MYSTIC CHRISTIANITY
THE SIXTH LESSON
THE WORK OF ORGANIZATION
Leaving
Capernaum behind Him, with its crowds of invalids seeking
healing, and fighting off the demands that would have
rendered Him a professional healer instead of a Teacher
and preacher of the Message of Truth, Jesus passed on to
other parts of the land, taking with Him the band of
disciples and faithful followers who now traveled with
Him.
But He did not altogether relinquish His healing work. He
merely made it an incident of His ministry, and did not
allow it to interfere with His preaching and teaching. The
Gospel narratives show a number of remarkable cures made
by Him at this time, and the few recorded cases are, of
course, merely occasional incidents that stand out in the
minds of the people among hundreds of less noticeable
cases.
The cure of the leper is one of such remarkable cases.
Leprosy was a foul disease much dreaded by the people of
Oriental countries. And the unfortunate person afflicted
by it became an outcast and pariah from whom all others
fled as from an unclean and impure thing.
There was a leper in the part of the country in which
Jesus was traveling and teaching. He heard of the
wonderful gift of healing
accredited to the young preacher, and he determined to get
into His presence and beg His aid. How the leper managed
to get through the crowds and into the presence of Jesus
is not known, but it must have required great strategy on
his part, for such people were not permitted to pass in
and among crowds of other people. But in some way the
leper contrived to come face to face with Jesus as the
latter walked alone in meditation, away from his
followers.
The loathsome creature raised its repulsive form, the
picture of human misery and woe, and confronting the
Master, demanded from Him the exercise of the Gift of
Healing. No doubt of His power was in the leper's
mind--his face shone with faith and expectation. Jesus
gazed earnestly into the distorted features that shone
with the fire of a fervent faith such as is rarely seen on
the face of man, and touched with this testimony to His
power and motives, He moved toward the leper, defying the
laws of the country, which forbade the same. Not only
this, but He even laid His hands upon the unclean flesh,
defying all the laws of reason in so doing, and fearlessly
passed His hand over the leper's face, crying aloud, "Be
thou clean!"
The leper felt a strange thrill running through his veins
and over his nerves, and every atom of his body seemed to
be tingling with a peculiar burning and smarting
sensation. Even as he looked he saw the color of his flesh
changing and taking on the hue of the flesh of the healthy
person. The numbness departed from the affected portion of
his body, and he could actually feel the thrill and tingle
of the life currents that were at work with incredible
speed building up new cells, tissue and muscle. And still
Jesus held His hands against the flesh of the leper,
allowing the life current of highly vitalized _prana_ to
pour from His organism into that of the leper, just as a
storage battery of great power replenishes and recharges
an electrical appliance. And back of it all was the most
potent, trained Will of the Master Occultist directing the
work.
And then He bade the healed man depart and comply with the
laws regarding purification and change of garments,
including the
appearance before the priests to receive a certificate of
cleanliness. And He also bade him that nothing should be
said regarding the nature or particulars of the cure. For
some good reason He wished to escape the notoriety or fame
that the report of such a wonderful cure would be sure to
excite.
But alas! this was asking too much of human nature, and
the healed leper, running with great leaps and bounds,
began shouting and crying aloud the glad tidings of his
marvelous cure, that all men might know what a great
blessing had come to him. In spite of the injunction laid
upon him, he began to sing aloud the praises of the Master
who had manifested such an unheard-of power over the foul
disease that had held him in its grasp until a few hours
before. With wild gestures and gleaming eyes he told the
story again and again, and it was taken up and repeated
from person to person, until the whole town and
countryside were familiar with the great news. Imagine
such an event occurring in a small country town in our own
land today, and you will
realize what an excitement must have been occasioned in
that home place of the leper.
And then occurred that which Jesus had doubtless seen when
He forbade the leper to repeat the news of the cure. The
whole region became excited and immense crowds gathered
around Him and His disciples, crying aloud for new wonders
and miracles. The curious sensation-seekers were there in
full force, crowding out those whom He wished to reach by
His teachings. And more than this, great numbers of sick
and crippled people crowded around Him crying for aid and
cure. The scenes of Capernaum were repeated. Even the
lepers began flocking in, in defiance of law and custom,
and the authorities were beside themselves with anger and
annoyance. Not only the temporal authorities and the
priests were arrayed against Him, as of old, but now He
managed to arouse the opposition of the physicians of
those days, who saw their practice ruined by this man whom
they called a charlatan and deceiver threatening and
destroying the health of the people, whose physical
welfare was safe only in their (the physicians') hands and
keeping.
And so Jesus was compelled to close His ministry at this
place and move on to another village.
Another case which attracted much attention was that which
occurred in Galilee when He was preaching in a house. In
the midst of His discourse both He and His audience were
startled by the sight of a figure on a bed being lowered
down among the crowd of listeners from the roof
surrounding the open court in the center of the house. It
was a poor paralyzed man whom friends had contrived to
hoist up and then lower down before Jesus in such a manner
as could not escape the attention of the Master. It is
related that the piteous appeal of the sufferer, and the
faith which had inspired such great energy on the part of
his friends, attracted the interest and sympathy of Jesus,
and He paused in His discourse and made another of those
instantaneous cures which are possible only to the most
advanced adepts in the science of spiritual healing.
Then came the scene of the Wells of Bethesda--a region
abounding in "healing waters" to which the sick and
afflicted came to regain their health. The crowds of sick
were being carried to the springs by friends or paid
attendants, who pushed aside the weaker ones and fought
their way to the wells. Jesus walked among the crowds, and
at last His attention was attracted toward a poor fellow
who lay upon his cot away off from the waters. He had no
friends to carry him nearer, nor money for paid
attendants. And he had not strength enough to crawl there
himself. He filled the air with his moans and cries and
bewailings of his unfortunate lot. Jesus walked up to him,
and holding his attention by a firm look of authority and
power, cried to him suddenly in a voice that demanded
obedience, "Take up thy bed and walk!" The man, startled
into obedience, did as directed, and much to
his surprise, and that of the crowd gathered around, found
that he was able to move about freely--a well man.
This cure also aroused not only the greatest interest but
also the antagonism of the ecclesiastical authorities. It
appears that the cure had been made on the Sabbath day,
and that it was against the ecclesiastical law to heal the
sick in any way upon that day; and also that the patient
had performed manual work on the Sabbath in carrying his
bed upon the orders of the Healer. And the good pious
folk, urged on by the priests, began to abuse and condemn
the Healer and patient, after the manner of the formal
pietists of all lands and times, even of our own. Clinging
to the letter of the law, these people overlook its
spirit--bound by the forms, they fail to see the meaning
lying back of all forms and ceremonies.
Braving the storm that was arising around Him, Jesus
boldly walked to the Temple. He was plunged in a sea of
conflicting opinions and voices. On the one hand was the
healed man and those who sympathized with him, in earnest
argument concerning the righteousness of the deed. But
arrayed against these few were the good folk of the place
who loudly denounced the Sabbath-breaker and demanded His
punishment. Were the ancient laws of Moses to be thus
defied by this presumptuous
Nazarene, whose religious ideas were sadly lacking in
orthodoxy? Surely not! Punish the upstart! And again
Jesus was in actual peril of bodily hurt, or perhaps even
death, owing to the religious bigotry of the orthodox
people.
Jesus was ever a foe to the stupid formalism and ignorant
fanaticism regarding "holy days," which is ever a
characteristic of certain classes of mind among people. On
the above occasion, as well as upon other occasions, and
notably upon the occasion of the Sabbath when He directed
His hungry disciples to pick corn to satisfy their hunger,
Jesus opposed the strict, ironclad law of Sabbath
observance. He was ever filled with the idea that the
"Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
There was nothing Puritanical about the Master, and in
view of His attitude regarding this matter it is
surprising to witness the attitude of some in our own time
who, wearing His livery, oppose these teachings of His in
theory and practice.
And so, driven out once more by the intolerance and
bigotry of the public, Jesus returned again to Galilee,
His land of retreat and rest, and the scene of much of His
best work. Galilee was filled with His many followers and
admirers, and He was less in danger of disturbance and
persecution there than in the neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Large congregations attended His ministry there, and His
converts were numbered by the thousand. The village
contained many persons healed by His power, and His name
was a household word.
And upon His return He entered into a new stage of His
work. He had decided to divide His ministry among His
twelve most advanced disciples, as it had now reached
proportions beyond His ability to personally control. And,
as was customary to Him upon all great occasions, He
sought the solitudes for meditation and spiritual strength
before finally investing His twelve Apostles with the high
authority of their mission. He spent the night on one of
the hills near Capernaum, from which He descended the
following morning, wearied in body from want of rest, but
strong in soul and spirit.
Then He gathered the Twelve around Him, and in a secret
meeting divulged to them certain deep truths and secrets,
adding certain instructions regarding healing work, and
calling upon them for the highest allegiance to Him and
His work.
The Gospel narratives have but very little to say
regarding Jesus' work in the instruction of the Twelve for
their future mission. And the average student of the
narratives goes on without thinking of the marvelous
mental and spiritual development that must have been
manifested by the Apostles during their transition from
humble fishermen, and men of similar vocations, to highly
developed teachers of advanced spiritual truths. To the
occultist especially this ordinary view seems astounding,
for he realizes the many arduous steps necessary to be
trodden by the feet of the Neophyte before he becomes an
Initiate, and the higher steps awaiting the Initiate
before he may become a Master. And such a one realizes the
mighty task that Jesus performed in developing and
unfolding the spiritual natures of such a body of men
until they become worthy to be His chosen representatives
and teachers. The occult traditions have it that Jesus had
pursued a systematic course of instruction of His chosen
disciples, bringing
them up rapidly through degree after degree of mystic
attainment and occult knowledge, until finally they were
ready for the finishing touches at His hands. And the
occasion that we are now considering was the time when the
final degrees were imparted to them.
It must be remembered that the Apostles were endowed with
the mastery of the occult forces of nature which enabled
them to perform the "miracles" of healing similar to those
of Jesus. And it must not be supposed for a moment that an
occult Master of so high a degree of attainment as that
reached by Jesus would have allowed His disciples to use
such mighty power without also instructing them fully in
the nature of the forces they were using, and of the best
methods of employing the same. And such knowledge could
not be imparted without the fundamental truths of nature
being understood by them, which understanding was possible
only to those who had grasped the great Basic Truths of
the Science of Being.
In short, the traditions are that the Twelve Apostles were
gradually initiated into the great degrees of the Occult
Brotherhoods of which and in which Jesus was a Master. He
gathered together a great store of occult information and
mystic lore, and condensing the same into a plain,
practical, simple system, He imparted it fully and
thoroughly to those whom He had elected to be His chief
co-workers and His successors after His death, which He
knew full well was not far off.
These facts must be fully understood by the student of
Mystic Christianity who wishes to grasp the secret of the
early Christian
Church after the death of Christ. The wonderful headway
manifested by the movement could not have been given by
mere followers and believers in the Master. It usually
follows that when the great head of an organization dies
the movement disintegrates or loses power unless he has
been able to "communicate his spirit" to some chosen
followers.
And this Jesus did. And it was only to men who thoroughly
grasped the fundamental truths and principles of His
teachings that such "spirit" could have been imparted.
There was an exoteric teaching for the multitude, and an
esoteric teaching for the Twelve. There are many
Scriptural passages which go to show this fact, which was
well known to the early Fathers of the Church. And upon
the occasion which we have mentioned the last great Basic
Truths were explained to the Twelve, and from that time
henceforward they were regarded and treated as Masters by
Jesus, and not as mere students, as had been the case
before that time. And arising from that final instruction
came the Sermon of the Mount.
The Sermon of the Mount, that most wonderful and complete
of any of the public utterances of Jesus, was delivered
almost immediately after the Choosing of the Twelve
Apostles. And it was intended even more for them than for
the multitudes gathered around to hear His preaching. He
knew that the Twelve could interpret it by reason of the
Inner Teachings that they had received from Him. And
almost forgetting the congregation gathered around and
about Him, He elucidated the Inner teachings for the
benefit of the Chosen Few.
The Sermon of the Mount can be understood only by means of
the Master Key of the Inner Teachings, which opens the
door of the mind to an understanding of the hard sayings
and veiled mystic import of many of His precepts. We shall
devote considerable space in one of our later lessons of
this series to a consideration of the Inner Meaning of
this great sermon and teaching, and therefore shall not go
into details regarding it in the present lesson, deeming
it better to proceed with the story of the Master's Work.
A few days after the delivery of the Sermon of the Mount,
the Master left Capernaum and traveled from town to town
visiting His various centers of teaching, as was His
custom. On the journey Jesus performed a feat of occult
power that proved Him to be one of the Highest Adepts of
the Occult Brotherhoods, for to none other would such a
manifestation have been possible. Even some of the highest
Oriental Masters would have refused to undertake the task
that He set before Himself to do.
The company was leisurely proceeding on its way, when
nearing a small town they met a funeral procession coming
in their direction. Preceded by the band of women chanting
the mournful dirges according to the Galileean custom, the
cortege slowly wended its way. The etiquette of the land
required strangers to join in the mourning when they came
in contact with a funeral procession, and the company
assumed a mournful and respectful demeanor, and many
joined in the dirge which was being
chanted by the procession.
But Jesus invaded the privacy of the procession in a
manner shocking to those who held closely to the familiar
forms and customs. Stepping up to the bier, He stood in
front of it and bade the carriers halt and set it down. A
murmur of indignation ran through the ranks of the
mourners, and some strode forward to rebuke the
presumptuous stranger who dared to violate the dignity of
the funeral in this way. But something in His face held
them back. Then a strange feeling passed over the crowd.
Jesus was known to a number of the mourners, and some of
those who had witnessed some of His wonder-workings began
to whisper that strange things were about to happen, and
the ranks were broken as the people flocked around the
Master at the bier.
The corpse was that of a young man, and his widowed mother
stood beside the pale figure stretched upon the bier, and
spreading her arms in front of it, she seemed to ward off
the profaning touch of the strange man who confronted it.
But the stranger looked upon her with a look of
transcendent love, and in a voice vibrant with the
tenderest feeling said unto her, "Mother, weep not--cease
thy mourning." Amazed, but impressed, she turned an
appealing gaze to Him who had thus bidden her. Her mother
love and instinct caught a new expression in His eyes, and
her heart bounded with a wonderful hope of something, she
knew not
what. What did the Nazarene mean? Her boy was dead, and
even God Himself never disturbed the slumber of the body
from which the spirit had flown. But still what meant that
expression--why that leap and throbbing of her heart?
Then with a gesture of authority the Master caused the
crowd to draw back from the bier, until at last there
remained only the corpse, the mother and Himself in a
cleared space in the center. Then a strange and wonderful
scene began. With His gaze fixed upon the face of the
corpse, and in an attitude that indicated a supreme effort
of His will, the Master was seen to be making some mighty
effort which called into play the highest forces at His
command. The Apostles, having been instructed by Him in
Occult power, recognized the nature of the manifestation,
and their faces paled, for they knew that He was not only
pouring out His vital force into the body in order to
recharge it with _prana_, but that He was also essaying
one of the highest and most difficult of occult
feats--that of summoning back from the Astral Plane the
higher vehicles and the Astral Body--the very soul of the
youth--and forcing it once more into its mortal frame,
which He had recharged with vital energy and strength.
They knew that He, by the mightiest effort of His will,
was reversing the process of death. And with a full
appreciation of the real nature of the wonder that was
being worked before them, their limbs trembled beneath
them and their breath came from them in gasps.
Then cried the people, "What saith this man to the
corpse?" "Arise, youth! Open thine eyes! Breathe freely!
Arise, I say unto
thee--arise!" Did this stranger dare to defy God's own
decree?
The corpse opened its eyes and stared around in wild
amaze, the glare not fully faded away! Its chest heaved in
great agonizing gasps as if fighting again for life! Then
its arms were lifted up--then its legs began to move--now
it raised itself upright and began to babble meaningless
words--now the look of recognition came into its eyes, and
its arms clasped themselves around the mother's neck,
while sob after sob broke from its lips! The dead
lived--the corpse had come to life.
The people fell back overcome with the awful terror of the
sight, and the funeral procession scattered in all
directions, until only the sobbing mother and the youth
remained, weeping in their mutual love and joy, and
forgetting even the Master and His followers in their
great flood of affection.
And, leaving them thus, Jesus and His followers passed
away on their pilgrimage. But the fame of the miracle
spread from town to town, even up to the great capital,
Jerusalem. And men wondered or doubted, according to their
natures, while the temporal and ecclesiastical authorities
began to again ask themselves and each other whether this
man were not a dangerous person and an enemy to
established custom and order.
In one of His journeys Jesus found Himself invited to the
house of a leading citizen of the town in which He was
preaching. This citizen was one of the class known as
Pharisees, whose characteristics were an extreme devotion
and adherence to forms and ceremonies and a bigoted
insistence upon the observance of the letter of the law.
The Pharisees were the ultra-orthodox center of an
orthodox people. They were the straight-laced brethren who
walked so erect that they leaned backward. They were the
people who thanked God that they were not like unto other
men. They were the "uncommonly good" members of church and
society. The very name stands even unto this day as a
synonym for "pious sham."
Just why this Pharisee had invited the Master to dine with
him is not easily understood. It is likely that it was a
combination of curiosity and a desire to entrap his guest
into statements and admissions that might be used against
him. At any rate, the invitation was given and accepted.
The Master noted that certain little ceremonies usually
extended by the Hebrews to a guest of equal standing were
omitted by His host. His head was not anointed with the
ceremonial oil, as was the custom in houses of this
character when the guest was honored as an equal or
desirable addition to the family gathering. Clearly He was
regarded as a curiosity or "freak" rather than as a
friend, and had been invited in such a spirit. But He said
nothing, and passed over the slight. And the meal passed
along smoothly up to a certain point.
The host and his guests were reclining easily, after the
Oriental fashion, discussing various topics, when a woman
pressed her way into the banquet hall. Her dress
proclaimed her to be one of the women of easy virtue
abounding in all Oriental towns. She was clad in showy
apparel and her hair fell loosely over her shoulders after
the custom of the women of her kind in that land. She
fixed her eyes upon the Master and moved slowly toward
him, much to the annoyance of the host, who feared a
scene, for the Master would most likely administer a
rebuke to the woman for presuming to intrude upon the
presence of Him, a spiritual teacher.
But the woman still pressed forward toward Him, and at
last, bending down low, her head touching His feet, she
burst into tears. She had heard the Master preach some
time before, and the seeds of His teaching had taken root
and had now blossomed within her heart; and she had come
to acknowledge her allegiance and to render an offering to
Him whom she revered. The coming into His presence was her
token of a spiritual regeneration and a desire to begin a
new life. Her tears flowed over His feet, and she dried
them off with her long hair. Then she kissed His feet, as
a token of her allegiance and worship.
From her neck hung a chain holding a little box filled
with precious perfumed oil, which she esteemed highly, as
did all the people of her race. The oil was of the nature
of attar of roses and was the essential oil extracted from
fragrant blossoms. She broke the seal and poured the
fragrant oil over the hands and feet of the Master, who
rebuked her not, but who accepted the tribute even from
such a source. The host began to indulge in thoughts not
flattering to the intelligence of his guest, and a
scarcely concealed sneer appeared on his lips.
Then Jesus turned to His host and with a smile said to
him: "Simon, in thy mind thou thinkest these words: 'If
this man be indeed a prophet, would he not know what
manner of woman this be who toucheth him, and would he not
rebuke her and drive her from him?'" And the Pharisee was
sorely confused, for the Master had read his thought word
for word by the method known to occultists as telepathy.
And then in gentle raillery the Master called his host's
attention to the fact that the woman had performed the
service which he, the host, had neglected to observe. Had
she not bathed and dried His feet, as the Pharisee would
have done had his guest been deemed worthy of honor? Had
she not anointed Him with precious oil, as the host would
have anointed an honored guest? Had she not impressed upon
even His feet the kiss that etiquette required the host to
impress upon the cheek of the esteemed visitor to his
house? And as for the character of the woman, it had been
fully recognized and forgiven. "Much hath been forgiven
her, for she hath loved greatly." And, turning to the
woman, He added, "Go in peace, for thy sins are forgiven
thee." And the woman departed with a new expression on her
face and a firm resolve in her heart, for the Master had
forgiven and blessed her.
But by this act Jesus brought upon His head the hatred of
the Pharisee and his friends. He had dared rebuke the host
in his own palace, and had moreover arrogated to Himself
the sacred rite to pronounce remission of sins, a right
vested solely in the high-priest of the Temple, upon the
performance of certain ceremonies and sacrifices upon the
altar. He had flung defiance at vested ecclesiastical
right and functions, even in the house of one of the
staunchest adherents of formalism and authority--a
Pharisee.
In this incident was shown not only the broadness of
Jesus' views and the universality of His love, as well as
His courage in defying the hated formalism, even in the
palace of its stanchest advocates, but also His attitude
toward women. The Jews as a race held women in but scant
esteem. They were not deemed worthy to sit with the men in
the synagogue. It was deemed unworthy of a man to mention
his female relations in general company. They were
regarded as inferior in every way to men, and were treated
as almost unclean in their most sacred natural functions.
Toward fallen women especially Jesus was ever considerate.
He saw their temptation and the social cruelty of their
position. He resented "the double standard" of virtue
which allowed a man to commit certain offenses and still
be respected, while the woman who committed the same
offense was damned socially, reviled and treated as a
shameful outcast. He was ever ready to voice a defense for
women of this kind, and seemed to be ever actuated by the
sense of injustice in the attitude of men toward them,
which finally voiced itself on a notable occasion when
called upon to pass judgment upon the woman taken in
adultery: "Let him among ye who is without sin cast the
first stone." No wonder that the outcast woman kissed His
feet and poured out the
precious ointment upon Him. He was the Friend to such as
she.