Provocations

By pbobby

The Lost Message

Once upon a time, many years ago, there came a man to the mystic land of the Near East. The land's inhabitants were in desperate times. Living conditions were atrocious with mental and physical illnesses at epidemic levels. Leprosy and demon-possessed were the most commonly mentioned diseases while lameness, and blindness ranked close behind. Medical care, as we know it today, was non-existent. Miraculous cures were their only hope for wholeness.

The Land was filled with many tribes of intensely differing beliefs. Judaism seemed to be the dominant religion that attempted to control daily behavior and lifestyle. These various tribes often went to war with each other over whose belief constituted the absolute truth. None of them was above fighting for control of the land, ownership of livestock, and control of their land's fair maidens.

At this particular time, all the land was under the rule of the legendary Roman Army. It ruled the land with an iron hand. The people were heavily taxed by the Roman government and by any tribal leaders who could get away with it. Graft was rampant. All one had to do to be arrested, or executed, was to violate one of the Roman laws or any of the religious doctrines of a powerful tribe.

Disease, religious chaos, and political oppression were the horrific burdens of the Palestinians. No wonder they were crying out for healing, freedom of faith and release from political bondage. They were ripe for someone who would love and accept them and who would stand up against their religious and political bondage.

The oppressed people of this land longed for the day that freedom would come. But they were unable to make it happen. One of the tribes believed the writings of their holy prophets that told of a great deliverer who would one day free them from an oppressive bondage. Little did they know that the deliverance would never come, and that bloody wars would fill their land until this very day!

This meek and humble man who came to their country was different. He seemed to possess a singular peace of mind and spirit. He gently mingled with them, offering unconditional friendship and personal acceptance to all. They felt different when they were around him, like they were somebody -- somebody who really mattered. It didn't concern them that he treated all others the same way, regardless of what anyone thought those "others" deserved. Peasants, smelly fishermen, dishonest tax collectors, prostitutes, corrupt politicians, hypocritical religious leaders, marauding Roman soldiers, rotting lepers, the rich, the poor were his friends.

Both his followers and the authorities of the land began wondering what kind of man is this? Who is he? What will he do next? What new thing will he say tomorrow? His followers wondered, "Could this be the great deliverer promised by the prophets of old?"

His popularity grew almost exponentially. Thousands of people forgot about going home. Their daily goal was to find this man and get as close to him as possible. They watched, listened and asked questions while their spirits soared free above their lives of desperation. Wherever he went, an ever-growing throng followed, beside the seas, on the hillsides and in the villages. Even inside their sacred buildings, they sought him out.

The governmental officials and religious leaders of this land saw the people's growing adoration of him as a threat to their control. They were even more threatened as they heard stories about this man making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the lepers whole again. They also heard two stories of him bringing people back to life. Some had sworn they saw him turn plain water into superior wine. Others stated that he had used a small basket of bread and fish to feed over 5000 people one afternoon. Some said he had made a couple of crazy people start acting normal again.

Many of the religious leaders were stricken with great righteous indignation when they heard that he was out there telling people "Your sins are forgiven," and hadn't required them to contact the local Clergy or make any sacrifices for this forgiveness. They heard that he was telling the people that, "All sins are forgiven the sons of men." When they heard that he stated that he was the "Son of God," and told others that they were "Sons of God," too, they declared war. This man was trying to put them out of business! He was trying to take over the land!

The most powerful religious leaders of the land conspired to kill him. This seemed to be the only way to regain their influence and power over the masses. Some of those who wanted to kill him, felt the same thing that his followers felt, and followed him finding peace and oneness. Others felt the same thing but stifled it. Some longed to be like him, but could not find a way to rise to his level without joining him. It was too painful to see and know the stark differences between them and him. To kill the pain, they had to kill him.

First, the strongest religious faction brought him before their highest court and convicted him of heresy and blasphemy. Next they took him to court before one of the Roman Kings who had power to issue death sentences for sedition. Finally, they used all their political power to stage massive demonstrations demanding his death. It worked. The King, even though convinced that this was no criminal, succumbed to the public pressure and sentenced him to be hung on a wooden cross until dead. They killed him with much fanfare, ridicule, and torture. It was reported that he told another "criminal" as he was dying on a cross beside him, "today you will find peace with me."

When he died, this man's most faithful followers took his body down from the cross of death and placed it in a rich man's private tomb. On the morning of the third day after they had killed him, his body was nowhere to be found. Many of his followers fled as they felt their world was crumbling about them. Others searched everywhere for his body, tried to console each other, and wept for the new life that seemed to have vanished with his death, while still hoping to find him alive.

Some followers who had not returned to their homes for many months, decided to do so. They later reported that some person had joined them on the long dusty journey home and spoke with them about their sadness, about life and its goodness. He stayed, ate supper with them, talked some more, then disappeared right before their eyes.

After this mysterious event, they confessed to each other their confusion as to what had really happened. They discussed, "did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us on the way?"
"It must have been him."
"Maybe he is still alive."
"But why did we not recognize him? and why did he go away?"

These men told their story to all who would listen. Some believed them and some did not. Those who believed, spread the story with great passion. Others reported that they had seen him too, and some said they had spent time with him and saw him rise into the sky and disappear.

Many of them who had found new life, hope and inner peace from being with him took heart and spread the word that he was not dead. Many who believed, formed fellowships to share their new view of life, and their remembrances of what it was like when they met him, and how their lives changed as they watched and listened to him. They simply could not forget the man, his words, and his acts.

They talked about the time when an adulteress (without the adulterer) had been brought before him for judgement. Many wanted her stoned to death as was the custom of many of the land's religions. They could not forget his command. "If you are without sin, throw the first rock."

They could not forget the time when he was asked if seven times was enough to forgive a brother of wrongdoing. Nor could they forget his answer, "Try seventy times seven." They remembered what he had said about the law of their religion. "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it."

They could forget his answer to their question "What is the greatest commandment of our law?"
"You shall love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and the second is like it - You shall love everyone else as you love yourself."

For generations these believers and their children recounted these deeds and words and their effect upon the people who met this man of love and wisdom. Many dedicated their lives to his principles and to teaching them to others by word of mouth. Years later certain men took it upon themselves to write about this movement that wouldn't stop. The writers were some of his followers who had never seen this man, except for one. The writings included all the stories they could find about this man, their conclusions about him, the significance of his life, and the meaning of his person.

Today we have translations of these writings about this unforgettable man, his teachings, and the acts of his followers. For hundreds of years now, various groups have interpreted what these early writers recorded and concluded about his life. The result is the myriad churches of our time, each with its own differing doctrines and dogma.

Many proclaim that what they teach is the "Truth." Some have concluded that what they teach is their "Truth" and make no claims of exclusivity. The vast majority now teach that this man is God and always was. Many have welded his deeds and sayings with older teachings on sin, forgiveness, and the need for atonement of some sort to obtain forgiveness, if nothing more than to just believe that this man by his death, provided that atonement. Many teach that mankind is by nature evil, and not worthy of honor or God's acceptance, and that this has been true since the first man disobeyed God. They also teach that everyone must do or believe something, to gain God's favor.

When this man came lived, loved, and taught, those who responded felt good about themselves and all the others who met and listened with them. There was a oneness among his followers in spirit. He required nothing of them in order to become his friend. The divisions, disagreements and conflicts of today between those who call themselves this man's followers are, to say the least, disturbing and confusing. It seems that most, if not all of us, have missed something very basic. Maybe this is something that matters much and needs correcting. Maybe this something matters little, and needs no correction. And maybe, even if it matters much, few of us can change what we now believe about this man and the meaning of his life and teachings, or their impact on the way we live and treat each other. Be that as it may, it still holds a real interest for those who are not satisfied with the divisiveness and guilt that many religious teachings produce.

One thought that may be worth pursuing is, that maybe he was not sent, but just came like the rest of us. That somehow he sensed Spiritual Law with the same accuracy that Einstein sensed the relativity of all Natural Law. That he was additionally able to appropriate his understanding of the dynamics of Spiritual Law, and thereby become who he was. His life and teachings revealed that "Mankind" is not by nature sinful or evil, just human. That we need do nothing to know peace other than to become aware that we are not sinful or evil, but alive and at one with all that is. Accepted, as are all people. That we, as he, can accept ourselves and everyone else just as we and they are. That personal awareness of this truth is the only necessity to experience a new birth. That we can, by our new nature, grant unconditional acceptance to all we meet, and become one more carrier of the contagion that redeems, rather than afflicts.

It may well be that his message was not that we could be saved from our evil nature, but that our nature was not evil, and that true Grace is the fact that we really do not need to do anything to become what we already are. His message must have been that we do not need to do anything to become clean and lovable, nor does anyone else. It may well be that his message was not how to be "saved" but that the real spiritual truth is, we are in no need of being "saved." That we are in no need of the Grace that was integral with our beginning. That we need do nothing to gain God's favor because we already have it, always have had it. We just didn't know it. He is reported to have said many times, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." We need only to grasp it to find newness and peace.

It seems to this writer that somewhere along the line, we corporately made one wrong conclusion about our nature, and another about Jesus and his message. As a result, we made a god of him, established new religious dogma, and completely forgot his revelations of Spiritual Law.

Maybe only a few can accept and imagine the magnitude of this conclusion. And maybe the old conclusions are so deeply embedded that nothing will change them.

But the Spiritual Law this man lived and taught, relieved thousands of the burdens of guilt laid on them by those old conclusions. And since that time, this Spiritual Law has not changed any more than has the Natural Law revealed by Albert Einstein. Where would our technology be today if we had made gods of all scientists who have discovered the dynamics of our Natural Law, and never applied anything they discovered?

No one is quarrelling with the personage or the deity of this man, only with the way in which we have discarded the Spiritual Law he revealed. The Spiritual Law that makes us whole, gives us peace, removes guilt, grants self esteem, and resides everywhere just for the taking.

This author can only conclude that we have deified the messenger and worship him while we have forgotten the message he delivered in word and deed.