Jesus has become our Way, our Truth and our Life because he declines to have any way of his own

Luke 8:21 Jesus said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it."

Ruth Burrows writes in her book, Essence of Prayer

Jesus has become our W a y, our T r u t h and our L i f e because he declined to have any way of his own, any truth or reality of his own, only the Father's.  He declined to live from his own well-springs but only from the Father.  This is what we have to do; this is how we must live. 

Jesus is with us always not so as to pillow our weary heads on his breast and murmur words of solace in our ears continually, but to share with us his vision, his passionate dedication to the Father's will.  He is with us to brace, reinforce, underpin us for our life's great task.  True, he lifts from our shoulders the crushing yoke of an alien master, the god we have fashioned in our own likeness, by revealing the true face of the Father.  He breaks off self-made shackles of bondage and sets us free.  Thus his companionship gives us rest and real happiness.  Nevertheless there remains a yoke and a burden that has to be carried with courage and love. 

Life-giving, joy-giving knowledge of Jesus and the Father he reveals does not drop into our lap from heaven.  We have to work for it.  'Come to me', says Jesus, and we must go to him, and the prime way of going to him is by intent, loving absorption of scripture, particularly the New Testament.  Put simply, we must strive to acquire an intellectual knowledge of him, of his attitudes, values, teaching.  This intellectual knowledge is certainly not intimacy, certainly not a 'knowing Jesus' but it is an indispensable ingredient for intimacy and real knowing:  It is work we have to do, a practical expression of earnest desire to get to know our Lord.