Such ancient teachings resonate for contemporary people. The Sutra of Returning to your Original Nature offers words from the living Jesus that speak across the ages.

Then He spoke to the assembled crowd and said:
This Sutra is profound and unimaginable.
All the gods and gurus agree on this, and acknowledge
This Way that is the essences of connection and return.
To move you need light to see by — this teaching provides it
Just as the sun slants out, so you can see what is in front of you,
This Sutra offers understanding, and by its light
You can know the Way of Peace and Happiness in your heart.

If anyone wants to share these teachings with friends or family
Of course they can. Honor them, sing and pray together —
And this will bless you and your family into the next generation.
Every generation is united in this communion —
From goodness in past lives, people come to this religion
And through the faith they have they find Happiness.
It’s like the spring rain that refreshes everything —
If you have roots, you will flourish in its coming.
Ch.3 :12 – 19.

The discovery of a site so long hidden is wonderful. Finding art that so beautifully fuses Chinese and non-Chinese traditions is deeply satisfying and instructive. Knowing more about the forms that surrounded the early Church in China contributes much to our human heritage.

The spiritual teachings once imparted within these forms contribute even more. The Jesus Sutras urge respect, kindness, gentleness, and receptivity. To understand them is to peer into an almost-forgotten distant past. To understand them is to light a path to a possible future. Contemplating  “The Jade-Faced One” and the Church built around him in China may allow a model of Christianity that is not only ancient but well-fitted for contemporary life, a revelation not only of what has passed away, but of what can come to be.

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Reprinted from “The Jesus Sutras: an Ancient Message for a Post-Modernist Future,” Elixir: Consciousness, Conscience and Culture, No. 1, Autumn 2005, abridged with permission of the author.