the way: open to all traffic

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.


Before believers were tagged with the name Christian they were known as followers of the Way.

You may not realise this but this name has its origins in Genesis 3:24:

So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Yeshua is the Tree of Life. In the garden Adam and Eve had free access. The way was open to them to eat freely from the Tree of Life, God had given them the truth that they could eat from any tree other than the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. So, what happened?

They substituted truth for knowledge. Having chosen self knowledge over the truth of God, the way to the tree of life would now have to be guarded.

It may interest you that the  picture for the word truth in Hebrew (e-met) means mother of the covenant or what nurtures the covenant.

In Exodus 25:22 we find God instituting a change  from the situation we found in Genesis 3:24. 

“And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.

The angels are still represented guarding the way, but now once a year the High Priest can enter the way through the veil and sprinkle the blood of an innocent animal on the Mercy Seat, on behalf of all the people.

Finally in John 20:11 & 12 we find the crowning glory of this trilogy:

But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb.
And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 

The angels are still there, but rather than a High Priest coming near to the Mercy Seat where the blood of the innocent Yeshua has been sprinkled we see that a woman is the first one to encounter this New and Living Way. The veil in the temple has been torn in two and the Way to the Tree of Life has been re-opened to all who would come.

How wonderful it is to see how God has nurtured the covenant so we can now post the sign that says: 

THE WAY: OPEN TO ALL TRAFFIC