The Importance of Truth...

Truth defined; Core concepts for living as shared by Jesus, which have the capacity for application by all. Foundational principles we may understand and maintain as true about ourselves, true about our connection to the source of all creation and true about our connection to one another.

All of us embrace a myriad of "truths" throughout our entire life; Varying ideas about what is true for us at any given time. Yet, our individual responses and our embrace of such beliefs are often just "momentarily." Simply because as we grow, change, and evolve, what we consider as true for us also changes. And we ultimately act out our own personal response to the things we hold to be true based on whatever it is we've accepted at any particular time. Our lives are comprised of a series of things we may hold as true for a period of time but all subject to change.

In considering those essential truths Jesus taught, we'll see that there are core teachings for us that may have application throughout our entire lifetime; Truths that aren't however, subject to change. Such things that may be considered foundational principles, true for each of us, even in the midst of all the diversity we've inherited. But even though these principles are "eternal," we are all still subject to our own varying responses to these core themes and the resulting spiritual growth. Our embrace of or wavering responses to such truth and walking in the light of it, resides at the center of our own flow as individuals and may exist as a kind of parallel to what we experience throughout our lifetime.

In light of the above, consider the sun and the solar system as an amazing allegory to illustrate how the existence of essential truth remains steadfast - as a light - yet how our relationship and response to that light changes with how close we reside to it and how it ultimately affects how we feel. Using the earth and its relationship to our sun can help illustrate how essential truth resides at the center of our "right knowing."

Photo by Andressa Voltolini on Unsplash

The sun and it's ever present light represents "Essential Truth." Unwavering, and steadfast, remaining in existence whether we take notice or not. Now consider human kind as represented by the earth, circling the sun and it's light throughout our lifetime. And although we move from night to day, dark to light and respond with seasonal changes, the light of the sun - or for our purpose, truth in this picture - remains constant and without change.

Ultimately, our individual response to the "light of truth" is both figuratively and literally a result of how much we turn to that very same "light" and ultimately "walk in it." And when we do, we'll reflect such light. But as the earth orbits around this light of truth, or equally as we exist with the knowledge of truth, we still will experience light and darkness, and the resulting seasonal changes. Seasons filled with growth and stability, falling back and decline, unto new growth, in never ending pattern. Our lesson is this; Truth is the constant in this model, it remains steadfast and unwavering. Yet - "we" - (as does the earth) do not remain in such a state of constant connection, because our lives are in a kind of orbit. Yet, the never ending presence of the light of truth (in this illustration the sun) remains to serve us, provide a means of connection unto itself and ultimately provide us with a vital component for our existence.

Possibly, an ethereal metaphor, but nevertheless one that exists to attune the reader to the methods Jesus felt most comfortable and saw as most viable when he shared his greater message. Simple "visible illustrations" of our natural world which model the myriad of relationships and responses between ourselves and our creator.

Jesus shared foundational principles that we may simply "know as true" without a complex narrative that requires our "belief."

Here's a very important reference from the scriptures,

John 18:33-38: Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

In this simple passage, we find Jesus in a courtroom, providing his own defense, serving as his own lawyer. In the exchange, Jesus is literally making a “closing argument” for who he was, and why he was here. His words and more importantly, his emphasis are essential to transcend our understanding. Here, Jesus strives to reframe the picture his religious audience paints, to turn away from a worldly, literal presupposition of being a king, and away from the construct of his day, of "reigning over an actual, literal kingdom."

In the most critical moment of his life, facing a “death penalty sentence,” standing before those serving as judge and jury, the defense offered up by Jesus is not to assert and proclaim he is Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Messiah, Sacrificial Lamb, Son of God or even God.

Instead, his defense and his ultimate, final message, represents the foundation of his entire mission! A defense that directs the reader toward his unique priority and person.

“The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.”

His statement is specific and exists to serve a shift of the “religious narrative” he found himself cloaked in “then,” just as the emphasis surrounding him - and us - remains “today.” An emphasis I assert that nullify's his message of empowering and enlightening individuals through a new reality founded in an understanding of truth.

Ultimately, Jesus communicated a modern approach to life and living which is to transcend ancient, Old Testament ideas rooted in separation.

It's important for those who haven't considered that statement to consider that separation in all its forms exists as an obsolete way of understanding our world. And it often causes us to exist in a constant underlying distress.

Consider this: Everyone. Each of us. Everyone, is on a Spiritual Journey. Whether we know it or not. And our Journey's are as diverse, unique and original as the DNA and fingerprints of every single living person. Both present and past.

What we witness or observe and what we feel and experience in our world today is the combined effect of Everyone's - Spiritual - Journey.

All of us.

And each one of us is talking about, speaking out, acting on or living about our own journeys.

Our challenge is there's an underlying "idea" beneath much of the way we think, that serves as an archetype in the back of our minds, that sees the world through a lens of Separation. As a result, the reality that humankind understands the world through, is rooted in layers of separation. These ideas have held our progress as an entire species in a recurring cycles of societal hierarchies preoccupied with race, gender, religion, culture, and geography. And within those micro structures there exists level of separation formed by differences amount their own but rooted in education, wealth and position. Essentially, layer upon layer.

As we cast a Light onto this condition, and each of us calls for our own personal requiem on the direction mankind has taken, it's vital to recognize: Jesus spoke about and acted out an ongoing demonstration and celebration of Unity. Unity, of such that in its totality served each of us as the Kingdom of Heaven. Unity in all its forms, but at its core, Unity founded in our mystical oneness with the indwelling presence of God, existing within each of us as "Our Father." Our own personal, supporting, teacher and guide. A truth that didn't align with the prevailing mindsets of his time. Possibly the same reason certain readers find out of step with the journey they find themselves on and the world on. Recognizing at various levels the incongruence of their own attempts at peace, love and contentment in l

Jesus’s mission in communicating essential truth, was precisely the reason he’d be in a courtroom at all. What was true for him didn’t resemble the religious model that came before him, and his message to the contrary is what provoked his detractors. Yet, instead of placing Jesus as a truth teller, sent to bear witness to a way of understanding reality in a new, modern context, the religious narratives have mostly stifled his teachings on truth. Our view of him has been obscured by a Jesus lifted up so high in worship, that we've missed his role as our enlightened truth teller who challenged convention, and provoked and inspired his listeners by calling forth a new reality and a modern way of understanding.

This lens we've been given to view Jesus through has created a very specific tension for many. The role of Jesus serving as “Lord and Savior,” has stifled initiation into understanding the truth he says he was sent “to testify of.” As a result, the totality of the religious response is mostly one relegated to adoration, worship, superstition and fear.

Simply put, the response Jesus sought to invoke from his followers to whom he delivered his testimony of truth was not “adoration or worship or even salvation.” It was quite simply “IMITATION.”

Can we agree on this?

We’ve been told we must adhere to the religious footprint that’s existed for so long yet, the results are right before our eyes. I simply ask, "what transformative impact exists at the core of a model primarily based on faith, belief and worship? How do these responses really move human kind forward to create spiritually, self regulating individuals equipped to thrive in a modern world?" It feels to me these are the aesthetics given by a culture that has no other real, tangible responses to the inspiration that's been given us and instead chooses to simply shuttle beings from our birth to our ultimate death in order to serve us in some "other lifetime."

Jesus constantly referenced a greater way of being - in the here and now - with a clearer understanding of our present incarnation.

We’ve clung to the religious narrative and more specifically - the priority set forth- for over two thousand years yet, modern man continues to spiral down into recurring cycles of despair and dissolution, anchored in layers of separation, societal hierarchy and all the resulting distress.

There's a coherent message shared by Jesus that represents “Essential Truth.” The bedrock of knowledge that women and men can build their lives and their ultimate perception of reality upon. Ideas that we may simply know as true. Core principles that may be defined by the very results of how they're expressed by us when we activate them and live them out. Which, to the greater meaning of Jesus's message, exists to create UNITY in ALL its forms, starting with each of us individually and resulting in a collective, shared sense of balance for all of human kind.