Monthly Archives: January 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

The Miracles of Jesus (continued; part xii)

We never got to our intended thoughts yesterday regarding the miracles of the Master that are beyond the scope of healing and cures and the raising of the dead which we can now place all together under the general category of healing. In our understanding these are all the same in effect as they bring the subject person to a new health in which all physical plane attributes are working well. Sick or damaged bodies are the main line of this and the cures of the personality afflictions affecting the mind and the emotional well being, which are considered in that day as ‘possessed’, are healing as well through the correction the apparent gross imbalances in them. The raising of the dead is also healing as it is only the body that truly dies and, in raising the body, the healer is remedying whatsoever was wrong. Some may take objection to the idea of lumping together the ‘casting out’ with the other types of healing and may claim that raising the dead is of another level but if one looks intelligently at this all with an open mind the melding of these will make sense. Is there really any difference between one like the infamous Sybil and other victims of dissociative identity disorder or ‘split personality’ and the man referred to as Legion who is cured by the Master? Can we see how the story line itself plays into the customs and beliefs of the people of that time especially when we remember that there are energies and forces in the world that are a part of the emotional and thought world of men as can be seen in the actions of mass hysteria and mob rule? Their interpretation of these things 2000 years ago is based upon what they believed and what they knew of Life. We discuss this in some detail in In the Words of Jesus parts 154-157.

Having said all this, and looking at this all as healing, we should see it all also as the Master working with the Souls and the personalities of men; individually, and as groups. The Master and those disciples that found flowing from within themselves the KNOWING that is necessary to perform such things healed men’s bodies and it is likely that the healed person’s Soul plays some part in this; this is a topic for another day but we can say here that the conscious personality which a man expresses on Earth is for most not ‘in line’ with his own Soul, he is not focused upon the Soul but upon his Life on Earth. This results in the Soul’s inability to deal properly with the consciousness until that consciousness recognizes the call of the Soul and heeds it at which time the Light of the Soul to pour rather than trickle thus putting the man on the Path to God. The healing power of the Master and other True healers circumvents the lack of Soul Light in a man’s Life and by His own energy, the Master corrects what there is that is wrong and perhaps in so doing causes the man to be ‘in line’ at that moment with his Soul; the future then depends on the next point of focus in his life.

At the beginning of this series of essay on miracles it was the intention to go to the what we called the greater miracles and to leave the healing for the end but, as you can see, it did not work out this way. We did discuss some of the healings of the Master but we never left that theme; we rather went on to see how in the Life of Peter and of Paul we can find our own place in His sayings that tell us that we can do as He did. As further example we then went on to other disciples in the twelve and the seventy and those from the Book of Acts. We will come back to the the healing of the Master later as we never did discuss it in the depth that it deserves. This next part of our discussion on the miracles of the Master centers upon His ability to control the environment, to calm the sea, to stop the wind and halt the storm. Let us look as some of these:

• “And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:36-41). Chronologically this happens after many healings and the raising of the widow’s son but yet rather early in the Master’s Earth ministry. He demonstrates here a control over the forces of nature and this is likely through His realization that nature is but the action of God in manifestation. It is not for us to understand these mysteries of the universe for all is of God and there is a purpose in it all; there is a reason for the storm that is likely to be in relation to well being of the planet itself where certain ‘natural’ laws do prevail. Although unfortunate, man does at times get caught in the catastrophes of nature which are actually called by some acts of God. The Master here controls these forces and chides His disciples that they have no faith and for their fear. Can we see in the Master’s tone the idea that the disciples could have done this if only they could believe and doubt not, that they could KNOW?
• There is another instance that is similar to this and which we briefly touched upon earlier, Jesus walking on the water. Today however we will look at this from the perspective of the storm that Matthew and John tell us of and the ending of the story according to John. This story does not appear in Luke’s Gospel but in all others it follows immediately after the great miracle of the multiplication of loaves. In the Gospel of Matthew this story comes complete with Peter walking to Jesus on the water and so we will start there: “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to goto Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. And when they were gone over , they came into the land of Gennesaret” (Matthew 14:22-34). We should remember here that chronologically this happens after the ‘calming of the sea’ above and after the feeding of the multitudes and, from our perspective, there should be no reason for any doubt on the part of the disciple. But, as we have been discussing, it is at that point of KNOWING and doubting not that we are able to do such things ourselves and this is true also of the disciples……this KNOWING does not come easy. Mark tells us at the end of his version of this story that: “And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened” (Mark 6:51-52). Mark here acknowledges the idea that they, especially the twelve, should have understood and not be “sore amazed in themselves beyond measure”.
• John gives this a different twist on this that we will look upon as a separate event as it is only reported by John and we can only wonder what it is that this all really means in relation to the other renditions as they all do appear to be talking of the same event. “And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went” (John 6:16-21). In John’s words the Master is here demonstrating His power over the very ideas of time and of space; the text does say immediately. There are varied opinions of this event; John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible⁸ suggests that this was done, as Nonnus observes, by a divine motion; for not only the wind ceased, but another miracle was wrought; the ship was in an instant at the place whither they intended to go⁸. Contrary to this is the Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown⁸. which says that: This additional miracle, for as such it is manifestly related, is recorded here alone. Yet all that is meant seems to be that as the storm was suddenly calmed, so the little bark–propelled by the secret power of the Lord of Nature now sailing in it–glided through the now unruffled waters, and while they were wrapt in wonder at what had happened, not heeding their rapid motion, was found at port, to their still further surprise⁸. Regardless of which we believe to be true this is still a miracle from the hand of the Master and, knowing the power of the ONE TRUE GOD of whom we are told by the Master that “with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27) we should be doubting nothing. Staying with our own theme here we should also add, from our four points, that Jesus tells us: “and nothing shall be impossible unto you“, which should tell us that we can do these things as well. What do we need? Only this: “faith as a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20) which is interpreted by us as to KNOW which is the culmination of to believe and to doubt not.

This completes our look at the ability of the Master to control the environment and the forces of nature and we should see here one more thing and that is in this great scale of KNOWING. As we discussed, there is a range of values in most all things in which we operate as man in form. There are degrees of faith, degrees of focus, of wisdom, of understanding and of Light to name but a few. There is also the degree of KNOWING which, as we said above, is the culmination of believing and of nothing doubting; it is the “faith as a grain of mustard seed“. We have covered this thought of the mustard seed before and the references are too many to list but a search from the home page can give you them all. To our point, the Apostle Paul, as we have seen in recent posts, comes to the realization of his proper place is in Christ when he sees the vision and this is then confirmed to him as he receives healing for his being blinded by that great Light that appeared to him. Paul comes away from this experience KNOWING that he can heal and that he can teach the ways of the Christ and even KNOWING that he can bring back the dead as he does with young Eutychus. Paul was truly a disciple and an apostle of the Lord. However, there is a scene toward the end of the Book of Acts that puts Paul in a similar situation as the Master and the disciples are put in above; in a ship that is caught in a fierce storm:

This story starts with Paul as a prisoner being taken to Rome to see Caesar and we pick up here with Luke speaking first hand saying: “Paul admonished them, And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul“. Luke tells us next that they set sail and “not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon“. Now a tempest is a rather strong storm as we classify storms and it is likely then as well because we read: “the ship was caught , and could not bear up into the wind” and, making land they “had much work to come by the boat: Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship“. After setting sail again Luke reports that “And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away” (Acts 27:9-11, 14, 16-20).

What is the relevance of this to our theme? Simply this, the Master tells us clearly that “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23) and it should be clear to us that Paul, although he may have tried, did not have enough believing and had some doubt that prevented his action here. He did not KNOW that he could. This disciple who had the KNOWING enough to heal individually and en masse by way of napkins and who could raise the dead simply does not have the degree of KNOWING that will allow the mountain to move nor the storm to stop. This point of controlling nature is a point reached only in that perfection of which the Master tells us in saying: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

To end the story, Paul’s reaching Rome is a part of the Great Plan. We read that: “And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11) which brings us back to the idea of those things that are done to ensure the working out of the Great Plan of God. Paul experiences this as he is being held in protection by the Romans as the Jews sought to kill him and, after much travel and adversity, he is found, as above, on this ship bound for Rome where he does not or he can not stop the storm. So, Paul must get to Rome and seeing that he is on this ship that is in peril on the sea and that Paul can not stop the storm, the Power of God must act in his stead and does in this way: “But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee” (Acts 27:21-24)

Believe on… follow Him…keep His words…believe and doubt not……..KNOW!

Note on the Quote of the Day