IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 283

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LXIX

Today is Good Friday and there is no certainty as to why this day has come to be know by this name. This is the day that we celebrate, if we can use such an idea, the death of the Master or, as we should say, the death of His physical body. This day then leads us to that next Great Christian Holiday, Easter, which is the day of the Resurrection of the Master and what so many believe is the taking up again of the physical body. We have covered this idea before in our posts and we will look at this again in the next post; there is much more to it all than meets the eye in illusion that has been created regarding the resurrection, the glamour that this event evoked as regards eternal Life and the ‘general’ thoughts on the resurrection of the dead. Do not misunderstand the way that this is written as we know that there is a crucifixion and a resurrection of the Master but we believe that the ideas surrounding these things are not what Christianity has made them to be. Starting out here we should understand that the whole of this drama is scripted and fated to be from the times of the vague pronouncements of the prophets. We say vague here because the people in their day had no understanding of what the prophets were saying or what the writings meant; these were all recognized after the fact as are some of the happenings and sayings of the Master as the Apostle John tells us in regard to Jesus arrival at Jerusalem for the last time:

“On the next day much people that were cometo 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 there on; as it is written,  Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. 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 12:12-16)

The Apostle Matthew frames this a bit differently in his Gospel but the overall idea should come through that this is a predicted event that leads up to the Master’s crucifixion which is predicted as well by the prophets and by the Master:

“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 there on. 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“. (Matthew 21:1-9)

The reference to the prophet is to Zechariah of whom it is recorded: “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). This overall prophecy is rather obscure and as John tells us above it was not related to the Master at all until after His resurrection or glorification. This is a common occurrence with prophecy whether it be the cries of the Old Testament prophets or the writings of John and Paul or even what prophetic remarks are made by the Master Himself; man tries to interpret but, until one can see beyond his own mortal life, it is rather impossible to comprehend. The doctrines and the dogma that are created around a prophecy are just that; if there were any real substance to what man can say about these things, there would surely be some agreement. So we have illusion and we have the glamour of any man or group so believing that he is right in his doctrine and that all others are in error.

We can say here that the real illusion and the real glamour and the deception that follows them is found in man’s created understanding of Life itself and in his refusal to see the contrary teachings of the Master. So many believe that this Life on Earth is the True Life of man even through the constant reading and preaching of the gospel stories regarding the Master, His death and His resurrection. Let us look first at His own predictions of His death and resurrection and the parabolic nature of His sayings regrading them.

• In the exchange with His disciples regarding who it is thought that the Master is, after the Apostle Peter’s revelation that He is the the Christ, the Master tells them: “that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him” (Mark 8:31-32).
• The rendition in Matthew’s Gospel is similar saying “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him” (Matthew 16:21-22).
• In Luke’s Gospel the story is the same sans the confrontation with Peter; it goes thus: “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” (Luke 9:22).

These are all very similar and in two of the three we get a glimpse of the unbelief of the disciples; not that they did not believe the Master’s words but rather that they did not understand the necessity of it all nor the teaching that is encapsulated in it. Common to all three is some form of the following sayings by the master which we covered in several posts and most recently in In the Words of Jesus part 263. This saying is a cumbersome one for much of the church and some of the meanings are obscure:

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 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? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:24-28).

Today we will look at this and the allied sayings from Mark and Luke in the Light of Good Friday. We should remember that these sayings come immediately after the first predication of His death and His resurrection; a prediction that we know the disciples do not understand from the basis of their view of Life. Much the same is true of us, we do not understand based upon the illusion of Life that we may have and there are many different and competing illusions. The basic understanding of Life, the basic illusion, is that we are what we appear to be. As an aside, and in like manner as we saw in the last posts regarding the sayings of Paul which we see as knowing in part and then fully, let us look briefly at this saying by the Apostle John regarding what appears: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). There is a depth in this saying that is reserved for those who can look at Life as something other than this appearance in form; as aspirants we are sons of God but we do not fully know what this means. John is saying to his readers that when he shall appear, the Christ Within, the Christ in each man’s Life, then we will enter into discipleship and we will be like Him and see the Truth of Life “as he is“. Is this any different than the saying of the Master that we have been using frequently saying: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).

Continuing with our saying from Matthew and our thoughts on how we look at Life, we should see the commonplace illusion of Life in form and of its being in this personality which is seen as continuing on to a punishment or a reward. This is a hard illusion to dispel but the Master gives us the tools and the understanding to do so if we would only read with an open mind and not one that is beset with the illusions of doctrine. Looking at the saying above we should remember when He said it and the circumstances of its being said. First there is the question as to who the Master is and the answer, by Peter only, that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and we then have the Master’s affirmation of this fact but also His affirmation of Peter, that he had this revelation. We should remember that in this time and place there is a different perspective on Life, the Jewish perspective, and we should remember also that one of the main courses of teaching by the Master was in dispelling the commonplace Jewish understanding of God, His commandments and man’s relationship to Him. Peter then is answering based upon his revelation and his understanding as heretofore the only teaching by the Master on His being the Son of God is in the Master’s teaching on the Fatherhood of God. There are occasions where this idea comes up in the words of the writers of the gospels, in the narratives about the temptations of Christ and from the lips of those beset by demons; His own teachings on this are rather restricted to His comments on the Father. In the end there is more from the Master on His Son-ship but this is never explained beyond the idea of God being the Father of us ALL. Based upon doctrine we all can recognize the Master as the Son of God and these affirmations are mostly made in the end where the great accusation against Him is that He “he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7) and  most of this is in His proclaiming that God is His Father. How much we see in this and how little is seen in His teachings that we are all sons of God; this is doctrine and this is the illusion.

We have then Peter affirming the divinity of the Master and then the Master’s solemn prediction of His death and His resurrection and here, in two of the gospels, is that exchange with Peter where the Master tells him that he is still too focused on the things of the world when he should be focused upon the things of God. The rebuke of Peter goes this way according to Matthew: “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:22-23). So what do we have here but a question, an answer based upon revelation, the lauding of the revelation and the man by the Master,  a prediction, and then the chiding of the one who had the revelation and was lauded. All this leads us to our saying above which is a reminder to His disciples of the nature of discipleship and should be a reminder to us as well.

• First that the disciple will deny himself, will forsake all as is told us is a condition of discipleship in his saying that: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannotbe my disciple…..And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple…..So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33) .
• Second that the disciple will take up his own cross which is also covered in the saying above. This cross is in our forsaking and in our focus; that is, that we see Life as He sees it and that we overcome any and all worldly proclivity. As Vincent tells us: His cross: his own. All are not alike. There are different crosses for different disciples. The English proverb runs: “Every cross hath its inscription” — the name of him for whom it is shaped⁴. We each have our own reality to deal with.
• The third is to understand that this Life in form, the one that the Master readily gives up, is not the Truth of Life. A man can keep his Life in this world and die and in no way benefit himself, his True Self, the Christ Within, the Soul. If however we do accomplish the first and second things above, then we are looking past this Life in form and at the True Life of the Soul; in doing so we find that True Life.
• The forth is an understanding that we must come to in order that we can accomplish the first and the second above which lead us to the third. We must, by our focus, see the reality of Life, see that the True Man is the Inner Man, the Soul. It is in seeing this Truth that we can realize that there is no profit in anything in the world; ALL is temporary, none can be taken out of the world except those spiritual treasures that are built up by not focusing on the things of the world. What do we trade for our realization of the True Self? Look around at the things of the world and at man’s fixation upon them; look around at the illusion.

We will address the last points in the next post as these can help to lead us into our ideas on the resurrection. We end this with a last saying from the Master which relates Love and His Death. He speaks to His disciples and calls them His friends but this only if they do His commandments; that is that they remain His disciples.

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:12-14).

Note on the Quote of the Day