JESUS IN TWEEDS

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, - even the death of the cross."

THE DRAMATIC INSTINCT in man is so strong that whenever he mentions or thinks of Jesus, he automatically places Him in a theatrical background, so glorified as to set it completely apart from the remotest possibility of naturalness. He forgets that at the time of Jesus, flowing robes, purple, fine linen and long hair were the vogue of that time, just as sack suits and military haircuts are today.

There is no mention made of the robes of Jesus being outstandingly beautiful. True, there was the seamless robe, - not so much a comment on His clothes, perhaps, as an illustration of the wholeness of His teaching. In fact, Jesus asked the very pertinent question, - "What went ye out for to see", - a fashion show, or to hear a revelation. It is more than possible that the rich young man mentioned in the Bible, as well as many others, were dressed in silks and brocades.

Have we, then, been caught in the very thing against which He cautioned us? Is this beautiful teaching and revelation given us by Jesus as a usable every-day pattern of life always to be wrapped in dramatics? Will we perpetually be an audience watching a drama?

The tendency to glamorize anyone in the limelight is common to all men. It has a tremendous financial urge back of it. But as with Jesus, so with all the idols of the stage, - sooner or later lots will be cast for the robes. The sport of the human mind is to build an idol, - and then attempt to discover its clay feet.

And again, the décor and background against which Jesus moved were natural and normal to the times.

Can you imagine Jesus in a tweed suit? At first the idea shocks the sensibilities. But suppose He was with us today, - or rather, suppose your consciousness was of such a level as to permit you to see Him today, - would you want Him to go about in flowing robes True, there is yet this practice in America, a thousand and one "prophets" and "teachers" have donned robes entirely out of keeping with the times, playing on the dramatic value, - and people have followed. But Jesus was of all things, natural and normal. He said definitely, "I live in the world, but not of it". This did not set Him apart anymore then than it would now, for we find ample proof of His moving with the people, high and low. In fact, He was accused of being a friend of harlots and wine bibbers. Jesus was unafraid to live His life. He held no brief with hypocrisy and spiritual wickedness, gossip or scandal,

Can you imagine Jesus and His mother attending a wedding of a Hollywood star? Well, why not? They attended a wedding-feast in Cana, which from the record, was very spirited, to say the least, - not very much different from our present-day affairs.

There is no intent to take from the Glory of Jesus, - but rather to emphasize the fundamental Truth of His teaching. It is not difficult for one to bend the knees at the Name of Jesus, so great is our reverence for Him, - but just reverence for a dramatic or historical character is not sufficient. If Jesus ever was sad or disconsolate, it must have been when He asked the question, - "Have I been so long with you, and yet ... ?" He did not want them to set Him aside or apart in any way whatsoever. He only wanted what every true teacher and revelator wants, - namely, that the students and followers absorb and use the teachings, rather than deify the teacher. He wanted them not only to do the works He did, but to exceed Him, - assuring them they could. "The works I do, ye shall also do, - and greater than these shall ye do."

Until we take away the dramatic, emotional side of our acceptance of the beautiful Revelation, the whole endeavor is reduced to a fascinating story of a man, - and is of no practical use to us in every-day life.

You would laugh at the idea that every time you approached mathematics, you would have to put on a special garment of ancient origin and arrange yourself against a special back-ground of proper dramatic value.

We know that mathematics is not affected by race, color or creed. Neither is it more operative in one temperature than in another, nor is it more present in a magnificent university than in the little red school-house, or for that matter, the slums of a great city. All that is necessary is the recognition of the law of mathematics for the unfoldment from simple addition to the most complicated equation in relativity.

Talking of and about mathematics will not work out a problem, no matter how ever much you respect it. Unless you become a mathematician in one degree or another, nothing happens. And when you do, the stream of power comes through you, uses your body through which to express, - -proving the problem was already solved. Every mathematician knows the answers to all problems already exist, whether he is aware of the answer or not. But the recognition of it as passing through him enables him to arrive at the already established fact.

So with the Revelation of Jesus, - it is everywhere present, is no respecter of persons, is as available to the greatest criminal as to the most high priest. It is just as present in the worst hell-hole as in the lofty temple. Being everywhere, it is nowhere until it is recognized and "let" into manifestation, and it is of no value until this takes place.

Jesus, too, said the answer existed before the problem, - "Before you ask, I will answer, and while you are yet speaking, I shall give it unto you", - and again, "Thank you, Father, I knew that this was done", - in this latter instance, making concession to the mass-mind which believes something must be done. Yet He did not touch the woman who was healed in the crowds. She touched Him. The wonderful recognition in her came forth and met the perpetual agreement of His consciousness, and the answer, which always had existed, became a reality to her.

Jesus was not pleased with blood-sacrifice, - asking only the sacrifice of the human thought with its limitations and its terrific bondage. He was always looking for someone who could take it, - -always seeking a temple-body who would stand up to the point of equality with Him. That great unselfishness on His part is the God-Love within Him, and within us. He found it once in the Centurion who came boldly up to Him with recognition of the Power and who deigned to set himself on an equal level when it came to authority. "I have not seen so great a faith, - no, not in all Israel!" How would you like that to be said of you?

What do you suppose the widow's mite meant to a Man who could with impunity feed five thousand? But it was important enough to be recorded. The motive of the widow was greater than the "measure" of the rich.

As long as we continue to imprison this beautiful revelation of Jesus in garb, books, teachers and temples, it will be nothing but another philosophy. Most of Jesus' teachings were given out of doors, He went seldom in the Temple. When He did, He astounded them with His Light, - and they began the old roundelay, "How does this man speak, seeing- he has no learning". They went even farther than this in the protection of their limited views of life and were glad to shout at Him when He was going through His greatest manifestation, - "He saved others, - Himself he cannot save". Yes, and the derisive shouts, "Come down from the cross". Had He done this, - and He could have, - He would have defeated the purpose of His teachings and we would still be awaiting the Messiah who would save the world. What world? Your world, of course, - the only world you know anything about.

A thousand religions have been hung upon Him, like barnacles on a ship. This is no diatribe against any of them, but nevertheless, there can be only ONE interpretation of the Truth that two times two are four. True, you can write it in Roman numerals or even signs, but the principle is ONE and remains unchanged and eternal, - regardless of opinions to the contrary.

Simpler than the laws of mathematics are the laws of Truth. A child can understand and employ them through the capacity of the unsullied mind which accepts and brings out that acceptance with apparent ease. When the child-like consciousness enters a thing; all the universe cooperates to bring it about, - all of which is foolishness to the adult mind whose greatest capacity is to commit adultery. It will endeavor to take away such beautiful laws from the child through false education. He learns to smile with tolerance or derision at the things he formerly believed possible, stumbling along through the morass of human life until finally he comes to an insurmountable hurdle. Then he may realize there is something greater than John Smith and all his intellection, plus that of all his text-books and teachers, - and perhaps he will "let go" and ('let God" into expression through his body-temple and be saved. Saved from what? His own thought creation.

The Philistines did the same thing, and finally a giant named Goliath dominated that city (state of consciousness) so completely that it was faced with destruction. Then comes the point of LIGHT, David with his sling and five pebbles, - the five senses which had been extended into the consciousness of Cod, - marking the end of Goliath.

To be of any real worth, this law cannot be a will-o-the-wisp of imagination which works sometimes, any more than can the law of mathematics. "Having eyes, ye see not, - and ears, ye hear not". Why? Because you are so blinded by the accepted appearances of your creating (your giant) that you know you are about to be destroyed by it.

It takes but one pebble, - but one sense extended beyond the human limitations, to do the trick. "Open your eyes!" You say they are open, and you are straining to see. But there is nothing to see on the outside, not yet, - the sight is within.

All the commands appear to be physical, to call for some physical action, - but unless they are heard, the physical remains helpless under the control of the limitations of its belief. When the hearing is extended to the point of acceptance, then the command becomes physical and you can and will "arise and walk".

Jesus did not see five thousand loaves and two thousand fishes with his physical eyes, neither the fields white with grain, until He saw them within, then the consciousness was projected into the realm of manifestation.

I like to think of Jesus walking through the wheat-fields and along the beaches, sandals scuffed just as ours would be. He was so natural as to be a present possibility here and now. The glorious recognition of the Presence was always waiting to come forth at every turn of the road. He constantly endeavored to ensnare men with His love, - to awaken them to their own possibilities.

The "well done thou good and faithful servant" will not come through lip service, nor yet through sacrifice, - but through going forth and doing likewise, - stepping out on the waters of human beliefs. Every time we act from the consciousness of God within, we smash patterns of human beliefs, - and so the leper is healed or made clean. One of the old prophets showed the nothingness of human disease when he put his hand in his bosom and took it out white with leprosy, and with the same gesture, brought it forth clean. How did he do it? By thinking? Saying words? Mantras? Or following a human belief? What do you say?

Why are we awed at the thought of Jesus either in tweeds or in flowing robes? Is it a false sense of modesty? The hypocritical human mind is so humble and meek when it wants anything, - and so boastful and ugly when it seems to be sailing on calm seas.

"In ALL thy ways, acknowledge HIM, and He shall (not maybe, or perhaps) bring it to pass.)' Is that good enough. It is entirely fool-proof, - there isn't the "exception which proves the rule" to the human thought. There is one hundred percent delivery of the promise.

As you read the teachings of Jesus you will see there are no pastel shades, but pure, primary colors. When He makes an experiment in the laboratory of Life, He takes the ultimate in impossibility, - never some lesser gradation. He does not work with tints, nuances and shades of color, but makes His picture "contrasty" by the use of the primary colors. Such pictures as the one of a man being born blind, - not a case of faulty eye-sight or a blindness which had come upon a man, - but a case of blindness from birth. And again, a man dead four days, with the ugly picture of putrefaction and all the beliefs, or for that matter; the absolute knowledge of the human mind.

And the indifference of it all, - such a Divine indifference which freed reality from the self-hypnosis of human thought. "Whereas, before I was blind, NOW I can see." Was it dramatic? Yes, very! But is it still the peculiar powers of one man? He has shown and said in a thousand ways that every man has the gift within him as a natural expression of Life flowing through his temple. Why will we continue to judge from appearances, following the stupid thought-pattern of saying, "I am sick but God will heal me". Does God know sickness then? And if so, by what means can He destroy it?

Nothing is destroyed because we bring Christ Jesus down to earth. As a matter of fact, He is already here, but until we have the consciousness of it, we cannot live in His presence. This has nothing to do with the psychic disturbances that bring accounts of His appearing from time to time. When He appears it is because our consciousness is on the level of His, - and then He and much more will be made plain to us.

Jesus was not psychic, - but He had the Spiritual gift of Prescience which enabled Him to see all concerning the person into whose presence He came. And the lady at the well mistook this wonderful revelation as just another fortune-telling. She was so excited by the accounts of her private life that she did not hear, "If you had asked ME, I would have given you to drink of the Waters of Life, which if a man drink thereof, he will never thirst again".

So now we have Jesus in tweeds, - going to a Hollywood wedding, just as He went to a wedding in Cana in flowing robes. We must take Him out of the "clouds" of human belief and recognize Him as the Elder Brother, born of the same Father, even as you and I, if we want to hear, "I have not seen such faith, - no, not in all Hollywood !"

He would probably be offered a movie contract. He was offered the kingdoms of the world if He would perform a certain 'stunt' that would amaze the groundlings, - such a little feat as turning stones into bread. And I am sure He would smile, - He has such a magnificent sense of humor.

Let us have Jesus natural and real, - honest-to-goodness reality. Let us drop the dramatic, emotional worship and "come boldly to the throne of grace" and bear away the Gift of Life Eternal.

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