Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCXVII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. And when they had sung an hymn , they went out into the mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad” (Matthew 26:1-31).
Today is Good Friday as the day is called by some; it is the traditional day of the death on the Cross of the Master and it is tied to the first Full Moon of Spring as the Friday before the first Sunday after the Full Moon. We have selected the version of this day from the Gospel of Matthew and we will insert other verses from other gospels as we move along as there are several differences in one from one another. We start here with a reminder by the Master regarding His impending death and this we covered a few posts back as the last time that Jesus tells His apostles what is going to happen and here in this reminder there is no response recorded by the apostle. Matthew does however go into the idea of the plotting by the “the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people” and we understand this from earlier remarks by the Apostle Mark where at the time of the Master’s arrival in Jerusalem and His cleansing of the Temple; We can easily see as the intentional provocation by Jesus in His ‘cleansing of the Temple’ and Mark tells us of the reaction: “And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine” (Mark 11:18). Clearly Jesus KNOWS that His time is at hand and clearly the wheels are in motion that will lead to His arrest and His crucifixion and this is our earlier point, that the Master IS a willing and in some ways eager participant in this Great Drama and while He may not be able to control the free will of the men to whom He is made subject, He DOES KNOW how this will ALL end…..in His death.
In our view above from Matthew’s Gospel we have next the story of the “a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment” and there is a bit of confusion regarding this insofar as timing and the words that are spoken and we should believe that this is included in the gospels because of the Master’s instruction as we read above; as “a memorial of her”. We will look here at this from Mark’s Gospel and the Apostle John’s as these ideas will help us to understand better our discussion on Judas as we move along:
- Mark’s version goes thus: “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat , there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her” (Mark 14:3-9).
- John gives it this way: “Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always” (John 12:1-8).
In these three versions we should see that Matthew and Mark are very similar and that they differ only in details given while in John the story is quite different and especially John’s depiction of Judas who we will see that John does not care for at all as we move along in our essays. We should note also that John calls the woman as she “anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair” while both Matthew and Mark say that she “poured it on his head“. Now we can believe that the woman did both or either as it does not matter but reinforces our premise regarding the writings of the four gospel writers as we have been discussing. Here however there is yet another anomaly and this we find in the Gospel of Luke who reports a story very similar to these in which the woman is a ‘sinner’ “And, behold , a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment“. Here is these sayings from the Apostle Luke we also see that the man of the house is named Simon as we read that “Jesus answering said unto him, Simon” (Luke 7:37-38, 40). Again here we can believe that this is the same encounter as we read above or that there is a second one which Luke depicts as happening much earlier and, again, it does not matter as it is the underlying meaning of this encounter which is of importance to us. We again point this out to show further our premise regarding the recollection of each and the importance of an event or a saying to each apostle. Here we should note our understanding of the underlying meanings in these various sayings:
- First there is the woman and her act and whether she is a random woman, the Mary that John mentions, or a sinner as Luke tells us, the result is the same; she anoints the Master with a very precious ointment to the ire of the disciples as we read in Matthew, Mark and John. Now the concern here is likely based upon the apostles understanding of the teachings of the Master insofar as forsaking ALL, as they had, and giving to the poor as the Master had instructed the rich young man who desired the Kingdom and to whom the Master says: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:21). Here now the Master overrules them and His own teaching in favor of the better lesson which is that one should be grateful when another gives what can be considered her greatest possession to another, unsolicited and with a True meaning and, we find an echo of this understanding in this story related by Mark: “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living” (Mark 12:41-44). Can we see the indignation of this encounter is not against the woman but against the Master who the disciples believed should have taken the ointment to be sold for the poor but which He used as an example of True giving? And, can we see in this that the apostles are still largely concerned with their view of Life in the world?
- The second part here is in regard to the nature of the indignation of the disciples; Matthew tells us that “when his disciples saw it, they had indignation” while Mark tells us that “there were some that had indignation within themselves” either of which can refer to some or all of the apostles. John on the other hand places the indignation firmly on the head of Judas and from the general tone we should see that the subsequent actions of Judas do play a role in John’s judgement as he tells us “Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein“. Here we can sense that the Apostle John is mired in worldly thoughts and not in the words of the Master on Love and in the Golden Rule that tells us and John “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12) and perhaps even more so Jesus’ saying “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1) or as this idea is given in his own gospel where Jesus says: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). We should understand righteous judgement in our terms and according to the way that the perfect disciple would judge: according to God; we should note also that these words by John are written many years later and that at this time he still held a contentious view of Judas. We will continue with our thoughts on Judas as we proceed.
Bypassing the words about Judas here and moving on we come to the Master’s instructions on the place for the group to eat the Passover and here again we have some differences; above in Matthew’s version we see the Master saying: “Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples” while both Mark and Luke frame this as:
- “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in , say ye to the goodman of the house , The Master saith , Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us” (Mark 14:12-15).
- “And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished : there make ready” (Luke 22:8-12).
Again two points regarding the above; first we should be able to see here the ‘choreographed’ way that this is happening and this is especially visible in these versions above from Mark and Luke where the Master anticipated and KNOWS that when the disciples get to the city the man will be there to meet them and to take them to the house. We should see here another instance of a Soul who had come into incarnation to perform a specific task and this is much like Simeon and Anna, the Wise Men and the shepherds at the Masters birth and even the centurion for whom the Master heals his servant. Now we do not KNOW which of these is charged with what but we do KNOW that there IS a plan in place that accommodates all contingencies and this is what can be seen in the Master’s instructions here. The second point as brought out by Mark and Luke is that the man is “bearing a pitcher of water” and for many this is a symbol of the coming of the Aquarian Age, the New Age that we are moving into yet today and an Age whose name is Aquarius which is represented as the ‘water bearer‘ and whose symbol IS a man carrying a pitcher of water. We should understand that these ideas and symbols are not created afterwards but exist before the Advent of Christ and can easily be traced to Babylonian times. Neither of these ideas here, the Aquarian symbolism nor the choreographed nature of acquiring a place to eat the Passover should be seen as accidental.
Skipping over accounts of Judas again, we have next the supper itself and this is become a highlight of the Christian religions and again there are some differences in the gospel renditions of this. Above we have the version from Matthew; the rest are:
- “And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:22-25).
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“And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:15-20).
We should again take note of the differences and let us look at the doctrinal understanding as well. We will cover the version of this from John’s Gospel as we address the whole of our thoughts on Judas. Here we have three versions of this and a further repetition of this by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians. It is interesting that two of our versions above do not contain the language by which this bread and wine have become a solemn sacrament in many denominations of the church and a ritual practice in many others. Taking the language from Luke and then from Paul, the churches created the these rituals and, for some as the Roman Catholics, there were rules that governed how and when one could ‘receive communion’ and some rules still do exist. Our point here is that this is the doctrine of men at work and not a commandment from God and the ritual and the sacrament are tied to His words “this do in remembrance of me” which we can cleverly see as His saying that one should remember the Lord whenever one breaks bread and this would be more in line with the general tenor of the Master’s teachings. This has become a Christian rite however and one that does serve the purpose of putting one’s mind on the Lord whenever this ritual is practiced and, from this perspective, this is good.
So we have here the Master eating His last meal with the apostles and we find Him saying that He will not drink wine again and in Luke that he will not eat again either until:
- According to Matthew: “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom“.
- According to Mark: “Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God“
- According to Luke: “For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God…..For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come“
Here we have a combination of sayings that should be reconciled to mean one thing and there are number of ways to view this. For us who KNOW that the the Kingdom IS a state of being and NOT a place this is rather easy to discern while from the way that this is written by the apostles it is clear that there may be some confusion regarding the intent of the Master. We see this intent simply as His saying that He is leaving and will not be partaking in these things again until after He is departed and can be seen again in the apostles understanding as being in the Kingdom of God. The Master is ever in the Kingdom and He is expressive of that reality through His Life in form and we can better see this as we discuss His resurrection and the nature of His resurrected being. This can be seen as the Soul that IS the Christ in full command and control of His place and being on the Earth. Considering then that we have three different understandings here and seeing that the perception of His return is a heavenly and a divine one in the eyes of His apostles, it is easy to see here that He will drink and will eat again with His apostles when He returns, when He is resurrected, and we can see the reality in this in Luke’s Gospel where we read that after He appears to them resurrected that “he said unto them, Have yehere any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them” (Luke 24:41-43) and again, as John tells us, we see the Master on the shore cooking for His apostles and: “Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine…Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined….” (John 21:12-15). Can we see our point here? that while there is no mention of wine or drink we do have the Master eating and of this He did say that “I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God“.
John does not address these things that happen at the supper; he gives us but one simple line before going on to Jesus washing of the disciples feet, an event that he deemed more important than what we have above; John tells us: “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself” (John 13:2-4). From here the Master goes on to wash the disciples feet. There are a number of differences in the accounts of the story of Judas Iscariot and much misunderstanding and condemnation of hem and we will begin with this and move on to the Master’s crucifixion in the next essay.
We will continue with out thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
Note on the Quote of the Day
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:
Leaving again the Great Invocation, we encourage ALL to read and reread it and our comments as in these words can be found the keys to our spiritual reality.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132
The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.
Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.
The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should see them as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit albeit on a much smaller, microcosmic, scale.
