YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
The last full stanza of The Great Invocation is what we cover today in our journey through this world prayer. This part is an invocation addressed to the human family which is likely the most important part in the equation if we are going to bring that Peace and Goodwill of Christ to bear upon it in this state of its physical appearance on Earth. We have said many times that we are not these bodies that we so identify with and that we walk and talk through but we are the Spirit which gives this form nature its Life. From the perspective of Spirit and Soul we do not need what we pray for here as we are, in this our natural spiritual state, already one with God and with His Plan. The objective here is to bring the qualities of this spiritual state to bear on this carnal state of mind and emotion in which we find our conscious selves.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Looking at the first three stanzas below we should see that if the Light and the Love of God stream into the hearts and minds of men, that is the conscious personalities of men, and if through this streaming the Will of God and the Purpose of our existence here become clearer, then this next stanza can come to fruition and the Plan of Light and Love can work out. If man can see that the outer purpose of Life is to bring these powers of the spiritual self to bear in the life in form and can thereby refocus his life on that spiritual self, he can then become a bearer of that Light and Love to his fellowman. This is, according to the teachings of the Master, the goal of us all and this is discipleship and this is His Presence and His Kingdom. It is through the prevalence of Light and Love in the world that evil can be shut out. While we all shun extreme evil, so many of us accept what can be called ‘necessary evils’ of which there are in reality none. Ponder on this. Any action that does not treat our brother, any brother, as we would want to be treated ourselves is essentially evil. Only through the overpowering of any attitude that is contrary to this aspect of Love with the Light and the Love of God expressed by men of GoodWill in the world, can we see the door to evil sealed.
The ideas of evil and of Satan and of the devil are much confused in and by many Christian denominations. Man is often portrayed as being subject to the wiles of an outside force and is talked of as being led by the devil or that the devil or Satan puts the evil idea into one’s mind; that Satan is the enemy against which we must fight. Paul tells us that our fight is against powers and principalities saying “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12) and this saying can be seen as fueling these type of thoughts about the devil and Satan as our source of evil. A closer look however will show us that Paul is not claiming any special personality to these these rulers but is, in the following verses, naming those weapons we have against the evils of the world. He tells us that we can be armed against these with Truth, righteousness, peace , faith and the word of God. If we do not have or do not use these weapons then we are simply living a carnal life in this world of men; the nature of which world is selfishness. It is in this world of self that we find the three gates of hell, anger, lust and greed; these are the principalities and the powers. When, in our carnal nature, we heed these powers and principalities and we act in some degree of selfishness, it is we or are doing it and doing it consciously. It is up to us to heed the call of conscience and the impulses of our Souls and change our focus away form the carnal self; this is the way of true salvation and the way to the Kingdom of God. A final comment on this is found in a quote from the comic strip Pogo. If we can understand the above we should see the relevance of this: “We have met the enemy and he is us” which can be personalized as well to I have met the enemy and he is me.
Today we will address the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Some in the church do not see this as a parable but as an actual depiction of heaven, some even think that it is historical story told by Jesus. There are numerous interpretations of this parable which goes as thus”
“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded , though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:19-31).
It is hard to understand why this is thought of as an actual story as there is no basis for this idea which, it is said, goes back to the medieval Church. To the contrary, John Gill says that there are ancient manuscripts that preface this parable with the words “he said also another parable“8. We should understand this as a parable and should not look at this in the current mind set of heaven and hell either; this story is told by the Master to the Jews in the way that they understood the afterlife to be. The Greek word translated as hell, Hades, is defined by the lexicon as Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead; later use of this word: the grave, death, hell2. Strong’s says of Hades that it is the grave, the place of the dead, “the underworld”3. No depiction here of a lake of fire or any of the other things so prevalent in human thought. Vincent tells us that both Lazarus and the Rich man are in the same place albeit in different regions4 and this is likely because the idea of Hades is the realm of the dead for all. It is not our intent to deal here with the reality nor the superstitions of heaven and hell but just to show how the thoughts of man can be influenced by the fear and the superstition encountered in facing that great unknown; death.
For us the ideas put forth by the Master in this parable have naught to do with the story of Lazarus and the rich man except insofar as Jesus other teachings that we have been discussing. The rich man apparently was fixated on his wealth and this is noted by his lifestyle; his focus was on the carnal nature. Lazarus on the other hand was not; he had little or even nothing and was suffering physically as well. We cannot say he was a overly good man nor a disciple of any kind because we are not told; we are only told that he is taken to Abraham’s bosom; we should note that the place is not called heaven or the Kingdom of God; it is just Abraham’s bosom. Literally, these word mean just what they say; Vincent gives us some explanation of the term of which says that this is a Rabbinical phrase, equivalent ot being with Abraham in Paradise. ” to the Israelite Abraham seems the personal centre and meeting point of Paradise” (Goebel)4. We see here the idea we put forth earlier regarding the Master speaking to the Jews in a way that they would understand. This then can be seen as a picture of the afterlife for one who is focused on the carnal life; he is tormented and thirsts but he has no way of satisfaction. Looking then a Lazarus what do we see? He is not in heaven, in the Kingdom of God, or the Master likely would have said such but he is in what the Jews thought of as Paradise, a part of the realm of the dead. Lazarus is not tormented here but comforted and while we do not know the nature of his life, we can say his comfort is because he was not focused on the carnal life; he is in the afterlife without the torment and the thirst. Lazarus dies without much attachment to the world and is in comfort while the rich man dies with much attachment and is tormented and thirsts to have them yet but cannot. Vincent tells us that the word translated as tormented in the rich mans request is better translated as I am in anguish4 so that we would have him being in anguish in a place of torment thus lightening his travail somewhat.
Vincent then is telling us of the same afterlife for both the rich man and the beggar, the same realm of the dead, with different regions and the story alludes to two such regions. There is however no definitive idea of what number their may be and perhaps this is a rather large number; we should see clearer here then our idea of ‘gravitation’ to what level in the afterlife that is predicated by one’s life here on Earth; this place being our immediate heaven or hell. While this brings the idea of death and afterlife in line with what we have been saying in previous posts, this is still not what we will see as the overriding value of this story. The important part of it is in the ending of this life and then coming to some kind of realization that it is over and of the torment and thirst. We then finally come to conclusions that should have been come to in life and which likely did but were ignored. The rich man sees this clearly now but it is too late; he was not prepared to die. This is the plight of the rich man who realizes now that he is where he is and there is nothing to be done about it; he is powerless to change it now and in this realization he now wants to reach out to those left behind to tell them, to warn them. This idea is not hidden in this parable, it is very evident in the telling of the story. However, human nature being what it is, this part is rather ignored in favor to the ideas of heaven and hell and all that goes with mans theories on these and on punishment. Man sees this directed at the Pharisees or at someone else. It is interpreted with verbose ecclesiastical meaning regarding the nature of the afterlife or the resurrection of Jesus or some other line of thought that is not the one we are considering.
The Master tells us plainly that this is the case: the rich man dies and sees the reality of the error of his ways and now understands that although he cannot change his fate perhaps he can offer some assistance to his brethren. He realizes that it is only in life that we have opportunity to focus our lives on the right things. There is no overwhelming spirituality here, no talk of the Kingdom nor of discipleship; this is just the life of the everyday Joe who is rich and is focused on the wrong things in life. This is the life of a man who had heard Moses and the Prophets, heard the laws and the commandments, and did not heed them. He now is told that the only way that his brethren will hear is the same way that he heard and it will be up to them to take heed and change. The same message comes through clearly to us; if our objective is to live the spiritual life, we have the teachings to do so and it is within our power to change. If our objective is just to be an ordinary Joe who is just more focused on God then we have that teaching as well and it is within our power to change. We must know that teaching is the same, the variation is only in one’s sense of devotion to the teachings of the Master.
In the end of the story is Jesus prediction of the fate of man then and today. The Master says “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded , though one rose from the dead“. We may believe, but do we follow? This is the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment. If you have not seen this before, this should be viewed as, like John and Jesus to the Jews, something new and different.
The Quote of the Day for today is called The Great Invocation. It is a world prayer given to us by The Christ. We will leave this up and go through it in parts over the coming days. This prayer should be to us today what the Lord’s Prayer was yesterday.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
- 2New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
