The “way” is the posture you should take as you take these steps; it’s the attitude and manner of what you do. In the scenario above, the steps involve all kinds of things, but the manner in which you take those steps is much simpler. It’s the way of lowering. The way of service. The way of not lording authority. And so it is with most of the complex issues of our day, and of our lives. We rarely know the next – or even right – steps to take. But we almost always know the way.
Jesus talked about a lot of things, and thank goodness He did. He directly taught us about money, conflict, friendship, service, sacrifice, and a host of other things, all pointing us to our need of Him. Because He talked directly about these things, we can still – 2000 years later – take Him at His Word. That’s because the nature of the things Jesus talked about don’t change.
Yes, we may have cryptocurrency today instead of denarii, but money is still money. And the implications of money are still the implications. Based on the direct words of Jesus, we can know with a pretty good degree of certainty the steps we should take in how we treat money.
At the same time, though, there were lots of things Jesus didn’t talk about. We can’t turn to one of the gospels and find Jesus telling us about artificial intelligence, for example. We don’t find Him speaking directly as to how to vote in a democratic election. Neither do we find Him giving direct instruction about what kind of schools we should choose for our children.
Of course He didn’t. Because even though the words of Jesus are once and for all time, they were recorded for us in a specific day and time. It was a day and time in which things like streaming services and education choices and even career change were not really thought of. So of course Jesus doesn’t address these things.