“A Different Understanding of Jesus”

(Part 1 of 2)

Presenter: Dick Stetler – August 2021

 

    Carl Sagan (1943-1996) had a mind that was like a sponge.  His curiosity knew few boundaries and he soaked up nearly every discipline that piqued his interest.   He entered the horizons of knowledge at key points.  He was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator.

     He died of pneumonia five days before Christmas in 1996.  When we hear the word pneumonia it can somewhat satisfy our curiosity of what causedhis death.  The medical community, however, uses the term knowing that it is a broad-brush description of an illness that can be lethal.  How could a man of this stature dieof pneumoniaat the age of 62, with so many miracle medications readily available?  The rest of the story is that he died of a rare form of pneumonia called Myelodysplasia. 

     What is interesting is that Dr. Sagan lefta path of bread crumbsthat future scientists and interested students could follow.  He inspiredmillions ofreaders through his five books, scores of scientific articles, and published paperswhere he verbalizedhis findings and thoughts.  He wrote the following:

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another.  Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.

     One of the realities and mysteries of life is that death willeventually claim each of us. Is this the Will of God?  Yes! However, the time and date are not part of any plan by God. What God has given to each person is a brief opportunity to surface what they brought within them while living in a world filled with illusions that only exist in our material world.

     When we consider Jesus dying at the age of 33,we notice from the earliest written material from Saul of Tarsus, (Paul) and the Gospels, that various authors began making claims about Jesus that caused this carpenter to be remembered. Early believers could not fathom The Son of God dying in such a manner.Where was God’s presence during Jesus’ agonizing transition from this life?

     Jesus was given the same brief opportunity as everyone else. What made Jesus so unique was that he surfaced from within himself thoughts and attitudes that are within each of us when we are born.  It took him thirty years to develop his skills of spirit.  He did so as a carpenter who experienced many years of being alone in his shop to perfect the kind of person he wanted to be. He did not become a teacher of what he had discovered until his baptism by his cousin John, the Baptist. 

     His baptismal experience in the Jordan River was very confusing. He had to ponderwhata mysterious voicewas telling him?  He was a Hebrew carpenter who had beentrained by his father, Joseph, in the traditions and beliefs of his people.  He trusted his experiences of life thus far to guide him.Now, there was this voice that informed him how unique his collection of spiritual skills had made him.  He had to get away to sort out in his mind what had just happened.

     Jesus came away from his experience in a wilderness for over a month, with the notion that he needed to teach othersthe attitudes and thoughts that he had developed. He never dreamed that his desire to become a teacher of the Golden Rule would lead to his becoming a threat to the highly trained priests and Pharisees.

     A dramatic shift occurred within Jesus when he decided that obedience to the Laws of Moses wasnot enough to take life to a new level of understanding.  The Pharisees were already doing that to perfection. He noticed, however, that the Pharisees also had developed attitudes and thinking that did not reflect the Golden Rule.  He learned that living with attitudes rooted in his spirit like patience, peace, tolerance, forgiveness, and understanding had to bethe first response of people in spite of the circumstances.

     Jesus died on the cross still teaching.  He asked God to forgive the ignorance ofthe Roman soldiersin spite of what they had done to him.  They were only following their orders to execute him.However, Jesus’ loving energy had grown to such proportions during his ministry that he could forgive others at will. His death set in stone what it is like to live in Heaven while still on earth in a physical form.His energy had become so powerful that he could make his presence visible after his death, thus giving people a glimpse of what awaits everyonefollowing their deaths.

     Following his resurrection experiences and the death of all of Jesus’ disciples, the next generations of believers created an entire theology thatblossomed. The later followers of Jesus taught thathis death was a sacrificial lambthat brought God and humanity together by forgiving everyone’s sins.This exclusive belief became the cornerstone of the faith-system of Christianity.

     Early believers began to teach that such a belief was absolutely necessaryfor Christians to gain entrance to the next level of reality. With this being such a central understanding by early followers of Jesus, modern theologians are hard pressed to cite teachingsby Jesus that support this understanding. Rather, Jesus taught people how to live and what attitudes will never fail to communicate.

     What saves us from being overwhelmed by the temptations of the material world is our decisionto followJesus’ bread crumbs.  He taught:

Store up for yourselves treasures of spirit where thieves cannot break in and stealthem..In my father’s house are many levels of awareness.  Learn to forgive everyone for their choices and responses. This path is difficult to find and very few people find it.  The Kingdom of God is within you.

     Jesus never repeatedly taught anyone to believe that his death was necessary for people to reach the next level of reality.Jesus had been living what he taught.  Bread crumbs like kindness and remaining unjudgmental are universal skills of spirit and thus, applicable to all people regardless of what they believe.  God does not judge.  People judge themselves by what they think and how they feel. Developing our loving energy remains the key to a life of happiness and creativity.

     People can sabotage their loving energy by allowing the affairs of the world to take up residence in their minds and spirit. The fears they bring to people are only real because of how each defines what is happening.  No one can shape history by correcting what other people do.  They only have control over themselves. This is how Jesus became a savior by demonstrating what other people can become.  He repeatedly said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  This is a message many people seldom hear.