Chapter 1: The New And Living Way

Some of the great minds we have come across have the most wonderful logic in the world, and their views are correct from the standpoint of logic. But these learned men sometimes place a stumbling block in the path of one who wishes to serve God and man because their fine logic, clothed in flawless literary terms, does not comprehend creation -- nor the living Christ.

Any Christian knows that Jesus Christ lived, that the Christos is a reality in this solar system, and that there is a Great Intelligence which is at the foundation of it -- give it what name you may, it matters not. If a force is in action, and the force works so that the words may be made manifest, we know it is there or here.

The stumbling block of many of our brilliant people who are our historians and professors is that they forget one thing, and that is, that the power of God does not need a system to work from outside of the original creative way in which the Father created it -- that the Infinite Power, the Base of which everything is made, it may do, may correct, may heal, and may bring into existence anything, when it is needed.

And if you seek the experience of the Great Christ force, you will know when you have experienced it -- without asking any dictionary or outside advice.

We have gazed so long and hard at the image and reflection of the great "man" who lived in an era nearly 2,000 years ago, regarding him steadfastly as one would an orator on a raised platform just above our level; so that by the insistence of our gaze we have caused a sort of clay shell to form between ourselves and the Fire of his Spirit. This shell is in the image of a man, much larger than ourselves, but still formed after the pattern of our own minds, and to some extent like unto the models employed by ancient artists.

This clay shell cannot stop the fiery and ever present reality of our Lord from acting, but it does cut down on the effectiveness, just as would a shield of earth in front of an open fire. Some heat filters through whether you believe a fire is there or not, but you have to remove the obstruction in order to get much value from it on a cold day. Each person must remove the block between himself and the Saviour of mankind.

As we follow the path our Lord took when he walked the earth long ago -- let us not leave him in Palestine. For he is here, with us in the present time, in the very room where we are; and he encircles this globe with his mind and spirit. He is like the Father -- nearer than hands and feet -- but he does require some reaching upward in consciousness toward the level of his consciousness. And he can help when this is done with sincerity, for his spirit pervades this solar system to the same extent as do the energies of the Sun itself, like the all-existant Akasha.

His healings and miracles were not confined to that distant time. They are still in effect, but he does not advertise this now any more than he did then. He does not force the hardened doubters to accept him, but he comes to those who believe. He shows no credentials and offers no proof. He just is.

Going back over his words, we know that he was not only talking to people then; he is still saying these words now, and they still have Life in them, with the power to heal and save. They can be understood at any level of spiritual unfoldment, and as each person progresses, he will understand them more deeply, yet more simply, as he goes along.

The day comes when we see the Bible re-enacted in a new way, sometimes playing each various role ourselves. And when one puts all of himself into the play, though not learning until later what it really was, yearning and straining with anguish, joy or desire, She, our Soul, will give birth to the Son, the Christ in us, while He, the Mind, looks on and watches over Him.

We take on the work of Jesus then, and grow in the burning Reality of God, as we become, and live and teach. Then crucified from within, we rise again victorious over death and matter.

At length we may become somewhat like Paul, to act on what is shown, seeking with driving energy to bring this unto others, and to organize the means whereby they also may experience and live the truth.

With advancing years one waits the great day, when he may once more meet his Creator face to face, and then he seeks to become more like St. John, to receive the inner work through revelation from on high.

Jesus did not live his earthly life merely to set an example for all other humans to copy. He lived this life in the flesh by the same mercy ministry through which all on earth may live. And as in his day he lived this mortal life, and as he then was, so thereby did he set an example for all of us to live in our day and as we are.

We need not live a life the same as he, but only in the manner in which he lived his, applying the same general principles as he used. His is not necessarily a technical and detailed example, but always the inspiration and guide of each heaven-directed pilgrim from the point of initial ascension, up through the universe and on to heaven itself.

This has not been taught in the average church -- if we don't understand heaven or hell, then what are we preaching for? He is the new and living way from man to God, from the primitive to the perfect, from earthly to heavenly, and from time to eternity.

He finished the work of living the life required of mortals as sojourners in the flesh in order to bring them closer to where he was and a real consciousness of Jesus as he is now.

He was the greatest of all men, being able to fulfill every requirement for changing mortal life into the everlasting and divine. He is so far above all men as not to be compared with anybody.

Other great beings did not reach up to him, since they could not manage to overbridge the great gulf that existed between the Creator and created ones, after the fall of Lucifer; nor did they succeed in changing the corruptible into incorruptibility.

Jesus of Nazareth, a son of man, was the first and only one among all intelligent human beings on this earth and the other globes, who fully succeeded in amalgamating his individuality, his soul and Self, completely with that indwelling spirit spark of God through the center of the Self. He achieved the greatest victory that a man ever has in the way of an avatar, and his success was Cosmic. It effected this entire solar system. Therefore, everywhere in this universe his name reverberates and everyone who spiritually comprehends it bends the knee in reverence and gratitude if it is possible for us to conceive of the greatness of his gift to the earth and mankind.

He did not seek suffering for suffering's sake, for at Gethsemane he would gladly have welcomed an easier way. Our redemption was achieved with a love which expressed itself in the particular form of suffering because of the conditions of humanity and his desire to re-enact in the physical world the crucifixion.

Because matter is inert and human and external conditions offer opposition to man's objectives, outside himself he met with great resistance, inertia, apathy, etc. He had to experience these, and in order to translate his plan of love into action he needed to encounter suffering. His objective was to break the power of sin and to bring about through the entire world the reign of God's redemptive love.

Chapter 2: The Feast Of The Tabernacles

Autumn had come, and the countryside of Galilee was rich and colorful with the ripening harvest. Until now Jesus had avoided going to Judea, knowing full well that the Jews, both Herodians and Pharisees, were seeking to kill him, for he and his "new" teachings had become a thorn in their side.

He caused no trouble, but they mistrusted him. Galilee was more tolerant, less "Jewish," being a land of mixed races, for here he could work until the proper time had come for taking a final public stand.

Despite all the marvelous works which they had both seen and heard, his own brethren continued to doubt him, and as the yearly Feast of the Tabernacles drew near, they urged him once again with the impatience of youth, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples there may see the works you are doing. For no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world." Prove to them that you are the Christ -- that is what they really said, but he saw the trap.

The central gathering place for the world of the Jews was at Jerusalem, and everyone who could travel would be there for the Feast. Moreover, they would question his brethren, who uneasily anticipated having to meet these queries without knowing how to answer them.

His mother had once before urged him to perform the first public miracle, but she had known he could and had not challenged him with such doubtful words. As he had answered her then that his time was not yet, now he again said to the brethren, "My time has not yet come but your time is always here.

"The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it, that its works are evil.

"Go to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come." So saying, he remained in Galilee until after they had left.

Indeed the world was not yet ready to receive the Light of the Christ. It could not accept the one who challenged them, but was ready to welcome all those who conformed with their ways.

His brethren were swept up with the pilgrims who thronged all the highways, for every road at that season led to Jerusalem. The name of Jesus was heard on all sides, his fame having spread far and wide, and it was to be expected that he would show himself at this festival.

The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, "Where is he?" and there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, "He is a good man," others argued, "No, he is leading the people astray." Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

The autumn Feast of the Tabernacles, or Booths, was a time of thanksgiving for the harvest. It was a very festive occasion of rejoicing for all the goodness of the year and commemorated also the long years during which the nomadic Israelites had lived in tents during their wanderings. At the celebration they would erect little booths out of boughs in the streets and courts of the Temple, and some even on the housetops.

Five days before this festival was held, they observed a Day of Atonement during which all the people fasted and confessed their sins and made their peace with heaven. But at the Festival of the Tabernacles they broke forth with singing and feasting. The east lasted for seven days, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Tishri, and seems to have been carried over from an ancient vintage festival.

It was one of the three main festivals of the year when the people generally made pilgrimage to the Temple at Jerusalem, the other two being the Passover and the Pentecost.

Instruction had been given Moses in the Old Testament, in Chapter 23 of Exodus, as follows:

"Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of Unleavened Bread (after Passover) .... And the feast of harvest, called the Feast of Weeks or First Fruits, the first fruits of thy labors (this is Pentecost) . . . . And third the feast of Ingathering (Tabernacles), which is the end of the year, when thou has gathered in thy labors out of the field."

The Feast of Tabernacles falls on the fifteenth day of Tishri, in late September or early October. It was a gay and popular feast, recalling their sojourn in the desert, and the people would go to the Temple bearing branches in the right hand and a citrus fruit in the left. The three feasts mentioned above are called feasts of pilgrimage, because every male Israelite who had reached a reasonable age was obliged then to go to the Temple of Jerusalem.

Jesus waited a couple of days after the crowds had passed by and the highways were all clear, in fact almost totally empty, and he too went to Jerusalem, not publicly but in private. It was about the middle of the feast when Jesus arrived, and he went up into the Temple and taught.

The Jews marveled at this, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but His Who sent e; if any man's will is to do His Will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

"He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of Him Who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?"

The people answered, "You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?"

Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel at it." (He referred to the healing of a man on the Sabbath.) "Moses gave you circumcision -- not that it is from Moses but from the fathers -- and you circumcise a man upon the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearance, but judge with right judgment."

Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from."

So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the Temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord; He Who sent me is true, and Him you do not know. I am Him for I come from Him, and He sent me."

So they sought to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him; they said, "When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?" The Pharisees heard the crowd thus muttering about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

Jesus then said, "I shall be with you a little longer, and then I go to Him Who sent me; and you will seek me and you will not find me; where I am you cannot come."

The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we shall not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, 'You will seek me and you will not find me,' and 'Where I am you cannot come'?"

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.' " Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ."

But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"

The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed."

Nicodemus of the Sanhedrin, who had gone to Jesus privately before, was among the Pharisees, but he now spoke up in defense of Jesus, saying, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?"

They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee."

Chapter 3: Hebrew Festivals

Old Testament Rulings

This has been inserted merely to expand information given in the previous chapter, through quoting in part the official Biblical directives which formed the authority for Jewish festivals. These were an important factor in the framework of their religious activities, and Jesus and his family participated in them as faithfully as did other good Jews.

So let us go directly to the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, which states the regulations for such observations, as they were given to Moses. If any should wish to study these in further detail, he is directed to Exodus, Chapter 12, and Numbers, Chapters 28 and 29. Add to this Deuteronomy, Chapter 16.

Passover (The first feast of obligation):

This occurred in the month now called Nisan, at the beginning of spring, approximating the time the Sun is in Aries. It was the first month of their year, as the Order also celebrates it. But the Jews celebrate actual New Year's Day at the beginning of their seventh month -- that is, Rosh Hoshana, in late September. Of course, the timing of months varied from year to year, since each month extended from one New Moon to the next.

Quoting from Leviticus 23:

"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to he Lord. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. But you shall present an offering of fire to the Lord seven days; on the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work."

On the following, or the eighth day of the Passover,

"You shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on that day you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And a cereal offering mixed with oil, to be offered by fire; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God; it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings."

Pentecost or Feast of Weeks (the second feast of obligation)

Following the Passover by seven weeks or fifty days came the Feast of the Weeks, or Pentecost, a Greek word meaning "fiftieth day." It lasted only one day, and then loaves from the newly harvested wheat were offered in the Temple along with other special sacrifices. It marked the beginning of the offering of the firstfruit. But the Christians later adopted this date to commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit, because the two occasions coincided. The descent of the Holy Spirit came to the disciples during the Jewish Feast of the Pentecost.

From Leviticus again:

"And you shall count from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the orrow after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven, as first fruits to the Lord.

"And you shall present with the bread, seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one young bull, and two rams. And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall save them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the Lord, for the priest. And you shall make proclamation on the same day; you shall hold a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work; it is a statute forever . . . "

Our modern civilization could do well to observe the following, as directed in Leviticus 19:9 --

"And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to its very border, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger; I am the Lord your God."

Rosh Hoshana

"On the seventh month," (Tishri, corresponding to the sign of Libra), "on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work; and you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord."

(This day is now called Rosh Hoshana, the Jewish New Year, in the latter part of September.)

Yom Kippur

Only on the yearly day of Atonement, now called Yom Kippur, on the tenth day of Tishri, around the end of September, did the high priest enter the Holy of Holies to perform the symbolic ceremony of the scapegoat, to drive all the sins from the people, and to atone for them. Yom Kippur was a day of rest and strict fast, the one day when fasting was mandatory.

"On the tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on this same day shall be cut off from his people.

"And whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves; on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep the Sabbath."

Feast of Tabernacles (in early October, five days after the atonement)

"On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and for seven days is the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) to the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. Seven days you shall present offerings by fire to the Lord: on the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work.

"On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. You shall keep it as a feast forever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month.

"You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

Other celebrations became customary, but those were the three originally commanded by God.

Among the later feasts are Hanukkah, the Feast of Light, or of Dedication, which takes place in early December and lasts for eight days, with an additional candle being lighted each evening, and gifts exchanged. This commemorates the reconstruction of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C.

Another, known as the Feast of Purim, falls in the month of Adar, (February-March), and commemorates the liberation of the Jews in the time of Esther.

But even before the captivity of Babylon, their great prophet Isaiah told them what the Lord thought of the ways of sacrifice, as seen in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he hinted at better ways to come:

"Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

"What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

"When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?

"Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of assemblies -- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

"Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.

"When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil.

"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.

"If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

"But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Jesus also warned us to beware of vain repetition and empty words. The celebrations and rituals have value according to what we put into them.

Chapter 4: Stoning

As the great feast day ended, all the people returned, each to his own house. But Jesus went outside Jerusalem, past the Garden of Gethsemane to the Mount of Olives, and spent the night there. In Acts 1, Luke says the "Mount called Olivet (or Olives) is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away." This journey amounts to something like 2,000 paces from the walls of a city -- or the maximum distance one is permitted to travel on any Sabbath day.

Early in the morning Jesus came again to the Temple. All the people were coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst of the group they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the law of Moses, it is commanded that such women should be stoned; but what do you say?" (Stoning was to "purge out evil from their midst.")

This was a tricky question, which was spoken to test him, in order that they might find some cause to accuse him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they continued to question, he straightened himself up and said to them in a penetrating voice, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. As he wrote, the minds of all were opened so that each man remembered some guilty secret in his past when he too had broken one of the law of Moses; and he was convicted by his own conscience. When they heard his words they went away silently one by one, beginning with the eldest, so that Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing before him.

When he looked up and saw none but the woman, he said to her, "Where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

She said, "No one, Lord."

And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."

Until now the record of her actions had been written on her secret soul, but when she was brought to judgment, the deeds were made manifest to all, being brought out into the light of earth where they must be dealt with openly. He wrote these things in the sand, the outermost element of earth, where they might be finally swept away.

It would seem that the first time Jesus bent down to write, it was according to the old law of Moses, and the second time it was according to the new law of God's forgiveness, as brought by His Son.

Again Jesus spoke to the people, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life."

The Pharisees then said to him, "You are bearing witness to yourself; your witness is not true."

Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is true, for I know whence I have come and whither I am going, but you do not know whence I have come and whither I am going.

"You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and He Who sent me. In your law it s written that the testimony of two men is true. I bear witness to myself, and the Father Who sent me bears witness to me."

They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?"

Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father also."

These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the Temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

Again he said to them, "I am going away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come."

Then said the Jews, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?"

He said to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of the world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he."

They said to him, "Who are you?"

Jesus said to them, "Just what I have told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge; but He Who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from Him."

They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father.

So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but as my Father has taught me I speak these things. And He Who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I do always those things that are pleasing to Him." As he spoke thus, many believed in him.

Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to any man. How is it that you say, 'You will be made free'?"

Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever; the son continues forever." (The sin will leave, the Son remains.) "So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

"I know you are descendants of Abraham; yet you will seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father."

They answered him, "Abraham is our father."

Jesus said to them, "If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the deeds of Abraham . . . But now you seek to kill me -- a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; Abraham did not act thus. You do the deeds of your father."

They said to him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God."

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot hear my Word.

"You are from your father the devil, the accuser, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not abide with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

"But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you can convict me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the Words of God; the reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God."

The Jews answered him, "Do we not speak well in saying that you are a Samaritan and possessed of a demon?"

Jesus answered, "I have not a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and He will be the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if a man keeps my saying, he will never see death."

The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets, and you say, 'If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death.' Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?"

Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father Who glorifies me, of Whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not know Him; but I know Him. And if I should say I do not know Him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know Him and I obey His Word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad."

The Jews then said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?"

Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

So they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was not to be seen and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

Chapter 5: Farewell To Galilee

The Gospel of John tells us of Jesus' hurried trip to Jerusalem for the autumnal Feast of Tabernacles, but nowhere mentions a return trip to Galilee. The other Gospels, however, describe his final journey to Jerusalem as a deliberately planned and leisurely affair, during which he taught many things along the way.

Since no logical point is offered for breaking through the train of events in Jerusalem after the feast, we will simply make the break and return to Galilee just long enough to prepare for the final trip of our Lord to Jerusalem, where his activities will resume later.

This last period of time spent in Galilee was brief and could have occurred just before or after the Feast of Dedication, which comes around early December, for it is recorded that he attended both festivals.

Luke says, when the days drew near for him to be received up he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but the people would not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

They would have welcomed him for his works and teachings, except for the fact that he was not of their faith and was going on to the Jewish Temple instead of the place where they worshipped on Mount Garizim.

And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to bid fire to come down from heaven and consume them, as Elijah did?"

But he turned and rebuked them, saying, "You do not know to what manner of spirit you belong. For the Son of man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went on to another village.

It was around this time also that Jesus actually sent out the seventy (or seventy-two) disciples on their mission of healing and preaching, which we have already discussed in an earlier chapter.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother.' "

And the man said to him, "Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth."

And Jesus looking upon him loved him and said to him, "You still lack one thing; go, sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

At this saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he was very rich, having great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples "How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were amazed at his words.

But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Lamsa explains the Aramaic word for camel is "gamla," and this same word also means "rope" or "beam." Therefore, he says Jesus meant, "It is easier for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle . . . "

Those who heard it were exceedingly astonished and said to him, "Then who can be saved?"

Jesus looked at them and said, "With men this is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God."

Peter began to say to him, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you . . . "

Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time -- houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands -- with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first."

Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. Great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (The Lord of love was not recommending hatred of one's family as such, but rather of any one or any thing which stands in the way of serving God, even to his own life. The disciple of Christ can be no respecter of persons.)

"For which of you," he said, "desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish.'

"Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Jesus was giving them fair warning of the cost and the requirements they would have to meet, to carry on all the way through.

And behold, a lawyer stood forth to test him with a question, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

And the man answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

And Jesus said to him, "You have answered rightly; Do this, and you will live."

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied in this manner, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him of his raiment and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down the road; and when he saw the man he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place looked at him and passed by on the other side.

"But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where the man lay; and when he saw him, he had compassion and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

"And the next day when he departed, he took out two silver coins and gave them to the inn-keeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'

"Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"

He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

This was a new idea that Jesus brought out in the parable of the Good Samaritan -- that a good heart is preferable to a selfish one regardless of the vehicle it inhabits, or the religious and political category under which this vehicle is classified. For the peoples of those days were rigidly clannish, and it was hard for them to see good in an "outsider" who was in any way different from themselves.

Chapter 6: Repentance

Jesus went on his way through towns and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." And he said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.' "

There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. It appears the Roman soldiers had violated the sanctity of the Jewish Temple and killed some worshippers. And Jesus answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

"What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he repented and went. And the father went to the second and said the same to him, and he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father?" They said, "The first."

Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him."

Though their sins were more grievous, they gladly turned from them to a new way, when they were shown the reality. Those who have so little thought for self-preservation as to literally throw their lives away in sinful living, when they turn about may find it easier for them to give themselves completely over to the service of God than it is for the self-righteous. That is, if it was not mere weakness which lay at the root of their wandering from the Path.

Repentance is turning about with remorse from a past course of action, feeling sorrow for errors committed to the extent of reforming and changing one's ways. This changing requires real strength and whole-hearted desire. While we seldom think of a "penitentiary" or "reform" school as anything but a place of de-tention or punishment -- their true function and intent is to bring about the condition denoted by their names, "penitent-iary" and "re-form."

To do penance is to voluntarily take upon oneself some act of self-mortification (not self-punishment, but subduing of natural inclination), for the atonement of sins. In ecclesiastical terms, penance is a sacramental rite involving first a sincere contrition for sins committed, followed by confession to a priest, the acceptance of suitable penalty, and absolution, or being absolved from error.

You have heard in our communion service when partaking of the Body through the bread, that "through the fruits of your labors you are absolved from all past error." This involves a gradual working-off of many debts and dissolving their roots as you go.

Jesus told them this parable: "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously very day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores." (The name Lazarus means "helpless," or "whom God helps.")

"Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.'

"But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner received hardships; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

"And he said, 'Then I beseech you therefore, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have the words of Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."

"And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if only some one would go to them from the dead, they will repent.' Abraham said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one should rise from the dead."

Now the publicans and sinners were drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were heard murmuring and saying, "This man welcomes sinners, and even eats with them." So Jesus spoke this parable to them: "What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the rest until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'

"Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having two silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.' Just so," Jesus said, "I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

As they walked along, Jesus told them another parable which has since become a favorite, the one about the Prodigal Son. The central figure in this parable is not so much the son, as the forgiving father who acts as a symbol of God Himself in setting the example of the jubilance which should be felt over each sinner who goes all the way in repentance.

And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took his journey into a far country, and there squandered his property in loose living.

And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything." (These were probably the pod-like fruit of the carob tree, which abounds in Palestine; however, he was among alien people, for the Jews do not keep swine.)

"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.'

"And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

"And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry.

"Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.'

"But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me even a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!"

"And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.' "

Chapter 7: Riches

One of the men from the crowd of his followers said to Jesus, "Teacher, bid my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?" And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

Then he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have not room enough to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I will do this, I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul; Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'

"But God said to him, 'Fool! This very night your soul shall be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' Such is the man who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Jesus stopped one day to dine with an important personage who was a Pharisee, and all were watching him. Now he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they were choosing the places of honor. So he said to them, "When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you may be invited there, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give the place to this man,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest seat. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

He said to the man who invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

When one of the guests who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"

But Jesus said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many, and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for all is now made ready.'

"But they one and all began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have just married a wife, and therefore I cannot come'

"So the servant came and reported to his master these things. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and afflicted, the maimed, and the blind.' When the servant had brought them, he said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'

"And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and urge people to come in so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those men who were invited shall taste of my banquet.' "

At a later date, when he with the disciples entered Jericho and was passing through, there happened to be a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass by that way.

Ane when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully.

And when the people saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I will restore it fourfold."

And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." While they were listening to these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

He said therefore, "A nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten pounds and said to them, 'Trade with these till I come.' (The Greek "mena" translated here as "pound" was equal to about $20.00.) "But his citizens hated him and sent an embassy after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us as king.'

When he returned, however, having received the kingly power, he commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by trading in business. The first came to him, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made ten pounds more.' And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.'

"And the second came, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made five pounds.' And he said to him, 'And you are to be over five cities.' Then another came saying, 'Lord, here is your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin; for I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man; you take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you have not sown.'

"He said to him, 'I will condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money into the exchange that at my coming I should have collected it with interest?' And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the pound from him and give it to him who has the ten pounds.'

"And they said to him, 'Lord, he already has ten pounds!'

"But the ruler said, 'I tell you that to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.' "

Though one does not approve of his employer, so long as he works for the man he is obliged to do the best he can for him, or seek other employment.

Chapter 8: Stewardship

"Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." He who waits for the Lord must be ready at all times.

Jesus said, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him at once.

"Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake and watching when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third and finds them so, blessed are those servants!

"But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have been awake and would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us, or for all?" And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

"But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the manservants and the maid servants and to eat and drink with the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the untrustworthy.

And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.

"But he who does not know better and does what deserves a punishment, shall receive a light beating. For every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much they will demand the more."

Jesus also said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your steward- ship, for you can no longer be steward.'

"And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg .... I have decided what to do, so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship.'

"So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

"He said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'

"And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'

"Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'

"He said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'

"He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'

"The master commended the dishonest steward for his prudence; for the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light.

"And I say to you also, make friends for yourselves by means of such unrighteous mammon, so that when it is gone, they may receive you into the eternal habitations."

"Mammon" means "riches." Where a man has been endowed with wealth, even though it was gained by unrighteous means, it is a point of wisdom to use this worldly gain for helping others. Material objects and worldly pleasures deteriorate, but kindness is remembered in heaven.

If a man has been guilty of dishonesty or deceit in the service of the Master and faces the prospect of being cast out from a position of grace, he can turn his wit to some good work for the Master's benefit, and so receive some commendation before it is too late.

"He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much," Jesus said, "and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

Remember this when you have been given a minor responsibility. He who slights it will not be given a greater one. But the man who does his best with what little he is given to do, plus something extra of his own volition -- he will be commended when the opportunity arises.

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him. But he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

"The law and prophets were until John; from that time the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone presses to enter into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one letter of the law to pass away."

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord said, "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, 'Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down at table'? Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink'?

"Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.' "

One can always come out even by doing exactly what he is asked to do -- no more. But the "profitable servant" is he who goes beyond the call of duty and does more than is required of him. For service begins where duty leaves off.

We are all stewards of those things over which we have been put in charge, whether they be great or small. Those in authority over others are stewards of a greater portion and carry an obligation for what they do with this charge.

Those who have great wealth are stewards over that and bear the responsibility for wider distribution than does a man who just has enough to feed his family.

Those who are in a position to help others, whether to provide good government, or to bear tidings of the Lord -- each is a steward of that which he has to offer.

Chapter 9: Marriage

Jesus did not speak extensively on marriage, and such teachings as he gave were spoken from the vantage point of his time; yet he always used eternal principles which apply to any time.

Jesus had now come to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan where crowds gathered to him again, and so, as was his custom, he taught them there.

Some Pharisees came up, and in order to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?"

He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"

They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to put her away."

But Jesus said to them, "It was for the hardness of your hearts that he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation this was not so. For God made them male and female and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.' So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."

And when they went into the house, his disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

At another time, Jesus rephrased the same teaching thus: "Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."

"It was written," Jesus repeated, " 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry."

But he said to them, "Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." (Yet unless one is ready and able to carry this out, it would be foolish to attempt it.)

A eunuch was a castrated man, usually employed in those days as a harem attendant or palace official. Jesus was showing them that there are various reasons for celibacy, and for marriage as well. Celibacy has been an important factor of monastic life for hundreds of years, a factor which is changing now, and must change in this day to meet the standards of a new way of greater responsibility in which the Master has encouraged marriage where feasible, with the stipulation that man's first marriage and duty is to God, and secondly to his mate.

Marriage is not always easy, but when wisely entered into by mature individuals, it should provide an ideal way of life. He has told us that, "Marriage is not essential, but good. They shall be one; but both shall know their way and know my face in this work, and in this day."

A Roman priest has explained thus his position on celibacy: "The responsibilities which come with the choice of a mate, the birth of children, the creation of a little community in the midst of the great community of the human race are so heavy that they would be a daily hindrance to undertakings of a larger scope. The man who wishes to lead other men and to transform them can hardly bind himself for all his life to one person alone. He would need to be faithless to his wife or to his mission. Marriage means abandoning oneself to another being, but the Saviour must abandon himself to all other beings. The union of two souls might make more difficult the union with all other souls.

"Perfect celibacy is a grace, a reward of victory of spirit over the body. Though such a priest may sometimes experience solitude, the love in his heart, when communicated to all men, is multiplied into a sublimation of sacrifice surpassing all earthly joys. He is alone, but is free. He begets no children of his own flesh, but brings to a second birth the children of his spirit. It is not given to everyone to resist and abstain, nor should it be."

(These are not sanctioned viewpoints of the Order.) We do agree that two persons following the calling of Christ must be ready to follow his mandates all the way, and to fulfill whole-heartedly this function. Then marriage must be placed secondary in importance, as an added privilege rather than the determining factor.

From an evolutionary standpoint, in primitive times, a hasty mating with a stolen woman was enough for the unevolved instinctive nature. Then man rose to the higher level -- of union with one woman alone. But he who has become like unto an angel in heaven in the new kingdom has conquered the flesh, and his soul remains free, whether he is married or unmarried.

The statements of Jesus which point to almost complete prohibition of divorce have been thought by some to refer less to the present time than to the coming time, when the kingdom of heaven is to come upon the earth, and when there would be less than total involvement in the marriage state -- or perhaps they only hope that he didn't mean it for now.

At another time Jesus had called an adulterer not only the man who takes the wife of another, but even the one who looks at her in the street with lustful eye.

The aristocratic Sadducees denied that there was such a thing as the immortal duration of the human soul, for they did not believe in after life; neither, according to Josephus, did they believe in punishment or rewards, nor in the existence of spirits and saints, though this was not true of the Jews as a whole. Therefore, when they brought to Jesus a question about the resurrection, presenting it as a test cast, they were not seeking enlightenment, but only to find out how he would answer concerning the "levirate" law laid down by Moses. This law places upon the nearest surviving male relative the responsibility to continue his brother's line by marrying his widow, and not claiming her children for himself, but for his brother, and they would receive both his brother's name and inheritance. The desired result was to keep both children and properties within the family.

The Gospel continues: There came to him some Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies and leaves a wife, but had no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers among us; the first took a wife, and when he died leaving no children, he left his wife to his brother. And the second took her, and died leaving no children, and the third likewise, down to the seventh; all died without children. And last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her."

But Jesus answered them, "This is why you are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

"The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that world to come, and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

"But that the dead are raised even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush. Have you not read how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live in Him. You are quite wrong."

When the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. And some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Chapter 10: Kingdom Of Heaven

He said therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches."

And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened."

Then in reply to Peter who had said, "Lo, we left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?" Jesus said to the twelve, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first."

And Jesus proceeded to speak parables concerning the kingdom: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went and going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

"And about the eleventh hour, (This was eleven hours since dawn, or around five in the afternoon) he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why do you stand there idle all day?'

"They answered him, 'Because no one has hired us.' And he said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.'

"And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

"Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'

"But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be the first, and the first last."

Again, Jesus said, "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

"As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out and meet him.' Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'

"But the wise replied, 'Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut.

"Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."

(It is a waste of time to beat on the bridal chamber door of another. But go into your own chamber, and prepare for the bridegroom who will find you there.)

Jesus continued with another parable about the kingdom of heaven very similar to the one recounted at the home of Zacchaeus, which went thus: "For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents, to another, two; to another, one; to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

"He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

"Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing the five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I made you five talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.'

"And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, ood and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.'

"He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents.

"For unto every one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth."

The talent was a large sum of money, its value not precisely determined, but it was something like ninety pounds of silver, with a probable value of between $1,500 and $2,000 for each talent.

We feel that the word "talent" can be applied just as readily to this parable in its present day usage -- that is, a special endowment of skill or ability, a gift or faculty which we are expected to use for the increase of general good, and not to hide or leave buried where none can benefit therefrom, lest it atrophy.

And Jesus spoke again of the kingdom of heaven, saying: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.

"Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you fed me, and thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?

"And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'

"Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.'

"Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you inasmuch as you did not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' And so they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Chapter 11: Healing

Jesus did not place overmuch emphasis on his work as a healer of bodies, for his mission was to bring people to the kingdom of God. But the needs of the populace were so great and their demands so heavy that he could not turn them away.

He had compassion on the poor and suffering, but was interested in healing more than the body of a sick person -- he strove to bring wholeness of mind and spirit as well. He endeavored with each healing to raise the individual to a more advanced state of spirituality, for his primary purpose was to save the soul of the sufferer unto the divine kingdom, thus his miracles were used not merely as a proof, but a specimen of the power of Christ.

He had God-given powers from the time of his youth, so it was not necessary for him to practice how to perform miracles. Indeed he seldom depended upon extra-ordinary methods to accomplish his purposes, for he must teach the disciples and all posterity the correct use of the laws of nature.

He knew that when a miracle was necessary he was able to meet any demand, but though he could walk on the surface of the water, he more often used a boat. And when he was thirsty, he did not make water appear from nowhere, but instead asked a Samaritan woman to draw for him from the well, because in so doing he was able to teach many things that could help her and the village, whereas a miracle would have been merely an occasion of wonderment.

Miracles were performed in cases of emergencies, or to help persons in great distress, but more often they were used at such times as he felt it necessary to convince people of the powers of God resident in man. His purpose was not to amaze or mystify.

Such healings as he performed were spontaneously done according to the requirements of the moment. He always knew that with the Father all things are possible, but he had not come to entertain -- rather to teach and show the way.

Luke said, "The power of the Lord was with him to heal."

Mark proclaimed that these healings were a sign that the acceptable year of the Lord had been inaugurated.

The predicted character of the age was realized when he sent forth the disciples with authority to heal every disease and every infirmity, as evidence of the nearness of God's kingdom.

It has been said that the most positive findings of modern psychiatry equal but a small part of the wisdom contained in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus did not accept disease as being part of the Divine Order.

He struck at the root of their disorders, knowing fully the conflicts of mind and emotion, the motives, and the spiritual turmoil underlying each disability.

Since disease was considered a divine punishment that could only be canceled out by repentance and prayer, the saying, "God has pardoned thee," was the formula ordinarily used by the priests in healing rituals, speaking as interpreters of God.

The Pharisees thought that Jesus was assuming priestly powers that he could not legally claim, but Jesus did not say, "I forgive," but rather, "Thy sins be forgiven." He did not dwell on the idea that ill health was caused by sin, or that disease was a punishment for wrong-doing.

For Jesus looked not merely at the outer evidence of illness or imperfections, but at the ever-perfect spiritual body whence the healing could be directed. Illness focuses attention on a faulty link in the chain of perfect becoming and being. When the required inner lesson is correctly learned, the mirrored condition is also corrected. In nature's method this is a slow gradual process, but Jesus could dispense with limitations of time.

The human system is thrown out of harmony when the normal action of spirit is disturbed. The system needs to be polarized in order to establish equilibrium and effect a cure.

As Dr. Holmes has said, "Belief in a duality has made man sick, and the understanding of Unity alone will heal him." Along with this the aim is to heal men's minds, to enable them to see the perfect body, and produce it by remembering they are made in the image and perfection of God. The body of man, as the living Temple of the indwelling Spirit, should be reverently cared for.

Jesus did not perform the so-called "faith healings" as they are done today, where moral therapeutics and suggestions, with the influence of mind over body are used.

It was not their faith that cured, but faith was a condition, a definite prerequisite for the operation of divine law to manifest, when he spoke the Word of God to heal, and in certain places he did little work because of their unbelief.

The Word of Power used by Jesus in his healing work enabled men to reach beyond their own vision and to change the mental condition that produced the disease. He willed them to be whole, and let power flow through his touch to facilitate its taking place. But they had to believe that this could take place, or otherwise a block would have been set up within them to prevent the perfect flow of power in them to heal. Sometimes he said, "According to your faith be it unto you."

The power of love was present in all his work of healing and only by partaking of such love, through faith, can we become instruments for his work to let the life-giving currents flow. Unbelief robs man of his access to the glory and power of God. He taught men to look upon every needy person as his brother, and the whole world as his field.

Disease does not enter the body from without, but that which is external simply activates something which is already within us. It is a mistake to assume that the germ is creator of the disease rather than its creation.

Even in Jesus' day healing did not appear to convince the populace of the divinity of Jesus as much as one might expect, for healings were not unknown among the priests and prophets. But they had never been accomplished to such an extent as he did them, nor with the washing away of their deep-rooted causes. Neither had they been accomplished with such ease and power, or in anything approaching such numbers. The radiation from his Being was so powerful that even those who touched his garments could be made whole.

After he had risen, many healings continued to take place through the apostles, as he poured down from above a measure of his power, and they invoked his name to heal. With the passage of time, there came to be more of a formula involved in healings, in techniques such as anointing and prayer.

Incense was used, not only as an accessory to worship, but it also served as a fumigant and deodorant. The use of aromatic oils and perfumes for personal hygiene was dictated by climatic conditions; the symbolic anointing of the head or feet of a host or a guest was an indication of respect.

Present day anointing with oil is based on the instructions of the Epistle of James (sometimes called a brother of Jesus), which said, "Is any sick among you? Let him call he elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him." But when he has been forgiven, he is asked to "go and sin no more" lest a worse thing "befall him."

Healing and forgiveness of sins go together. The churches inherited from ancient times the moral precept of physical illness as a punishment for sins committed. Mankind needs to learn how to live constructively, in harmony with divine law, wisely but harming no one, and to let loose the fears caused by repressed feelings of guilt, which often in turn cause illness.

While anointing with oil was originally intended as a method of healing, this came to be used only in the latter extremes of illness when the patient had passed beyond the hope of curing; for the simple reason that when people were ill, they called for the doctor first and left the priest as a last resort. A cure was then held to be possible only if God granted His pardon and remitted the penalty, this to be gained through special rites of purification. How far religion has brought man from the origin of his faith; yet the whole Truth is there, ready to be uncovered at all times.

The healing power which Jesus demonstrated was only one of the remarkable powers used by him. And it was natural that this would have developed within one who was devoting his life to cosmic work and had offered himself as a channel for whatever the Cosmic might desire him to do in fulfilling the divine laws.

He is still just as willing to heal the suffering today as when he was physically present upon this planet. And so too do all those who willingly serve him become channels for his healing work.

Chapter 12: Some Of His Healings

At a time previous to this trip when Jesus had been returning from Tyre through Sidon past the Sea of Galilee, to the region of the Decapolis, the people of that area had brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech and they be- sought him to lay his hand upon him. Then taking him aside from the multitude privately, Jesus put his fingers on the man's ears, and he spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to the man, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."

And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And the people were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."

The early church referred to "ephphatha" as the mystery of the Opening, or the Apertio, and it is used in the ritual of baptism of Christ, where the disciple receives extended sight and hearing. The fact that Jesus looked up to heaven as he said this signified that he wanted the individual to have his hearing opened to that which is of heaven.

(Lamsa says the word commonly called "ephphatha" is cor-rectly "ethpathakh" which means "be opened." It was a copyist's error, and the former word has not meaning in any language.)

We are now examining some of those healing which were explicitly described in the gospels, to better observe what he did in each case. For instance, when Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, he "rebuked" the fever, as though in reprimand, and showing his authority over the intruder.

But the real wonder is not so much how he performed these healings, but how much restraint he used over such power, never aimlessly showing them off, but always carefully directing them for purposes of greater good. When one watches a dramatized story about some being from outer space, it is fully expected that this being will demonstrate great powers of reading minds or controlling people with the mere pointing of a power-packed finger. Jesus had these same powers which people seek to analyze, so we not wonder how the Lord of this planet performed the wonders that are told of him. Marvel rather at the love, the total discipline and restraint which enabled him to control his own impulses to use such powers to destroy or control other people.

Let us now resume the earlier part of their journey on the way to Jerusalem, where Jesus with his disciples was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted their voices crying out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."

Leprosy was a dread disease and those who contracted it were outcast from among their fellows as "unclean," being required to wear a type of clothing which would distinguish them so as to avoid contaminating others. They had to announce themselves whenever approaching or passing near to other persons, and so give them opportunity to get out of the way.

When Jesus saw the ten pleading for help, he said to them, "Go show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

Faith that the law of the word worked is that which we call knowing; this was the first requirement in each healing.

And there must be faith in the law with the power of God to heal through the being of Jesus Christ. The healings were done in co-operation with the Father.

He also used certain auxiliary measure or actions which formed a pattern for the healing action to take place. This was different for each person, due to the differing needs of the inner man of those souls Jesus sought to lift up -- along with and more important than the bodily healing. By asking the Being to do something, he enabled the man to step forward on his faith, thus enacting an acceptance that the healing had taken place.

Hebrew regulations for sanitation and ritual cleanliness prevented many of the problems of disease which plagued the surrounding nations of Jesus' time. Eye diseases were one of the most common in Palestine, caused by continual exposure to dust and glaring sunlight.

The Hebrews like all early peoples used natural remedies, but only the Hebrews used them in conjunction with certain complicated procedures which minimized the direct importance of the remedy and transferred the balance of power to the accessory rituals. This was a move toward the idea of eventually dispensing with the product and relying on the ritual alone.

The disinfectant property of saliva has long been known, as can be seen from animals instinctively licking their wounds to heal themselves. Greek and Roman physicians wrote concerning the use of sputum, and ancient rabbis taught that diseases of the eye should be treated with sputum of the first-born of a father.

Again returning to the time Jesus had been in Galilee, one day as they came to Bethsaida some people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?"

And the man looked up and said, "I see men, but they look like trees, walking." Then again Jesus laid hands upon his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored and saw everything clearly. And he sent him away to his home, saying, "Do not even enter the village."

Another healing had occurred more simply while he was still in Galilee: One day as he was passing on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." When he had entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"

They said to him, "Yes, Lord." Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, "See that no one knows it." But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

Again, on his last visit to Jerusalem, as Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent me while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which means 'sent')." So he went and washed and came back seeing. (There is also an ancient rite wherein the novitiate candidate had his eyes anointed with clay, then washed with holy water, to signify the opening of the spiritual sight.)

The neighbors and those who had seen this man before as a beggar said, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

Some said, "It is he." Others said, "No, but he is like him." He said, "I am the man." Therefore, they said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

He answered, "A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash'; so I went and washed and received sight."

They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I know not."

Then they brought to the Pharisees this man who had been formerly blind. Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see."

Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such things?" And there was a division among them.

So they again said to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since has opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."

But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

His parents answered, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself." His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if any one should confess him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, "He is of age, ask him."

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner."

He answered, "Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see."

They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

He answered them, "I have already told you, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you too want to become his disciples?"

They reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."

The man answered, "Why, this is a marvel! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is a worshipper of God and does His Will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."

They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out from among them.

Jesus heard that they had expelled him, and having found the man he said, "Do you believe in the Son of man?"

He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"

Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you." He said, "Lord, I believe"' and he worshipped him.

Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains."

Later, when he passed through Jericho, it appears that the blind were waiting to be healed at both entrances to the town. For Luke recounts that as he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And he cried, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him; and when they came near, he asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me receive my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God, and all the people when they saw it gave praise to God.

Almost the identical words were used again by Matthew in telling that as they went out to Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the roadside, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"

And Jesus stopped and called them, saying, "What do you want me to do for you?" They said to him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened." And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they received their sight and followed him.

Again, Mark tells of a healing in very similar words. Since it is not certain that all were of the same incident and each has slightly different circumstances, we have given you all three.

As he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimae'us, a blind beggar, the son of Timae'us, was sitting by the roadside. ("Bar" is the Aramaic word meaning "son," while "ben" is Hebrew for the same word.) And when he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying, 'Take heart; rise, he is calling you." And throwing off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Master, let me receive my sight."

And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Now Jericho means "city of the Moon," and in former days the Canaanites had conducted moon-worship in that city. It thus symbolized the sense-life to some extent. So when Bartimae'us flung side his cloak, he was also casting aside the material darkness which had coated over his vision.

There is a blindness worse than the physical; as Paul said, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not."

And it is likely that physical blindness is the end result of some former refusal to look at things clearly and "see" reality, for a man's body is said to represent his past. The important thing is to awaken the inner man to really open his eyes to God's Truth.

Chapter 13: The Rightful Son

Jesus said to them, "Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, then he went into another country.

"When the season of fruit drew near, he sent a servant to the tenants that they should give him some of the fruit of the vineyard; but the tenants took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

"Again he sent another servant; him also they wounded in the head and treated shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third. This one they wounded and cast out, and so with many others who were beaten and stoned or killed.

"Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; surely they will respect him.'

"But when the tenants saw the son they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours.' And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?

"Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken in pieces; but when it falls on any one it will crush him. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it."

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him: "Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law?"

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. One these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well asked him again, "Which commandment is the first of all?"

Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that He is one, and there is no other but He; and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the nderstanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any questions.

Now while the Pharisees gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David."

But he said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, calls him Lord as he says in the Book of Psalms,

'The Lord said to my Lord

Sit at my right hand, ill I make thine enemies a footstool under thy feet.' "

And no one was able to answer him a word, not from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions, for the throng gladly heard the words of Jesus.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying 'Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.' But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed them.

"The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not orthy. Go therefore to the thoroughfares and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. (For his heart was not in agreement, and his host knew this.)

"Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking against them. The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people who held him to be a prophet. So they took counsel how to entangle him in his talk, and they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere that they might take hold of what he said so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

And they sent to him some of their disciples along with the Herodians to entrap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true and show no partiality; for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God. Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

But Jesus, aware of their malice, said to them, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Bring me a coin, and let me look at it." They brought one, and he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's."

Jesus said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him by what he said; but marveling at his answer they were silent.

They recalled a former time at Capernaum of Galilee when the collectors of the half-shekel tax came up to Peter and said, "Does not your teacher pay the tax?" He said, "Yes." (A half-shekel tax was collected yearly for the Temple from each person over twenty, for his atonement according to the laws of Moses.)

And when Peter came home, before he could ask, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?" And when Peter said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."

Now Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their substance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living."

The Tribute Money

Chapter 14: The Good Shepherd

A sheep is a relatively helpless animal, peaceful and obedient, in need of leadership and protection from danger. As has been mentioned, once when Jesus "saw a great throng, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things."

The Psalmist too had sung, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." And many of the Old Testament prophets quoted the Lord as calling Himself the Shepherd of His flock -- "I Myself will search for My sheep, and will seek them out . . . "

Sheep represented the chief wealth and means of livelihood for a pastoral people, providing their owners with meat, milk, skins, cloth and a commodity of exchange. They were also prized for sacrificial purposes, being considered more acceptable than the goat, though the latter was also a valuable animal.

The differentiation between sheep and goats from a symbolic standpoint, may have been due to the acceptance of leadership by the sheep, in contrast to the rugged individualism of the goat, who tended to explore on his own.

A shepherd has remarkable rapport with his flock, for they recognize his voice, and can distinguish it from others. They learn to obey commands given by him and appear to have perfect confidence in following him. He in turn keeps the flock together, diligently searches out any strays, and for their sakes leads a nomadic life, traveling with his flock from one pasture to another, wherever grass and water may be found with the changing seasons.

There were large shelters or sheepfolds maintained for bad weather, and these held more than one herd, so that when the shepherd came he would call out his own sheep from among them, and they would recognize him and come forth.

Jesus was speaking to the Jews in the Temple when he said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber; but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

"To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger will they not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

"And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father."

There was a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, "He has a demon and he is mad; why listen to im?" Others said, "These are not the sayings of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."

Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, Who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and my Father are one."

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?"

The Jews answered him, "We stone you for no good work but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God."

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?

"If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained. And many came to him; and they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true." And many believed in him there.

Chapter 15: Reprimand

Monday and Thursday were market days and an apt time for a man to make a display of himself by fasting before the people. The Pharisees attributed an intrinsic value to fasting, independent of a man's intention; whereas Jesus placed the greater value on his intentions, indicating that unless fasting is undertaken with the right motives it is spiritually valueless.

When they came again to Jerusalem, one day he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel. He had reached the point of open declaration and began to step out more boldly than ever before in denouncing those who offended God.

One day as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority."

He answered them, "I also will ask you a question, and if you tell me the answer then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?"

And they discussed it with one anther, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know."

And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Jesus antagonized the religious authorities because his teaching was a threat to their influence over the people, as well as to their whole system of religious interpretation and regulation. To them he was a heretic who was criticizing and interfering with the national culture.

He neither appealed to the authority of the elders, nor made reference to the names of such esteemed teachers as Hillel or Schammai to substantiate his theories. Instead he applied to him-self the words of the prophets, with great power and conviction.

"I came to cast fire upon the earth," he cried out to them, "and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!

"Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in- law."

He also said to the multitudes, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, 'A shower is coming'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

And in the hearing of all the people he said to the disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and love salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."

Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger.

"They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love being called rabbi by men.

"But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted!

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice a child of hell as yourselves.

"Woe to you blind guides, who say, 'If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

"And you say, 'If any swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if any one swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

"So he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him Who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him Who sits upon it.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisees! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside may also be clean.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

"Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, rom the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

The words of Jesus exhibit more sorrow than anger at the failure of these spiritual stewards to properly accomplish their assignments for the good of mankind.

Chapter 16: Warnings

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, one of his disciples pointed out to him the buildings of the temple saying, "Teacher, what wonderful stones, and what wonderful buildings!" And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, "As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."

They walked outside the city to the nearby Mount of Olives where he was wont to spend the night with his disciples. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign when these things are all to be accomplished of your coming and the closing of the age?"

And Jesus began to say to them, "Take heed that you are not being led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he! I am the Christ'; and, 'The time is at hand!' and they will lead many astray. But do not go after them.

"And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be alarmed; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once."

Then he said to them, "Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven; but this is but the beginning of the sufferings.

"But take heed to yourselves; for before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you up to councils and prisons; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will be brought before governors and kings for my name's sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony before them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

"Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. When they bring you to trial and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say; but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation. You will be delivered up even by your parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

"And many will fall away, and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold.

"But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives, for he who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.

"So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place set up where it ought not to be, (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything away that is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle.

"And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been seen from the beginning of God's creation of the world until now, no, and ever will be.

"And if the Lord had not shortened the days, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, those days will be shortened.

"Then if any one says to you, 'Lo, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. But take heed, I have told you beforehand.

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter into it; for these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

"For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

But when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."

And he said to the disciples, "The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it. And if they say to you, 'Lo, he is in he wilderness,' do not go out. And if they say, 'Lo, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.

"For as the lightning flashes and comes out of the east and shines even unto the west -- as it lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will be the coming of the Son of man in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

"As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will it be on the day when the Son of man is revealed. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

"I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other left. Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and the one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour when you do not expect."

And they said to him, "Where, Lord?"

He said to them, "Where the body is, there the eagles (or vultures) will be gathered together."

Some translations say "vultures" instead of "eagles." Palestine has several species of each, but the Hebrew words used in the Bible do not distinguish clearly between the two birds, so no one has been able to formulate a definite statement as to which was meant.

Jesus continued to speak: "But in those days, after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven. And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

"Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

"From the fig tree (as with all trees) learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates, and that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

"But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch (and pray), for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore -- for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning -- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.

"But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of his life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth.

"Watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man."

And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged at the Mount called Olivet. And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

Chapter 17: Lazarus

As they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid because of the things he revealed to them. He took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and everything that is written of the Son of man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him up to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise."

Now as they went on their way, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me."

But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."

The village which they had entered was Bethany, less than two miles east of Jerusalem on the slope of Mount Olivet. Jesus and the disciples usually passed this way each day while they were in Jerusalem, spending their nights just a little beyond Bethany, higher up the slope. They had gained the support and affection of the family of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, who felt privileged to offer them their hospitality.

It appears Martha was the elder of the two women and perhaps also older than Lazarus, and she had shouldered the burden of responsibility of caring for the physical needs of her family and friends. Mary usually helped with these duties. There is no indication that she was normally lazy or unkind -- the Master would never have stood for that. But she had been drawn by the stronger magnet of the Spirit to sit at his feet, drinking in his wonderful words and glorious Presence to the point of forgetting all else.

This is where many persons find the decision difficult. For truly Martha was giving of herself, but her attention was pointed toward caring for their mortal needs, which would be of very short duration, as Jesus well knew.

Mary had chosen to interest herself in that which was immortal; so he would not move her from that wise choice though her sister suffered duress. He used this opportunity to teach Martha the truth about the situation, helping her to see what she also needed to attain, and along with teaching her, he has reached out to caution millions of others through the centuries, that they too watch which things receive first consideration, the spiritual or material.

Soon after this he left with his disciples for the place at the Jordan crossing where he had been baptized, and a place which was suited to teaching and receiving crowds. Jesus' method of healing the sick is of such a nature that only a little step separates it from the raising of the dead. That little step was an easy one for the almighty power of Christ, Who is the Master of life and death.

For some reason only the gospel of John relates the very important event of raising Lazarus from the grave. There has, of course, been much speculation as to why the others, the Synoptic Gospels, omitted this.

The event itself holds significance in various ways. To begin with, it represented the third time he had raised someone from the dead, in progressively more difficult circumstances. The first instance was when a father called Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came to ask Jesus to heal his daughter who had died while they were on the way to help her. She was a twelve year old maiden, and Jesus made no claim that he would raise the dead; he only said she was sleeping when they said she had died. Though he knew she had died, he did not acknowledge it as final.

In each case he spoke directly to the person being raised as though that person was indeed waiting merely to be awakened from sleep. To her he said, "Little girl, arise"; and she immediately did.

The next time a young man was already on the bier being carried through the streets to his burial. Jesus had compassion on the pleas of his mother and said to him, "Young man, I say to you, arise," and he also arose.

Now for a third time a young man lay dead. Burial usually took place on the same day as the transition for various reasons of climate and sanitation. They did not normally use a coffin; therefore, those who could afford it placed the body in a cave or sepulchre.

The Jews believed the soul hovered about the body for three days, after which it utterly deserted. When Jesus was called from the Jordan to help Lazarus, he waited past this time, so no one could formulate a logical explanation for his raising up. He wanted them to see that this was entirely the work of God, beyond the possibility of Nature. So in this last case, Jesus showed himself as the giver of Life after all hope is utterly gone.

This seemed to prefigure the timing of his own resurrection. Almost every major event in the cosmic drama he enacted was preceded by something else of similar pattern. John prepared the way for his ministry; Lazarus prepared the way for his resurrection.

Let us hear the story as told in the Gospel of St. John:

Now a certain man was ill, of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha; it was they whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go into Judea again." (For they had located just across the Jordan which formed a boundary line between Judea and Peraea.)

The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and you are going there again?"

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him."

Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep."

The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.

Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." (For they all knew that his life was in serious danger.)

Now when Jesus came he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world."

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.

Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Then Mary, when she came to where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, "Where have you laid him?"

They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days."

Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone.

And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou has heard me. I know that Thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by that they may believe that Thou didst send me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out."

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what he did believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation."

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death.

Jesus, therefore, no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim; and there he stayed with the disciples.

Chapter 18: Approaching The Passover

Knowing of the deepening plots against his life, Jesus had withdrawn for a time to teach his disciples in a country place, the little hill town of Ephraim near the wilderness, which lay about fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem.

This area had formerly belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, grandson of Jacob, and its name means "doubly fruitful." The area must have been beautiful with wild flowers at that time of year for winter was nearing its end, and the land which would be parched in summer was now brought to life by winter rains and days which were warm with increasing sunshine as the spring equinox drew close.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?"

Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if any one knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him; and suspense was high.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him.

Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment, which was a precious item brought by caravan from India.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it.

Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you have always with you, but me you do not have always."

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

The foregoing account was written by St. John, but Matthew and Mark both speak somewhat differently of the dinner and the anointing, so let us look at their version. There may have been two occasions during the same week, but this seems rather unlikely. Mark says it was now not six, but two days, before the feast of Unleavened Bread, and Matthew takes it up thus:

"When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of man will be delivered up to be crucified."

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and took counsel together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult among the people."

And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the jar and poured it over his head. But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment thus wasted? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they reproached her.

But Jesus aware of this, said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good for them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

It is impossible to gauge the exact value of any ancient coin, because these were uneven in shape and had to be weighed to determine their correct worth. The denarius was a silver coin of Roman origin, its name meaning "ten asses." This coin was also mentioned as one day's pay for a laborer in the vineyards (sometimes translated as "penny"). Its weight is equivocated as something like fifteen or twenty cents of today's money -- altogether quite indefinite. But even at twenty cents each, three hundred denarii would be worth sixty dollars, or three hundred days' wages for a laborer, and a considerable sum either way.

They may have wondered at Mary, if she had declared herself a full disciple, for holding out a thing so costly, since Jesus had taught the rich to sell all they had to give to the poor. But giving it as a great gift directly unto the Lord in this case proved more effectual for good than dividing it up in small pittances to the poor could ever have accomplished -- expressing as it did the beauty of heartfelt gratitude and loving devotion of disciple toward teacher.

Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, being from Judea, the southern province of Palestine, was the only non-Galilean among the disciples and probably felt somewhat of an outsider among these provincial northerners and fishermen. As a matter of fact, Joseph, the husband of Mary, was born a Judean.

While the name "Iscariot" is of uncertain origin, it is believed Judas was native to a town named Kerioth. He may have felt a sense of superiority and sophistication, with a growing impatience toward these simple folk, as it was customary among the Jews of that day to deride anyone hailing from Galilee.

This was the first sign of falling away by one of his twelve disciples. Some have ventured the irrelevant conjecture that Judas was in love with Mary of Bethany and felt jealous of the attention she was lavishing on Jesus. This is possible, but it appears likely that he had become progressively disgruntled with many things, among them those preposterous occurrences which went beyond the realm of human understanding.

The ordinary mind, having no previous conditioning in such things, can cope with just about so many miracles before feeling either an urge to throw up its hands and settle back into 'normal' procedure having nothing more to do with such strange goings on, or he is inspired to go wholeheartedly all the way.

Though Judas had joined the disciples in good faith and accepted the leadership of Jesus, his orthodox upbringing bothered him, and he felt that he was becoming estranged from his faith as a Jew and, perhaps even more, that Jesus was a destructive factor in Jewish national religion. Where they had started out feeling like exalted sons of heaven, it had begun to appear they were all doomed, being closed in on by the authorities like common outlaws.

Having been appointed manager of practical affairs for the disciples, certain unreasonable demands were sometimes made which tried his patience and ingenuity. He ad become attached to the job as steward of the group's finances and took these things to heart. Whether or not he was actually a thief, he so embraced the role of a shrewd business man that when his disapproval warranted leaving Jesus, he decided to "do business" and sell out, rather than just walking away -- knowing the high price which the Temple priests, who thought of Jesus as a heretic, were willing to pay for his arrest.

As a loyal Jew, he may have felt that by turning Jesus in, he was doing a favor to his nation. From his later reactions, Judas obviously had not counted on the tortures they would inflict on Jesus, or else his heart had become temporarily so hardened that at that point he didn't consider the consequences.

Luke relates: Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death; for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them, saying, "What will you give me if I deliver him to you?"

And they were glad and promised to give him money. So he agreed and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. And they paid him thirty pieces of silver, the same amount mentioned in the prophecy of Zechariah 11:12. (This payment was in shekels, which coins were considerably larger and more valuable than the denarius.) And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

It appears that when Satan left Jesus in the desert at the beginning of his ministry and went away to "bide his time," that the time he had awaited was now come, when he could display the power of the corrupt world toward one who had resisted his wiles so successfully before and had triumphed over corruption. Since he could not defeat Jesus directly, he could influence the weakest and least stable of their group to turn against their Lord -- not knowing that already stored away were the plans for a far higher triumph.

Chapter 19: The Triumphant Entry

Jesus told them this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it but found none. And he said to the vinedresser, 'Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I have found none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?"

"And he answered him, 'Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it will bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "

Now the next day after his feast with Lazarus' family and friends, Jesus walked on ahead as they were going up to Jerusalem. Adjoining Bethany was a small town named Bethphage, which means "house of figs." And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two of the disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you where immediately on entering you will find an ass tied, and with her a colt (or young ass), on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it here to me. If any one speaks to you or asks you why you are untying it, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of it and he will send it back here immediately.' "

So those who were sent away found the young donkey as he told them, tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. And its owners who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" And they told him what Jesus had said; and they let it go. And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their garments on the colt, they set Jesus upon it.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass."

In Matthew's description of the event he says Jesus rode on both; the others mention only the colt.

His disciples did not understand this at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness.

This occurrence supposedly took place on the tenth day of the month Nisan -- the day which was dedicated by law to the choosing of the Paschal lamb for the Passover. Jesus' entry on a donkey was unusual only in the sense that this particular action had a ceremonial meaning, ( I Kings 1:32). It is based on the Hebrew custom of causing the crown prince to ride on the king's mule. David, in his last days, had caused Solomon to ride on his own mule, to be anointed in his stead by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, as King over Israel.

And as he rode along, many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. A great crowd who had come for the Passover feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, "Hosanna! Blessed it he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"

As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is he kingdom of our father David that is coming! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent the very stones would cry out." (Any person suddenly recognizing the presence of a divine Being could scarce contain the welling up of praise and exultation, lest he should burst with trying to hold it in. And when the Christ unfolds to one, the first impulse is to shout His Name so that all the world resounds with it.)

The reason the crowd went out to meet him was that they heard that he had done this sign to fulfill the prophecy. The Pharisees then said to one another, "You see that you can do nothing; look, the world has gone after him."

And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee." Then he went into the Temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out of the city again to Bethany and lodged there with the twelve.

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see it he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves. And he said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it.

The gospel of Mark adds, "For it was not the season for figs." It was true that the summer crop was not yet due, but perhaps Mark or his translators were not familiar with he habit of fig trees, which bear two or sometimes three crops per year -- beginning with tender green edible figs appearing before the leaves in early spring. The first crop is borne on last year's growth, while the second crop comes on the season's new growth.

Actually Jesus was teaching his disciples to expect that the very elements should obey their word and supply their needs; for man at the beginning of creation was given dominion over the earth. He was also showing them what happens to those who are not prepared for the unexpected coming of the Lord -- when he will look for results concerning how time has been spent.

When they came to Jerusalem, he entered the Temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the Temple, and he would not allow any one to carry anything through the Temple. And he taught them, saying, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.' But you have made it a den of robbers."

(In an apocryphal manuscript was found a marginal note which read, "In the books of the gospels which the Nazarenes use, it is written that rays came forth from his eyes, by which they were terrified and put to flight.") As Jesus drove the money-changers out of the Temple, so likewise does the evolving person drive out of the physical body the sins of the flesh.

When they heard what he said, as he was teaching daily in the Temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished. But they did not find anything they could do, for all the people hung upon his words.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and heard the children crying out in the Temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and they said to them, "Do you hear what they are saying?"

And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise'?" And when evening came they went out of the city.

As they passed by again in the morning, the disciples saw the fig tree withered away to its roots, and they marveled. Then Peter said to him, "Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered. How did this come about?"

Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' he who does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." He had thus used the fig tree as a means of demonstration to them.

Faith

Faith is the inheritance of each man from his Creator but it matters what you believe in. Christ had faith which was united with love for the Father and love for man. With this he could walk across the water. He believed (rather he knew) it was solid enough to hold him in the performance of God's will -- so it was. No doubt may dim one's faith.

The healings which occurred were not merely through the outward contact with Jesus, but also through faith which took hold of His divine power. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth.

Faith is knowing everything is all right in God and knowing He knows. He who waits for entire knowledge and outer evidence before accepting what is sought cannot receive the blessing from God. Faith requires accepting what is desired with no other evidence han the faith itself. For this provides the substance through which the miracles will be wrought.

It is not enough to believe about Christ, we must believe in him and appropriate his merits to ourselves. Saving faith is the way whereby those who receive Christ join themselves in a covenant relation with God. Genuine faith lives and moves, enabling the soul to become a conquering power.

To deny that Jesus performed miracles would be to deny his divine essence and to look upon him as the prototype of a mere believer who preached a life of moral perfection and furnished the first example. No, the life of Jesus is a revelation of God Himself -- a marvelous manifestation of Divine Action in the guise of earthly occurrences.

As Paul said, the Israelites failed of salvation "because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense; and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Faith is more than assurance, it is the element that firms and stabilizes our future -- in fact actually creates the future for each of us -- having power to give form and substance to all things.

Chapter 20: The Hour Has Come

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. This town was at the border of Galilee, near Decapolis, the federation of ten Greek cities just east of the Sea of Galilee. Philip may have been of partial Greek parentage, since his name is of that language. The people said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus.

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

"If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him."

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name."

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."

Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show by what death he was to die.

The crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?"

Jesus said to them, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."

When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him; it was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Therefore, they could not believe.

For Isaiah again had said, "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and turn for me to heal them." Isaiah said this because he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

Nevertheless many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in me, believes not in me but in Him Who sent me. And he who sees me sees Him Who sent me. I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

"If any one hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the Word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father Who sent me has Himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that this commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me."

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is said to mean "City of Peace," though it has known little peace in its infinitely long history, which extends back into prehistoric times. The first written mention was around 2000 B.C. in the Egyptian texts of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties. Later, around 1400 B.C., there were letters written in cuneiform from the satellite king of Jerusalem, one king Abdu-Heba, to the ruler of Egypt. The Jews were then called "Habiru," and the city "Urusalim." "Urusalim" was believed to be the component name of a god known in the Akkadian language as "Shulman" and in the Canaanite as "Shalem." It is true that Abraham migrated from a land called Ur, or Uri, but no mention is made of this reason for the name Urusalim, the latter part pronounced "saleem."

The city has been sacked, captured, or destroyed countless times, even in the history of the Old Testament, and long before there was a Hebrew nation or people. Certain walls and buildings dated at 1800 BC. have been uncovered by archeologists. Josephus mentions three walls. The size of the city has changed and grown much and shifted about somewhat in location. It is believed the city of David was just south of the now-existing boundaries.

Modern Jerusalem is the holy city for three faiths. It is the only ancestral home of the Jewish nation and religion, which two appear inseparable. The Jews have been driven from their homeland many times and have suffered as wanderers on the face of the earth, living in many countries, but seldom being absorbed by them.

After an absence of nearly 2000 years, they have only now succeeded in coming to resume national life once more on this sacred ground, the city of their songs and prophecies, and the goal of their ancient longing. It is sacred mainly because Yahweh directed them to build His temple there.

The splendid old Hebrew Temple has vanished utterly, but the Wailing Wall, where the Jews gather every Friday to mourn and pray, is thought to be a remnant of its outer wall.

Though Mecca and Medina are the foremost cities dedicated to Mohammed, Jerusalem is also sacred to his followers as the place from which tradition says Mohammed ascended to heaven. The Moslems now have a beautiful mosque built on the very spot believed formerly occupied by Solomon's Temple.

Having occupied the city for centuries during the absence of the Jews, it has been hard for them to give up their deepening roots to the recently returned Israelites, and so bitter enmity has pervaded the present-day atmosphere of the city, which Time must heal.

Last, but not least, the city is sacred to Christians as the place where Jesus taught and spent the latter part of his life, and where his final trial took place. During the Middle Ages, Christian Crusaders set out with high zeal, but without organization, to rescue the Holy City from Mohammedanism, but the Moslems stubbornly held on; so the Crusaders suffered much bloodshed and hardship in vain.

Jerusalem is situated on the crest of the central range of mountains of west Palestine, between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. Its altitude is around 2400 feet. To the southwest lay the valley of Gehenna where in earlier times the Phoenicians had made human sacrifices to their God Moloch, and cast criminals to suffer, so that the very word "Gehenna" came to mean a place of torment in the Jewish language.

Jerusalem is really two cities today -- the old walled city and the larger new city. Its walls have been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Eight gates open into streets too narrow for any wheeled vehicle. These are paved with uneven, slippery cobblestones and some are arched overhead like the aisles of a cathedral. Both new and old city have an air of dignity and solidity. Its buildings are of a beautiful hard stone taken from beneath the city.

The place most visited by Christian pilgrims is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over the supposed tomb of Jesus. The oldest part of this structure dates from the twelfth century. None can point with certainty to any of these locations as perfectly authentic. The fourteen stations of the cross, called the Via Dolorosa, may not be exactly the way Jesus followed but the devotion of countless pilgrims has hallowed these spots.

Just outside the walls to the east is the Garden of Gethsemane, which is carefully tended by Franciscan monks. Several ancient olive trees are pointed out as the very ones in whose shade Jesus knelt and prayed in the anguish of that final night, though others say an olive tree lives normally about 500 years.

In more ancient times, before motor vehicles, the trip to Jerusalem was quite different. From all the towns and smallest villages of Palestine and beyond, even to the remotest districts, thousands of pilgrims were wont to come to the Passover festival, and they poured through every gate into the city. They chanted psalms upon the long march, and as they went the roads filled with more people joining the eager throng.

The Holy City would appear suddenly before them as they rounded the gray and desolate stones of Mt. Scopus, and it came like a radiant vision -- the Temple with its golden roof on Mt. Moriah, while on Zion rose the palace of Herod and those of the high priests. All the domes shone white in the rising sun; and sixty towers rose upon the walls like giant sentinels round the city of the great King.

The Mount of Olives rising to the east was covered with the somber green of cypress and cedar; nearby on the southern horizons were the undulating chain of mountains around Bethlehem; and farther off the hills of Moab faded distantly into the sky. At sight of Jerusalem the pilgrims, filled with great emotion, would chant the Psalm of Degrees, "How goodly are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!"

Such was the scene now set for our Lord. The crowds were daily pouring into the city in great numbers, excited and expectant in this week of their holy ceremonies.

Chapter 21; Passover

The Passover, or Pasch, was the chief Jewish feast of the year, occurring near the spring equinox. Its Hebrew name, pesah, or pasach, means "a passing," and recalls the mysterious passing- over of the angel of the Lord on that terrible night in Egypt when all the first born of the land were stricken down.

This happened in the era previous to the coming of the Messiah. Moses had been brought up by the daughter of Pharaoh as her own son, after she found the Hebrew infant floating in a basket of reeds on the Nile. He was taught in all the knowledge available to a royal prince of that day, which was considerable. But when a grown man, he accidentally discovered his own Hebrew origin and began to concern himself with the fortunes of his race, who had suffered so long under bondage to the Egyptians. They yearned to return to their own land, and to freedom, and he would help them under God's direction.

You may read all of this in the book of Exodus. It is a long and interesting story. We will quote only the few portions from Exodus relating to the Passover.

The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Yet one more plague will I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence." And Moses repeated His words to the Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt; and all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne even to the first born of the maidservant who is behind the mill; and all of the first born of the cattle." (Note the reference to "cattle," for this is occurring about the time of ending of the Taurean age.) He continued, "But against the people of Israel, either man or beast, not a dog shall growl; that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction." But the Pharaoh would not concede, and Moses left him in anger.

Then the Lord said to Moses and to his brother, Aaron, "This month shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb for each household; and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat.

"The lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but roasted, its head and its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until morning, you shall burn.

"In this manner shall you eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.

"The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt."

Then Moses instructed the elders accordingly: "Select lambs according to your families . . . Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and ouch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you.

"And when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall keep this service, and explain to your children, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover . . . "

And on the next day, as we know, Pharaoh ordered all the Israelites to leave. They were quickly on their way, having been warned in advance to have all their possessions gathered in readiness to flee.

Even while they were en route the Pharaoh changed his mind and took up pursuit. It was then the Lord made for them a path through the sea, parting the waters before them, and closing them as soon as the Israelites were safely across, thus swallowing up the pursuers in their chariots. So the Lord delivered them safely out of slavery, and they too were saved by the blood of the lamb on the physical level. And they too were directed that not a bone of the sacrificial lamb should be broken. Neither could it be eaten by any who were not circumcised.

Jerusalem in the time of Jesus was once again astir for the yearly performance of these rites -- which, though they did not know it, would never be quite the same again. It is believed that about 100,000 pilgrims flowed yearly into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Being the political hot bed that it was at that time, one can imagine the tension among the rulers of both the Temple and the nation.

The high priests had long sought to get rid of this disturbing Messiah. They, in turn, never knew when an insurrection might arise among their own hot headed rebels against he Roman rule, which could cost all their heads. The Roman procurator had to be especially alert for trouble at these feasts where so many gathered together and Jewish feeling ran high. Anything could happen, so he always stationed extra guards at the Temple and in the streets to be on the watch for any disturbance which could turn into a riot. It was an atmosphere simmering with potential explosion.

The procurator at this time was, of course, Pontius Pilate. He had come into the governor's office in 26 A.D. just before the time of Jesus' crucifixion. Pontius Pilate was described by historians as a vindictive, violent and tyrannical ruler who hated the Jews, and it was only due to the restraint of his superiors that his treachery toward them was to some extent controlled. His own men disguised as Jews would sometimes turn on a mob and disperse them with concealed clubs. In Luke 13: 1 Jesus was told about "the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices." It was by his orders that certain Jews were slain while performing their temple worship.

The Jews had been driven out of Rome in 19 A.D. by the Roman ruler Tiberius who had begun to turn against them. Pilate obviously shared this antagonism. He was fanatically loyal to the Roman emperor, but without good judgment, and in 36 A.D. was finally recalled to Rome due to a massacre perpetrated by his orders on the Samarians who were known to be loyal subjects of Rome. At this point Pilate disappeared from history with no record of what happened to him after that.

The procurator made a point of coming to his dwelling in Jerusalem at times of festival, though he spent much of the year in his palace near the Mediterranean.

Most paintings of the Last Supper, in which Jesus and his disciples participated, depict them seated on chairs of European style; but the actual customs of that time and place were different.

The Passover had formerly been eaten by the Jews standing upright, with staff in hand and loins girded, like travelers ready to depart; but by this time they had modified such details. This was because of their original instruction.

The Jews, by the time of Jesus, had come to celebrate the Feast of the Lamb reclining on couches. "To eat upright," say the Rabbis of the Talmud, "becomes the servants; the masters should eat reclining. Certainly it is the bread of affliction and bondage which we eat, but it should be eaten after the manner of freemen, of kings, and of the great."

Those who had large rooms were fortunate at this time, for the number of guests at each table was required to be not less than ten, and sometimes as many as forty or fifty. It was customary for the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to accept pilgrims at their table so all might have a place to share the feast.

On the thirteenth day of the month Nisan the head of each family went through his dwelling place with a lamp to destroy all the leaven and fermented dough, which was then burned in a vessel in the open air. Then the pure water and pure meal were chosen, for the making of round, flat loaves of fresh unleavened bread.

The courts of the Temple were crowded with a multitude of people from all Palestine. When the festival opened with the sound of trumpets, immediately the head of each family went forth to buy the Paschal lamb, which must be one year old and without blemish. This was then brought to the Temple and slaughtered by the priests, who let its blood flow over the altar of burnt offering. The lamb thus prepared was to be cooked and all of it eaten that night with none left until the morning. This sacred feast was called "eating the Passover."

According to the custom, the lamb was roasted and seasoned with bitter herbs. The unleavened bread, called the "bread of affliction," and bitter seasoning symbolized the ufferings of bondage; the lamb recalled the blood which had served to mark the doors of Jewish houses and to preserve them from the wrath of the destroying angel.

Meanwhile, in the houses, a banqueting room was being prepared, and the festal couches were being arranged for the evening meal. The banqueting room of the upper classes was adorned with carpets and hangings. In the middle of the room stood a low table on which the lamb was placed, along with unleavened bread, bitter herbs, a special sauce for dipping, and the cup of wine which would pass from one guest to another.

Around the table, in a half circle, the couches or pallets were prepared, slightly inclined and just barely raised from the floor. Each guest would recline on his left side, keeping the right hand free. The first place was in the center, the second on the left, etc. Between couches and walls the women and servants could move about to serve the repast.

No women are mentioned in connection with Jesus' last supper. If they were there, it was only in a serving capacity. But since the Bible distinctly says "the twelve," and that Peter and John were sent to make preparations, it appeared that he desired this time to be alone with those who needed final instructions to carry on and perhaps also to spare the women from having to witness his arrest. Catherine Emmerick envisioned Jesus bidding his mother and the other women in affectionate good-bye at Bethany before setting out for the Pasch.

The ceremonial of the Passover dinner in those days began with the eldest or most respected person pouring the first cup of sweet wine and pronouncing the first prayer of benediction: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who hast created the fruit of the vine."

Everyone then drank in a religious hush while women and servants carried around the roast lamb and great bowls of bitter herbs and a special sauce of reddish color called "haroseth," which was made with dates, figs, and almonds, cooked in wine and cinnamon.

The elder then took a pinch of the herbs, dipped it in the haroseth, and ate it as the others followed suit -- after he had pronounced the second benediction: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who has created the fruits of the earth."

He then poured a second cup of wine and in a dramatic voice recalled briefly the significance of the festival; then he called on everyone to chant the first portion of the Hallel (Psalms 113 and 114). Then, when the singing had ended, there came the last benediction. Breaking a piece of unleavened bread and putting a bit of sauce on it, the elder gave a portion to each person at the table, saying: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who has caused the earth to bring forth bread."

He then took the third cup of wine, and in so doing, signaled the commencement of the meal itself, which consisted of the lamb and liberal portions of wine. When the entire animal had been consumed -- nothing but the bones was supposed to remain -- the feast ended with a last cup of wine and the singing of the final portion of the Hallel (Psalms 115 through 118).

This is not quite like today's celebration, which begins with a small child inquiring of the father why they celebrate the Passover.

Chapter 22: The Last Supper

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. He knew that for him this Passover was the true "passage," the awaited hour when he should depart this world to return to the Father, and that he was to translate the old Passover ritual into a new rite of the Eucharist.

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the passover lamb had to be sacrificed, his disciples came to Jesus saying, "Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

And he sent Peter and John saying to them, "Go into the city and behold, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters say to the householder, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand. Where is the guest room, where I am to eat the Passover with my disciples?' And he will show you a large upper room furnished; there make ready and prepare for us." (Some believe this may have been the home of St. Mark.)

He could have given them actual street directions and the name of the man for whom they should inquire, but why trouble himself? Such directions are for persons of limited sight. It was more simple and clear to give the directions straightforwardly as he envisioned the situation, and, too, it would prove to them once more his infallible vision. Might this vision also have included another Man carrying a jar of water 2000 years later --the symbol of Aquarius -- when the time of reaping should come?

And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it as he had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening he came with the twelve and sat at table, and the apostles with him. And during supper, when the devil had already put it 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 had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel.

Then he poured water into a basin which John carried and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?"

Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."

Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me." Simon Peter said to him then, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"

Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him, that was why he said, "You are not all clean."

Jesus' followers had long since repented and been cleansed through baptism. They had also performed baptisms on others in Jesus' name. But there was still a touch of earthiness clinging to their understanding (for this is the symbolism of the feet). There is no need to do more now than remove the residue.

Hebrew priests also had to wash their feet before entering the sanctuary. The Lord had directed Moses that a laver made of bronze should be placed between the tent of meeting and the altar. (This was before they had a temple.) The bronze laver was to be filled with water, and whenever the priests came and approached the altar to minister or to sacrifice, they must wash both their hands and feet, "lest they die." (Exodus 30:17) Was not Jesus at this time preparing his apostles to approach a yet greater altar?

When he had washed their feet and taken his garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord; and you are right; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of you all; I know whom I have chosen, it is that the scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.'

"I tell you now before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me, and he who receives me receives Him Who sent me."

And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?"

He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread in the same dish with me. For the Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." (Now all were dipping bread and herbs in Paschal sauce.)

Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Is it I, Master?" He said to him, "You have said so." But it seems that no one heard him, for one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus; so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, "Tell us who it is of whom he speaks." So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, "Lord, who is it?"

Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him.

Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that because Judas had the money box,

Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel, he immediately went out and it was night.

This was told by St. John, and it is supposed that he was the one close beside Jesus with Peter on the other side of him. John described the footwashing, but did not mention the sacrament of bread and wine as did the other gospels -- which tell us that as they were eating Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

And he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them telling them to divide it among themselves, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

St. Luke in one version says that he passed the cup first, then the bread. "And likewise the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.' " It is not certain whether this covenant was made before or after Judas left their midst.

Catherine Emmerick, in her vision of the Last Supper, says:

"As the meal advanced I saw him become more and more divine. He had told them he was going to give them all he had to bestow, and he spoke so affectionately. Then he seemed to become quite transparent, like a bright shadow. As he broke the bread I saw our Blessed Lady come in and receive the Holy Sacrament spiritually. She seemed not to touch the ground, and no one saw her. She stopped opposite Jesus to receive, for no one sat opposite him, as the table was in the form of a horse shoe.

"What remained of the blood was put into a small vessel and reserved in a proper place - and after the resurrection of Christ I saw the apostles go to fetch it for the purpose of communication."

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in Himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.

"You are those who have continued with me in my trials; as my Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

The impact of what he was telling them and the seriousness of impending events struck anxiety in their hearts, and they began to question him. Simon Peter asked, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward."

And he added, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren."

"Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's abode are many dwelling places; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going."

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know Him and have seen Him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied."

Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak of my own authority; but the Father Who dwells in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandment. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?"

Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's Who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.

"I will not longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go hence."

Until now his Jewish disciples had celebrated Passover by eating bread and lamb in commemoration of the lamb slain in Egypt. But he now told them in effect, "When you do this hence- forth, do so in memory of me, and not of the lamb which was slain in Egypt." He substituted a new covenant, and instead of the blood of a lamb placed on the doorposts to save them from the slaughter of the angel in Egypt, Jesus' own blood would redeem the world from sin, for his was an everlasting offering. His disciples were also to drink wine in memory of his triumphant death and resurrection, this bread and wine acting as symbols of the spiritual body and blood of Jesus.

For through the power of the priesthood, of which Jesus is the high priest, the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus is made possible, and through this we receive the redemption, the light and rebirth.

Chapter 23: Final Discourse

As they rose from the table at the completion of the Passover dinner, Jesus said to them, "When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." (Referring to their first mission as neophytes.)

He said to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, 'And he was reckoned with transgressors': for what is written about me has its fulfillment.

And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough."

And when they had sung a hymn together, the customary last part of the Hallel, he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.

Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."

Peter declared to him, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Lord, why cannot I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."

Jesus said to him, "Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny three times that you know me." (The gospel of Mark says, "before the cock crows twice.")

Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." And so said all the disciples.

Jesus went on, giving them his private teaching for the last time: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

"You are already made clean by the Word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

"I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

"If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

"You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another.

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

"Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know Him Who sent me.

"If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. It is to fulfill the word that is written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'

"But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them.

"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to Him Who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

"He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.

"A little while, and you will see me no more; again a little while, and you will see me." Some of his disciples said to one another, "What is this that he says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'; and, 'Because I go to the Father'?" They said, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We do not know what he means."

Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him; so he said to them, "Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, 'A little while, and you will see not me, and again a little while and you will see me'? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a child is born into the world.

"So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

"I have said this to you in figures; the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in figures, but tell you plainly of the Father. In that day you will ask in my name; and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from the Father. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.

His disciples said, "Ah, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure! Now we know that you know all things, and need none to question you; by this we believe that you came from God."

Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

"I have said this to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Chapter 24: GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

When Jesus had spoken these words to the disciples, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son that the Son may glorify Thee, since Thou has given him power over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom Thou has given him. And this is eternal life, that they know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.

"I glorified Thee on earth, having accomplished the work which Thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify Thou me in Thine own Presence with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was made.

"I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they know that every- thing that Thou hast given me is from Thee. For I have given them the words which Thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from Thee; and they have believed that Thou didst send me.

"I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given me, for they are Thine; all mine are Thine, and Thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to Thee.

"Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name, which Thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name, which Thou hast given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

"But now I am coming to Thee, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Thy Word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

"Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is Truth. As Thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.

"I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in the Thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.

"The glory which Thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and Thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given me, may be with me where I am to behold my glory, which Thou hast given me, in Thy love for me, before the foundation of the world.

"O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these know that Thou hast sent me. I made known to them Thy Name, and I will make it known, that the love with which Thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them."

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples across the Kidron valley. As the high priest had said, if one person of special note was sacrificed on behalf of them all, it might divert attention from political problems and assure that othing further would happen. They felt fairly safe in taking Jesus, knowing that his men were not soldiers who would be likely to kill on behalf of their leader. The only problem was how to take him quietly, without arousing the ire of the populace who were greatly interested in hearing this teacher.

He was surrounded by crowds every day in the temple, so they must take him privately where none would guess what was transpiring until it was too late. This was a clever move on the part of the priests, accomplishing two objectives at once -- first, giving the rebels something to vent their passions upon, and second, getting rid of this threat to the traditional teachings of the law. So the plot went on beneath the seething activities of the great city on this night.

The Passover festival always came at the time of full moon, so they could see the city clearly from the Garden, the Temple silhouette rising above the city walls, the whole looking some- what mysterious and unreal in the soft light.

This valley is traditionally supposed to be where Abraham was anciently met by Melchizedek, king of Salem, who offered him bread and wine. At the foot of the Mount of Olives, they came to a place called Gethsemane (which means "olive press"), where there was a garden planted thick with olive trees with fine shrubs and fruit trees. Here he and his disciples entered.

And when he came to the place, he said to them, "Sit here while I go yonder and pray. And pray that you may not enter into temptation."

And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, taking with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me."

In a man of great feeling, as Jesus must have been in order to encompass the world with his compassion, it was not unnatural that he should be capable of agony. For he was not just any man about to die, but was dying for all.

He was compelled to go through what all would feel in like circumstances; but while still in a physical body as subject to pain as anyone's, he must at the same time die nobly for a magnificent purpose.

So the human part of him gathered strength for the ignominy of the morrow, here for a little while alone with those who had been faithful to him. All was a necessary part of this cosmic drama he was enacting, and nothing was left out of the pattern for the initiations which others may have to go through on the inner level at some time along the spiritual path.

And going a little father, he fell on his face on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee. If Thou art willing, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine, be done."

And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

And again he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Thy will be done." And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy.

So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; behold, the hour has come, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."

And immediately, while he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priest and the scribes and elders.

Now Judas knew this place well, for Jesus often met with his disciples here at the Garden of Gethsemane. So having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, he went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away safely." For it was too dark for the others to recognize him. And the chief priests had chosen this lonely place in order to avoid resistance from his supporters.

Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward and said to them, "Whom do you seek?"

They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth."

Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, "Judas, would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?"

And Judas came up to Jesus at once and said, "Hail, Master!" And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, "Friend, why are you here?"

He called the traitor "friend," as though both shared in some knowledge, but this must have greatly shamed Judas.

When Jesus acknowledged who he was, they all drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, "Whom do you seek?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth."

Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he; so if you seek me, let these men go." This was to fulfill the word which he had spoken, "Of those whom Thou gavest me I lost not one."

And when those who were about him saw what would follow, they said, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?" Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus.

But Jesus said, "No more of this! Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me? Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?" He had permitted them to bring the swords along mainly to illustrate the teaching and demonstrate a greater truth.

And he touched the ear of Malchus and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and captains of the temple and elders who had come out against him, "Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not lay hands on me. But let the scriptures of the prophets be fulfilled. This is your hour, and the power of darkness."

Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him. And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. This incident was mentioned because it fulfilled a prophecy of Amos: "And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day."

The fact of betrayal by a kiss suggests the type of love (if it can be called such) which Judas held toward Jesus. It was not the radiant and trustful love of his more ardent disciples, but one which held murky overtones and shadows. How many humans before and since have been betrayed by a falsely professed love? But again, how many were able to call their betrayer "friend"? Only if they could see all things at once, as did Jesus, might they be able to acknowledge that even the bitterest experience must serve the ultimate good.

Chapter 25: Trial By Jewish Law

Then they seized Jesus and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, and it was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

Annas had been high priest from the year 6 A.D. until 15 A.D., and after that five of his sons had held the same office in turn, all appointed by the Roman procurator.

Now his son-in-law Caiaphas was high priest, but it appears that Annas was still the power behind the throne as respected patriarch and head of the clan. He was also the probable instigator of the plot to capture Jesus, and so they first delivered their prize to his courtyard.

The Temple gates were closed at this hour, as it was now past midnight, but although the Council could not officially meet in the Temple to try Jesus until morning, many of its members had gathered together at the high priest's house to see the outcome of their conspiracy and to hold a preliminary hearing in order to speed tomorrow's proceedings.

The Council, sometimes called the Sanhedrin, was composed of three classes: the elders of the chief families and clans, mainly Saducees; the high priests who were the most influential among the priestly families; and the scribes or professional lawyers, who were mostly of the Pharisee sect.

In Jesus' time its jurisdiction was limited to Judea and did not include Galilee. This was one reason why it had been more expedient for him to remain in Galilee until he was ready for the showdown.

The Council was the supreme native court of the Jewish nation, its decisions being based on Jewish law. It was customary for Rome to grant such native jurisdiction over lesser decisions in the countries they governed. The Sanhedrin had it own police force and power of arrest, but was not at this time permitted capital punishment. Such cases had to be referred to the Roman governor -- and in this case it would be Pontius Pilate.

Peter had followed Jesus at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and so did another disciple. As this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with Jesus, while Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door and brought Peter right into the courtyard, and going inside, he sat among the guards. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter, going inside, sat among the guards, and warming himself at the fire, waited to see the outcome.

Then the maid, seeing Peter as he sat in the light, and gazing at him, said, "Are you not also one of this man's disciples?" He answered, "Woman, I do not know him."

Annas, the former high priest, then questioned Jesus about his disciples and the teaching. Jesus answered him, "I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together; I have said nothing secretly. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said."

When he had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, "Is that how you answer the high priest?"

Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"

Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest, where all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were assembled. (It is quite likely that Annas and Caiaphas, with their separate households, occupied two wings of the same large building.) Peter managed to remain anonymous long enough to follow him there with the crowd. Here again the servants and officers kindled a charcoal fire in the courtyard, because it was cold in the pre-dawn hours of early spring. They stood about the fire warming themselves, and Peter also with them, standing and warming himself.

Now the chief priests and the whole Council sought testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death; but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their witness did not agree. Voting was done by members standing up in the sight of all. Acquittal required a simple majority, but conviction required a majority of two, and no one could be convicted without the testimony of at least two witnesses.

At last two came forward who said, "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands.' " Yet not even so did their testimony agree.

And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" But he was silent and made no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"

And Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

Then the high priest tore his robes in a dramatic gesture usually reserved for deep mourning. He was obviously not sincere, but intended to emphasize to the people his sense of outrage, so he said, "He has uttered blasphemy. Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?"

If the truth were strictly observed, Jesus had not blasphemed even by Jewish law. For he used the word "Geburah," meaning the power aspect of God -- not the unspeakable personal name of God, Yahweh. Nor was he the first person to proclaim himself Messiah, for others had gone unconvicted.

But they all condemned him as deserving death. And some spat in his face and struck him, and some slapped him saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ!" And the guards received him with blows.

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a maid came up to him and said, "You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus." But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know the man." And when he went out to the porch, another maid saw him and began to say to the bystanders that he was one of the disciples.

So he stood near the gateway, and after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, "Certainly this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean. His accent betrays him." And one of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?"

Peter began to swear, and again he denied it with an oath, saying, "I do not know the man."

And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

Now the men who were holding Jesus mocked him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" And they spoke many other words against him, reviling him.

And as soon as it was morning the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together both chief priests and scribes to try the case. Because of the Passover preparations they wished to rush this thing through to clear themselves before nightfall. So a special conclave was held; and they challenged him, "If you are the Christ, tell us."

But he said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God."

And they all said, "Are you the Son of God, then?"

And he said to them, "You say that I am."

And they said, "What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips." And the whole Council held a consultation, and they bound Jesus and led him away from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium and delivered him to Pilate.

His words were much like the prophecy from the Book of Daniel (7:13):

"Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

"And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."

The priests too were unwittingly accomplishing the scriptures, and because this was arranged in the heavens, they actually had little choice.

He never denied their law during this trial, nor did he resist it. Rather, he "went along" with them and fulfilled the law, in a sense leaving them with it, for as one writer has declared, "Modern Judaism has abandoned most of its ancient beliefs, everything but the law and the human traditions with which the Pharisees have, in practice, overloaded the law."

Christianity remains more "Jewish" than modern Judaism. For in Jesus, in a fashion both sacramental and real, we have retained the Temple, the priesthood of Aaron, the sacrifice, the prophecy, personal Messianism, the Apocalypse, and above all, the promise. Moreover, we Christians have safeguarded, in a way, Jewish racism -- open and avowed; for it is truly Jewish flesh and blood through which we gain salvation.

In short we have retained ancient Judaism in a sacramental and spiritual blossoming of itself -- everything save the law, which eternally disqualified itself by failing to recognize the one it had desired.

Chapter 26: Before Pilate

The Roman governor customarily administered justice at the praetorium. History does not say whether this was located at the palace he normally occupied while in Jerusalem, or at the fortress Antonia where Roman troops were stationed, adjacent to the northwest corner of the temple complex. The latter site is favored, since archeologists have excavated an extensive pavement made of large flagstones near the old temple.

The place of residence favored by the procurator was at Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast. But at such times as official matters required his presence in Jerusalem, he could live and hold court either at the palace of Herod, or at the fortress Antonia.

A Pavement ("Gabbatha") was mentioned in connection with the hearing of Jesus. The paving stones which have been found were each about three feet square and laid in peculiar formation with certain designs such as might be used by soldiers in their rude games. And it was ample in size for use as a drill ground, mustering for inspections, and even for chariots to drive beneath the arched pillars. Circumstances indicate that Pilate would have been living at the fort close to the Temple on a religious holiday and convenient to his cohort of troops in case of trouble.

Morning had now come, and all the chief priests and the elders of the people, having taken counsel against Jesus to put him to death, had bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pilate, the Roman governor, as it is written, ". . . and he delivered him to the people before the first day of Unleavened Bread, their feast day."

When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood."

They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." The consequences of his action appearing before him in cold fact swiftly cleared his vision from the turmoil that had clouded it over, and aghast at what he had set in motion, his inability to stop it brought such despair that he could not face the outcome. And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself.

But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money."

So afterward they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Therefore, that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me."

The elders of the nation found it necessary to bring Jesus before Pilate in order to have him hanged and thus officially declared "accursed of God" by their nation. They could not trump up charges of murder or highway robbery. So political treachery was their sole means of getting Pilate interested in the case sufficiently to have him executed.

It was still early in the morning when the whole company of them brought Jesus to Pilate. In the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus, it was said that when Jesus first came before Pilate, the standards carried by Roman soldiers bowed their tops in homage at the presence of the Lord, despite all efforts made by the soldiers to prevent them.

The high priests themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover, and they stood outside. Pilate went out to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"

They answered him, "If this man were not an evil-doer, we would not have handed him over."

Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law." He was not anxious to get involved in a controversial religious issue with the Jews, for whom he held little regard.

The Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." This was to fulfill the word which Jesus had spoken to show by what death he was to die.

But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he made no answer. For they began to accuse him, saying, "We found this man perverting our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king."

Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus and said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?" But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor wondered greatly.

Pilate said to him, "Are you King of the Jews?" Jesus answered him, "You have said so." Then Jesus asked, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"

Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done?"

Jesus answered, "My kingship is not of this world; if my king- ship were of this world, my servants would fight that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not of this world."

Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?"

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice."

Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" And as though there could be no answer, after he had said this he went out to the Jews again and told them, "I find no crime in this man." But they were urgent, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place."

When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him -- because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So Herod questioned him at some length, but Jesus made no answer.

The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. Disappointed at finding no diversion, Herod, with his soldiers, began to treat him with contempt and mocked him; then, arraying him in gorgeous apparel, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

Though history reveals Pilate as a cruel and unreasonable man, he behaved on this day in a manner which displayed a sort of sophisticated tolerance, or perhaps it was merely caution regarding the tense political situation.

Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people, and after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him; neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him; I will, therefore, chastise him and release him."

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison they had then a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas (which means "son of the father" or "son of the Master). So when they had gathered, the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he was wont to do for them.

And he answered them, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" For he perceived that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much over him today in a dream."

Now the chief priests and the elders stirred up the crowd and persuaded the people to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Some of Barabbas' colleagues were among the rabble of the crowd. The governor again said to them, "You have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover; which of the two do you want me to release for you?"

But they all cried out together, "Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas!"

Now the man Barabbas was a robber who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?"

They all said, "Let him be crucified." And he said, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him!"

A third time he said to them, "Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no crime deserving death; I will therefore chastise him and release him." But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.

And their voices prevailed, for Pilate wished to satisfy the crowd. So when he saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves."

And all the people answered, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!"

So Pilate gave sentence that their demand should be granted. He released for them Barabbas, then took Jesus and scourged him.

The scourging has been dismissed so briefly as to seem a minor incident, but actually it was a punishment known as flagellation, so severe as to be used in some cases as the sentence itself. The stripped prisoner was made to bend over a post to which his wrists were bound, and the Roman soldiers used leather whips having several "tails" to which little metal balls were attached. Though Jewish law limited blows to thirty-nine or forty, the Romans usually left it up to the caprice of the floggers how long they would continue to inflict pain on bruised and bleeding flesh. It seems Pilate did this hoping to gain a concession from the Jews for Jesus' release, for he was worried by his wife's warning.

Had not Caesar also been warned by his wife because of a dream -- and disregarding it, went to his death?

Then the soldiers of the governor led him away inside the palace (that is, the praetorium), and they called together the whole battalion before him, and they stripped him and clothed him in a scarlet robe and put a purple cloak upon him -- the color usually reserved for royalty -- then plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand, and they began to salute him. And kneeling before him they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spat upon him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him, Pilate went out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no crime in him."

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!"

Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him."

The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God."

When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid; he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave no answer.

Pilate therefore said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?"

Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin."

Upon this Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend; every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar." This was a clever strategy, leaving the governor open to a charge of treason if he ignored them.

So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, and in Hebrew, "Gabbatha."

Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour since dawn, around noon. He said to the Jews, "Here is your King!" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." (A hypocritical statement to gain favor from their hated conquerors.)

The soldiers had now stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him, and Pilate handed him over to the Jews to be crucified. So they took Jesus, whose wounded body he would not permit to rule his spirit, and they led him out bearing a cross, to the place which in Hebrew is called "Golgotha," or "the place of the skull."

And as they led him away they seized a passer-by, one Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, and laying on him the cross, they compelled him to carry it behind Jesus.

And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of woman who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. For behold, the days are coming, when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never gave suck!" Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to he hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

And when they had brought him to Golgotha, they offered him wine to drink, mingled with myrrh (or gall). Myrrh was a spice made from the aromatic gum of a shrub or small tree, the commiphora myrra, which grows in Palestine. The drink is believed to help numb the senses. But he would not drink of it.

The "Letters of Pilate," which are of doubtful authenticity, tell us that the Emperor of Rome, when he heard of the execution of a just man, was angered with Pilate and threatened him with decapitation. Upon receiving this threat, Pilate, praying for forgiveness, was visited by an angel who reassured him that his name would be remembered, and that when the Christ returned to judge his people, Pilate would come before him to bear witness.

Chapter 27: The Crucifixion

The cross is an ancient esoteric symbol representing the process of transmutation. A human figure placed upon a cross depicts the supreme initiation of crucifixion. Jesus himself said, "I must be lifted up, even as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness." The caduceus, representing the development of the two nervous systems, was a development of this symbol. But the emblem of the cross gained new significance with the crucifixion, for Jesus brought the symbolism into living action.

The upright pole of the cross shows the positive aspect, while the horizontal cross piece depicts the passive pole. Its four points sometimes show the four directions of the compass.

The crossing of two lines represents two laws crossing and modifying each other; by so doing they create a new condition at this point -- and the drop of blood coming from the heart changes into a rose. Jesus accomplished the literal act of undergoing this initiation in its densest aspect -- earth -- on behalf of all mankind. Until his resurrection no one had ever fully overcome the element Earth.

Crucifixion concerns the material or mortal part of man that cannot be taken with us on that great journey along the path of spiritual attainment. Therefore, unless one has been crucified in some way, he has not been properly prepared to begin the way, for the soul must first have the chance to manifest its convictions.

Otherwise he may falter or turn back after having passed through the portals of entrance. But neither can the time be forced or hurried, but it can be prepared for in this initiation which brings one to that doorway of the Mystical Path of the soul and which may only be entered by one who has persevered through adversity in this desire to make piritual progress and find enlightenment. He who has come from the cross of initiation and left it behind has no further need to be baptized. But ask the opinion of a teacher first.

Crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment; their method was to stone the condemned person to death in order to purge evil from their midst. But now under Roman law, death sentence could be issued only by Roman authority, and even they abhorred crucifixion, but they used it as a punishment for slaves, insurrectionists, and the most serious criminals.

Cicero called crucifixion "the most cruel and atrocious of punishments." He said, "For a Roman citizen to be bound is a misdemeanor; for him to be struck is a crime; for him to be killed is almost patricide; what must I say, then, when he is hung on the cross? There is no epithet whatever which may fittingly describe a thing so infamous."

Citizens of Rome were put to death by the sword, a quicker and more merciful way. Crucifixion was regarded with horror because of the many hours of suffering, a whole day at the very least, and often the body was left there for birds of prey.

The place of execution was prepared while the procession was en route. Four soldiers accompanied the prisoner along with a centurion to certify his death and a servant of the court who walked ahead carrying the tablet on which was written the details of his crime.

The processions passed through the most popular and crowded streets, so that a condemned man provided the butt for cruel jest along the way to the public execution ground. This was located right outside the city, but near a gate where passers-by would see the execution in a place slightly elevated to provide a better view. For practical purposes it was conveniently near a burying ground or a place of tombs.

The upright pole of the cross was already in place on the execution grounds, for poles were kept there in readiness. But the prisoner was asked to carry the horizontal beam. Once there, his arms were nailed to this piece, and he would be hoisted and secured to the upright. A stout peg between his thighs held the bulk of his weight, enabling the nails to do the rest.

Pilate had written a title and put it on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." This was a solemn statement of fact that the accusation for which he was sentenced was because he was king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek, so that all the travelers passing by might read it. It had been said that the multiplicity of tongues foreshadowed that he was not for one nation alone.

The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, "Do not write 'King of the Jews,' but, 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.' " Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." He took a certain satisfaction in getting back at them. Despite them all, the truth was published at last.

Hebrew, or Aramaic (top line) was written for the native Jews; Greek (bottom line) for the Gentiles and for Jews living in outlying territories; Latin for the Roman citizens and soldiers.

And when they came to the place which is called Golgotha, they stripped him of his raiment and girt him about with a linen cloth and put a crown of thorns on his head and put a reed in his hand. (According to Nicodemus.)

There the soldiers crucified Jesus, and when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots to decide what each should take. They took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom; so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfill the scripture, "They parted my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots."

And over his head they put the inscription of the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Then they sat down and kept their watch over him there.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And when they heard this, many of the Jews standing around the cross believed. And the Lord held his peace, says Peter, as one having no pain. And it was the third hour since dawn (about 9:00 A.M.) when they crucified him. And in like manner did they to the two robbers who were crucified with him, Dimas on his right hand and Gestas on his left. And the people stood by watching; but the rulers scoffed at him.

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha, you, who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." So also the chief priests with the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if He desires him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' "

The robbers who were crucified with him reviled him in the same way. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"

One of the criminals being hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

But the other, called Dimas, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power."

The Lord answered him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." This last statement has confused many people, but it need not. For all of their souls would soon be "on the other side, out of the body" if you will, and that would occur right here beside the cross. Even though Jesus would shortly take up his body again, he could easily find time to guide these souls aloft to whatever paradise their lives might merit, before taking on his own task.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (This was supposedly John, for it is told only in the Gospel of John.)

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

Lamsa states that the Aramaic word shbakthani does not refer to "forsaking," but is derived from shbak which means any of the following: to keep, to reserve, to spare, forgive, or permit. His statement should then be translated, "My God, my God, for this I was kept!"

And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him."

And after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst." A bowl full of vinegar stood there, and one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and held it to his mouth.

When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." Then crying again with a loud voice, he said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last, and bowing his head he yielded up his spirit. The apocryphal Gospel of Peter tells it thus:

"Now it was noonday, and darkness prevailed over all Judea, and they were afraid and distressed for fear the sun had set while he was still alive. For it is written for them that the sun should not set upon one put to death. And one of them said, 'Give him gall with vinegar to drink.' And they mixed them and gave it to him, and they fulfilled all things and brought their sins to an end upon their own heads. And many went about with lamps, supposing it was night, and fell. And the Lord cried out, "My power, my power, thou hast forsaken me." And saying this, he was taken up. And in the same hour the curtain of the temple of Jerusalem was torn in two."

(The gospel of the Hebrews says not that the veil was torn, but that the astonishingly large lintel of the temple fell down.)

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!" And those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus, seeing the earthquake and what took place, were filled with awe and said, "Truly, this man was the Son of God!" And all the multitudes who were assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.

The Gospel of Nicodemus relates:

"The centurion went to the governor and related to him all that had passed, and when he heard all these things, he was exceeding sorrowful; and calling the Jews together, he said to them, 'Have you seen the miracle of the sun's eclipse and the other things which came to pass while Jesus was dying?'

All nature was sharing in the grief of this occasion and showed it by the symbolic rending of its sacred veil. It was customary among the Jews to tear their clothing in token of their anguish. But in this case it signified more, for here was prophecy being fulfilled. Our Lord was intended to unveil all religions and temple mysteries. The Holy of Holies, which normally excluded by its veil all but the high priest on his once-yearly visit, was now opened to all.

As the tremendous wave of spiritual power flooded the earth, it rent the veil which had hung before the temple to keep out all but the chosen few and made free thenceforth the path of initiation to any who are ready. While this wave transformed like a flash of lightning the conditions of earth, the more dense and concrete conditions took a much longer time to change.

The Jews and the elders and the priests, when they perceived what great evil they had done to themselves, began to lament and to say, "Woe for our sins; the judgment and the end of Jerusalem has drawn near." (According to the Gospel of Peter.)

And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance and saw these things. The soldiers did not permit people to stand too close at such times, lest they interfere.

Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken to hasten death, and that they might be taken away. This was also according to their law as given in Leviticus:

"If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed -- you shall not defile your land . . ."

It was the final indignity for the Son of God to be counted as "accursed," and numbered among the transgressors -- he who had begun life in a stable and had been forced to flee to a foreign land to remain alive.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers, called Longinus, pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. Then Mary remembered the words which Simeon had spoken in the temple, when the infant Jesus was carried up to have sacrifice offered for him. Simeon had said to her then:

"Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel,

And for a sign that is spoken against;

And a sword shall pierce your own heart also,

That thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

And in her heart she too echoed -- "It is finished."

In this experience, Mary, unsung and unheard, suffered the ultimate crucifixion of womanhood at the same time that Jesus gave the ultimate gift of his own life. And she thereby gained the fullness of compassion for the sorrows of other women, which could not otherwise have been understood.

She accomplished this fully, so in the initiations now such experience need no longer be on the physical level; but the crucifixion of the heart still takes place in different ways to refine and purify the soul.

He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe. (These are the words of John.) For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." And again another scripture says, "They shall look on him whom they have pierced."

Chapter 28: The Great Stone

There were also women looking on from afar, seeing him who had been crucified. Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered to him, and also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

When it was evening, there came a rich man from the Jewish town of Arimathea named Joseph (or Yousef), who also was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews. He was a respected member of the Council, a good and righteous man who had not consented to their purpose and deed, and he was looking for the kingdom of God. (Peter calls him "Joseph, the friend of Pilate and of the Lord.")

When evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered if he were already dead, and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether Jesus was dead in so short a time. And when he learned from the centurion that this was so, he granted the body to Joseph. It is also mentioned that some of the soldiers ran to Pilate with the strange tale of the happenings on the cross, declaring him truly the Son of God.

The Gospel of Peter again related:

"And then they drew out the nails from the hands of the Lord and laid him upon the earth. And the whole earth was shaken and there came a great fear. Then the sun shone and it was found to be the ninth hour. And the Jews rejoiced and gave his body to Joseph, to bury it, because he had seen all the good things which he did.

And he took the Lord and washed him, and wrapped him in a linen shroud, and brought him to his own tomb, called the Garden of Joseph."

Returning to the Biblical account: Joseph brought a clean linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in it and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him to be taught by night, now came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, very costly spice, about a hundred pounds' weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden Joseph's own new tomb that he had hewn in the rock, where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand they laid Jesus there. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre and watching what was being done. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid; then they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment, for nothing could be done by a Jew on the Sabbath.

However, it seems the priests ignored this. For next day (that is after the day of Preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees, after they had gathered with each other, they came before Pilate entreating him, "Sir, give us soldiers that we may watch his tomb for three days for we remember how that impostor said while he was still alive, 'After three days I will rise again.' Therefore order the sepulchre to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and do evil things to us, and tell the people, 'He is risen from the dead'; the last fraud will be worse than the first."

Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go make it as secure as you can." So they went and made the sepulchre secure by sealing the stone and setting an armed guard, that they might sit opposite the cave and guard it day and night.

The account from the Gospel of Peter says:

"And Pilate gave them Petronius, the centurion, with soldiers to watch the tomb. And the elders and scribes came with them to the tomb. And when they, with the centurion and the soldiers, had rolled the great stone, all who were there set it against the door of the tomb, and having spread seven wax seals on it and pitched a tent, they kept watch."

One device used for closing tombs of the wealthy against robbers was the rolling stone. This fitted in a rock-cut groove across the entrance, poised on a slightly sloping track, so that it closed with gravity and required much effort to roll upward.

This fragmentary gospel also describes a scene at the tomb in the presence of the guards, when two figures descended from heaven and entered the tomb and brought Jesus out. "Their heads reached to heaven, but Jesus' overpassed the heaven." The cross followed the three figures. And in answer to a query from heaven "Hast thou preached to them that sleep?" He answered, "Yea."

There are some notables who believe that Jesus did not "die" on the cross, but that his body remained alive during the time that he "gave up the Ghost" or "yielded up the Spirit" which had entered and taken over his vehicle at the time of his baptism. At that time the Divine Authority, the Holy Power, had descended into the body of Jesus, and it was this Power which carried out the work throughout his ministry. Then the crucifixion reversed the process, and changed him back again from the Divine Master to a human master.

They also say that during and after the crucifixion he was assisted by certain White Brethren from among the Essenes, who discreetly and carefully planned his escape and used their influence to arrange certain details. Having provided the tomb through Joseph, they watched the soldiers to learn how it was sealed and waited their chance during the night to effect his escape.

They were aided in this by an unusually severe storm which swept over the city, and while the soldiers were trying to protect themselves from the wind and rain, the Brethren quietly slipped forward, removed the seal, and took away Jesus who had now miraculously recovered his strength. They put him on the back of a colt waiting nearby, and quietly under the cover of darkness took him away to a nearby Essene community, to nurse him back to health.

The part of this story that becomes unbelievable is the claim that Brethren hurriedly obtained a stay of execution signed personally by Tiberius of Rome, which was delivered to the soldiers hile he hung upon the cross, asking that further investigation be made of the case. Therefore they did not break his legs. Unless the Host spirited the message there, it would have taken many days at the utmost speed of travel to take a message to the Emperor in Rome, much less to receive a return answer.

But we ask, unless the crucifixion really happened, where would lie its profound significance in the salvation of all the world? And where would it leave the resurrection?

It is because he has known suffering like man in all things and knows our needs that he is able to be lenient toward our errors, just so long as we keep trying to do better, for in truth the only failure is in ceasing to try.

The tomb of Yousef of Arimathea was afterward used as a shrine by the first Christians, and it is said that there was a large crack in the rock that sheltered it, as though it had been struck by lightning during the storm.

If you are wondering about the "Gospel of Peter," we have reference to a fragment called by this name, which was found in an Egyptian tomb in 1886. The fragment began with the words: . . . But of the Jews no man washed his hands, neither did Herod nor anyone of his judges." So only the crucifixion is described.

This is one of many so-called apocryphal books of the New Testament, all believed written one or two centuries after the crucifixion and used to elaborate or embroider upon the more brief and simple statements of the four Gospels. They are not only truly apocryphal (that is, "secret"), as were certain older documents, but were texts used (and probably written) by certain sects of the early Christian churches, and these served to amplify and to embroider upon the original story. How much fact they contain is not known, but they are not very informative or convincing, and church authorities look upon them with some disdain.

Another "apocryphal" gospel, called the Gospel according to the Egyptians, was current in Egypt during the second century, and is also believed to have been written by the sect itself to support their theories. Clement refers to it six times in his writings, and Origen spoke of it as false.

The quotations from Clement are as follows:

"Salome asked Jesus, 'How long shall death prevail?' Jesus answered, 'As long as women bear children.'

"She said, 'I have done well then, in not bearing children.' Jesus replied, 'Every plant eat thou, but that which hath bitterness eat not.' "

Clement mentions another quotation concerning "those who set themselves against God's creation because of continence."

Again, "When Salome inquired when the things concerning which she asked should be known, the Lord said, 'When you have trampled on the garment of shame, and when the two become one and the male with the female is neither male nor female.' " (And from another unidentified source, Clement also quoted, in addition to the above, "when the outside is as the inside.")

Little is said of the Gospel of the Ebionites. (These were vegetarians who said that John the Baptist ate not locusts but honeycakes.) They quote Jesus as saying, "I came to destroy the sacrifices, and if you cease not from sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from you."

Chapter 29: Stations Of The Cross

Thousands of the pilgrims to the Holy Land have attempted to follow the Via Dolorosa, or the path they supposed the Lord Jesus followed en route from his trial to the cross. Shrines and churches have been built at each of the fourteen points along the way, but the pilgrim today may feel some disappointment in the uncertainty as to their valid locations. Because the city was demolished about forty years after Jesus left, and the streets themselves in his time lay far below the present ground level, no one knows for certain now where Calvary was located (Calvary being the Latin word for the Hebrew Golgotha). For centuries they have worked on the assumption that Pilate held his trial at the palace of Herod, but this circumstance has more or less been proven false by the excavation of the great Pavement at the fortress Antonia beside the Temple, situated on the opposite side of town from the palace.

The Fourteen Stations or Steps of the Cross represent not only so many events in the life of the Master, but are symbolic as well of the stages of development in every man. (These represent the seven positive and the seven negative or latent powers of the sympathetic nervous ganglia.) At first comes the lifting of the sacred creative force within the body, where the spirit fire begins to play upon this creative life force. This brings about a blending of the Fire and Water, or the passional and emotional principles within man.

In this great crucifixion the physical body is broken, for a time, so that it may be replaced by a new and finer, more tenuous body. Jesus represents the sacred life force, and Christ the spirit fire.

Only two of the fourteen "stations" stem from incidents reported in the Gospels. These are the meetings of Jesus with Simon of Cyrene and with the pious women. Here is a list of the fourteen with their esoteric significance from the standpoint of initiation or stages or spiritual development:

. Christ Jesus is condemned to death . . . this refers to the supreme dedication of a candidate, before initiation.

. He takes up his cross . . . and starts upon the Way, which seems difficult at the beginning, when one is just learning to live with it.

. He falls the first time . . . due to human frailty. Certain tests may cause the disciple to stumble and fall occasionally, thus demonstrating the law of rhythm; but his ups and downs gradually become less frequent as he begins to understand them.

. Jesus meets his mother . . . or the Divine Feminine Principle, the realization of which is conducive to the unfoldment of spiritual powers.

. Simon of Cyrene helps the Lord carry his cross . . . this is the fifth step of meditation and change accomplished by a disciple. (Simon means "the same"'; Cyrene, a place name, means "fountain of the sun," or sun-fountain.)

. Veronica wipes the Master's face and gathers the impression thereof . . . Impersonal love takes compassion on the struggle of the human with divine.

He falls the second time . . . due to struggle with the desire nature. But from this point of rest the aspirant proceeds from a lower to a higher order -- to spiritual victory and mastership. The time of rest involves a transmutation of life experiences to their essence for the use of the soul.

. Daughters of Jerusalem weep for Christ . . . Symbolic of the separation between the masculine and feminine principles, which provides the main cause of all the pain, sorrow, and death in the world.

. Jesus falls for the third time . . . representing the stage where an aspirant's mind is not yet illumined enough to "make it." From the sixth to the ninth hour the earth was darkened as the Master became supreme Way-shower for all mankind in the Way of Attainment.

. Stripped of his garments . . . depicts the beginning of the great renunciation, as one parts with his robe, or soul sheath. Here is the sublime purity of yielding up in service, with the outpouring of light and love.

. Jesus is nailed to the cross . . . Here is the full and complete renunciation of personal life in favor of spiritual life. As the forces of this step become active, they enable man to gain the mastery of equilibrium, that of bringing all things together and binding each to its complement.

. Jesus dies on the cross . . . The initiate dies to the finite and material, or to the personal, only to be born anew into the infinite and spiritual.

. Jesus is taken down from the Cross . . . This is called a degree of liberation, where the body is given back to mother earth, and the spirit raised to the Father in heaven. Body and soul separate and return to their separate origins.

. Christ Jesus is laid in the sepulchre ... in a new tomb wherein no one has ever been placed. The new tomb is hewn in stone and represents the deathless body of the initiate, of the new rock upon which religion is founded. The masculine principle has been brought low to be raised again with the feminine in equality. The tomb is a ateway to life more abundant, but the great stone, or weight, must be rolled away before the man can be free.

"After this I looked, and behold a door was opened into heaven."

Joseph of Arimathea

There is a legend that the body of the Christos, as pertaining to the spiritual law, was given into the care of two men of whom the Gospels make little mention, these being Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both of them devout men chosen by the church to act as custodians of the sacred Christian relics.

Though the visible or temporal power of the Holy See was allocated to Peter, the spiritual and invisible body of the Christian faith was to be entrusted to the more secret "Church of the Holy Grail," whose apostolic succession stems from Joseph of Arimathea. It was into his keeping that the symbols of the covenant were given -- the ever-flowing Cup and the sacred Spear.

"The cup will nourish and supply his need,

For so the Lord has spoken, so decreed . . ." as the poet sang long afterward.

Joseph had probably grown up in the village of Arimathea in northwest Judea and had later come to Jerusalem where his fortune was made -- according to tradition -- through trade in the metal industry, which business took him on voyages as far off as Britain, then under the Roman rule. Joseph had developed a friendship with Pilate and was also a respected member of the Sanhedrin, but had not become hardened or hypocritical as many others, for he was a seeker of the kingdom of God.

He had both heard Jesus and believed in him. In fact, some say he had taken the boy Jesus with him on a voyage in earlier years. And he was undoubtedly one of the elect, repared and standing by, ready to perform this crucial function when the time came. From Pilate he obtained the sacred Cup, it is said, by the Lord's request.

The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus tells us:

The Jews, when they heard that Joseph had begged and buried the body of Jesus, sought after Nicodemus, and in like manner Joseph. They seized Joseph and commanded him to be put in custody before the Sabbath and kept there till the Sabbath was over. And they demanded of him a confession. But when he spoke the truth to them concerning Jesus, they were exceedingly enraged; and seizing Joseph they put him into a chamber where there was no window; they fastened the door, and put a seal upon the lock; and the high priest put a guard upon it and took counsel that they should all meet after the Sabbath, and they contrived to what death they should put Joseph.

After the Sabbath, when they ordered him to be brought forth, they found the same seal upon the lock of the chamber and could not find Joseph.

He was found presently at his home in Arimathea, and the Council sent him a note of apology, begging him to come to Jerusalem and let them know what had occurred, choosing seven of Joseph's friends to take the letter to him. He saluted them in peace and went with them to Jerusalem on the morrow, seated on his donkey.

Nicodemus took him into his house and invited the high priests, so to them privately Joseph told this story: "You indeed put me under confinement on the day of Preparation, till the morning. But while I was standing at prayer in the middle of the night during the fifth hour, the house was surrounded with four angels; and I saw Jesus as the brightness of the sun, his body seemed made altogether of light, and there was a fragrance as of Paradise about him; the angels ministered unto him.

"I fell down upon the earth for fear. But Jesus laying hold of my hand, lifted me from the ground, and the dew was then sprinkled upon me; but he, wiping my face, kissed me, and said unto me, 'Fear not, Joseph; look upon me, for it is I.'

"Then I looked upon him, and said, 'Rabboni Elias!'

"He answered me, 'I am not Elias, but Jesus of Nazareth, whose body you did bury.'

"And I found myself out of prison, and we were going toward Galilee." And Joseph said, "I remained with them for three days, then I no longer saw them." For Jesus then led him to his own house in Arimathea and said to him, "Peace be to thee; but go not out of thy house till the fortieth day; but I must go to my disciples."

The apocryphal story of Joseph relates how, instructed by Philip, he set sail across the Mediterranean, along with Mary Magdalene and some others, and with many difficulties they brought the teachings first to France (or Gaul), and thence to Great Britain.

Joseph carried the sacred relics with him, passing through many hardships in the process. Upon arrival in England Joseph thrust his staff into the ground, where it took root, quickly becoming a miraculous thorn bush. This shrub blossomed unseasonably at Christmas time for a very long time until fanatic "reformers" cut it down; and its descendants are now known as the Glastonbury thorn -- a type of hawthorn. A site was allocated to him there for the building of a church, and so Glastonbury Abbey was established to become the first seat of the Christian Mysteries in the western world. The original church was woven, or "wattled," of branches. Another uncertain account suggests that he provided materially for the Mother Mary after Jesus' ascension.

The conclusion of his life is not recorded, but there is a belief that he was buried in the Abbey which he founded. Many attempts have been made to locate the Holy Grail, which was believed hidden in a crypt underneath the ancient Abbey. There was a chalice iscovered somewhat recently which certain of the devout supposed was the original Sangreal, but with little evidence of convincing nature. The true Grail is, of course, not an earthly vessel.

The earliest legends of the Holy Grail describe the cup somewhat as a horn of plenty, whose contents were inexhaustible. It was said that those who served it could never feel hunger or thirst; and one account stated that regardless of how ill a person might be, death could not overtake them within eight days after beholding the cup. Some persons also believed the Holy Grail was the perpetuation of a mythical Cup which was used in celebrating the rites of Adonis and Atys; others, that it appropriated a Celtic myth concerning a cauldron of plenty.

Glastonbury Abbey is closely identified with the Arthurian Legend, reputed to be the burial place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere as well.

It has been said that Mary and Martha of Bethany, the sisters of Lazarus, accompanied Joseph of Arimathea as far as Gaul, and there in Gaul, Martha founded the first retreat for holy women. (Louis XI once endowed a church in her honor.) Later both women went on to Britain.

Chapter 30: The First Day Of The Week

There are several versions of this, so we will faithfully report what was told by each.

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. The Sabbath is over at sunset on Saturday, so they hastened out early in the evening to purchase these and prepare the ointments for anointing their beloved Master. They waited until the pre-dawn hours, then set forth while it was still dark, taking the spices which they had prepared, and arrived very early just as the sun began to rise.

The Gospel of Peter says: Now early on the Lord's day, Mary Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord, who was afraid because of the Jews, (for they were inflamed with anger), and had not done at the tomb of the Lord the things which women usually do to their loved ones when they die, took friends with her and came to the tomb where he was laid.

And they feared lest the Jews should see them, and one of them said, "Even if we were not able to weep and lament him on the day on which he was crucified, yet let us now do so at his tomb. But who will roll away the stone for us that is set against the door of the tomb, that we may enter and sit beside him and perform our obligations?" For the stone was large.

Then spoke another, "We fear lest some one see us. But if we cannot, then let us lay beside the door the things which we have brought in remembrance of him, and we will weep and lament until we get home." And they went and found the tomb open.

Matthew relates: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary toward dawn on the first day of the week went to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. Lo, I have told you."

But Mark says: That looking up, they saw the stone was rolled back; for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you."

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.

Peter related almost the same as above, except that the young man was sitting in the middle of the tomb, beautiful, and clothed in a robe exceeding bright. And he said to them, "Why have you come? Whom do you seek? Not him who was crucified, for he has risen and gone. But if you do not believe it, look in and see the place where he lay, that he is not here. For he has risen and gone to the place from which he was sent."

Luke describes it thus, from hearsay, because he was not there: And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise."

And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles; but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

Matthew relates that the women departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.

Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

While they were still going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, lest the people should turn and believe that he was the Messiah, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers, and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

Mark says: Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had not been seen by her, they would not believe it.

And John: Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"

She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?"

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Here Luke takes up the thread: That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, "What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?"

And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Clophas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there on these days?"

And he said to them, "What things?"

And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened.

"Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

And he said to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary hat the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent."

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.

They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?"

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them said, "The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon!"

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them. But they were startled and frightened and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself -- handle me, and see that this is not a bodiless ghost -- for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have."

And while they still disbelieved for joy and wondered, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled."

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high."

And John describes the same event:

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Remark:

If we try to reconstruct the sequence of events in the order of occurrence, it seems that the soldiers saw the angel appear, and the rock split asunder as the stone rolled away. Frightened, they ran to tell their superiors. Meanwhile the women came to find the cave empty and ran to tell the apostles. En route Jesus appeared to the women on the path, after having first shown himself to Mary Magdalene, who lingered behind at the tomb. The women told the apostles, but their story was not believed. Then Mary Magdalene returned and told them her experience; so Peter and John ran to see, then they too returned to convince the other apostles that their Lord had indeed risen.

Chapter 31: Timing

Spiritual realities cannot be proved by physical facts. One dimension cannot account for another, for the essential importance is not in the details, but the spiritual realities do show through into the physical. In the truth of the teaching is the current of Life which flows through it, and the intensity of the current indicates how strong it will show up.

It probably makes little difference now on what day of the week Jesus was really crucified, except when we want to be accurate in observance of holy days. But some say the crucifixion could not have been held on a Friday, because the Lord had clearly prophesied that he would be three days and three nights in the earth before rising again. From Friday just before sundown until Sunday at sunrise would have given him only two nights and one day in the tomb.

Possibly the first day of Unleavened Bread was referred to as an extra Sabbath, for it actually was a "high Sabbath," and the fifteenth day of the month could have occurred on any day of the week. This would make two Sabbaths that week -- the second or weekly Sabbath being on Saturday, as usual. Jesus rose the day after the weekly Sabbath, or "the first day of the week." That part is clearly stated. How fitting that the day holy to our Lord has now been changed from Saturn's day to the Sun's day.

But even if Jesus was crucified on Thursday, he must have counted the hours of trial as part of the time spent "in the earth," for only then would this equal seventy-two hours -- that is, three days and three nights, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

If the day of crucifixion really was Friday, then we will have to justify his prophecy by saying that he was considered "in the earth" all the night and day of Gethsemane and of the trial and crucifixion and still "in the earth" on Sunday, when he could not allow imself to be touched. This was because he was still becoming re-formed into the new body, which was not yet solid, and therefore still not fully risen, though visible and outside the tomb.

The Christian Creed repeated by the faithful says, "He descended into hell," and the third day he rose again from the dead. But before the fourth (some say sixth) century, there was no mention of Jesus descending into hell, as was explained, "to carry salvation to saints and patriarchs of the Old Testament."

One writer says, "Jesus taught the perfection of the traditional Jewish religion. But the 'cult' of the person Jesus began with his resurrection."

Let us look again at the Hebrew festivals, for it is felt there is a symbolic pattern to them from the standpoint of creation, deeper than meets the eye. While harvesting seasons vary in different parts of the world, the Middle East appears to have been chosen as a "type" to follow for ritualistic purposes.

There are six well-defined seasons. The latitude of the months varied according to New Moons. Very roughly they were as follows:

Seed-time	From mid-October to mid-December
Winter	From mid-December to mid-February
Cold	From mid-February to mid-April
Harvest	From mid-April to mid-June
Summer	From mid-June to mid-August
Heat	From mid-August to mid-October

There were only three Feasts of obligation, when all males were supposed to go to Jerusalem. As this was the only temple with a true altar, the celebration could not be ccomplished in the local synagogues.

The events numbered 1 (a), (b), and (c) in the following text all occurred during the same period of a week or ten days.

. (a) Passover -- one night only -- 14th Nisan.

(b) Feast of Unleavened Bread, a separate feast from the Passover, but beginning in conjunction with it. It represented the time of flight with unbaked bread on their backs, which they ate with affliction (hence with bitter herbs). The feast lasted for seven days, beginning on the fifteenth day of the first month of spring, the day after Passover.

These observances are in profound harmony with the laws of nature, for this is the time of "winding-up" last year's grain crop. As yeast or leaven represents fermentation and growth, this was removed from their homes and left out of their bread for seven days, so as not to "give life" to the old growth, while the new was awaiting entrance.

(c) Then immediately after this, on the day after the following Sabbath, they offered before the Lord a sheaf of the first fruits or first cutting of the new crop of grain. Meanwhile the feast of Unleavened Bread had run its course, but after that no grain or bread of any kind could be eaten, neither could any one in the land cut new grain, or eat of either old or new until this first cutting was brought to the temple and offered for the whole people. It was waved before the altar by the priests, along with certain other prescribed sacrifices. This first cutting was usually barley, which was earliest to ripen from sowings made just as the winter rains began.

. The second Feast of obligation was fifty days later, and lasted just one day. It was called the Pentecost, a Greek word which means "fiftieth" (day). This was exactly seven weeks after the first grain offering, and being on the day after the Sabbath, it always came n a Sunday. It was usually called the Feast of Weeks (named for the seven weeks), and was also known as the "Assembly" which closes the Passover cycle.

Once again the offering was waved before the altar by the priests. This time it was two loaves of bread baked with leaven, from the newly-harvested wheat. And thus was rounded out the period of ripening the grains of the field from winter planting. At this ceremony the men present did an altar dance, while singing the Hallel, (Psalms 113 - 119).

The Talmud mentions that the Torah, or Law, was given on Sinai at Pentecost, and this is the main theme of this celebration in present time.

Of course, Jesus' followers had returned to Jerusalem in time for this holy observance, and it was there the Holy Spirit descended upon them and gave them utterance in many tongues. They were outside the city, "a Sabbath day's journey away," as far as they were permitted to walk on a holy day.

. The third and last pilgrim's feast of obligation was the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles already described. It was the fall harvest festival, an agricultural and seasonal observance. This fell exactly six months (moons) after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, both occurring on the fifteenth day of the month, and both lasted for seven days. Each was preceded by action of another kind on the tenth day of the month.

The autumnal Feast of Booths was of opposite nature from the spring festival of bitter herbs with unleavened bread; for it was more of a vintage festival, with merrymaking, and harvesting of the fruits of earth, of the vine and the tree. This was the time when fruits were prepared for fermentation and further growth as the grain had been earlier.

Augustine, of the fourth century, is quoted as saying: "That which is called the Christian religion existed among the ancients from the beginning of the human race; at the coming of Christ Jesus, true religion began to be called Christianity."

In fact there was celebrated in Rome a deity named Kurios or Dominus, who celebrated the Sun's day. The Christians used this day also.

It was said in the Gospel of Nicodemus that after much evidence of the works of Jesus was brought forth, Pilate went to the temple of the Jews and called together the rulers and commanded that all the gates be shut. Then he said, "I have heard that you have a certain large book in this temple; I desire you therefore, that it may be brought before me."

And when the great book, carried by four ministers of the temple, and adorned with gold and precious stones, was brought, Pilate said to them all, "I adjure you by the God of your fathers, who made and commanded this temple to be built, that you conceal not the truth from me. Tell me if in the scriptures you have found any thing of that Jesus whom you crucified, and at what time of the world he ought to have come."

The priests said, "It is our custom annually to open this holy book before an assembly and to search there for the counsel of God. And we found in the first of the seventy books, where Michael the archangel is speaking to the third son of Adam, the first man, an account that after five thousand and five hundred years, Christ the most beloved Son of God was come upon earth."

"And we further considered, that perhaps he was the very God of Israel who spoke to Moses, 'Thou shalt make the ark of the testimony two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.'

"By these five cubits and a half for the building of the ark of the Old Testament, we perceived and knew that in five thousand years and half a thousand years, the Christ was to come in the ark or tabernacle of a body. And so our scriptures testify that he is the Son of God, and the Lord and King of Israel.

"And we found the account of creation, and that from thence to the flood were 2,212 years. And from the flood to Abraham, 912. And from Abraham to Moses, 430. And from Moses to David the king, 510. And from David to the Babylonish captivity, 500 years. And from the Babylonish captivity to the incarnation of Christ, 400 years, the sum of all which amounts to five thousand and a half a thousand. And so it appears that Jesus whom we crucified is Jesus Christ the Son of God, and true and Almighty God. Amen."

Thus ended the Gospel of Nicodemus, which was said to be found at Jerusalem by the Emperor Theodosius the Great in the hall of Pontius Pilate, among the public records, in the nineteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius.

This gospel is of great antiquity and was believed in by some of the early church, whether or not it was genuine. For it was fairly common up to the third century to write auxiliary gospels in support of certain beliefs which it desired to put forth.

Chapter 32: The Resurrection

Jesus on the cross had withdrawn from his bodily vehicle sooner than expected, before it could achieve a state of total disrepair. Inside the tomb, he stood looking down at the battered frame which had housed his spirit so efficiently. The white linen grave clothes had been unwrapped to reveal the familiar body washed clean of blood now, and fragrant with the pungent spices so abundantly provided by Nicodemus.

He could not yet, as another soul normally would, walk away from the useless vehicle after burial and rise to inner realms more in harmony with the finer essence of his inner being.

No, he had promised and must fulfill the mission of proving once and for all that man has victory over death, and to do so by raising this same body back to life. The work must be done quickly while it was still fresh, and any blocks to the perfect flow of life force must be removed and healed. The wounds themselves were left as proof, but sealed off from causing pain, or interfering with function.

The largest part of the work was that of reconstituting and transmuting the whole vehicle to a finer essence, capable of function both on the physical and the invisible planes. In this work he was not left without help, for the angels and the host of heaven stood ready to do his bidding.

It was no small task to complete in so short a space. An infant spends many years learning how to use its new vehicle and to function in the changed vibration. Yet for the Lord Jesus Christ it was not too difficult, after the transmutation had taken place, to enter and re-animate this finer and less dense substance. It could not at first be touched by physical hands, but later, after the substance had properly meshed and stabilized, he could llow Thomas to handle and prove his reality.

The Lord was demonstrating to man that he, and not Jesus alone, has dominion over himself, over nature, and at last over even the mysterious doorway called death, so fearful when seen from only one side. For it can be swung both ways. Here stands one who has overcome all extremes and gained within himself a state of equilibrium -- who has reached with his consciousness into the "fourth dimension."

Through overcoming the flesh and again leading it to spirit, Christ effected the redemption of the universe. For through his human body, as an integral part of humanity, he touched all men, and then by the resurrection of his human body so would the bodies of all others, and indeed the whole universe, be given the possibility of re-orientation in God -- this eventually leading to full resurrection in the spirit.

As regent of the Sun, our Lord is only partially confined in his influence to this earth, and it was no small feat that he was able to limit himself sufficiently to accomplish this task.

It is fitting that Easter should be celebrated in the spring, at the season when the whole earth renews herself after the apparent "death" of winter. Jesus had walked in the desert forty days before beginning his ministry, and he again passed forty days among the disciples before ascending on high. Our Lenten period is a copy of this, being comprised of forty days, or literally forty-six, with the six Sundays considered exempted.

The number 40 is one which solidifies change, being equivalent to four revolutions of a wheel, completing the cycle with each of the four elements. Forty was a figure widely used in the Bible. In the Old Testament it was the number used to designate a generation; ten generations would indicate roughly four hundred years. A man was called fully grown at the age of forty.

Tribal chieftains and kings often reigned for forty-year terms. Forty days was a common duration for any critical situation, such as fasting, repentance, vigil or punishment. The Egyptian process of embalming took forty days; and forty lashes was the maximum sentence permitted in flagellation by Hebrew law.

During a forty-day period, the resurrected Lord Jesus appeared at various times to the disciples. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him. "We have seen the Lord."

But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe."

Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing."

Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

The apocryphal Gospel According to the Hebrews says of James, "the Lord's brother," -- "Now the Lord, when he had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, went to James and appeared to him, (for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see him rising again from among them that sleep)." And the Lord said, "Bring a table and bread," and immediately, "He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to James the Just and said to him: 'My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep.' "

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.

And he said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."

This did not mean they should test the Power of Spirit by trying to do such things. Even Jesus refused such demonstrations. But if in the course of serving God such things occurred, the servant of Christ should turn away its destructive effect by using the name of Christ and by his acceptance of man's dominion over nature. This presupposes dominion over his own nature.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, (John says) but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have Life in his name.

Having remained in Jerusalem for the required time, they now obeyed the Lord's command to return to Galilee and await his appearance, for he had promised he would be there before them.

The torn fragment of the Gospel of Peter ends with this paragraph: "Now it was the last day of the Unleavened Bread, and many were grieved: and each one, being grieved for that which was come to pass, departed to his home. But I, Simon Peter, and Andrew my brother took our nets and went to the sea; and there was with us Levi the son of Alphaeus, whom the Lord . . . ."; here the fragment ends.

Since the feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days, and the remainder of the manuscript was missing, they must have returned to Galilee soon after the temple obligations were finished.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountains to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age." Or as the King James Version puts it, "unto the end of the world."

Now after this John tells us that Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?"

They answered him, "No."

He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish.

That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although they were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. And this was the same kind of food they had before multiplied for the masses.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jona, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of Jona, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you."

He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jona, do you love me?"

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."

Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked whither you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, "Follow me."

It appears that the Lord referred in these three questionings of Peter to the three notable occasions when they shared bread and fish: the first two times when they stretched out a short supply to feed all who hungered for the teachings, and the third time now, when they shared great abundance with a few devoted disciples in the presence of the Risen Christ. So should Peter act in the nourishment of souls. And he was also giving Peter the chance to negate his previous denials in order to lift it from his soul.

George Lamsa gives us a different idea of this when he says that according to the eastern Biblical text, Jesus is quoted as saying first, "Feed my male lambs"; next "Feed my sheep"; and thirdly "Feed my female lambs." This accords with the eastern custom of keeping the different flocks separate during the summer months in the milking season. These flocks consist of (1) the male lambs and rams, (2) the sheep and goats for milking; and (3) the female lambs.

Each of these flocks is under the supervision of a different shepherd, but all are under one head-shepherd. Peter was to become this symbolical head-shepherd over the human flocks which Jesus would give him (which Mr. Lamsa felt referred to the Jews, Galileans, and Pagans).

Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, (who had lain close to his breast at the supper, and had said, "Lord who is it that is going to betray you?").

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?"

Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"

This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. We are quoting John now, and he never calls himself by name, but as the disciple Jesus loved. He continues: But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Paul did not mention any women in the Lord's appearances, but has stated in I Corinthians 15 that, "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that e appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren all at one time . . . then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles."

Some say that after forty days among the disciples, preparing them for missionary work, he afterward entered into the stage of "silent activity" common to avatars, and that he then remained on earth for the rest of his natural life in seclusion at a monastery on Mt. Carmel.

Certain other "rumors" have it that he afterward appeared in other lands where under different names he taught the people.

As for the forty days before the traditional ascension, they explain it thus: Some of his appearances among the disciples were in his physical body and some were by projection of his image, so that he could pass through doors, or disappear when he desired.

At the end of that time they say, when he gathered with them on the mount, he asked them to remain in their places until the Spirit should descend upon each of them from above, bringing the power and authority of an apostle to them. Then after he had given final instructions, a bright mist surrounded him, concealing him from their gaze. (A master can do this.) When the mist cleared away, he had gone; but they had been asked not to move, and so remained there until the descent of the Holy Spirit came upon them all. Meanwhile Jesus went on to Mt. Carmel to live out the rest of his natural life, not idly, but doing the inner work of a great Master teacher (they say).

But Paul, in I Corinthians 15, puts it clearly thus:

"If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain -- your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.

"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. For as by a man came death, so by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order -- Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ."

The bodily death of Jesus was the deepest descent of the Divinity into the compulsion of matter, and therewith the only possible restitution of the right relationship between Creator and creature. Through the death of Jesus, God Himself becomes a perfect man and the created human being a newly begotten child of God, conceived by such highest divine grace, thus also becoming a god. Only in this way could man as creature confront the Creator as His perfect image and behold his God, converse with and recognize and love Him above all, and gain the perfect indestructible life within, without, and beside God.

The man who denies Christ denies himself. Because without that power and force we have no life. Yet the very fact that some have sought to destroy Him seemed to create a stronger image of Him through the negation. Because when a negative power is spent, when it has spent itself, there comes out of it a more positive power than before.

Chapter 33: The Ascension

About a month and a half after the crucifixion the apostles returned to Jerusalem as the Lord had instructed them to do, and in time for the pilgrimage Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs, appearing to them during a period of forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, led them out as far as Bethany. And when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" They were still expecting him to assume an earthly crown and to drive out their oppressors from the land.

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

And when he had said this, he lifted up his hands and blessed them; and as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And he was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. For as the Lord stood in their midst, he was all at once surrounded by a cloud which hid him from their sight. This began to lengthen and move upward and gradually it lifted from the earth and rose until it finally merged with the clouds of heaven. And when it was lifted away they saw him no more.

While the Lord was still on the ground where he stood within the cloud, it was very bright, and it swirled about him as though an arm of the Father encircled and lifted him up; and as he rose, he became more and more part of it until his earthly body was all transformed into the essence of the Cloud -- the extension of the Body of God. And when both were the same, he had regained his heavenly body once more, fashioned no longer after the pattern of a man, but after the pattern of God. He had overcome and risen above the world of form and the four elements -- voluntarily while still in it -- realigning himself with the greater Cosmos; and returned from the microcosm to the macrocosm from whence he came.

Through Jesus' act, man can now fully associate with God without interference. Satan's activity can never pass the outer form, for he can never re-erect the veil between the Deity and man, which once and for all was rent, nor thus re-establish the old insurmountable gulf between God and man.

The Biblical account resumes: And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

Then they returned with great joy to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away, and when they had entered they went up to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers and were continually in the Temple blessing God. It seems that his brethren were fully convinced by this time and were swayed no more.

As a matter of further interest, an apocryphal letter of James describes Jesus as ascending in a chariot of spirit, waving to the disciples.

Most people think of the ascension as an uncommon act, something which was performed by our Lord exclusively, and that this is the way it is to remain. But the fact of the matter is that many have gone through the ascension down through the years.

The ascension is not a mystical mystery, but a living part of man's life and as with anything else a person would seek to accomplish, there is a preparation.

The preparation for the ascension is a two-fold preparation. There is a preparation of the physical body and the preparation of the mind.

In this age that we are in, we now have a new vehicle being built. It in fact is made from two other vehicles, the physical and spiritual.

The new vehicle is gradually being brought into existence, for man will no longer have a physical and a spiritual body, but will have a new body made of both.

For the two old ones will unite and the new body will be different.

This two-fold change is not two-fold in the sense of two different actions, but the commencing of one brings about the effect of the other changing.

For anything to take place here in the physical world, it must always be started in the spiritual. So likewise, with the change of the body, this first begins with the change in mind.

One of the first things a person is taught when they enter any school of attainment, and especially in the Holy Order of MANS, is mind control; for this is the key to all spiritual development.

As one gains a certain level of mind control and an acceptance of Jesus and the great light through him they may attain the state of illumination.

After receiving the light it is of extreme importance that each one spend forty-five minutes to an hour each night letting that light of Christ permeate their whole body.

By this, the dross and the effects of negation in the physical body will be removed. While at the same time the negative patterns of thinking and the limitations people have assumed will be released from the mind, and thus begins the building of the new body.

With the release of the negation from both the mind and the physical body and the growing awareness of the inner being and the act of letting go and letting God, an aspirant may be brought into Self realization by the teacher. This realization is the actual seeing of the inner being, the Self.

Once this is accomplished, from that time on for all eternity, the aspirant will forever be realizing the existence of the Great Creator and the guidance of our Lord Jesus Christ. At this point of the preparation it is necessary to gain a fuller degree of mind control that you may hear the Self. This is a process of letting go of all personal ideas and concepts, and the continuing practice of letting the light of Christ permeate your whole body and being. It is the work at this point which brings about the actual existence of your new body.

Scientifically analyzing this change, the action which takes place in the physical body in an orderly way gradually changes its level of density, becoming gradually less dense through this process.

The change in the mind which is actually the slaying of the lamb, the slaying of the person's own personal mass mind, and the acceptance of the true way of action and living, which is the art of listening and following the guidance of the inner being -- this process will bring about the state of Being where a person will gain his freedom from the deep sleep of material life. In other words, he will then be in the world but in no way of it.

Once this is truly accomplished then the person will experience what many of the ancient mystics called the chemical marriage, and thus the body and the thinking are then prepared for the ascension.

What never was seen or heard of may yet be conceived, nor is anything beyond the power of thought except what implies an absolute contradiction.

The actual act of ascension, or in other words, the point where you ascend, is one of the greatest simplicities of all. Ascending from this realm of vibration into another is quite like a person walking from one room into another room. To walk into another room you must know of its existence, and its existence holds just as great a reality as the room you were in. When a person passes, taking his physical body with him from one level of vibration to another, the material substance of his body is transmuted into a pure state of its original substance, which is energy.

All things here, regardless of the apparent density, consist of energy; for there is no other substance in the solar system but energy. The ascension very simply is the transmutation of this energy from one level of density to another level which is less dense. To gain an understanding of the transmutation of this energy from one level to nother: to begin with, what actually takes place in the illumination is that each cell of the body is vitalized and raised in its own level of vibration by the light and life force of the great Christos.

The ascension is the culmination of this action, or the total infusion of the light and the life force throughout each cell of the body, which then causes the total sum vibration of the body to be of such a nature that it would then no longer be of the rate of vibration of seen matter. When we speak of rates of vibration we are not implying or speaking of the idea of the physical measurement of height, but of the number of pulses or vibrations per second of an object.

The existence of all matter depends upon the number of vibrations per second that goes into and comes out of matter. The only difference between one type of matter and another type of matter is the difference of the number of pulses or vibrations in them.

To explain this we will stop and consider the difference between a piece of glass cut like a diamond, and a real diamond. They both seem to be glass, they are both transparent, both look like glass, shine like glass, but one has a brilliance, a heart or a soul that the other does not have, and one is harder than the other. This latter fact, the hardness, led the scientists to believe they could make diamonds. So they tried to make glass hard by heating it to a great temperature. The results they attained during these experiments led them to the discovery that the true difference between a diamond and a piece of glass was a difference of the vibrations or pulses in the electrons which compose a piece of glass and the diamond, or the difference in the vibration between pure carbon and glass. They could not get as great a heat into the glass as nature had put into the diamond when it was formed in its primary elements Therefore, they have not been able to manufacture a perfect diamond.

They knew of only one way of changing the vibration of any matter -- and that was through heat or coldness. But there is another way of doing this, which is through transmutation, which is the changing of lead to gold, iron to silver, etc. However, the difference between one kind of matter and another is the difference in the vibrations or pulses in the matter.

To get an idea of the general composition of all matter, we'll take an illustration of a cake made out of flour and water. You may mix them in different proportions of flour and water. Some are baked all the way through and some are baked only on the outside, and some with a low fire and others with a hot fire. If we consider the flour and water as the primal elements and consider the fire as the spirit, this enters into the combination.

This gives a fairly good illustration of the general composition of all matter. It is the spirit and its vibration entering into the matter which makes matter its various different finishes and manifestations. It is also the vibration of the spirit in all matter which makes matter exist, and which makes all forms of matter known to us.

The only reason we can distinguish one form of matter from another is the vibrations in matter coming out of the matter in their natural expression.

As I have said before, your consciousness of the material world and its materiality is the result of vibrations emanating from all material things. You receive these vibrations through your senses, but your interpretations of the vibrations are responsible for the world as it exists to you personally.

This force and vibration, which is the spirit, is in the human body also. It is the spirit in the body that makes every cell and every nerve and every drop of blood in the body alive. This force and energy is in the nervous system of man -- an energy which they have been trying to analyze.

The greatest scientists have been working on it, and all they have been able to do is give a name to this energy. They call it "electrical nerve energy." They call it electrical because they have found that it vibrates like electricity and has many of the other properties which electricity has, and that it flows through the nerves just like electricity flows through the electrical wires.

Thus, it is seen that since vibration necessitates change, matter is constantly changing, or in the process of changing or in the process of becoming something else. Elementary substances and compounds are forever breaking up and assembling into new forms of matter which resemble the change of figures in an endless dance, weaving new forms in the dizzy whirl of life and "death," construction and reconstruction. This process goes on also in the human body where the cells are constructed and have the same basic shape as atoms.

Form or manifestation then is only temporarily fixed. All manifestation must be according to fundamental scheme, plan or definite arrangement, according to law.

Each series of nine is like steps in a flight of stairs. Each higher flight has also nine steps. This explanation of matter and the cosmic scale shows the order of creation of the macrocosmic world to the microcosmic world, by the term of dense and less dense; so thus when one ascends from one level of vibration to another, they are traversing from one flight of stairs to another flight of stairs in the cosmic scale.

This is the make-up of all matter, including the material substance which composes our physical bodies. But all matter, including our bodies, is under the control of the mind and of man. So thus the act of ascension shows the complete control of the forces of nature and of physical matter. As our Lord Jesus Christ said unto us all, "All these things I do, so shall ye do, and even greater."

As Paul has said, in I Thessalonians 4:

"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

He says we will meet him in the "air" -- thus declaring that his new kingdom will be extended into the ethers not inhabited by those still occupying bodies of flesh and blood. Thus there must take place for man a great transformation from bodies of flesh and corruption, into bodies or incorruption, celestial bodies prepared by the immortal soul to participate in the eternal life of the Spirit.