’ in the Bible, (students). (Again, I will say to you, I have read many commentaries on this issue. Many, many of them are weak in their interpretation as they just do not line up with the actual Judean teaching of the “Yoke” the Rabi placed on his students. In using the word, "Yoke" implies being bound to. As the rabi lived and went, so did his students. We see with Jesus’ disciples, as the disciples traveled with, lived with and learned Jesus' teaching.

The “burden”, (I will confess that I am going to guess) I think is what Jesus is requiring of His disciples. What is Jesus asking the disciples to do? “Love one another”? Love all of humanity? That is my guess.

So, my conclusion is: In Jesus' use of the words "Way", "Truth" and "Life", Jesus was telling his disciples who He Is. And in so many ways, you can see the disciples Jesus chose, had occupations because they were not chosen to follow a rabi. They were not the ‘crème of the crop’, so to say. They didn’t measure up to the standard set by Judean custom. And I think this is a very important consideration for you and I to take personally. The fact is, we are accepted. Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light. Pass the final phase, go on to make disciples of all nations, love God and people, and teach people to love God and to love one another.

Please continue in studying this idea of what The “Way, Truth and the Life” is. I have pasted a source for you to begin with below.




The Education of a Hebrew Child http://theonlinebibleschool.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=188