The Words That Walked

Rediscovering the Teachings of Jesus as Lived Truth

I was sitting in a church service when the pastor read these words: "Anyone who believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these."

The congregation listened quietly, the way we listen to poetry—moved, perhaps, but not disturbed. No one seemed to notice that we were being promised something impossible. Not metaphorically impossible. Literally impossible by the standards we'd been taught to accept.

We can believe in Jesus, we'd been told. We can be saved. We can go to heaven. These were reasonable Christian expectations.

But do greater works than Jesus? Act with the authority he demonstrated? Speak healing into reality? Live in the kind of unbroken alignment with God that made his life look like miracle after miracle?

We'd learned to read that promise as poetry. Inspiration. Something Jesus said that wasn't quite literal.

Except he said it was literal.

"If you believe, you will see the glory of God." Not metaphorically. Not eventually. Now.

"According to your faith, it will be done to you." Not by God's whim. By your faith. Your alignment. Your internal state made external.

"The kingdom of God is within you." Not coming later. Not reserved for heaven. Within you. Now.