It is once again the Christmas season and while “Who is
Jesus Christ” is a question one can ask at any time, it seems especially
appropriate this time of year. Millions celebrate Christmas, whether
religiously or only just socially. The life of the man who became known in
history as Jesus Christ has influenced, nay, changed the course of the history
of the western nations. His life has certainly affected every continent on this
earth to some degree, better or worse, according to one’s point of view.
So, like, “Who is this guy?” Jesus himself asked his own
disciples that question, according to the New Testament. Reading behind the
lines of that report one can easily feel the disciples looking down and
shuffling their feet nervously, fearing to get the wrong answer. Since Jesus
actually asked “Who do men say I am?” some of the disciples felt to venture
responses on the basis of what they had heard others say, rather than
offering their own opinion. And their answers are revealing. One response is
rather ignorant saying “John the Baptist!” I say “ignorant” because John was
Jesus’ older cousin and had only recently been murdered by King Herod. So, even
assuming one believes in reincarnation, that would have been well-nigh to
impossible.
Others responded with the names of some of the Old Testament
prophets (e.g., Jeremiah). Why this aspect of the dialogue (which reveals that
reincarnation was widely accepted and that Jesus made no attempt to deny or
correct it when given a perfect opportunity to do so) hasn’t been noticed by
Christians is an example of precisely what Jesus himself was frequently quoted
as warning his listeners that his deeper teachings were “for those who have
ears to hear.” (I have read that scholars have discovered that the doctrine of
reincarnation had been taught for the first several centuries of Christianity but
was intentionally removed in the fourth century A.D. Prior to that, one of the
early teachers of Christianity, Origen, confirmed that the doctrine had been
taught since apostolic times. Jewish scholars, too, can attest to the
long-standing debate regarding its validity.)
Returning to our topic, it was, famously, Peter (bar Jonah,
the “Rock”) who declared the true nature of Jesus: “Thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God.” On other occasions, Jesus publicly declared “I and my
father are one.” He alternated between referring to himself as “the son of man”
(presumably a reference to his physical form and personality) and “the son of
God” (presumably a reference to his divine nature). He further declared that
“Before Abraham was, I AM.” By this shocking and seemingly blasphemous
statement, he is saying that his spirit, being one with God, has, existed since
all eternity, with God. But, now, just his soul? Or?
Now, let’s pause, after all, I am mostly just quoting Jesus
himself. For that, you can read the New Testament yourself. Why, however, is
this question, “Who is Jesus Christ?” a useful one to ask? Because the answer
implies as much about whom you are as it does about Jesus.
Was Jesus Christ a special creation of God? Is he therefore
unique and uniquely separate from the rest of humanity, despite his human form?
Was he, then, like some spiritual alien? Did God Himself incarnate into the
body of Jesus? (If so, who was minding the store for thirty-three years?)
When challenged by his self-styled tormentors, the scribes
and the Pharisees (keepers of the Hebrew law), Jesus quoted back to them a
phrase from their own scriptures (Jesus, mind you, was a Jew and he knew his
Bible, too): “Do not your scriptures say, ‘Ye are gods’?” In reference to the
many miracles Jesus is reported to have done, he told his disciples that they
would do these and more, for he was soon to return to his father.
The beloved disciple, John, whose gospel stands apart from
the other three evangelists for its impersonal presentation of the nature of
Jesus, describes Jesus as the “Word made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” He states
that the Word is God and is the co-creator of all things. Jesus is thus
more than the human being whose life and teachings are described in the New
Testament. But is he uniquely so? John the Evangelist goes on to write that “As
many as received him to them give he the “power to become the sons of God.”
Here
then we see clearly and profoundly that Jesus was not uniquely different than
you or I. It must be added, that to “receive him” must go beyond belonging to a
church, being baptized with water or through mere intellectual or emotional assent.
Whatever it is must be very powerful and life changing.
John is saying nothing less than we, too, are potentially
sons of God as Jesus was “one with the Father.”
This teaching of our oneness with Jesus’ divine nature
permeates the original teachings of Jesus in the early formative years of
Christianity. The term “body of Christ” was used to describe both those who
followed his teachings (and, in other contexts, all people) and to describe the
sacrament of sharing bread and wine as symbols of the Christ presence in all
creation and in all souls. That Churchianity later arose to make that an
exclusive teaching is hardly a surprise given the exigencies and limits imposed
upon it by history, culture, consciousness and circumstances.
The mystical saints of Christianity, however, attest in
various ways to this universality, to this truly “catholic” teaching. St.
Thomas Aquinas and later St. Theresa of Avila experienced the “formless Christ”
as the eternal light that “lighteth all men” and which creates and sustains all
things since the beginning of time. Their very experience of this formless
Christ is testimony to its being our very essence (indeed, the essence of all
creation!)
Now if you want to stop reading here, I’d forgive you. From
where we, as westeners and Christians stand, we are not so shaken thus far in
anything I’ve written (unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool believer). But from
where Jesus stood, he was crucified for his unforgivable audacity in revealing
himself as “the son of God.”
We can’t fully appreciate how revolutionary this
was, unless we are perhaps Jewish or Muslim.
Judaism (and later, Islam) represents a monotheistic
tradition for which the appearance of a human being claiming to be God is the
height of blasphemy. Insofar as the apostles were good “Jewish boys” they had
an uphill climb to make. In the pagan cities of the Mediterranean, it was tough
enough to sell a new religion based on the story of a poor Jew who died on a
cross at the hands of the Romans and who was resurrected from the dead (not
your usual, every day experience). But in some ways that line was easier with
the pagans who believed in all sorts of things (after all Augustus was
proclaimed a god, too!). But, for the boys back home in Judea, this was a tough
sell. It’s hardly a surprise that Christianity ended up going its own way.
he idea that the Deity could incarnate as a human on earth
required an entirely new understanding of creation and God’s role in it. This,
in part, is what made Jesus’ teachings and message so revolutionary in its
times. In fact, however, it is far more oriental in its message than we can
possibly appreciate. I’m not about to write a book, so I won’t elaborate on
that statement. Suffice to say that a broader understanding of divinity was
needed. No longer would God be “wholly other” and outside human history except
as He interjected himself through his messengers, the prophets. It was bad
enough that Jesus took on the religious establishment of his time to expose
their pusillanimity and hypocrisy in holding to the letter of the Mosaic law
and not its spirit.
But to declare the presence of God in human form would require
the birth of a new religion that would change the world and, ironically, would,
in fact, overthrow the Roman rule (which the Jews themselves yearned for). It
would give birth to a new understanding of creation itself, though this was to
take some time to formulate and articulate.
I will reserve a separate blog article on the teaching of
the Trinity, for the triune nature of God has been taught in India since time
immemorial and the fact that this teaching appears in early Christianity is no
coincidence for its reflects this new and deeper understanding that Jesus came
to initialize. But for now, during the Christmas season, let me say that we,
too, are potential “Christs” and may only need to awaken, and then to perfect,
this realization. It is on the basis of the recognition that we are all
children of the One God that we can truly celebrate the Christmas spirit of
giving and sharing.
Blessings to you this Christmas,
Nayaswami Hriman
The above is based upon and inspired
by the teachings of the modern Yogi-Christ, Paramhansa Yogananda and the
writings of Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple and founder of the worldwide
work of the Ananda communities. For additional reading, see “Revelations of Christ,”
by Swami Kriyananda, available from Crystal Clarity Publishers, Nevada City, or
the East West Bookshop nearest you.
