disciples with more show of a working organization. To some He
delegated certain authority, and bade them perform certain dues of the
ministry. For some reason He selected some of His leading lieutenants
from the ranks of the fishermen who plied their vocation along the
waters of that port of the country. The fishers of fish became the
fishers of men. Jesus became very popular among the fishing
fraternity, and the legends, as well as the New Testament narratives,
tell of instances in which He bade His poor fishermen friends (who had
been unfortunate in their day's haul) to let down their nets at some
point indicated by Him, when to their surprise and joy their nets
would be filled to overflowing.
Little acts of kindness bestowed here and there among the humbler
classes tended to have Jesus looked upon and spoken of as a friend of
the people, but which reputation excited the jealousy of the
authorities who held that such acts could be prompted by none other
than a selfish motive, and that motive the incitement of the masses to
rebellion in the interest of Himself as a Messiah. And so, we see His
very acts of kindness and compassion served to increase the suspicion
and hatred which the authorities, both ecclesiastical and temporal,
had always felt toward Him.
His desire to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and wretched took
Him much among these people and away from the so-called higher
classes. The "plain people" were regarded by Him as the salt of the
earth, and they, in turn, regarded Him as their champion and advisor.
And especially to the sick did He devote His time and powers. He made
many marvellous cures, a few only of which were recorded in the New
Testament narratives. The occult legends state that these cures were
of daily occurrence and that wherever He went He left behind Him a
trail of people healed of all kinds of disorders, and that people
flocked for miles to be healed of their infirmities. The Gospels
relate that He cured great numbers of people by the simple process of
laying on of hands (a favorite method of occult healers) "he laid his
hands on every one of them and healed them."
It is related that at Capernaum his attention was directed toward a
madman, who suddenly cried out, "I know Thee, Thou Holy One of God,"
whereupon Jesus spoke a few authoritative words and cured him of his
malady, by methods that will describe the nature of the man's psychic
disturbance to any advanced student of occultism. Demoniac possession
is not believed in by orthodox Christians of today, but Jesus
evidently shared the belief in obsession held by students of Psychism
and similar subjects, judging from the words He used in relieving this
man from his malady. We advise our students to read the Gospel records
in connection with these lessons, in order to follow the subject along
the old familiar paths, but with the additional light of the
interpretation of Mystic Christianity.
The growing reputation of Jesus as a healer of the sick soon taxed His
physical powers to the utmost. He felt Himself called upon to do the
work of a dozen men, and His nature rebelled at the unequal task
imposed upon it. It seemed as if all Capernaum were sick. Her streets
were crowded by seekers after health and strength. At last He
perceived that His work as a Teacher was being submerged in His work
as a Healer. And, after a period of prayer and meditation, He put
aside from Him the claims of humanity for the healing of physical
ills, and turning His back upon the waiting patients at Capernaum, He
once more started forward on His pilgrimage as a Preacher of the
Message, and thereafter would heal physical ills only occasionally,
and, instead, devote the main portion of His time to preaching the
Truth to those who were ready to hear it. It was a hard thing for a
man with the tender heart of Jesus to leave behind Him the crowd of
patients at Capernaum, but it was necessary for Him to do so, else He
would have remained merely an occult healer of physical ailments
instead of the Messenger of the Truth whose work it was to kindle in
many places the Flame of the Spirit, that would serve as the true
Light of the World long after the physical bodies of all then living
had been again resolved to dust.
And so, leaving behind Him Capernaum and its wailing multitudes, He,
followed by His disciples, moved out toward the open country, to
spread the glad tidings and to bring to the hearts of many "that peace
which passeth all understanding."
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.