For all the good that formal religion does in the world, there is one element common to them all that takes a significant toll on the potential quality of the individual’s spiritual life. Nearly all depict their founders in a way that forever transcends the capabilities of their followers. Though Jesus shares the insight that “he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do” (John 14:12), few of us are ready to call in the press as we walk across a lake.
In the case of both mainstream and alternative Christianity, the focus of our spiritual aspiration has been directed to the personality and assumed accomplishments of Jesus rather than on what he taught. The more secular biblical scholars, those who are not trying to prove the merits of Christian dogma, understand there is a vast difference between the Jesus of history and Jesus the Christian icon. Unity author and minister, Eric Butterworth, accurately made the distinction between the religion about Jesus and the religion of Jesus. The religion about Jesus depicts him as a unique species, eternally placing the works he did out of our reach. The religion of Jesus presents us with a whole new set of possibilities that I like to think are more in line with his intentions as a teacher. We call him our wayshower, but did he intend that we follow his footsteps on his path, or was he showing us how to find our own?
There are indications that he tried to direct attention away from his own personality. When a man addressed him as “good teacher” he asked, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18). Of course, we can draw countless examples and engage in endless debate on who and what Jesus was and what he intended to teach. Ultimately, each person is left to decide what he or she will do with this matter. For me, his role as wayshower was to point to my path, not draw attention to his.
I realize many will consider such a statement arrogant, perhaps even blasphemous. But I reached the point in my life where the relevance of a teacher of any sort has to be measured, not so much by their own accomplishments, but by the potential they tap in their students. If a teaching does not in some way empower the one who studies it, of what value is it? I have to agree with Meister Eckhart when he wrote:
“We may well all rejoice over this, that Christ our brother has through his own power gone up above all the choirs of angels and sits at the right hand of the Father. This authority has said well, but really I am not much concerned about this. How would it help me if I had a brother who was a rich man, if I still remained poor? How would it help me if I had a brother who was a wise man, if I still remain a fool?”
The life I live, the earth and the universe I inhabit are mine. Am I to stand here as a bewildered product of evolution or as the unique cutting edge of a cosmically creative process that only I can fulfill? Am I to follow the millions who are turning the path of another into an ever-deepening rut, or am I to blaze my own path? Though I have long ago abandoned the religion about Jesus, I continue to mine the gems of truth, that mystical thread that I find scattered throughout his teachings. I do not find among this treasure the admonition to compare my path to his. I find instead the urging, even the obligation to love the lord my God with all my heart, mind, and soul. The fruit of his direction, I have discovered, takes me from standing in awe of my brother’s wealth and wisdom to tapping into my own.
The finger of a true wayshower never points to themselves. It points to that very spot in front of us where our next step will likely land. “Are you here to follow a path,” they ask, “or are you here to blaze a trail?” They are not asking if we are ready to walk on water, raise the dead or feed the hungry through a miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes. They ask only if we have come to that place in our quest for truth where we accept that an unborn facet of the universe stands at the door of our being and knocks. Are we prepared to open that door?
J Douglas Bottorff 
K….still a student and follower of jesus/yehoshuah…scripture/the bible/the written Word ..(think John 1:1 here…and also in revs…Jesus is also the Word of G_d)…. and breath of G_d aka Spirit of G_d which are happily married.
I was always puzzled by the verse… Jesus saying i am the Way, the Truth aka the wisdom of G_d and the Life re..at Jesus’s death/resurrection jesus gave mankind the gift of the Spirit of G_d to live inside them…you seek and follow after jesus…those who believe aka trust.
The term the Way has always haunted me but in the aethers…umm…I’m just a lowly seer btw…btw been a seer since the age of 7 when i beheld my first vision from G_d..bu5 anyhoos….I keep hearing the word..’example’…as in jesus is your example for knowledge and wisdom of G_d…to seek after and to follow after him…but never man! Spirit of G_d will bring one into remembrance of all truth..the length, width, breath…no one need teach you aka no human person… only jesus cos jesus is G_d’s literal Son/ G_d’s own progedy…G_d’s flesh and blood Son.. the full essence/divinity is in jesus literally!…Jesus is also the face of mankind before the Fall in the Garden and what mankind can become again when we follow after jesus cos only jesus knows Father G_d and knows Him intimately…has beheld the face of G_d. At present we behold the face of G_d thru jesus..aka G_d infleshed in a human body. Jesus is ‘the example’ but also the pattern…liken to a clay earthen vessel/human in the Potters hand aka Father G_d’s hand…as the Potter/God molds his clay vessel and sometimes needs to reshape/smashed doen and remold it till perfection aka G_d gets his satisfaction of the end product/end results! 9ne us made pure/genuine thru suffering., ya 5he trials and trib stuff…gold is made pure thru the fires of suffering and afflictions… not good times. Crises will either draw one to G_d or totally rebellious in the opposite direction. Crisises make ir break you as it were! One’s true Self is revealed in times of crisis after all…we get known of what we really are in those crisis times…the heart reveals all after all!….
I’m still learning at the feet of jesus who presently resides in the lands realms of Spirit aka heaven…but jesus via the Spirit of G_d and the written Word aka the scriptures/the Bible are my only guides in this world. I’m kinda like a student without a physical human teacher/mentor…and well heck..,G_d still speaks thru all of His creation and by many many different avenues! In the aethers I also keep hearing..Jesus is my ‘teacherless teacher’..ya a riddle here…jesus teaches from the lands of Spirit..in my case the dreamtime and thru visions..and the still small male voice and via the Spirit of G_d too.. and Father G_d oversees it all! SHALOM..
BTW…HAPPY HANNAKAH!!! aka feast od dedication…menorah.. re… 7 candlesticks/churches/menorah of the book of revelations ..Jesus is the shammash/serpent candle that illuminates the 7 candlesticks re 7 is symbolic of complete/ completion.
Oops..sry,,many typos..hope message still gets thru tho intact…my left eye is blind from diabetes and hands/wrists..among my many other body parts are full of bone cancer at present as well…so expect typos…lol btw..my cancer is terminal aka not treatable and spreads super fast too. I also deal with type 2 diabetes, a csf cranial leak, spina bifida with acm2 with hydrophalus and diabetic gastroparesis but i got G_ d..got jesus…so somehow, some way it’ll all work out in the end…its a matter of trust basically and relying on G_d qnd jesus alone!…period! My only son also has terminal cancer, 3 brain tumours and is type 1. We both are now continually bleeding from our canvers now too. Btw..my name is hebrew means perfect battle maiden..my son’s name in Hebrew means strong son of the right hand. The native aboriginal elders and medicine man call me sleeping mawuila qwa qwe which mean to their people…”sleeping holy eagle’ and of the eagle clan…which is a priestess name and title…how ironic!!! My son’s native name is ‘the great peregrine’ as is a native warrior name and title. Eagle means very spiritual as the eagle flies closest to the sun and sun is s6mbolic to the WISDOM of G_d..the Creator of All Things earth and cosmic! Btw..Hebrew names..and any name has a meaning…mostly denoting of G_d..one”s inner character and one’s destiny! Names are very important! Anyhoos… ttyl
Thanks, Doug, for continuing to advance the conviction, which I share, that Jesus never claimed to be an exception, but rather that he was the Wayshower/example of what we were intended to exhibit in our own lives. I was fortunate to be involved in a very free-wheeling Bible study where we threw out all the ‘study guides’ and doctrinal texts and just asked the Holy Spirit to lead in into the Truth, and to reveal what we needed to know from studying these Scriptures. One of our wise elderly members kept emphasizing what is essentially the Unity concept – that each of us Is a Christ awaiting our spiritual birth to understand and claim our true heritage as a child of God. Talk about mind-blowing! It begins as a mustard seed, a pearl of great price, yeast/leaven in bread or a treasure hidden. You do such a great job each week helping us to grasp these nuggets of truth which our intellects can’t comprehend. Thank you!
Thank you, Jackie, for your comment. More and more I’m thinking of Jesus as a normal but highly intuitive human being who experience a profound mystical awakening and then went about teaching others of this way. As you know, I no longer place the spiritual birth in an evolutionary timeline, as it can happen at any moment we manage to clear the way for the light to shine through. This, to me, is what the NDE experience reveals. That which we seek is already present. Wasn’t it Meister Eckhart who said something like, “That which we are looking for is that which is doing the looking.”
Sounds like you had a great Bible teacher.