Of all the Love emissaries that came to
earth, the one who has had the biggest influence on human history was Jesus of
Nazareth who lived 2,000 years ago. Followers of other spiritual masters
protest that Jesus does not deserve to be placed way above all the others, as
if he was the only one who exists on the same level as Love itself. But
the calendar used by most of this world is based on the estimated date of his
birth; and statistics show that there are clearly more followers of
Christianity in the world than there are of any other one religion. These facts
do not justify any claims that Jesus is the only way to God, but
they do establish Jesus as the most widely known of Love’s messengers to the
world.
Many stories are told about Jesus; how he was born to a virgin in a stable; how
the sky was full of angels that night, singing praises of Love, and how the
shepherds came to see the little baby lying in a manger of fresh straw while
the cattle accompanied his mother’s lullabies with their soft lowing. Then
there are the stories about his horrible death on a wooden cross, and how he
accepted this fate as a necessary part of his life purpose: to sacrifice
himself in atonement for the sins of humanity. It doesn’t really matter if the
details of these stories are true or not, because the reason Love sent Jesus to
live among the people of earth was to remind us again that we are all in
at-one-ment with our creator and with each other.
Before Jesus came, the Hebrews had been waiting for one they would call
“Messiah,” who God would choose to rule and unite the people of Israel and to
usher in a Messianic Age of universal peace. Many would believe that Jesus was
this messiah, and when his message was taken to Greece by Paul of Tarsus, he
was called the Christ, which is Greek for Messiah, or “the anointed one.”
In truth, Love did promise to send Messiah or Christ, who would bring “endless
peace” to the throne of David and his kingdom (Isaiah 9:7). This promise was
documented in the Hebrew Scriptures; most readers believe it to mean that the
Messiah has to be a descendant of King David who ruled three thousand years
ago. Followers of Jesus claim that he was this descendant; his father, Joseph,
having been of the lineage of David. Critics of this claim point out that
Christians do not believe that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. So
the question of the Messiah’s identity can be a sticky one for those who want to
interpret the Scriptures literally.
Since we are re-imagining history and spiritual evolution as if it all started
with Love, we can view the stories of Scripture through the eyes of Love – to
whom David symbolizes divine love individualized in human consciousness. As a
youth, David, innocent and pure, communed with God every day while he watched
his flocks of sheep, and he was one with Divine Love. When David grew up and
became king, he displayed some major limitations of the human ego, which he had
to release and then repent of, before he could be reunited with Love.
So David was a way-shower for us, just
as Jesus would be. The Messiah or Christ may be anyone who comes from the
lineage of Love; someone who overcomes the limitations that separation from
Divine Love creates. Jesus was the person who accomplished this in such a way
that he has commanded the respect and adoration of people all over the world
for two thousand years.
Jesus overcame the temptations of the flesh when he considered the possibility
of being the kind of kings that David had been. When he went into the
wilderness to fast and pray, he briefly considered the glory that could be his
if he chose to use his divine power to bring the world to its knees before him.
But he did not wish to be worshiped, either as an earthly king, or as a god. To
allow others to worship him would widen the gap between divinity and humanity.
His goal was to unite heaven and earth, man and woman, creator and creation,
with the power of love. Rather than ruling over his people, he chose to teach them
and show them how to be one with God, just as he was.
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