Re-Introducing Yeshua
In western Christianity, the practice and experience of the spirituality of Yeshua, is often replaced with beliefs about Jesus.
Lesson 2: His Journey
Yeshua emerges onto the scene of first Century history in the Roman province of Palestine as someone who had been deeply moved and made alive through his own searching for the sacred Spirit. It seems that his growth into wisdom was the result of his search to find answers to many questions as he grew into maturity. As we have seen, he carried much within himself that perhaps we will never know, but what has been expressed in the various Gospel traditions are full of provocative possibilities, great depth, and many insights.
What we have received from tradition, and what has been found in a recently discovered manuscript in the modern era, give us richer possibilities to ponder, and a better foundation upon which we can build. Yeshua spoke out of his own personal experience of learning which took him on a journey into the depths of his own being. It also led him into a deeper relationship with the divine Presence that he named Abba. The use of that name is very suggestive. It seems to be very personal to him, related perhaps to the experience of his early childhood. In adulthood, it expressed an interior world that included a relationship of nearness to God who was for him both friend and a guide.
A key feature of Yeshua’s teaching was precisely this—the possibility of intimacy with God as a personal Presence waiting within at the level of heart. Jewish tradition had known and honored the God of transcendence. Yeshua took us inside so that transcendence could be experienced personally and intimately as immanence. The divine Presence was available to him there. The following is one expression of a teaching that is found in several early texts that speak of his deep inner experience and what we might call “the practice of Presence.”
My Father dwells in secret, so go into the hidden chamber and shut the door and commune there with the One who is in this hidden place within you. The Father is there in your innermost being, and there is not other place transcendent to this, which is the Fullness beyond all place.
- The Gospel of Philip, Analogue 45
Yeshua offered his students then (and to each of us now) this same intimacy with God—a personal relationship that takes us into the interior, the depths of our own being at the level of the heart. This is a fundamental insight of Yeshua’s and it is obvious that his own journey took him exactly there. Tradition says that he often went out alone into the countryside to pray. In that prayer, he came to know what he himself called “oneness with God” (which is recorded as one of his prayers, John 17).
A journey into personal depths
This journey into one’s own personal depths expresses two important truths: First, the ground of the heart lies at the core of our being, and second, the contemplative practice of communion can be experienced there. These appear to be related experiences, which are often forgotten. In western Christianity, the practice and experience of the spirituality of Yeshua, is often replaced with beliefs about Jesus. In all of this, the heart is the contemplative center inside us where the divine Presence can be know. The pathway to that center is a journey we can constantly make. This understanding helps to clarify another of his teachings expressed in this paraphrase: I am this path-WAY forward, I am its TRUTH, and I am the LIFE given you on this journey. No one can come into the Presence of Abba, my Father, without going through this (An interpretive translation, John 14:1-2).
Yeshua took us inside so that transcendence could be experienced personally and intimately as immanence.
A two step process
We might summarize this journey, then, as a two step process: learning and practice. Following in the footstep of Yeshua, we first take a step into understand and insight. Yeshua’s teachings help us gain clarity and wisdom. Then, when we are able to walk forward by taking the second step into personal practice—the practice of integration and prayerful contemplation. Yeshua is not asking us to believe in something (or even in him). He invites us to understand the truth he is teaching, and then to put it into practice. This is the way forward on a journey that Yeshua leads.
Questions for Reflection
Wisdom and the Journey
Notice the very different way of thinking that is part of this second lesson. Yeshua’s spiritual life and your own are not about believing the right things, but about coming to learn wisdom and truth through personal experience and then putting it into practice. This is the journey forward, not into beliefs but into learning and practice. How does this strike you? Journal your reflections and responses.
In some of the ancient teachings of early Christianity, this journey was said to be like walking or hiking where you take one step and then another on two feet. They called the first step Theoria (spiritual insight and understanding) and the second Praxis (putting it into practice through experience). These were the important steps on a journey in which Yeshua provided the Way forward, the Truth that you would need and learn, and gave you Life and strength to accomplish it. Does this make more sense to you than accepting a creed or a belief system about Yeshua? Why is this important?
…the Way, the Truth and the Life
The teaching about Yeshua being the Way, the Truth and the Life comes from John 14:1-2. It has been traditionally used as a description about the superiority and exclusivity of Yeshua/Jesus over anyone else, and about Christianity being the only path. We disagree with that interpretation, and have chosen a very different one instead. A longer discussion needs to explain how the ancient and eternal Logos is the Way that God makes available to all of us (John 1:1-5), and not exclusively the Jesus from Palestine. If that is true, then the Logos (or the divine Manifestation and Word coming from God) could have happened many times before and after Jesus, but also in him of course. Do you need more explanation about these various interpretations? Think about this issue and write any questions you may have.
Nearness, intimacy and the heart
What do you think about Yeshua’s understanding of nearness or intimacy with God experienced as a divine Presence within? How have you yourself known this? Is it common experience for you, just occasional, or perhaps not at all? What would make it a more common experience?
What do you understand by the term “the level of the heart”? How have you experienced that level? Make a list of examples of it in your life.
“…shut the door….commune with"
“My Father dwells in secret, so go into the hidden chamber and shut the door and commune there with the One who is in this hidden place within you. The Father is there in your innermost being, and there is not other place transcendent to this, which is the Fullness beyond all place.”
The Gospel of Philip, Analogue 45
In this Gospel of Phillip quote about his experience, what do you think “shut the door” means, and also “commune with” the Father there? What do these phrases suggest to you?
Take time to gaze at the following two images. They are iconic and open windows to truths we might not otherwise see. What do you notice? How do these illustrate the various teachings in this lesson?
Your spiritual path?
Do you sense that you are on a spiritual path? What has that journey been like for you? Make a few notes in your journal about this. Does Yeshua play any role on that journey for you? Journal your thoughts and reflections.
Re-Introducing Yeshua > Lesson 1: Historical Foundations > Lesson 2: His Journey > Lesson 3: