The Spiritual Journey of Jesus and Humanity

The hardest thing to accept as Christians is that Jesus didn’t come to save us from suffering in this life on earth.

He came to show us the way to live and grow spiritually. To outgrow our addictions to comfort, pleasure, things, power and need for safety. To become free to love the unlovable in a way that frees both us and them of fear.

Fear of suffering is the underlying fuel for all our addictions.

The pattern in the life and ministry of Jesus starts with learning that knowledge without love is not only empty, but harmful through his youthful experience of showing off his knowledge while hurting his parents. Mary later pushes him into his ministry of miracles just to save a young couple and their family from embarrassment. So, from the beginning he was learning that feelings matter, not just theology.

His next lesson was that no prophet is appreciated by those who knew them before they grew into their ministry. Rejection is part of the spiritual journey.

Then he is challenged to expand his ministry beyond his own people and religion.

Another leap is recognizing that no human is perfect, so has no right to judge or kill even those considered beneath them, like the sinful woman.

Jesus recognized and publicly pointed out that the woman who touched his robe was healed by HER faith, not HIS!

The lepers of his society were considered untouchable and unclean, but Jesus healed them even knowing they wouldn’t all be grateful enough to follow him.

With the man next to the pool, Jesus also recognized that some people need to be challenged to participate in their own healing.

The Samaritans were Jews who did not worship at the Temple or follow all the laws and beliefs of the Jewish religion and were persecuted by the Jews. Jesus tells the story of the “Good “Samaritan” to put kindness  above theology just as he did with his parable about getting an ox out of a ditch on the Sabbath.

The Roman Soldier who asked Jesus to save his child represented the hated conquering foreign government, the currently greatest enemy of Israel.

The woman at the well would have been anathema to a Jew. Yet she was used to spread the good news of the love of God fleshed out in Jesus.

Jesus kept expanding his understanding of whom God loves.

 And with the child possessed by demons, he experienced rejection for his healing, not acceptance or understanding.

All through his adult ministry, Jesus went away to spend time with God.

He needed to refill with grace, to seek guidance, to stay connected with the source of his gifts and courage, to prepare for the next challenge.

When he begins to understand that this is going to end badly for his human self, it takes time and grace to accept it.  His overreaction to Peter saying everything is going to be fine shows that Jesus was still struggling to accept it.

His abruptness with his disciples who criticize the woman for using an expensive oil to soften his bruised and worn feet, both affirms her kindness and admits that for humans pain and poverty are part of the journey and we all will need the kindness of others.

We see him struggle as he gets closer to the end and faces how terribly hard it will be and that he will have to face it alone.

His exploding with anger that the Temple is being used and people abused by greed foreshadows his agony in the garden facing his end and even those closest to him abandoning him because of their own human limits.  The pattern of anger before acceptance is part of the human spiritual journey.

Then ultimately, he forgives even those who had him crucified, understanding their human weakness and then trusts his spirit into the hands of the God who seems to have abandoned him.

At each stage of the spiritual journey we are called to let go of preconceived ideas and prejudices.

This is the spiritual journey for humanity that can only be lived out through the power of the Spirit of God within us.