Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCXIV
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 when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon . And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there” (Matthew 21:1-17).
We began Easter Week with our lead saying which remains above and with much scripture that outlined for us the reality of the Master’s telling His disciples what was about to happen in the not so distant future. In the first instance when Jesus had asked who the disciples though that He IS, and as they were ALL going to Jerusalem which is depicted in our saying above in the second instance. Both times His words were clear, there was no parable nor proverb, and each time His words were not understood and here we should see a part of the plight of ALL men over the last 2000 years, they hear or they read the Master’s clear sayings yet they do not understand or, better put, the do not realize in their everyday consciousness, in their heart as the Master frames this, the True import of His words. This is not because the disciples did not want to realize these Truths but rather because the illusion and the glamour in which they lived clouded these hard truths that they were hearing and this dynamic that had worked out in our sayings from yesterday about the Master’s apparent demise, will work yet today when we hear a thing that is alien to our current understanding or our tradition. This dynamic IS, in a more peculiar way, the same as afflicted the Pharisees and the other rulers of the Jews in Jesus’ day as well as the people through them and by our own imagination we can likely see the effect of this dynamic yet today.
The Master’s words were abundantly clear saying: “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:22-23) in the first instance which solicited rebuke by the Apostle Peter and likely similar response from the others. In the second instance we read “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again“, and here we have a combination of what they likely KNOW from the prophets, as these were most all seemingly religious Jews, and the repetition of the words of the Master from an earlier time. The Apostle Luke continues in saying that: “And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken” (Luke 18:31-34)and this we can see in the gospel stories IS True. In these scenarios we find a real time look at the Power of realization which we understand as the KNOWING in the carnal mind of the man in the world those things of the Soul and in this we can try to understand that the deeper the reality of the potential realization, the more difficult it is to penetrate the clouds of illusion and the mists of glamour in which we live. We may have the words and even KNOW the words well enough to repeat them to others but we do not KNOW their True import and this is, as we have said, the same dynamic that prevents us from Truly understanding those plain language things that we read today, those clearly stated things that the Master says that could correct the ways of man and the world and among these clearly stated things are the subjects that we cover here frequently; Love, brotherhood, the True nature of man and the True and only way to the Kingdom of God. In Matthew’s Gospel we read further that the Master again repeated His prediction although we KNOW that it is more than a mere prediction as He is telling them what WILL happen as a statement of fact. In this last instance the Master tells them: “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2).
Now according to Matthew’s Gospel the first two times that the Master spoke on His death and resurrection were before His arrival at Jerusalem and it is here that we pick up the story as it is given above and we should note here that in the second instance of the Master’s telling His disciples of these things that will happen, they are on their way to Jerusalem and this trip is a part of His saying to them as He begins His words saying “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem” (Matthew 20:18). Despite this, even as they approach the city, the reality of the Master’s words have not yet taken hold and this is only because they are yet focused upon their Earthly lives and what is happening in their little worlds. As we read above, the Master dispatches two to go into the village and retrieve the ass and the colt and the significance here is that this is done to fulfill scripture only and, this being a scripture that IS KNOWN to the disciples, still does not awaken them to the reality of what is happening. For whose benefit this scene about the ass and the colt occurs is unknown and there are some variations in the way it is presented:
- According to Mark we read: “And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied , whereon never man sat ; loose him, and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither. And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him. And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt? And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go” (Mark 11:1-6).
- In Luke’s Gospel the story goes much the same as above except a bit different in details but our point here is not to show the differences between the versions of Mark and Luke but the difference between these and Matthew who cites two animals, an ass and a colt, and the apostle’s notation that in this enactment prophecy IS fulfilled. Now these nuances are not accidental nor are the they points of neglect for Mark and Luke but they rather show forth the writing styles of each man as well as giving us some indication of what their individual perceptions are and what they each see as important.
In the combined stories we should see that there IS and ass and a colt which is defined for us by Vincent in his saying that A colt with her. The Lord does not separate the colt from its dam 4. In this we should see Matthew’s sense of right and justice as the colt is a young ass and just how young this one is we do not KNOW; we do know however that Matthew deems it important that we KNOW that the ass and the colt are not separated. We also do not find in Matthew’s version the interchange between the disciples and the owner (according to Luke) of the animals and this is likely that Matthew does not see the importance in this. However, Matthew does see the importance in telling us of the prophecy so that we might KNOW what the disciples likely ALL KNOW and that is that this ensuing drama is predicted and fulfilled as is the fate of the Master which, to this point, they still do not realize. It is rather unclear how many times Jesus goes to Jerusalem as an adult, as for our purposes we should not count His trips there with His parents as an infant and at 12 years of age, and it is likely not that important. John does reflect a number of things that the Master does at Jerusalem which seem time phased and in one, the cleansing of the temple, the timing IS disputed as it occurs early in the Gospel of John and after this ‘triumphal entry‘ as we read in the synoptic gospels. Let us look here at the Apostle John’s presentation of the Master’s entry into Jerusalem as He approaches His end time: “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt” (John 12:12-15). As we can see, John’s perception of this event is much different that the synoptic gospels and, as we have been saying, the perception of the writers of the gospels and the epistles should be understood in trying to reconcile the words that they use and the way that they tell us their stories.
The actual prophecy tells us “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout , O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9) and Zechariah is one of the later prophets dated at around 500 years before the Advent of the Christ among us. And in this prophecy the people do play their part in, they do rejoice as we read above; they “spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest“. As we can also see from Matthew’s words above the city of Jerusalem did not KNOW the Master and while some may have heard of Him the general tone was “And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee” and here we see the Master addressed to the crowd as “the prophet of Nazareth“.
In the three synoptic gospels the Master goes to the Temple upon his arrival and each gospel treats His arrival a bit differently; above in Matthew’s version we have interaction with the crowd, in Mark’s version there is no comment on the crowd and Jesus goes directly to the Temple while in Luke there is a small confrontation with the Pharisees and the Master’s reaction to the city itself. Luke tells us that: “And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace , the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:39-44). Here we see that the Pharisees who likely have heard of the Master still do not see or are not willing to see the reality that IS Jesus Christ and what He represents to the world; they are still deluded by their own sense of righteousness and their beliefs. The Master however deflects their criticism and addresses the plight of the Jerusalem in that day and the future havoc that will sweep it in the near future. And this IS NOT because of the Master’s presence alone but it based upon the carnal nature of their chosen lifestyle which is far from the teachings of Moses and the cries of the prophets who predicted the Master’s coming and the doom of the city. Now it is not for us to say that the city was under foreign rule because of the Jew’s turning from God nor that the sacking of the city in 70 AD was the result of the ignorant way that they received the Christ; we would rather say that what happens to the Jews and their lands in those days was the result of the causes that they put into motion and the attitudes that they held and yes, their actual relationship as well as their perceived relationship with God has a large role to play in this as well as it does in most ALL world events.
Aside from the few words that we have above, John’s Gospel does not elaborate at all on what happens as the Master enters Jerusalem. John does however tell us from his own perspective regarding the fulfilling of the prophecy of Zechariah that “These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him” (John 12:16) and it is likely that this type of recollection effected much of what the Master did which was predicted by the Old Testament prophets. So we have the Master now in the city of Jerusalem and here we should understand that His fate IS sealed and while He could walk away from this at any time, He realizes that this IS HIS DUTY to perform and that in His acts is the typification of our duty which is to forsake ALL as Jesus has done and as the Apostle Paul tells us saying: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24).
We will continue with our 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.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
