Long ago, when a caravan of people travelled in the Middle East, one of the party would go on ahead to the inns and make sure there was a room booked and adequate space for the animals to rest in the stables. We do the same nowadays, by calling ahead, using an app, or going online to book a hotel. And as we well know, when one journeys, they must make sure they rest well, eat well and are able to complete the journey.
Before Jesus was born, Joseph had not sent someone ahead to make sure his pregnant wife and the donkey would have respite and they ended up in an inn’s stables; having made no plans for the journey Jesus ended up being born in a stable.
Many years later, Jesus knew where he was going and John’s account explains this to us, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now; but you will follow later.” He’s telling his loyal faith family he’s going away, so you can you imagine the look of horror on his followers faces. Trying to think of what to say next, Jesus probably remembered the words of his mother, who we are told, “treasured things in her heart,” and recalled the story of what happened when he was born. Most children ask of how, why & when they were born and Jesus has no doubt heard the tale many times. So even though Joseph hadn’t the foresight to book a room at an inn, Jesus knows that the fear of a pregnant woman wanting to know where she’s going to bed down for the night is pretty much the same as how his disciples are feeling now.
“Where are you going?”
“Can I come with you?”
“I’ll never leave you!”
All the above are on the lips of the disciples. So, Christ reassured them that they will follow in due time, but he has to go on ahead of them, as if making sure there’s room for all of them. It’s a helpful allegory, yet they become confused when they ask where he’s going, for he says that where he’s going is to his Father’s and the way there is through him. The reassurance falters a little as the journey isn’t a physical road trip, but a person. So the question is how can a person be a journey ?
Typically, a journey is from a point of departure to a destination. The apostles had been travelling with Jesus, so was this a continuation of that journey? Or did it relate to an inner journey, an introspective, hippy-like, psychospiritual one? Was it like, what Augustine would later indicate, a journey looking inwards and then up, a soul searching expedition? Or was it indicating that life itself was a journey, from cradle to grave and then beyond?
There’s a song by Godley & Creme caĺled, My body the car. In the lyrics, the singer is explaining that, “My body is the car I’ve been driving around for 36 years – My body the car – slowly burning up the rubber and stripping the gears. Remember the time when a cigarette burnt a hole in my skin? There was no body in, to put out the fire.” Later on the song tells us there’s, “a man with a suitcase, with a whole bunch of shirts and magazines, selling roadmaps and bibles, and benzadrine.” And it’s in a similar way to how Christ is explaining how he is the journey, the Way.
For 30+ years, Christ was utilizing his earthly body to spread the message and heal people, as well as leading by example in his manner and actions. Nearer the time of his departure, he explains that his journey is continuing but without the vehicle they currently know him as driving in. He’s going on ahead to show them that once you get out the car, there’s still “life, Jim, but not as we know it,” and like Star Trek, we too will go on, boldly, to where no one has come back from before. So the journey is shown through the losing of our bodily vehicle, the assurance of the soul’s migration, and ironically, embodying the lifestyle and values of what could be called, right-living. This is how I believe Jesus is explaining how he is the journey, the Way. For, as we are told, no one can get to the Father unless it’s through him.
I do wonder if the childhood Christ had gave him the nuggets of metaphors he would use later in life, like having no room at the inn being used to explain how, unlike his earthly father, he’d make sure there was a room booked for the faithful in his Father’s house. In essence, he was thinking ahead and had preprogrammed the spiritual sat-nav with directions, “do right here – having left there, move forward – road narrows ahead – keep right – you have reached your destination.” This sat-nav is built in to our “body the car,” and makes our life journey also an example of how to live. So drive carefully and observe the speed limit.
Sougen.
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