Whom Say Ye That I Am?

Whom Say Ye That I Am?

Today we will think about simple things like the Messiah, Christ Consciousness, Higher Self, and the ultimate identity of Man. (Ha Ha). In all three synoptic gospels Jesus asks of the disciples the same question: "Whom say ye that I am?" I'll be honest: I am a self-centered spirit animal just like every other flawed and limited creature on this earth, and I admit that the question that is of most interest to me is, "Who am I?" Does the answer to the question Jesus asks inform the answer to my question? To answer this question, I have only more questions. I can only hope that the ultimate answer, like perfection, is something we can at least approach, even if we can never truly arrive.

Here are the texts:

Matthew 16:13-20

13  ¶ When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesare'a Phil'ippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?
14  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Eli'jah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

[Sidebar: Mainstream Christians tend to reject the whole idea of reincarnation. In this comment it does not say that Jesus admits of reincarnation, or that the disciples admit of reincarnation, but clearly SOMEBODY in this cultural milieu does. I merely mention it.]

15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar–jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
20  Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

Mark 8:27-30
King James Version (KJV)

 

27And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?
 28And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.
 29And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.
 30And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

Luke 9:18-22

18  ¶ And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him; and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?
19  They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Eli'jah; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.
20  He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.
21  ¶ And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;
22  saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.

So, from this we glean these few salient ideas:
1. Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One.
2. Jesus is confused with other famous historical figures in the pantheon of Jewish fame.
3. Jesus' coming is foretold in holy scripture.
4. He has a mission here on earth to establish a church--an organization whose purpose is provide Man with the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
5. At this point in His career, He is still concerned with keeping His true identity a secret. He does not want His idea of Who He is confused with the people's idea of Who He is.

Now, the established pattern of these sermons is that I present the scriptures, then read a bunch of quotes I get off the internet exposing various sides of the question before I give my personal slant on the subject. Today I want to jump right in with my two cents. However, I want to reiterate that on this subject I HAVE ONLY QUESTIONS; the subject is so vast I do not flatter my puny intelligence with the imposture that I have any definitive answers--I fear that faith is the only substitute that I can make for such a claim, and since faith is beyond anybody's power to articulate in words such an ultimate reality, I faint before such an overwhelming project. Nevertheless, here I offer my best effort.

When we contemplate the infinite, the omnipresent, omniscient, omni-conscious personality of the Creator we fail to embrace even the smallest particle of that vastness. Perhaps this is why the Christ consciousness exists in our dimension at all. My understanding (if you can call it that) of the Christ consciousness is that it is some kind of FOCUS on the material plane of this infinite intelligence. The anointed of God is some MAN Who has been chosen to possess a mind that CAN embrace the infinite. In the Christ, God has chosen to project His mind into a single point of material space and time, so that His tiny human creations can observe, in some sense, His infinite self.

In John 1:1-5 we read:
 

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
 2The same was in the beginning with God.
 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Jesus is THE WORD, the expression of the inexpressible, the light that illuminates the mind of Man; MAN who, ejected from the Garden of inarticulate Being into the dualistic desert of Good and Evil, strives to regain the perfection of mindlessness by efforts of mind and will together. Out of all infinite possibilities, Jesus emerges on the scene as a CHOSEN SON OF GOD. The infinite personality of God is incarnated, and therefore LIMITED, for the purpose of shining a light (a limited light) into the world. We comprehend it not--but is there something we CAN get from it?

In the so-called science fiction novel, That Hideous Strength, C.S.Lewis says the following:

"To those high creatures whose activity builds what we call Nature, nothing is "natural". From their stations the essential arbitrariness (so to call it) of every actual creation is ceaselessly visible; for them there are no basic assumptions: all springs, with the willful beauty of a jest or a tune, from that miraculous moment of self-limitation wherein the Infinite, rejecting a myriad possibilities, throws out of Himself the positive elected invention."

It must be understood that the Christ Consciousness, though sprung from a Godhead of infinitude, must necessarily be limited to some extent--how other wise could it fit into a tiny human body? How otherwise could it speak the speech of men and make itself be understood even as much as it was? Is? There is magic in this, and also hope--for, if God can limit Himself in an incarnation such as the one Jesus supported, perhaps we may also bear something of this burden, and find in His love, His sympathy, the possibility of sharing in this infinite consciousness. Is such a thing possible? Can we, joined with God in His binding love, become, even a little, God ourselves? Or must we forever remain pieces of the puzzle, and not the whole puzzle, transformed in a cosmic flash into a divine certitude?

Let's backtrack a little and read what Wikipedia has to say about the terms "Messiah" and "Christ".

Messiah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"This article is about the concept of a Messiah in religion, especially in the Hinduism, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. . . .
A messiah (Hebrew: ‫מָשִׁיחַ‬, Modern Mashiaẖ Tiberian Māšîăḥ Arabic language مسيح Masih “anointed”) is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world. (Eschatology refers to the study of final or ultimate historical events.)
Messiahs appear in many religions including Hinduism,Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the Hebrew Bible messiahs are priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25. In later Jewish messianic tradition and eschatology, messiah refers to a leader anointed by God, and in some cases, a future King of Israel, physically descended from the Davidic line, who will rule the united tribes of Israel and herald the Messianic Age of global peace. In Judaism, the Messiah is not considered to be God or a Son of God.
The translation of the Hebrew word Mašíaḥ as Χριστός (Khristós) in the Greek Septuagint (the Hebrew Bible) became the accepted Christian designation and title of Jesus of Nazareth, indicative of the principal character and function of his ministry. Christians believe that prophecies in the Hebrew Bible (especially Isaiah) refer to a spiritual savior and believe Jesus to be that Messiah (Christ).
Islamic tradition holds the view that Jesus (Isa), son of Mary, was indeed the promised prophet and Messiah (Masih), sent to the Semitic Jewish tribes living in Israel. He will again return to Earth in the end times and descend from heaven to defeat the "great deceiver", the Dajjal (false messiah/antichrist)."

Christ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Christ is the English term for the Greek Χριστός (Khristós) meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew ‫מָשִׁיחַ‬ (Māšîaḥ), usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach. In popular modern usage—even within secular circles—the term usually refers explicitly to Jesus of Nazareth.
The word is used as a title, hence its common reciprocal use Christ Jesus, meaning "The Messiah Jesus". Followers of Jesus became known as Christians (as in Acts 11:26) because they believed Jesus to be the Christ, or Christos, or Christian Messiah, prophesied in the Old Testament - therefore they often call him Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus is the Christos.
Since the Apostolic Age, Jesus was never accepted as the Jewish Messiah. Many Christians, however, await the Second Coming of Christ when they believe he will fulfill the major rest of the Christian Messianic prophecy. The area of Christian theology focusing on the identity, life, teachings and works of Jesus, is known as Christology."

Person of Christ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person.
There are no direct discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the early days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures.
Historically in the Alexandrian school of thought (fashioned on the Gospel of John) Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos (word, reason, intelligence) who already possesses unity with the Father before the act of Incarnation. In contrast, the Antiochian school views Christ as a single, unified human person apart from his relationship to the divine. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos and the second person of the Trinity were being used interchangeably.

From the 2nd century onwards, the Christological approaches to defining the Person of Christ and how the human and divine elements interact and inter-relate resulted in debates among different Christian groups and produced schisms.

In the period immediately following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism (polar opposites of each other) were criticized and eventually abandoned. Arianism which viewed Jesus as primarily an ordinary mortal was considered at first heretical in 325, then exonerated in 335 and eventually re-condemned as heretical at the First Council of Constantinople of 381. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus' physical body was an illusion, and that he was only a spiritual being. Docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by mainstream Christians."

From The Great White Brotherhood webpage we read:

"Never place limitations on the Christ of God and He shall place none on you. That which is Infinite has no limits."

From the article Discussing the Bible with New Agers (Part One), by Elliot Miller, we read this provocative discussion:

"Any conscientious effort to present the gospel to a New Ager eventually leads to a discussion of the Bible. Although such a debate is engaged on Christian turf, it is often the New Ager, not the Christian, who afterwards feels satisfied with the discussion. For example:



Christian: Do you believe in Jesus?



New Ager: Yes, I believe in Jesus — and in Buddha, and Ramakrishna, and my own guru, too.



Christian: But Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me."



New Ager: That's right! I Am is the truth and the only way. 

Christian: What? 

New Ager: The I Am Presence or spark of divinity in each one of us!



Christian: Wait a minute. Jesus was speaking about Himself... 



New Ager: Yes, and only when each one of us can say with Jesus, I Am, will we realize God as Jesus did. 



Christian: But 1 Timothy 2:5 says the man Christ Jesus is the only mediator between God and men.

New Ager: Oh, that means the only mediator is our Christ Consciousness or Higher Self. 



Christian: You're taking the Bible out of context. 



New Ager: The problem with you fundamentalists is you hang on its every word. We're in a New Age and much of the Bible is obsolete! Yet there are also timeless truths within it, and only when you accept the Universal Wisdom in all religions will you recognize those truths.

Christian: Second Timothy 3:16 says all of Scripture is God's Word and profitable, so you can't prove what you're saying from the Bible.



New Ager: You quote the Bible to prove the Bible and then tell me I lack proof? Actually, my guru does prove her teachings from the Bible, because she can unlock its esoteric meaning. But you fundamentalists are so obsessed with literal meaning you don't understand your own book. [End of discussion.]"

The preceding "New Age" concept of Jesus as just one of many "anointed ones" who appear at various times in various places throughout history, offends a fundamental dogmatic principle of mainstream Christian belief, i.e. that Jesus was the ONLY Son of God ever commissioned to save the world from sin. We all like to have exclusive rights to divine knowledge--it somehow makes it more personal. Never mind that religions all over the world claim that their beliefs are the ONE TRUE FAITH, and most of them, including Christianity, have murdered millions who were unwilling to buy into that exclusivity.

Christians certainly hold the upper hand in this argument because no known religious leader has ever influenced and changed the flow of historical events half so much as Jesus' earthly visitation. Jesus set a standard that no other prophet has ever equalled. Clearly, Jesus was a culmination of some kind, even if we can't rationally put our finger on the PRECISE and FINAL nature of that culmination. Perhaps it is that Jesus was the first and only Messiah Who ever offered Himself as a sacrifice of redemption of original sin, and as a discarnate spiritual mediator between Man and God. No other savior (Buddha, Ramakrishna, Mohammed, or Pahdma) can make that claim. Nevertheless, if we even slightly entertain the possibility of an ultimate union with the Godhead for ourselves, the attitude that no other souls in history ever approached that state of consciousness on earth can only be described as presumptuous, short-sighted, and ego-centric. In the vast hierarchy of spiritual reality, I have no problem putting Jesus at the top of the pile, and it is to Him I pray, and to Him I give my ultimate allegiance. But to say that He was the only one who possessed the keys to the Kingdom seems too limiting to me. The most I'm willing to admit is that His keys are the biggest.

More on this topic appears in Walter Benjamin's Contemporary Shamanism:
Steiner and the Higher Self:

"Steiner describes a hierarchy of consciousness, from the lowest pebble to the highest spiritual being. On earth, a person who achieved truly rational consciousness (of course, for Steiner, rationality would include spiritual awareness) would be at the highest level of thought that we can imagine, while minerals exist at the lowest level of mental activity (for mystics, it seems that nothing, not even a pebble, is completely devoid of sentience). In the higher realms, you find beings whose lowest level of existence is rational thought: "Rational conclusions are the approximate equivalent of mineral effects on Earth. Beyond the domain of intuition lies the domain where the cosmic plan is fashioned out of spiritual causes." According to Steiner, along with the self that we perceive in daily life, the intractable "I," there is another self, a hidden spiritual being, which is the individual’s guide and guardian.

This higher self "does not make itself known through thoughts or inner words. It acts through deeds, processes, and events. It is this "other self" that leads the soul through the details of its life destiny and evokes its capacities, tendencies, and talents." The direction of our life is set out by that other self, a permanent being which continues from life to life. "This inspiration works in such a way that the destiny of one earthly life is the consequence of the previous lives."

In conclusion, I want to read from Friedrich Nietzsche's AntiChrist. I just got around to Nietzsche very recently, and I found him to be more of a poet than a philosopher, and a satirist more than a poet. He is a very angry dude. I've never read such an uninterrupted string of invective in my life--not even in Ambrose Bierce. His criticisms of the Christian church are relentlessly hostile, condemning, and unforgiving. And yet his comments about Jesus Himself are respectful, illuminating, and helpful:

"33.
In the whole psychology of the "Gospels" the concepts of guilt and punishment are lacking, and so is that of reward. "Sin," which means anything that puts a distance between God and man, is abolished--this is precisely the "glad tidings." Eternal bliss is not merely promised, nor is it bound up with conditions: it is conceived as the only reality--what remains consists merely of signs useful in speaking of it. . .

The life of the Saviour was simply a carrying out of this way of life--and so was his death.... He no longer needed any formula or ritual in his relations with God. . .

If I understand anything at all about this great symbolist, it is this: that he regarded only subjective realities as realities, as "truths"--that he saw everything else, everything natural, temporal, spatial and historical, merely as signs, as materials for parables. The concept of "the Son of God" does not connote a concrete person in history, an isolated and definite individual, but an "eternal" fact, a psychological symbol set free from the concept of time. . .

The "kingdom of heaven" is a state of the heart--not something to come "beyond the world" or "after death." The whole idea of natural death is absent from the Gospels: death is not a bridge, not a passing; it is absent because it belongs to a quite different, a merely apparent world, useful only as a symbol. The "hour of death" is not a Christian idea--"hours," time, the physical life and its crises have no existence for the bearer of "glad tidings."... The "kingdom of God" is not something that men wait for: it had no yesterday and no day after tomorrow, it is not going to come at a "millennium"--it is an experience of the heart, it is everywhere and it is nowhere…."

Thus, even such a critic of Christianity as Nietzsche is compelled to view Jesus as a personality OUTSIDE TIME--as a participant in a cosmic play in which he, as the primary spokesman of the Father, plays the leading role. Anointed of the Father, Jesus leads that way toward truth and life. I only hope that one glorious day, when I meet him face to face that I can merge with the Father through Him and discover who I really am.

The following quote from the Ascension Research Center proposes something that my heart tells me is true--I only hope my mind can get around it someday.

"The Light of God is all about you. The Light of God is who you are."

Let us pray: Jesus, You were chosen and sent for a purpose we can only vaguely understand. Indeed, vague is the only word that can describe our apprehension of the divine mysteries. Please send us your infinite intelligence to bolster our puny powers of comprehension, so that we may endure the rest of this earthly life, in preparation for the coming clarity waiting for us in heavenly light. Amen.

July 31, 2011
Glennallen, AK

Temptation

Temptation
The simple-minded design for my first battery of Basin Bible Church sermons was just to go through the sayings of Jesus in chronological order. Since my whole life is one long string of synchronistic surprises, it was no surprise to read that one of Jesus's first sentences was, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

It was no surprise because I have been thinking a lot about sin lately. As an Aspie, my mode of thinking is extremely linear, black and white, and I swear to you, until recently, I was convinced that I was fairly sinless. I manner, doesn't everybody want to think of themselves as sinless? Don't we need this to feel good about ourselves? When Paul says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, isn't he talking about someone else? I mean I live an upright life, I do what I say I'm going to do, I'm fair, nay generous, in my business dealings, I don't cause anyone any particular pain, I make a positive difference in the world--all the outward signs of virtue are to be seen in me--I'm a pretty cool dude. But, quite recently, I was taking stock of my inner life, and I came to the shocking realization that I have a mental sewer running down in there--that I need every calorie of spiritual power with which grace can empower me to keep my mind even remotely clean. Let's come back to that.

In the following discussion, we will touch on the nature of temptation in its various guises, and hopefully suggest a protective strategy for dealing with its magnetic attraction.

The Temptations of Jesus in the desert represent the ideal model for dealing with our own spiritual trials. It is significant that the story of Jesus's ministry begins here; it is as though He must first learn to deal with the demonic attacks of Satan before He is fit to bring humanity His words of enlightenment. His mind and will must be tested and tempered before the words of His mouth can become acceptable to the Father. If this is so for Him, how much moreso must it be for us? Even when we acknowledge that Satan and his minions are at the root of every wrong thought and deed, how can we escape the penetration of his powerful intellect and protect ourselves from his almost invisible, invasive aggression? How many of our thoughts are corrupted by Satan's skillful infiltrations before we realize we have been duped again? How much crap do we allow to come out of our mouths every day, before our tongues have been cleansed by Graceful intervention? How can we know, and how can we stop it?

Here are the three accounts of Jesus's temptation in the desert taken from the first three, so-called, synoptic gospels:

Matthew 4:1-11
 

1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Mark 1:13 is the shortest statement:
 

13And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Luke 4:1-14 is practically word for word the account in Matthew:
 1And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
 2Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
 3And

the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
 4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
 5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
 6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
 7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
 8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
 9And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
 10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
 11And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
 12And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
 13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
 14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

In researching this episode I found that several commentators mention a progression of magnitude in Satan's temptations: the devil begins with little temptations, "Hey, buddy, just have a little bread, you must be starving after 40 days! A little bread, a little wine, a little marinara sauce, let's kick back, party--you know, celebrate a successful fast! How bout some GARLIC bread, ooh, yum!"

Let's celebrate a successful fast by breaking the fast--isn't that clever. Indeed this is one of the main categories of temptation, and one of the hardest to notice, because it is not always crystal clear when enough is enough. C.S. Lewis mentions this in the Screwtape Letters:

"Whatever men expect, they soon come to think they have a right to: the sense of disappointment can, with very little skill on our part, be turned into a sense of injury. It is after men have given in to the irremediable, after they have despaired of relief and ceased to think even a half hour ahead, that the dangers of humbled and gentle weariness begin. To produce the best results from the patient's fatigue, therefore, you must feed him with false hopes. Put into his mind plausible reasons for believing that the air raid will not be repeated. Keep him comforting himself with the thought of how much he will enjoy his bed next night. Exaggerate the weariness by making him think it will soon be over; for men usually feel that a strain could have been endured no longer at the moment when it is ending, or when they think it is ending. In this, as in the problem of cowardice. the thing to avoid is the total commitment. Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it "for a reasonable period"--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter: in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight."

I was going out on a date with a girl a long time ago, and I picked her up at her parents' house. Before we could go, she had some chores to do, like cleaning up the kitchen, etc. I pitched in to help, and was just plowing into the last little pile of dishes when she said, "Let's go." I pointed out that there were still a few minor tasks to be completed, that we were almost done. She said. "Almost done has always been good enough for me." Oh the clang of doom I heard resonating over THAT relationship!

Back to Jesus: declining to break His ritual fast, Jesus then has to endure insults to his power; the order in Matthew and Luke is switched, but the order in Matthew (apparently the model for Luke's account) makes the most sense: first the devil dares him to jump off the top of a minaret, ["C'mon, if you're so hot you can do THAT--it's not so far, c'mon, it'll be fun!"], then (as is often the case with demons), his temptations crescendo to a climax, "Look at ALL THIS REAL ESTATE! I can give you all this if you just sign on the dotted line. No, right here, see? Right here! Just put your X down on that baby! How about a thumb print?"

Jesus just says no. Is it that simple? Just say no? Maybe for Him, not for us. Martin Luther had to throw a Bible at Satan taunting him in the corner. The words, "Get behind me, Satan," are significant--they imply an actual physical TURNING AWAY FROM THE DARK TOWARD THE LIGHT. But sometimes we don't know which way the light is. We don't KNOW which way the light is--it's the KNOWING that is the problem. Let's come back to that.

At the end of the episode the devil leaves Jesus alone and the Christ is attended by angels. One wonders if the devil ever tried again--one wonders if the angels put up a permanent protective barrier around Jesus when he passed that first grueling test, or whether, like gnats in summer, they continued to buzz around him, looking for a loophole. Let's come back to that.

I know that Jesus protects me from serious demonic assaults as a matter of policy (I passed my test about 25 years ago); my ambitions have been humbled to an acceptance of my tiny niche in the vast scheme of things--I don't have to worry about being taken by major demonic possession, I am not tempted to commit bank robbery, rape, arson, murder (you know, the big stuff)-- but I still have to endure subtle temptations like that bread thing all the time--it's the tiny temptations, given in to like tiny slips down a hill that eat away at your character, and it's like an untaxing calisthenic spiritual exercise to condition yourself to "Just say NO." BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION AND REMEMBER TO SAY NO.

As I mentioned above, until recently I was very unconscious of all the temptation that was going on in my mind until I started thinking about it; that is to say, I was conscious of my thoughts, since they were all quite reasonable of course, but I could see no sin in them. It was a humbling shock to have to admit that I am constantly assailed by petty thoughts, condemning thoughts, judgmental thoughts, uncharitable thoughts. Not reasonable at all, a lot of them not even sane. And the joke is that, so often, we mistake these ego-centric thoughts for truth; we need to SAY what we know, but the devil so easily perverts what we know into lies by twisting the words into misdirections that end up meaning the opposite of their original intention; what started out as an icon of truth turns into a weapon of destruction. I realize now that Satan's minions are tireless in seeking out our personal weaknesses and dragging us down by our own falsely articulated ideas of virtue. And of course the IDEAS of virtue inevitably lead to ACTS of virtue like telling some miserable sinner, in the grocery store, the error of his ways, or exploding a bomb in an airport in the name of Allah.

It is somewhat fun to trace back the logic behind these so-called acts of virtue. Here's a good example: when I lived in the ghetto in L.A. there was a guy named Ed who would never get the front door shut when he went out. We begged him to be careful because we were a house of white guys living in the middle of a hostile black neighborhood, and the house had been broken into more than once. My brother had a talent for psychology, and got inside Ed's head to get at why he kept performing this dangerous antisocial act. His reasoning was as follows:

They want me to close the door so the house will be safe.
But to close the door you have to slam it a little bit.
If we keep slamming the door, it will fall off the hinges.
If the door falls off the hinges, we won't have any door at all.
No door will not be safe.
So what they really want me to do is leave the door open a little bit. OK

Etc. There is the old 19th century European drinking song popular with German university students that works the same perverted way:

The more you study the more you know,
The more you know the more you forget,
The more you forget the less you know,
So why study?

I have to admit it, I like myself. Shame at who I am has NEVER been an ingredient in my ego make-up. I admit that, for most of my life, CONFUSION was a big part, as I suffered that particular brand of rejection and misunderstanding that is the Aspie's stock in trade, but I never felt shame--I was always too innocent, too clueless, to feel shame. I thought there was something really wrong with me, but I never felt it was my fault, I felt that I was made different, and it was other peoples' loss that they couldn't get me. But as I grew in the spirit, and began to realize that none of my accomplishments were my own, that everything about me I was proud of came from God, I began to question my most intimately ingrained attitudes about myself.

Wikipedia defines the word "temptation" like this:

"A temptation is an act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions, for various reasons: legal, social, psychological (including feeling guilt), health, economic, etc. Temptation also describes the coaxing or inducing a person into committing such an act, by manipulation or otherwise of curiosity, desire or fear of loss."

Thus, a temptation is something that seems to offer us the possibility of ENHANCING positive feelings about ourselves, but which ends up generating NEGATIVE feelings about ourselves. Also, there is an element missing from the Wikipedia definition: temptation always includes the undertone that what we are doing is really wrong, JUST NOT WRONG ENOUGH; if our ego virtue can be retained by verbal gymnastics, then we can have our cake and eat it too. How wish I could have my cake and eat it too! (Can you hear Satan laughing when I say that?) How wish I could have my cake and eat it too!

Many of the negative thoughts I battle with all the time have to do with people in my musical organization: I have to manage a number of people (the number is getting bigger--including my Anchorage contingent, I have upwards of 60 musicians in my organization, now)--anyway, I have to get all these people to pull together to make beautiful things happen, and the effort involved in getting them to co-operate sometimes seems so overwhelming that I could just scream. Whenever some plan goes wrong, my first response is to fret and accuse, and feel bad about myself because I have failed to make them want it as much as I want it; thus, what is supposed to be a self-affirming experience turns into a self-nullifying experience. Music is a self-affirming act, and all involved are blessed! Why do I have to struggle and fret to make them see that?

The key is embedded in the true nature of self-affirmation: one successful temptation technique, that Satan uses on us time and time again, is getting us confused about what is truly self-affirming; he leads us to think that certain feelings are born of true righteousness, but these convictions so often turn out to be merely vain self-righteousness, which, in its obsession with ego, turns out not to be righteous at all. All of our "righteousnesses" are filthy rags. Thus, we sin and condemn ourselves with the best of all possible intentions. And the whole syndrome of self-aggrandizement involves a level of ego resolution which most easily allows our thoughts to be assaulted by petty ego stuff, and the petty ego whispers lies and more lies in our hungry ears. Through all these mental machinations the ego retains enough power to say that "I" am proving my holiness; in actuality, we have nothing to prove, comparisons are irrelevant. I realize, now, that the temptation involved in thinking bad thoughts is that those thoughts which are supposed to make me feel superior really just drag me down. In searching for the truth in literal definitions, I lose sight of the heart of my thought; and when the heart's final authority is lost, so is all truth, all virtue lost as well.

Surrender is the only empowering strategy--give ego over to the personal aspect of God and let Him decide what is true and what is false. Until one goes beyond experience to find God, one's identity is wrapped up in a cycle of desires that lead to action. Every action leaves an articulate impression and new impressions give rise to new desires. Desire leads to action, leads to articulation, leads to false truth; consequently we become victims of mistaken identity. We spend our time projecting versions of reality onto the proscenium of our mind's eye, including versions of God that are inadequate.

I say, "Let the language of the HEART be the index of truth." For me, the highest form of self-affirmation is giving God the glory; affirming God in me is the only lasting ego boost I can get. In my studio, I have a little home-made bumper sticker on the wall; it says: "Anybody who looks down on somebody else is hanging upside down." It would be good if I could consistently take my own advice.

Oh if we could only love ourselves in the innocent open-hearted way that children cherish their simple accomplishments, and not need the so-easily twisted language of words! Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" opens with these guileless lines:

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

If we could enjoy ourselves in the uncomplicated way of children, unspoiled by ego, our thoughts would not betray us with their dark judgmental resonance, and we would indeed be delivered from temptation.

The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis is a reverent thought provoking novel, that attempts to get inside Jesus's head, and explore His humanity, just as we have been doing here for the past few weeks.
Wikipedia summarizes the book like this:

"The Last Temptation of Christ (or The Last Temptation) is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1960. It follows the life of Jesus Christ from his perspective. The novel has been the subject of a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter, and appears regularly on lists of banned books. The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface that by facing and conquering all of man's weaknesses, Jesus struggled to do God's will, without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh."

[In light of our previous discussions of Jesus's humanity, this is a concept that is not hard to buy into.]

The novel was made into a movie by Martin Scorsese in 1988. Throughout the movie, Jesus is plagued by doubts that he is the Messiah; how could one so corrupted by human faults possibly be the son of God? The scene in the desert includes the following dialogue; in this scene Satan assaults Jesus's weakness by suggesting that His humanity is virtuous, and he should be satisfied with common human pleasures, a wife, a family. Satan appears as a serpent:

"Jesus: You're here to trick me.
The Cobra/Satan: Trick you? To love and care for a woman, to have a family? This is a trick? Why are you trying to save the world? Aren't your own sins enough for you? What arrogance to think you can save the world. The world doesn't have to be saved: save yourself. Find love
Jesus: I have love. "

"I have love." In this sentence Jesus affirms the only ego worth affirming--the identity of God in Human form. God is love. I have love. I have myself.

At the end of the movie, as Jesus hangs on the cross, Satan appears as a little girl. The girl tells Jesus he has passed the test, and He can come down from the cross now and have a normal human life. Satan spins an illusion over the eyes of Jesus and He enters into a fantasy. "Almost done has always been good enough for me." Finally Jesus comes to His senses and realizes He has been duped by Satan's wily guiles. At first, Satan thinks he has succeeded in corrupting Jesus, and the devil speaks this speech:

"I told you we would meet again.
If you die this way, you die like a man.
You turned against God, your Father.
There's no sacrifice. There's no salvation.
There's nothing you can do.
You lived this life.
You accepted it.
It's over now.
You just finish it and die.
Die like a man."

When Jesus realizes the truth, he returns to the cross, and, suffering, says this:

"Father.
Will you listen to me?
Are you still there?
Will you listen to a selfish, unfaithful son?
I fought you when you called. I resisted.
I thought I knew more. I didn't want
to be your son. Can you forgive me?
I didn't fight hard enough.
Father...
...give me your hand.
I want to bring salvation!
Father, take me back!
Make a feast! Welcome me home!
I want to be your son!
I want to pay the price!
I want to be crucified and rise again!
I want to be the Messiah!
It is accomplished!"

I know that many people think that putting fictitious words in Jesus's mouth is blasphemy, but I don't see this scene as pretending to express any sort of divine knowledge, any more than any other work of art depicting the Christ must be said to be blasphemous. I hear these final words of Jesus as my own words, declaring my own reluctance to commit to the selfless spiritual life without reservation, and I shout a huge hooray when I finally say NO to the tempter's lies, and find my own personal sacred truth, and guided by Grace, and take up MY cross.

May 8, 2011
Glennallen, AK