 31. Christianity vs Jesus |
The idea of the “Kingdom of God” already existed in Israel before the reported time of Jesus of Galilee— but it was commonly conceived in terms of a “worldly” destiny, and identified with a “religious”, social, and political State corporation, primarily made up of the righteous believers among the Jews. The Kingdom was to be created in this “world” by the “God” of the Jews through a messiah, a Divine messenger, who would come into the “world” and conquer all of the enemies of Israel and establish Israel in peace and fullness, wherein all of the laws again produce pleasurable and good results.
Jesus of Galilee was reportedly teaching in a time when this ideal, this prophecy of the “Kingdom of God”, was already present. In the passage from the “New Testament” that I just quoted, Jesus is teaching a person from the temple, Nicodemus, who is well aware of the prophecies of the “Kingdom of God”. Jesus is saying that the “Kingdom of God”, or the “Divine domain”, is not of this “world”. It is not externally evident in this “world”, and it is not to come in this “world”—except, perhaps, as a natural expression of the Spiritual Awakening of humankind as a whole. The “Kingdom of God” is a Mystery about being “born”—or Awakened—into a state of Oneness with the Divine Spirit-Breath. You can be born again in the Spirit, even though you have already been born in the flesh. And that which is born (or Awakened) in the Spirit is Spirit Itself.
Thus, the esoteric teaching of Jesus of Galilee is that you must become the Divine Spirit-Breath. In other words, you must become That Which Is Divine. You must enter into the Domain, the Condition, the “Kingdom”, of the Divine—in this present moment. That is the process, the Mystery, whereby a person can Realize the Truth that Jesus came to teach. He did not teach about a “worldly” kingdom that he would establish as a political messiah, either now or in the future. Jesus is not coming again in order to be the political messiah—he did not come the first time in order to be a political messiah! The teaching of Jesus is specifically about the transcending of that expectation. Jesus taught about the “Kingdom of God” as an esoteric Spiritual Mystery, not as a convention of “worldly” seeking.
Now, it is true that, if everyone did Spiritually enter into the “Kingdom of God”, then, as time went on, as history developed, the Divine Spirit would be more and more effective—and, eventually, perhaps something like a non-utopian Divine Kingdom on Earth might appear. That possibility is, indeed, latent in such instruction. Nevertheless, Jesus’ “point of view” is definitely that such a Kingdom will not come about by any means other than a right life of Spiritual Communion with the Divine Condition of Reality. Jesus is not merely coming again to take over this failed “world” that refuses to be “born” in the Spirit. The Spirit cannot take over from outside. The Spirit is effective in this “world” only through the esoteric process of Spiritual Communion—not through mere belief, but through worship of the Divine in Spirit, worship of the Divine in Truth, until the “flesh” (or the conditional ego-”self” and its “world”) is utterly transcended in Spiritual Fullness.
Jesus of Galilee was saying that the “Kingdom of God” is Realizable—but not through social laws of any kind, and not through any transformation or perfection of conventional behaviors. In any case (as Jesus taught), the purpose of the “Kingdom of God” does not relate to this “world”. Rather, the “Kingdom of God” is the Spiritual State of Utter Unity, or Eternally Prior Oneness, with the Divine. “And”, Jesus is saying, “that Condition is Realizable now, even under the rotten conditions here in Israel”—or at any other time, and in any other place. Such Realization is a matter of Awakening in Spiritual terms. In other words, instead of clinging to behavioral laws, beliefs, rituals, expectations, and “worldly” inclinations, instead of depending on the “effects” that you can create or that any “God”-idea can create in terms of ordinary human possibility, cling to the Spiritual Divine—always presently. Enter into the Spiritual Divine, and Realize the Spiritual Divine.
In the passage that I just quoted, Jesus of Galilee is clearly communicating something about the Nature of the Divine. For Jesus, the Divine is not the abstract “God of our fathers”, the “God” of rote belief in the temple. For Jesus, the Divine Spiritual Condition of Reality is the Divine Source-Condition (or “One True God”) of the fathers (or the ancestors)—not the “God”-idea particular to any particular historical time, but the Ever-Living Reality That Is Divine. The Living Divine Is the Spirit-Breath of Reality. The Living Divine Pervades the “world” and all beings As the Spirit-Breath. Therefore, Spirit-Breath Re-Union with the Living (or Inherently Spiritual) Divine Is the “Kingdom of God”.
In another passage, Jesus of Galilee says that the “Kingdom of God” is not outside you but within you7— in other words, inherent in every moment of existence. Thus, the “Kingdom of God” is inherent in this moment of existence. The “Kingdom of God” is not to be sought by any strategic means, not to be sought outside yourself, not to be conceived as “missing”, or “elsewhere” in time and space. The “Kingdom of God” is a Principle. The Spiritual Divine Condition Is—Itself—the “Kingdom of God”. Thus, Jesus of Galilee is saying: Abandon all conventional principles and cling to the Spiritual Divine— and, thus and thereby, transcend all separation from the Divine Condition of Reality.
In Jesus’ teaching, the Divine Law is stated in contrast to the merely social (and political) laws. It is not a new social law that Jesus of Galilee is teaching, but the Law, the Divine Law. He is recommending not the law of love as opposed to the Mosaic law, but the Law of Spirit-birth.
Conventional Spirituality, even in its esoteric forms, is often oriented to the way of works (or right actions), because works can include not only social works but also works that are performed in private and that produce results which could be regarded to be positive from a conventionally Spiritual “point of view”.
