There where two trees in the garden. There was the tree that the first eikons (reflections of god) was told not to touch, you know the one with the “apple”. But there was also another tree the tree of life, it is interesting to note that god never told the adama (earthling) and his ezer kenegdo (lifesaver) not to eat from the tree of life.
Whatever we take from this ancient tale of first things (and I believe that we can learn volumes from these tales if we dare to listen to the message instead of the words) maybe we can take this:
Life is what god offers not knowledge. Knowledge when allowed to settle forms preconceived ideas, prejudice and the illusion that we know. Life puts knowledge on it’s head. Life throws us a curveball and forces us to rethink, to reexamine, to repent.
Jesus does not come with knowledge or with commandments, Jesus offers life and life in it’s fullness, life in abundance. Jesus offers aionos zoe (eternal life). Jesus even states “I am the life”.
So let me echo the words of my friend Jim Palmer: Life is my religion. I seek life with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind.
or in the words of Henry David Thoreau:
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”
Jesus also says: I’m the way and the truth. So, can The way or The truth be my religion? And what is religion, really?
Are you saying that the way and or the truth something is not Life…. What if it is the way to life and the truth about life?
no, I’m not saying that the truth something is not life. Jesus says that he is the way, the truth and the life…sounds like 3 different things to me. Just like the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 3 in 1 but with different tasks or whatever. So is Jesus: 3 in 1 – the way, the truth and the life