(Apologies, this is long, even for me!)
My take, which I've elaborated on the Esoteric and New Age boards, is that Jesus of Nazareth was and is a distinct individual, or Soul, from the Christ. As such, Jesus was one of many, many disciples of the Christ -
as a Master - but he chose to incarnate under
extremely adverse circumstances, and at much personal cost, for the benefit of Humanity.
As a Soul, in the world of Spiritual realities (
wherein we know ourselves as members of the One Body, and where Love & Light prevail), I think Jesus knew quite clearly what his mission would be, and he entered into birth under the humble circumstances which we know well from the Gospel story.
Here,
as Jesus, he symbolized something that was
Universal ... the BIRTH of the Christ within the heart. And by the word "universal," I mean that it is an experience which
every self-conscious being in Cosmos also undergoes - though on other planets, and in other aeons, the outward manifestation may truly be
alien as compared with conditions on Earth. The result, however, is the same. It admits a man, or an individual, conscious unit of life, to the world of Spiritual Realities, and marks his first
direct encounter with
that which beyond the purely material, or mortal world(s).
And so Jesus showed us this, by way of recapitualation, since his own
`Christ Birth' occurred many lifetimes prior, as one of the Joshuas, or Jeshuas, of the Old Testament. Along these same lines, Jesus recapitulated - at the River Jordan - a
Second Great Expansion of consciousness, and an entrance into a higher order of Being. The Baptism, AGAIN something that was
behind him as a Soul, was enacted
for the symbolic benefit of Humanity - and ONLY this interpretation will give full & clear meaning to that outstanding event in Jesus' life.
Otherwise, we are left holding the ball, wondering
why he submitted to the hand of John the Baptist, when both men knew full well who was the Messiah, and who was the Forerunner. And we see the unfortunate fruit of idle speculation that has resulted, as the great theologians have spent the many centuries ...
dribbling.
John said,
"I must decrease, and He must increase," which has many connotations, including some astrological, but one of these is certainly an acknowledgment of the
Mission of Christ Jesus,
or Christed Jesus ... though I, too, prefer the expression,
Jesus THE Christ.
So it seems that Jesus
became `Jesus the Christ' at the moment of the Baptism. And this recognition even inspires an entire denomination, with its many branches & expressions, as a result! Yet all are essentially centered upon the CHRISTHOOD of Jesus, regardless of details.
The jury is still out about where Jesus went for
more than half of his life - and the adult portion at that! Here, the very Son of God, is MISSING FROM THE SCENE ... awol ... for the better part of his earthly career! I mean,
wth???
So it should not seem strange that accounts suggest that Jesus traveled to Egypt, to Greece, to India and Kashmir, and possibly into the mountain fastnesses of the Himalayas, where a Brotherhood of Adepts (enlightedned,
or Christed men) ...
has long had its earthly focus. This Brotherhood
received Jesus, for they already knew him well. It was his own Master,
the Christ, Who required his presence ... in order to prepare for the Mission which was to come. A little thought will show that this would be a good hypothesis,
even if there weren't a good handful of documents, and accounts, to prove it.
Those who will argue that such-and-such a record here or there has been falsified, or proven a forgery, would have us believe that one such instance dismisses the entire case! Not so! And for that matter, the Notovich account
remains worthy of consideration. I can easily dismiss the greater part of Christian scripture on the same grounds, by calling it
`hearsay evidence,' but yet we place such great faith in these accounts - easily 15 centuries old or more, and penned by those who had never even seen Jesus
directly!!! But when we find
written accounts by those who DID SEE him, albeit several thousands of miles away, we are ready to cry
foul! Hmmm ....
But still, this is a sidetrack, and I only suggest that Jesus was an Initiate of
such great reknown and high standing, that his Mission - and his intended Service to his Master, the Christ - was something known by his fellow Initiates in EVERY country, from the Lodges of the Brotherhood in Egypt, to its outposts in Greece, India, Kashmir, and the Himalayan heights. Jesus was not without his Teachers, and while many of these were
the Essenes in the early years, we might say that he quickly mastered all that they had to share with him ... and so he left them, as a wandering Therapeute (Healer), and continued his training elsewhere.
He had to go, we should be able to understand, where there were advanced enough Masters to
help prepare him for his mission. And even if we
don't identify the Christ as a second, even more advanced Master, but instead as just the Spirit of God & of Goodness Itself ... this idea of the
traveling Jesus will still make sense.
Upon his return, Jesus was ready to begin the Ministry for which his entire life had been a preparation. The intent was to
anchor the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. And I suspect he knew that his time might come any day. But Jesus was committed enough to the PLan, and devoted so
utterly to the Service of His Master, and to His Holy Purpose (did Christ not say,
"I and the Father are ONE"?) ... that he was prepared to make any sacrifice necessary, to see the Mission through.
So prior to his crucifixion, Jesus illustrated the profundity of the tranformation of our entire character and being ... which
must occur prior to our entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. He showed us -
again by way of
recapitulation only - the Transfiguration on the Mount. Christ says later,
"Blessed are the pure of Heart, for THEY shall see God." And the purification of the Baptism, that
deepening of our relationship with God (
through Christ) was already
well behind Jesus at this point.
The moment of the Transfiguration, though a
re-enactment for the Soul, Jesus, is STILL a vital indication for us, for it
hints at that great event in the lifetime of
every Soul, which is a Son of God. This is the
fulfilment of the Aaronic Blessing, which is a part of many Christian worship Services, with its roots proceeding directly from the faithful among the Hebrew peoples. That Blessing is ...
The Lord bless you and keep you;the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)
Here, Jesus demonstrates what it means to
SEE GOD. And remember, even
Moses did not behold His Lord directly, in this manner. Some might contest that, or disagree, but I have no wish to argue. I'm only presenting my understanding.
The Mission of Jesus does not find its completion with the Crucifixion, and as some at CR have suggested, it is quite possible that Jesus
survived bodily death - and was revived after being taken down from the cross. I find this possibility plausible, if unlikely and unnecessary.
But equally unnecessary ... in my understanding of the Mission and Purpose for Jesus' sacrifice and Teachings, is the notion that his death
WAS required. Inasmuch as we wish to focus upon the sacrifice of his physical vehicle, which he was obviously
more than willing to make ... why not consider another perspective?
I believe that Jesus the Initiate faced a much, much greater challenge. I think we see him
truly looking ahead to the crossing of a gulf, a chasm - or an Abyss even ... which he had
not yet crossed, as a Soul.
His own Master, the Christ, with him almost constantly for three years, could look far, far behind Him to the crossing of this gulf. But for Jesus, this was a
TEST. It was a trial, it was very real, and if the forty days in the wilderness seemed like a lot of preparation,
this is something on so much greater a scale - that we really cannot fathom it.
Several Souls, in Earth's long history,
have undergone this test successfully. And so have several Souls since, St. Paul among them -
memorialized as his "Conversion experience" on the Road to Damascus. So Jesus knew what he was endeavoring to do. But he also knew, as does every
High Initiate, or
chrestos, prepartory to this degree - that he would have to cross the gulf ALONE.
During this same preparation, we can interpret the incident in the Garden of Gethsemane from a deeper, subtler perspective. If Christ was present, He was guarding and guiding His great Disciple even unto the very edge of the Abyss, prior to the Blessing that He would give him ... before he crossed. Yet Christ, too, was preparing for an expansion of consciousness, of Being, and of Responsibility.
Already a Master, the Christ
as an individual might also be seen as the being at Gethsemane, struggling against
even His own high understanding and Spiritual Will - as He asked of the Father,
"Not my Will, but THINE be done." I have read, recently, that His struggle, which had never before made so much sense to me, was born out of the same great Compassion, and selflessness, which characterized the Buddha's earlier sacrifice.
Christ, it seems, was brought
face to face with the recognition - that His Mission and His Purpose would NOT be fulfilled, at the inception of this prior cycle, the
Piscean Era (astronomical FACT, remember, not some vague, astrological fluff). He found Himself looking a full 2000 or 2100 years into the future, and was forced to wrestle with the prospect of a Humanity that
could not, or would not, take hold of its
maturing (sense of) responsibility, and need to "WAKE UP!" What was He to do?
So if we truly wish to consider the nature of the SACRIFICE that was made, we should ask ourselves,
what MIGHT Earth have been like - if A) We HAD been more receptive,
not chosen to crucify our Saviour, and accepted responsibility for the next steps in our spiritual growth? But we must also see B) The possibility that Christ could have moved forward with the next stages of the Plan,
leaving Humanity to face the music, so to speak ... with the almost certain fate, for the planet, of a global catastrophe - sooner or later - but almost
undoubtedly resulting in the gradual eclipsing of good by evil,
for a rather long duration (though not permanently).
And would He not have been well within His right to have allowed us that fate? Or was/is He just a bargaining chip, flipped occasionally by the `
believer' when adversity appears, and when we find ourselves under great strain? Was/is Christ such a chip,
flipped by God the Father ... in the face of the evils facing Humanity (mostly precipitated by our own karma, and transgressions, or
sins, throughout the long ages)?
I CANNOT and WILL NOT accept either of these absurdities as proposed by the clever clergy of the long,
dark ages ... which ensued, after Christ MADE HIS CHOICE, and retreated from outward Appearance. Christ did not leave us, for HE MADE HIS CHIOCE - and
with His own disciple, just as
countless other disciples have done in the centuries that followed (many of them now become Masters, as Jesus) ... together, Christ and His Church
have chosen to remain with a stubborn, resistant
Humanity. What possible reward could this bring to Him, or to Those Who serve by His side? This ... is true
selflessness.
I hope that people can think, more and more, about the notion of a Jesus, and/or a Christ, Who
thought about His Mission, and who
knew God well. This does not necessitate total omniscience, or
infinite expression of the many levels of Perfection. But it
does mean, that we must dismiss with the Jesus as presented throughout the centuries,
who was just kind of a BYSTANDER ... while all these things HAPPENED - and even HAPPENED TO HAPPEN - TO Him!
I think we have all "been there, done that." In a way, it is
quite enrapturing, and I do not suggest that Jesus NEVER knew this wondrous, beautiful, deepest (or deeper) aspect of God's unfathomable Being. But let's keep in mind that as child of 12,
He was about His Father's business ... and with that, might we not contemplate that Jesus of Nazareth -
BAR Christ - was SURELY one of the Greatest GNOSTICS (in the broader sense of that word) this world has ever known?
And if the Christ IS a different individual ... then what does that make HIM???
Ah. That would be,
the Father - revealing to us His 2nd Aspect, The SON.
Another approach to, "Who/what was Jesus/Christ," would focus upon the Christ as 2nd Aspect of the Christian Trinity, and upon the SON as something truly Cosmic and Universal -
the WORD - pervading all of manifestation, with its tiny, tiny reflection, or expression here upon this planet ... yet from our perspective, almost the very CENTER of our Being, and the
Purpose for our incarnation!
I am not qualified for such commentary, however. I can only suggest, again, that Christ is GOODNESS ITSELF, and that there are depths of meaning there to keep all of us
Aspiring for many, many lifetimes.
Love and Light,
andrew
