IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 295

• “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows“: Webster’s tells us of grief that it means The pain of mind produced by loss, misfortune, injury or evils of any kind; sorrow; regret; we feel grief at the misfortunes of others. 2. The pain of mind occasioned by our own misconduct; sorrow or regret that we have done wrong; pain accompanying repentance. We feel grief when we have offended or injured a friend, and the consciousness of having offended the Supreme Being, fills the penitent heart with the most poignant grief.¹. Can we see here that the writer is speaking as a man who is suffering under the idea painted above of grief is suffering; can we see how the Master could feel and understand and suffer through the grief of mankind, that He could grieve for everyman who had not the sense to do so for himself; can we see also that every moment wasted by mankind in not reaching out to embrace the new teachings had an effect on the Master causing Him to be in sympathy with the failures of all? Can we see the idea of sorrow in the same way from Webster’s definition which says: The uneasiness or pain of mind which is produced by the loss of any good. or of frustrated hopes of good, or expected loss of happiness; to grieve; to be sad¹. Can we see that if our premise is right and this is written from the perspective of one who is close to the Master and who is feeling somewhat of what He is feeling for all of the people, that the Master is also feeling this additionally for them, His disciples and that He is relieving them and us aspirants and disciples today of our grief and our sorrow but putting us into the joy of His presence? Do we not remember His words to us saying: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). This is admittedly a cumbersome interpretation but it is not any more cumbersome that those that portray this as the entirety of the grief and sorrow of everyman placed on the Master’s shoulders.
• “yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” Here we are, disciples and aspirants in that day 2000 years ago; we are looking at our Master who is first spoken badly of by the rulers who at times sought to harm Him and who then arrest Him and take Him before the Chief Priest and before the governor. We think: how can God let this happen to Him, He is the Holy One, the Christ of God? It is seen through eyes that know that the Master was not deserving of this fate and we look around and we see that it must be the Will of God…..and thus He is esteemed.
• “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” But then a reality sets in and we begin to understand that is is not the Will of God at play, at least not specifically to the Master’s hurt, but it is the will of man. In the realm of transgressions and iniquities, in the world of men, the Master is seen as an obstacle and a burden and as a threat to their way of Life. We have said before that most everyman has some inkling of right or of conscience which should be likened to the prompting of the Soul to righteousness; this is no different for the world in Jesus day except that emotion and instinct likely ruled more than mind. In this prompting is a sense of grief and sorrow as we see above in Webster’s definitions of grief and, in the rebellion of the personality against this sense, the man acted against the Master. The Pharisee’s likely know deep down that He is right and that they had fallen out of touch with God but this way that they live is all that they know and under the rule of their personality consciousness they rebel against the Master. Speaking as a man, these are our transgressions and our iniquities; we share them jointly with all until that time as we can say with the Master: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We can see this idea in this saying from the Apostle John as well: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (John 3:19-21). Can we see that in the world of illusion, glamour and deception that a man can find it easy to rely on the personality that he knows and that he believes is the only reality and can we see also that for the spiritual man such as the Pharisee that there is an additional burden of illusion in thinking and believing also that one is close to God because he follows this or that doctrine?
• “the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” Here is a rather obscure saying by the prophet when read in the King James Version (KJV). Perhaps it is better put in the New American Standard (NAS) as: “The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed“. Can we sense the idea here that it is for the ultimate well-being of mankind that the Master suffered the chastisement at the hands of the rulers of the people and eventually at the hands of the people themselves who rallied to the ruler’s call; that He played His part in this Great Drama and that in His death and resurrection He showed us the way of True Salvation. Can we see also as one who was close to Him that He took upon Himself ALL of the burden of which we might as well have been accused. Do we remember that He gave us His protection in the Garden and that He alone took the brunt of the ruler’s and ultimately the people’s anger. Do we remember that He told those who came for Him, and perhaps for us all, saying: “I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none” (John 18:8-9). The last part of the above phrase is given great emphasis in some parts of the church where it is seen as having much power in the healing of man’s physical ailments. Is this what this Truly says? perhaps, but it also says so much more to those who knew Him and who KNOW Him today. He is giving us the final understanding of His sayings regarding Life: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35) or as it is alternatively worded in another gospel: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). This is then the healing, that we give up our attachment to this worldly Life in favor of the Life of the Christ Within. The Master could have taken Himself out of these fated consequences in so many ways but He did not and this is a Great Example to us who would follow Him for as He told us: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Can we see better His taking the chastening for our well-being so as to show us the way, the way of the Soul and not the way of the world, and can we see the healing grace that we can claim from His experience? If we look upon what He endured, should we not wonder what we can endure for the Kingdom and in our recognition of the temporal nature of our lives in this world?
• “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” Here they are, sheep that have lost their Shepherd. The only cohesive factor in Life for those who were with Him is in Him as the Christ and He is gone and so it did happen, they were scattered and moreover that for a time they abandoned Him. They had no faith past His death and did not believe that He would return or even that He did return when they were told it was so. Those who were closest to Him forsook Him and He was becoming but a memory as would any who die. But on Him now was the new burden of resurrecting not only Himself but their Faith as well and setting them upon a course that would become the power of the new dispensation of Love. Can we see in this their iniquity, that those that should have stood strong faltered instead and can we see in this the added burden on the Master to pull them through; and through them us as well. This is the same burden that is now upon the Christ through the Christ Within in each of us, that He must prop us up and maintain us every day and in nearly every way so that we do not falter and fall back into the ways of the World.

• “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:19-21).
• “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
• “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past , through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25).
• “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:1-2).
• “…for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another”  (1 John 4:8-11).
• “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we , being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:21-25).

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

We leave this again today and have moved yesterday’s comments to below the Quote of the Day. Do we see in this our Christian ideas of the Christ Within? Though we do not say that we do not know how to find Him we should recognize that one’s inability to sense His presence and to heed His call is essentially the same thing. The reality is also the same; when we do ‘find Him’ we are His disciples and we proceed to do these other things. We sacrifice desires and works for the purposes of Life as the Soul in form, the Christ Within, which is our own perspective on the One by Whom the Universe was formed and we should see too that the objective is perfection which is what the Master directs us toward saying “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

We repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita. Today we see the God Within us as the Christ Within and this is good in the Christian world and this is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God. We should see that it matters not what we call this Inner Man as it is the same in ALL, it is the Soul.

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.