Jesus is often referenced as a symbol to other things like the way, the path, the light, life, truth, love, righteousness, etc. The character represents the embodiment of principled living in truth and morality.
The light of truth, and specifically moral truth, shines the way to truer, realer and higher life, to a resurrection into a new, renewed, reborn, revived and reawakened "afterlife" from the former self we were before the light of truth ignited the flame of life within us. Caring for truth ignites a new life within us, and sends us on a new journey, path and way of living.
But that path and way brings interference, turmoil tension, pressure, fiction and conflict with others. Truth doesn't unite with falsity. Truth divides from falsity. Truth is like a sword that wages war on falsity. When we speak to others who are living in falser ways, it creates a point of contention, a point of conflict. Truth isn't first about being peaceful with others and not talking about controversial things. Peace comes from truth afterwards.
Here is how Jesus is described in one famous Biblical passage:
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me."
- Matthew 10:34-40
"Jesus" is the symbol for truth and how truth operates. "Jesus"/truth didn't come to bring peace. Truth stirred things up. If you want to maintain peace, getting along, going along, not rocking the boat, then you aren't on the side of truth/"Jesus". Truth is uncomfortable in many cases. It's not about tranquility, but is often more about stirring the pot and rocking the boat. We can be comfortable in our illusions, and being shaken up to wake up from that spell is uncomfortable. It's a tumultuous process.
Speaking and standing for truth will often turn father against son, mother against daughter, and so on. Those who speak truth are often disliked by those who are still attached to falsity, and this creates animosity and turn people into enemies for the moment as the battle of truth vs. falsity wages on.
If you love your family or other personal attachments more than truth, you will not be worthy of truth. You have to love truth more in order to stand by it and fight for it. If you ignore, deny, reject or refuse to accept truth, or are unwilling to follow the truth wherever it leads, then you are not taking up the cross to bear the burden of truth and all the interference, turmoil tension, pressure, fiction and conflict that comes with that process, both within ourselves and with others.
Bearing the cross and burden of following the way and path of truth/"Jesus" can be uncomfortable. But if you do, you will find higher, truer, realer life. If you let go of the personal life and attachments that prevent you from following the truth, you will actually find life, the "afterlife" of a truer, higher and realer life of being awakened to the truth within. If you lose that former life for the sake of truth/"Jesus", then you will find your realer, higher and truer life. You will find a life imbued with meaning and purpose from the power of truth igniting your "deadened" care within. From being "dead", to renewed, reborn, reawakened and resurrected to be alive in an "afterlife".
If we don't "fight" for truth because we are afraid of getting our hands dirty, then the truth will die out. The flame within us will burn out. If we want to keep alive what truth, right, good and morality we have in the world and to make things better, we have to "fight" for it. Staying in the safe-space of not rocking the boat, not causing trouble, keeping the peace, going along to get along, etc., to keep ourselves in so-called safety and security, is to keep ourselves in shackles. we risk losing everything right, good, moral and true that makes life worth living if we don't stand up for it to keep it alive.
I hope this helps clear up how the Bible authors use symbolism, metaphor, analogy and parables to talk about things that really matter. I'm not religious or "spiritual" by most people's definitions, but I can recognize valuable knowledge and the encoded understanding and wisdom that is reflected through symbolism in religious text. To follow and walk in the path and way of "Jesus" is to follow and walk in the path and way of truth and morality.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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