Was
Jesus the Ultimate Spiritual Revolutionary?
This discourse is
an excerpt from the book The Secret
Coming of Christ by Kim Michaels
For some people the word
“revolution” has a negative ring. Yet the neutral meaning
of the word is simply a “great change.” The positive potential
is that a revolution brings about a dramatic and sudden change for the
better. It breaks up the old order that has become rigid, stale and
isn’t working. Instead, it brings renewal, creativity and expansion.
It sets people free from the bondage of their old limitations and gives
them a new sense of freedom and growth. It breaks down the prison walls
and sets people free to roam new territory.
Revolutions are not always physical. Many revolutions have been mental;
they have been revolutions in consciousness. I believe Jesus came to
bring about a revolution in consciousness—and not just any revolution.
He came to bring about the ultimate spiritual revolution by setting
us free from the force that keeps us trapped in a mental and spiritual
prison. Let us take a closer look at Jesus as a revolutionary.
At the time of Jesus, the Jews were oppressed by the Romans. The Jews
were waiting for the Messiah, and they saw him as a warrior king who
would lead them in a victorious battle against the Romans. They saw
the Messiah as a new kind of Moses through whom God would deliver them
and destroy their enemies. In other words, they were taking a passive
approach and expecting the Messiah to do all the work for them.
Jesus refused to fill this role, and some people seem to have rejected
him for it. Because he didn’t live up to their expectations of
what the Messiah should be like, they called him a false Messiah and
a false prophet. This brings up an important question. It is obvious
that the Jews were heavily oppressed by the Romans, but Jesus apparently
wasn’t concerned with this outer form of bondage. He even made
the famous remark:
Render therefore unto Caesar
the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that
are God’s. (Matthew 22:21)
So it seems clear that to
Jesus the Roman occupation wasn’t the issue. He did not consider
the Romans to be the main oppressors of the people. Although he clearly
didn’t shy away from conflict, he never initiated any conflict
with the Romans and even befriended Roman soldiers.
We can now propose an explanation for this behavior. Jesus didn’t
come to be a worldly king; he came to be a spiritual king, a spiritual
leader. He did not come to deliver people from a material bondage but
from a spiritual bondage. The prison was not erected in the material
world, it was erected in people’s minds. Jesus came to deliver
people from an inner, spiritual and mental prison.
Now let us consider another peculiar aspect of Jesus’ life. We
know Jesus was brought up in the Jewish religious culture. We hear about
him in the temple at age 12, and we hear that people marveled at his
understanding of the scriptures. It seems obvious that Jesus could have
“worked within the system” and attained a high position
in the religious hierarchy. One might argue that if he had pursued such
a position, he would have had less conflicts with the establishment.
So why didn’t Jesus seek to become part of the establishment and
work to change it from the inside? Was it because he realized that it
had become too rigid and calcified to be changed from the inside, so
the only option was to start over? Or did he perhaps see a fundamental
flaw in the entire system? Did he see that the system itself was keeping
people in bondage?
Was Jesus against orthodox religion?
We have seen that at the time of Jesus the Jewish religion had a closed,
rigid and centralized power structure. It had firm control over the
Jewish people, and this control was based on the following beliefs and
ideas:
- There is a barrier between
the spiritual and the material realms. You are separated from the
spiritual realm and you cannot connect to it on your own.
- You are trapped in the
material realm, and therefore you are in danger of becoming lost or
going to Hell. The only way to avoid this is to get to the spiritual
realm, to get into the Kingdom of God. The only way to get there is
through a process called salvation.
- Because you cannot get
to Heaven on your own, you need some kind of savior to get you there.
Because you are separated from God, that savior must come from outside
yourself.
- The Jewish religion was
established by God to save people from Hell. Therefore, the outer
religion, as controlled by the religious authorities, is the only
key to your salvation. In other words, the only way to Heaven goes
through the outer religion.
As we discussed in the previous
chapter, it is possible that Jesus came with a message that was in direct
opposition to the basic beliefs, or paradigms, of the Jewish religion.
As mentioned earlier, we live in a universe in which everything is made
from one basic substance. We can call it God’s light or energy,
but the bottom line is that there is no barrier between the spiritual
world and this world. The only difference is a difference in vibration,
a matter of degree, not principle. The material world is simply the
tip of the iceberg, and it is an inseparable part of God’s creation.
Because you are also created from God’s energy, it is possible
for you to connect to Heaven on your own. In fact, a part of you, a
part of your mind, is permanently residing in Heaven. You need salvation
because you have lost your conscious connection to that part of yourself,
and therefore you have become lost and trapped in this world. You have
become trapped in a lower state of consciousness, namely the carnal
mind.
The key to salvation is to reach beyond this lower state of consciousness.
We must do what Paul said, namely put off the old man of the carnal
mind and put on the new man of the Christ mind (Ephesians 4:22-24).
This is a process that must take place inside ourselves. In reality,
there is no actual separation between you and God. There is only a sense
of separation, and that sense exists exclusively in your mind. Therefore,
your mind is the only place where the sense of separation can be overcome.
Salvation is not a matter of being a member of a particular church,
believing certain outer doctrines and following certain outer rules.
As we have seen, this was demonstrated by Jesus on many occasions when
he denounced those who took the outer approach to religion. Salvation
is an inner process; it is a matter of expanding your awareness and
changing your sense of identity. You must stop seeing yourself as a
miserable sinner, as a mortal human being who is separated from God.
Instead, you must begin to see yourself as a spiritual being who is
connected to God.
The key to overcoming the carnal sense of identity is to reconnect to
something which is connected to God or is a part of God. That “something”
is a higher part of your mind, namely your Christ self. Jesus demonstrated
what a person can do when he or she is connected to the Christ self.
So when you let this mind be in you which was in Jesus, you are no longer
a carnal being. You are a spiritual being, a Christed being.
Because this switch in identity is a psychological process, it is not
dependent upon an outer church or even an outer savior. An outer church
can help you go through this process of inner transformation, but it
can do so only if you take the inner approach to religion. In other
words, you must use the outer religion as a tool for your soul’s
liberation, and you must never allow its doctrines and rituals to become
a prison for your mind.
The outer bondage
We now see that Jesus might have come to bring us the message that we
do not need an outer church in order to be saved. The outer religion
is not the only doorway between Heaven and Earth. In fact, the outer
religion, according to Jesus, isn’t a viable doorway in and of
itself. The outer approach to religion is the “way that seems
right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death”
(Proverbs 14:12). The true doorway, the only doorway to Heaven, is the
inner path that leads to union with your Christ self.
I know many Christians have been brought up with a view of Jesus that
will make it difficult for them to accept the idea of an individual
salvation. In fact, I have met many Christians who react to this idea
the same way the religious authorities responded to it 2,000 years ago,
namely with outright rejection and denial. I know the idea raises several
very important questions, and we will look at those questions shortly.
However, let us stay with the historical facts.
We know the religious authorities saw Jesus as a threat so severe that
they were ready to kill him in order to silence him. So we can clearly
see that the authorities must have felt that Jesus attacked the very
foundation of their power and control over the people. We know the Jewish
religion portrayed itself as the only doorway to salvation. So doesn’t
it seem logical that it was precisely this claim that Jesus attacked
and that this attack was the reason the authorities saw him as such
a threat?
After all, the Jewish religion said there was only one road to salvation,
namely the outer religion. It also claimed that the religion was controlled
by the authorities, and therefore these religious leaders had ultimate
power over the general population. The temple priests claimed to have
the power to decide whether you would be saved or whether you would
go to Hell.
Jesus clearly stated that the outer religion was not the key to salvation.
On the contrary, the key to salvation, namely what Jesus called the
kingdom of Heaven, was inside of you. In other words, instead of the
outer, institutionalized salvation, Jesus preached an inner, individual
salvation. On top of that, he clearly demonstrated that he did not respect
the religious authorities. He denounced their power and control over
the people, and he basically said that the authorities could not send
people to Heaven or Hell. People didn’t need the religious leaders
to be saved.
So it seems clear to me that Jesus was the ultimate spiritual revolutionary.
He was clearly anti-establishment, and he came to set people free from
a tyrannical and power-hungry priesthood.
Is there any proof of these ideas? There is an ongoing debate between
Christians and people who say that Jesus wasn’t a historical person.
Many Christians argue that those who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah
are the most objective witnesses to his existence. In other words, whereas
Christians might have made up Jesus, the Romans and the Jews would not
have done so. The fact that these people acknowledged the existence
of a historical Jesus is the best proof that he existed. I believe this
line of reasoning has some merit and that it can be applied to this
issue.
Obviously, the religious authorities did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
Yet the very fact that they wanted him executed demonstrates that his
teachings were a threat to them. And the idea of an individual salvation
would have been the ultimate threat to the Jewish authorities. If Jesus
had preached such a message, it certainly would have given the temple
priests the desire to silence him.
The inner bondage
We have now come to an extremely important concept that I believe has
been overlooked by most Christians. Yet unless you understand this concept,
you simply cannot internalize or follow Jesus’ inner teachings.
Incidentally, this concept has a major impact on our view of religion,
and therefore on our ability to free ourselves from the outer approach
to religion and adopt the inner approach. The question is, “Did
Jesus come to set people free from more than the outer bondage personified
by the religious authorities?”
Based on what we discussed earlier, we can now propose a new view of
the reality of life on this planet. We can propose that we human beings
are trapped in a lower state of consciousness. Let us use Paul’s
terminology and call it the carnal mind. The main characteristic of
this carnal state of mind is that we see ourselves as separated from
our source—from God. We don’t have a clear perception or
memory of the spiritual realm, and that is why many people believe there
is nothing beyond the material universe. For that matter, even many
religious people seem to view the spiritual realm as something so far
removed from them that they have no connection to it. This sense of
separation has numerous ramifications. Here are just a few:
- We cannot see the reality
and the truth of God. That is why we take the outer approach to religion
and think we cannot know truth on our own.
- We believe we need an
outer authority to tell us what is true and what to believe. This
makes us susceptible to being controlled by a religious authority.
This binds us even more firmly to the outer path.
- When we cannot see truth
in our hearts, we tend to cling to outer doctrines and interpretations
of those doctrines. We tend to feel that our interpretation is the
only true one, and this inevitably leads to conflicts with other people.
- The sense of separation
makes us fear that we are not acceptable to God. This makes us even
more vulnerable to being controlled by an authority that knows how
to play on our fears.
- We cannot see, understand
or accept the laws of God. This makes us prone to violating those
laws, which of course puts our salvation in jeopardy. Yet instead
of doing the only right thing, namely aligning ourselves with the
spirit of the law, we think taking the outer approach to religion
will save us.
- When we see ourselves
as separated from our source, we inevitably see ourselves as separated
from other people. This gives rise to conflicts between people. Yet
trying to overcome such conflicts through outer means simply will
not work, as evidenced by the headlines on any given day. The only
way to create true unity is to reconnect to our source on an individual
basis. Only when each of us has this connection can we create true
unity, namely a unity based on a vertical instead of a horizontal
connection between us.
- The fact that we cannot
see truth or God’s laws gives rise to virtually every human
problem. It causes us to be selfish and to violate the rights of others.
It even causes us to be spiritually blind so that we commit self-destructive
acts. Yet we cannot see the folly of this as long as we are trapped
by the carnal mind.
- The selfishness and self-centeredness
of the carnal mind causes us to ignore God’s laws. It can cause
us to feel that we simply don’t want to know truth. We only
want to hear ideas that confirm what we want to believe. We don’t
want to know what is true and false according to God’s law.
We want confirmation of what we want to believe. We want a relative
truth instead of an absolute truth.
- We become selective in
our approach to truth. We create an idol of what we think God is like
and how we want truth to be. Then we dance around this golden calf
and refuse to hear evidence that contradicts our chosen beliefs. Is
that why Jesus so often said that those who have ears had better listen
to his words? When we are trapped by the carnal mind, we either cannot
or will not hear the truth of Christ.
- As a result of our spiritual
blindness, we begin to build a religious belief system that is based
on the reasoning and the beliefs of the carnal mind. It is based on
a man-made “truth” and on fear. We become self-centered
instead of God-centered.
The way that seems right unto a human
We now realize that the carnal mind causes virtually all of the problems
and conflicts we see on this planet. We are trapped in a self-destructive
spiral and we cannot see any way out. We think there is no way out,
but it is the carnal mind that prevents us from seeing the way. Therefore,
we take the way that seems right unto a human, namely the outer approach
to religion. We seek salvation outside ourselves, and outer religions
eagerly promise us such a salvation.
Many outer religions promise us a very convenient look at salvation.
They tell us that if we belong to the right church, believe what it
tells us to believe and follow all of its rules and rituals, we will
automatically be saved. In other words, they are promising us that we
can be saved without having to change ourselves, without having to wrestle
with the carnal mind and strive to attain the Christ mind. You don’t
have to dig deep, deal with the difficult aspects of your psychology
and make the difficult choices to surrender your carnal desires and
false beliefs. You don’t have to surrender the human will to the
will of God. Just follow a few simple rules and doctrines, and your
salvation is guaranteed.
We now see that we are caught between a rock and a hard spot, and it
is not the rock of Christ. On one side, we have our own psychology,
namely the carnal mind. It springs from separation from our source,
and every aspect of it seeks to keep us trapped in this sense of separation.
This becomes the inner oppressor that seeks to keep us in bondage in
this world.
On the other side we have outer religious establishments that are based
on separation, spiritual blindness and fear (I am not saying all churches
are based on this approach). These establishments want to control us,
and what gives them the ability to do so is the carnal mind. So they
unconsciously want to keep us trapped in that state of mind. They want
to uphold their existence and their power, which means maintaining their
power and control over us. So they want to make us believe that the
only road to salvation goes through an outer institution. They want
to prevent us from discovering the inner path to an individual salvation.
Take a look at what happened after Jesus had fasted in the wilderness
(Matthew 4:1-11). He is tempted by the devil, which we might see as
a personification of the forces that seek to keep us trapped in this
world. Jesus withstands the temptations and rebukes the subtle logic
of the devil. What enabled Jesus to resist these temptations? He wasn’t
actually tempted by them because he could see through the arguments
used by the devil. He was rightly dividing the word of truth (2Timothy
2:15).
We might consider that the devil is a personification of the carnal
mind and the sense of separation from God. He is using a subtle form
of manipulation based on fear and intellectual arguments, but Jesus
is immune to this. Because Jesus is connected to his source, he can
see the truth of God. Therefore, he can see through the lies of the
devil and avoid responding in such a way that he becomes entangled with
the devil and the consciousness of the devil. He can say, “The
prince of this world cometh and has nothing in me” (John 14:30).
The prince of this world has nothing in him because Jesus has transcended,
conquered, overcome and surrendered the carnal mind. And as Jesus said,
it doesn’t profit a person to gain the whole world, meaning the
fulfillment of the desires of the carnal mind, and lose the soul (Mark
8:36).
What keeps us trapped in this world, what keeps us trapped on a treadmill
of self-centered desires and actions, is the carnal mind. It is the
weaknesses of this carnal mind that allow the forces of this world,
including non-material forces, other people and institutions, to control
us. It is the carnal mind which gives the devil an inroad into our consciousness.
This is a rather stunning revelation. It shows us that the key, the
only key, to our personal freedom is to escape the carnal mind. And
the only escape from this lower state of consciousness is to put on
the mind of Christ. We also see that all of the conflicts and problems
in society are direct effects of the carnal mind. So the only way to
solve the problems on this planet is that a critical mass of people
put on the mind of Christ. Only through this mind can we find solutions
to the many problems that have no solutions as long as we view those
problems through the filter of the carnal mind.
Following in Jesus’ footsteps
I believe this leads to a conclusion that is inescapable and essential.
Jesus actually came to deliver us from the spiritual bondage of the
carnal mind and the outside forces that control us through that carnal
mind. We now see that Jesus did not come to be elevated to an idol that
people think they cannot emulate. Jesus never wanted people to think
that it is blasphemy to follow in his footsteps. Instead, he came to
demonstrate the only viable way to our personal salvation, namely that
we must reconnect to our spiritual source by reuniting with our Christ
selves.
To me this is incredibly exciting. The more I started understanding
the ramifications of this idea, the more I felt like Jesus took on a
deeply personal meaning for me. Instead of seeing Jesus as this remote
being who is way up there on a pedestal, I realized I could have a personal
relationship with Jesus. I could begin to see him as an example to follow,
as a spiritual teacher, perhaps even an older brother, who looks at
me, reaches out his hand and says, “Follow me, and we will go
home!”
However, I also began to realize that Jesus did not come to do all the
work for us. He came to empower us so that we can attain spiritual freedom
on an individual basis. As I have explained, this freedom can come only
through your oneness with your Christ self. Contrary to what so many
Christians seem to believe, Jesus did not come to save us. He came to
help us save ourselves. If we truly want to follow Jesus and his inner
teachings, we need to leave behind the passive approach in which we
expect Jesus to take care of our salvation. We need to take responsibility
for ourselves and be willing to go through the process of leaving behind
the carnal mind and uniting with the Christ mind. We need to give up
the dream of an automatic salvation and accept the individual salvation
of personal Christhood.
It is obvious that Jesus did not take a passive approach to life or
to spiritual growth. If we want to count ourselves as disciples of Jesus,
we must, once again, take the same approach that Jesus took.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
