Remembering the Way: A Spirit-Led Interpretation of John 14:6
Speaking in the Tongue of Spirit
Christians often become deeply unsettled—even threatened—when the language of the divine expands beyond the printed ink of their Bible. But in the spirit of Pentecost—when tongues of fire made every language sacred—we are invited to go deeper. To return to the Spirit breathing within the words—not just the translations we’ve inherited, but the presence they point us toward.
This blog is not an attack. It’s not a deconstruction. It is an invitation:
To study.
To listen.
To let scripture breathe again.
Today, we turn to John 14:6—so often wielded as a line of exclusion—and we ask:
What if Jesus wasn’t closing a gate, but revealing a pattern?
Not to be worshiped from afar, but followed with our whole being.
When we trace his words back through the Greek and into the Aramaic, a new clarity dawns. The “way” becomes a journey. The “truth,” an unveiling. The “life,” the animating life force of God.
This offering for Pentecost is a sacred example of what happens when we study the language, surrender the ego, and let the Logos speak. It’s not about abandoning Christ. It’s about truly following him—not instead of worship, but as a deeper expression of it—into divine union, into coherence, into the tongue of the Spirit.
A breath, a spark, a remembering of the way through. An invitation to hear the voice of Christ—not just in doctrine, but in the lnaguage of the Spirit.
Jesus As A Mirror
Among the verses often held as a line of defense for Christian exclusivity, John 14:6 stands prominently. But in the light of Pentecost—when language was sanctified and made universal—we’re invited to revisit these words with a spirit of reverence and curiosity:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
For many, it's the definitive dividing line—recited like a theological password that determines who's “in” and who's “out.” A claim of certainty. A statement of religious superiority.
But what if this verse was never meant to be a boundary?
What if it was always meant to be a bridge?
What if Jesus didn't say this to shut the door, but to show us how to walk through it?
Unflattenign the Word
To uncover the deeper invitation hidden in John 14:6, we must first peel back the layers of translation. The Gospels were written in Greek, but Jesus likely spoke in Aramaic—a language of metaphor, breath, and embodiment.
Even in the Greek, we find nuance lost in English. Over time, the living Word has often been flattened, squeezed into doctrinal boxes small enough to sit neatly on the table of certainty. But when we return to the Aramaic, we find something more stunning: a living, breathing way of being—too vast to be contained, too holy to be pinned down—like wind, like flame, like breath.
Before we journey deeper into the original words of this verse, we pause at the name that frames them all:
I AM.
Nearly a decade ago, I inked these two powerful words on my skin. They carried a reverence I couldn’t yet name. I didn’t fully grasp their weight, only that something holy had been whispered to my spirit. Now I see—it wasn’t just a tattoo. It was an altar. A quiet acknowledgment of the presence that had always been unfolding through my life.
In Exodus 3:14, when Moses encounters the burning bush and asks God for a name to tell the Israelites, God replies—flames flickering but not consuming, a holy fire that echoes the tongues of Pentecost:
“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” — אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה
Often translated as: “I AM THAT I AM.” But more accurately: “I will be what I will be.”
It’s not a name in the modern sense. It’s a declaration of divine presence in motion. Not fixed, not static, but eternally unfolding. God holds the ultimate paradox: immutable in essence, but ever-revealing in form. Constant in nature—yet intimately present in creation’s becoming.
When Jesus says “I am,” he is not claiming exclusivity—he is revealing alignment. He is not just using the name of God—he is embodying it.
The Greek Revealed: Way, Truth, Life
Let’s revisit the Greek of John 14:6:
Egō eimi hē hodos kai hē alētheia kai hē zōē.
Hē hodos – The way, path, the unfolding journey.
Hē alētheia – The truth, unveiled reality, that which is unconcealed.
Hē zōē – The life, vitality, animated soul-force.
What if, instead of declaring a dogma, Jesus was painting a living pattern—saying:
“I am the unfolding journey, the unhidden reality, and the animating essence. No one comes into union with the Father but through this pattern.”
This is not a denial of Jesus’ divinity—it is a revelation of its fullness. Christ didn’t come to be worshiped from a distance. He came to dwell among us as the Logos made flesh—the pattern of divine coherence embodied in human form, fulfilling the law not by abolishing it, but by living its deepest truth [Matthew 5:17].
It was never a demand for allegiance. It was a call to communion.
The Aramaic Echo: A Living Path
As we arrive at the heart of this verse, it feels fitting—on this Pentecost reflection—to honor the sacred thread of language that has carried the message of Christ across time. While we don’t have John’s gospel in the original Aramaic, scholars and mystics have reconstructed what Jesus may have actually spoken:
“I am the living path, the radiant truth, and the life-force of all creation. No one comes into the fullness of the Father except through this way of being.”
In Aramaic, language is spacious. It pulses with possibility. Every word is a doorway. Let these interpretations breathe:
The Way is not a road to be traveled alone. It is a path walked in Spirit, in surrender, in trust—a surrender into what cannot be fully seen, only walked. It is the unfolding journey.
The Truth is not a concept to memorize. It is reality unveiled when ego dissolves and the heart perceives.
The Life is not merely existence. It is the sacred animation of the soul when aligned with the divine.
From Doctrine to Union
The modern Christian interpretation of John 14:6 often leans toward passivity—a distant hope for heaven after death, rather than a present call to transformation. But Jesus’ invitation was never about delay. It was about recognizing that the kingdom of heaven is within us [Luke 17:21], among us—waiting to be cultivated here and now.
But Jesus never said worship me.
He said follow me.
The call was always toward participation, not performance. He modeled the way, the truth, and the life—not to be idolized, but to be embodied.
This is what early Christians called the Logos—the divine ordering principle of the universe (John 1:1). Jesus didn’t claim the pattern as His alone. He revealed it, lived it, and invited us into it.
He is not the exception.
He is the mirror.
When Loved Ones Rebuke the Journey
If you’re someone trying to evolve your understanding of Christ—maybe being rebuked by loved ones, warned that you’re being deceived or drifting from the “narrow path”—let this comfort you:
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” [Matthew 7:9–11]
To seek God with an earnest heart will never lead to deception. To hunger for deeper truth will never result in poison. To expand your understanding of Christ is not to reject Him—it is to walk further into what He came to reveal.
Evolution is not abandonment. It’s intimacy.
The Tongue of the Spirit
On Pentecost, the divine descended not with swords, but with tongues. And not just one tongue, but many. Each person heard the sacred in their own language.
This is the miracle we return to: The Spirit speaks in the tongue of the one who is listening.
If we decode the language of scripture—if we let it breathe again—we may just hear the same voice that Moses heard from the bush, that the disciples heard in the upper room, that Jesus embodied on the path to the cross:
I will be what I will be.
I am the unfolding.
I am the pattern of life.
May we walk the living path.
May we speak in the tongue of Spirit.
May we become the coherence of Love made visible.
In love + light,
April