Nothing in church history has done as much damage as the idea that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
No one can count the families torn asunder, the innocents tortured as heretics, nor the minorities oppressed because the church thought they would be tortured eternally if they did not convert to sectarian Christianity.
The church honors itself, not God, when we say God has only spoken to us. I cannot imagine a blasphemy more arrogant than to boast we are the only tool in God’s toolbox.
When Jesus said salvation could only be found through himself, I do not believe he meant through the Christian religion. When he was “the way, the truth and the life” I do not believe he was speaking as the leader of a religious sect. I do not even believe he was speaking as a human ego. Instead, in the tradition of mystical Judaism, I believe Jesus was speaking poetically as the creative heart of life itself.
My guess is that Jesus was referring to the radical and universal love which he had embodied in his life and in his death. I believe he was saying that only that radical and universal love would take the disciples to where he was going. It seems to me he was telling his soon-to-be heartbroken followers that, deep down inside, they already knew the way home.