CHAPTER 10: THE ESSENCE OF CHRIST'S PASSION
Can you tell me what's essential in the moment that you're living here and now? To assist your comprehension I will motion to the passion's why and how.
The central event of the Christian Church has focus in Jesus' death and his resurrection. Neither of those events, however, required active participation on Jesus' behalf. He did not do anything. He was hammered and nailed to the cross, he hung there until he died. God resurrected him from the dead.
What did Jesus actually do?
This is a crucial event. Why does it matter? How can there be any salvation in someone being hung from a cross? Tens upon thousands of people were crucified by the Romans. None of their crucifixions mattered. And there have been many people who have been resurrected from the dead. In modern days we have many people who have died and have come back to talk about it. In Jesus' day he resurrected Lazarus, Tabatha. Why wasn't resurrection simply enough? In other words, death alone upon a cross is not sufficient for salvation. Resurrection from the dead is also not sufficient for salvation. As crucial and important as these events are, they do not constitute the salvation of the human race.
No. The active events, what Jesus actually participated in, what he really did for you, he did not do on Golgotha and he did not do on Easter morning.
What he did, he did in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The central, most important event in all of Christendom happened in the Garden. In the Garden of Eden we find the problem, and that problem is actually fixed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
You will find the Garden of Gethsemane in three chapters: Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22. It is also in the last part of the Gospel of John, but he, John, portrays Jesus' last days in a very different manner, from a very different perspective. And we do not actually see the Garden of Gethsemane, per se, in the Gospel of John.
Matt 26:39, Mark 14:36 and Luke 22:44 account the most significant event in Christianity and the most significant event in the life of any human being.
Let us set the stage. It is the last night of Jesus' life, he has just had his final meal with his disciples. It is the holy Passover, one of the two highest, holiest days in all of Israel, where they are commemorating God's freeing of the Jews from Egypt. He has just had the bread and the wine with his disciples, and he knows that his time is up, that the roman authorities are coming to arrest him.
He goes out after supper, into a Garden. Starting in Matt 26:36, we see that Jesus goes into Gethsemane. He asks his disciples to sit and pray with him, to sit while he goes over to pray. Verse 38:
Jesus said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me." And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
Later in verse 42, "He went away again a second time and prayed saying, 'My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done.'"
First this tells us something very important about the nature of Jesus. Those who see Jesus as a religious object, those who wish to put him upon the high pedestal only for purposes of praise and worship, are unable to deal with this passage. Because this passage flies in the face of their philosophy. The idea that Jesus was from the beginning absolutely, perfectly God in the flesh, never had a temptation, never had a desire, never had a personal thought, is all given lie to right here.
You can worship Jesus all you want, but the Bible makes it clear, at least right here in the Garden of Gethsemane, that there was something in Jesus which was against God's will! You can call that sin or not, depending upon your comfort level. But Jesus wanted something that God did not want. Jesus was a person, and he was fully man. And this constitutes what scholars have come to call as Jesus' fourth temptation. Also, known as the last temptation.
The first three were at the beginning of his ministry, where he faced the devil in the desert. There
 | He had to overcome the temptation to use his spiritual gifts to feed himself instead of others. |
| He had to overcome the temptation to make a spectacle of himself and turn himself into a religious object. |
| And he had to overcome the temptation to fall down and worship the devil (materialism), and in so doing control and own the whole world. |
THE TOUGHEST TEMPTATION
This temptation in Gethsemane was the hardest one. It is the only one where the Bible accounts that he sweat drops of blood. Sweating drops of blood is extremely rare, but it is biologically and medically possible, for a person can become so upset that actual drops of blood will form at the surface of the skin as the different capillaries and vessels break. The Bible indicates that Jesus had no problem what so ever with the first three temptations; or, if he had any real difficulties, it is certainly not accounted for us.
However, this fourth temptation brought him to immense distress. The temptation here is two-fold: what you are running away from and what you are running toward. Jesus at this point was running away from a very bitter, a very unpleasant death. No one enjoys being crucified; it is not a pleasant experience. However, there was the flipside. Jesus could have run toward a normal life, he could have left ministry, he could have left the disciples, he could have found himself a lovely home somewhere, settled down and had children. He had seen many other people lead normal lives. Certainly there was a great temptation to leave this bitter cup behind, and not have to partake of it's pain, and move from this tragic world of ministry into a simple, calm homelife. The contradictory desires between the calling of God and his human desires created such a tension, such a pain that he, as the record states, sweat drops of blood.
No one can fault Jesus for this. But at the same time we have to be honest and recognize that this is not some non-corporeal God who's floating through the heavens and walking around on the earth playing some kind of game. No, this is an actual human being, and that human being at this point stands at the crossroads. He can look up and see the pathway of God, the call of the spirit, the religious duties and obligations. Or he can turn from the creator to the creation, to the comforts of his body, his emotions, his desires.
In the Garden of Gethsemane he stood at the nexus of all human existence. For each of us are, everyday, sitting at this crossroad. Every moment of every day we can serve God or serve ourselves. We can turn from ourselves to worship God and we can turn from God to worship ourselves. One way is the Tree of Life, the other is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is the centeral hub of the universe. This is the temptation of ego.
At this point Jesus is experiencing the fullness of the tension which was created by Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you recall from previous chapters, ego is the separation of the self from God, to seek not God's ways but it's own way. To turn from the creator to worship the creation. To turn from the light and block the light with shadows and darkness.
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane wages war with the very problem of the human race.
That problem is ego.
Notice please, that Jesus is not doing something which is separate and apart from what happened in the Garden of Eden. But, what happened in the Garden of Eden is about to be reversed. Adam and Eve were created in oneness with God, fell from that and started living according to their egos and their own self will. Jesus here in the Garden of Gethsemane has the temptations to live according to his ego and his own self will, and just the fact that he says, "not my will" indicates that his ego and his own self will existed.
But the glorious victory, the beautiful miraculous proclamation is in that verse. "Not as I will but as thou will. Not my will but thy will be done." Jesus, fully God, fully man, turns from his lower vehicles. He turns from his personal comforts, his bodily comforts, his desire for warmth and happiness in the home life. He turns from himself and turns over to God. This is the absolute reverse of partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
The separation, the sundering, the broken relationship which began
through Eden is healed and repaired through Gethsemane. The watch that was stolen
in Eden is given back in Gethsemane. And the two actions are absolutely opposite. In the
Garden mankind fell, and in the Garden mankind through Jesus was redeemed.
DYING TO THE SELF
At that point the Biblical record is clear. Jesus did nothing else. What did he do? He died to himself. And in so doing created the antidote for the poison in mans soul. The events of the passion that followed are very straight forward. Jesus is immediately arrested, he's taken before a court. And he is taken before Pilate, he is sentenced to death. He is taken to Golgotha, crucified on a cross and is buried. Three days later God resurrects him from the dead.
Notice, several things.
- Jesus dying to himself led to resurrection. This is part of the glorious plan of God. The eternal life which Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden before they partook of the forbidden fruit, they lost through the fall. Because God could not allow them in their sin to become immortal, or else their pain would be forever. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus takes that ego and that self will and he lets it die. He voluntarily sacrifices it for the purpose of serving God's kingdom and God's larger plan. As he does so he then returns to the state of eternal life which Adam and Eve had before the fall. So we see here a perfect cycle, where eternal life leads to ego, leads to separation, leads to death. Which leads to Jesus dying to himself, eliminating the separation, dying to the ego and returning to everlasting life!
- What is happening here through this passion is not arbitrary, it is not fickle, it is not silly, it is not stupid. It is not disassociated from the real problem. The real problem is sin. The real problem is ego. The real problem is an incorrect way of understanding, it is a improper focus of the consciousness away from God and upon self. The redemption of mankind, then, does not go through any secondary or artificial means. It does not propitiate anything. It does not seek revenge, it is not a form of punishment. It is a perfect divine expiation of the problem.
- It is astounding, at least to me, that such a perfect plan could have become so polluted and misunderstood over the years. To see how gloriously and how magnificently God deals with the problem of ego, to see the exact way that the original problem is taken care of is such a magnificent revelation, such a magnificent gift, that it is truly sad to see how the Gospel has become polluted and fallen over the years.
Here we have, finally, an organic, wholesome understanding of God. We
understand that God loves Adam and Eve and is not trying to seek revenge on them. We see
that God is trying to help heal them, and is not trying to vent His wrath on anyone. We
see that God is actually, factually, fixing a problem, not merely wanting some form of
silly sacrifice in order to appease His capricious anger.
BELIEVING IS NOT ENOUGH!
At this point Jesus' passion becomes the antidote. By that I mean this substance, this holy nectar, this divine revelation releases to the entire human race a power, which all people have access to. 49 days after Jesus' resurrection he pours out the Holy Spirit through Pentecost, so that the very power by which he lived his life becomes available to all human beings.
This is where the issue of Jesus as religious subject and religious object becomes of crucial, paramount importance. According to the common understanding of the Gospel, part 23, God now offers forgiveness to all those who will trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. If you believe Jesus died for you, then God will not hold your sins against you (Cug 25.) Our only hope for everlasting life is to have faith in the all-availing power of Christ's bloodshed on the cross.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible itself says that that is not the entire story! It is absolutely and positively simply not enough to worship Jesus, simply to believe that he died for your sins. No.
Why not? Because such a thing is arbitrary, it is artificial, and it does not deal with the real problem. What is the real problem? At this point we are no longer talking about Adam, at this point we are no longer talking about Eve. At this point we are no longer talking about Jesus.
We are talking about YOU!
Because you, too, are caught in sin. You, too, live according to your ego. You, too, are a slave to your incorrect knowledge of the world. You fail to see God everywhere. You fail to live according to God's higher plan. You have the poison running through your veins and you are going to die! You too must have the antidote.
Once Jonas Saulk created his vaccine for polio, creating the vaccine was not enough. Nor was it enough that people believed that he had the vaccine. Nor would it have been enough for people to have started to sing songs of worship and praise to Jonas Saulk, because he made an antidote. No. What was necessary? Every single man, woman and child needed the vaccine! Every person, individually and collectively, needed the cure.
In exactly the same way, it is not sufficient for you to simply sing songs to Jesus. It is not sufficient for you to worship him or believe that what he did was true or good.
But you must receive the antidote yourself!
That means that your ego must die. That means that your thinking must become transformed. And you must be able to return to the unity and the goodness and the oneness that we had with God in the Garden of Eden.
And you can only do that by following Gethsemane.
The Bible is clear, and the truth of God is clear, that unless you make the events of Jesus' passion alive in your life, those events that he underwent will do you no good whatsoever. In other words, unless Jesus' death to himself and his resurrection becomes your death and your resurrection, then his death and resurrection is absolutely useless to you. As Jesus says, "If anyone wishes to come after me, then let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me unto life everlasting." Again, notice the language of being a religious subject - someone to be followed, not only worshiped.
The cross, ladies and gentlemen, is not a sore back or a bunion or a rainy day. The cross is the vehicle by which your ego will be slain. The cross is the vehicle upon which your separation from God will disappear.
Notice that Jesus commands you, clearly, "If you want to be a follower of mine, don't just sit there and sing songs about my death and resurrection. Don't sit there and worship me for what I did. You get busy! You take up your cross, and you follow me. You deny yourself and you will find everlasting life!"
Here again we see the natural form of God's true religion. There is nothing strange or mystical or weird about it. It is very available to all people. It is very organic. The problem which Adam and Eve had, the poison which affects all of us, Jesus created the antidote for. And we must all imbibe from that antidote.
We must all come to the point where we die to ourselves, and live to
God. "Not my will, but Thy will be done."
REPENT - THINK DIFFERENTLY
Just as through Adam and Eve we all became sinners, so too, through Jesus we all became saints. This is perhaps to many a very strange idea, but it is quite clearly written once again in the Bible. Romans 5:12 says, "Through the one man sin entered into the world and death spread to all men." Verse 17, "If by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance and grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men."
What does that mean? It means that in exactly the same way that Adam's sin cast all people into sin, Christ's salvation cast all people into salvation!
Remember, ladies and gentlemen, that everything is good. Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, but everything is still good. Everything that God created is good, and very good. Remember that everything is inside of God, a part of God.
What then has to happen? We must follow the voice of John the Baptist, we must follow the voice of Jesus and we must repent, which, as we have seen, means to think differently. We have to change our way of thinking and recognize that we are not fallen sinful creatures, but we are, in fact, children of God. As long as we think that we are fallen, disgusting sinners, that is how we will live. Once we begin to recognize that we are, in fact, children of the living God, and that we are all brothers and sisters under Him, then we will recognize this living out in ourselves and begin to participate in it.
That is why the Bible tells us that we must not be conformed to this world, but we have to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (repentence), so that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Notice, the only truth is God. Adam and Eve pretended that they were clothed, but behind our silly little clothes we still remain completely naked. The universe is God's creation, and He still is in control. And the breath which we breath we do so only by the power of God. It is only a simple, stupid, little trick that makes us think, through our egos, that we are self-willed and self-powered. If God ceased to grant us the ability to profane Him, we would not exist.
So, Romans 12:2 has all the key ingredients that we need. "Do not be conformed to this world," means that we are not to orient ourselves toward this world. As Jesus said, "Not my will, but Thy will be done." To not focus on this world and the creation but to turn from the creation to the creator. "Rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind." We have the mind of Christ. We have God's consciousness living inside of us. This has been poured out to all people. This is the great and glorious truth of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit who will lead us to all truth. We need truth because we are in error. And error means that we are ignorant.
There is nothing that has to go on except for a renewal of our minds.
Ladies and gentlemen, this could not be more perfect, under any circumstances.
What is the problem? As we've stated so many times before in previous chapters, everything is still good, but the problem is Adam and Eve have a poison. What is that poison? They are thinking wrong. They have partaken from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sin is a knowledge. Evil is a way of thinking. Therefore if that is going to be fixed, what do we have to do? We have to have our thinking renewed, we have our thinking healed. We have to turn from thinking about this world and ourselves as being separate from God (ego). And we must become reunited with him (salvation). Knowledge of good and evil becomes transformed into knowledge of God and his perfect divine will.
So as we follow along this pathway in Romans 12, we are not conformed to
this world. We turn from it, we have our minds renewed, and then we can prove what the
will of God is. That which is good and acceptable and perfect. We turn from this world and
through the metanoia of repentance we then see that all is good. All is life and all is
good. This then enables us to overcome the true problem in the Garden of Eden. We have our
minds transformed; the way of thinking that was so evil and so poisonous is no more. And
we are then able to see what the world is and always has been, good, good and good.
JESUS IS THE ANTIDOTE
As I've said so many times before, Jesus then is the antidote, he is part subject and he is part object. Through focusing on Jesus and his death and resurrection our souls can become united with him and pulled along with him to our own resurrection. This is the power of Christ's life. You see, Jesus' passion carved the pathway for us. He showed us the way, "I am the way, the truth and the light." And as he shows us the way to live, through Gethsemane we learn of the necessity of overcoming ego. We see our minds being transformed, but he does not merely, as a religious subject would, pose himself as someone to learn from and follow. But he also pours out his power and makes it available to us. This is through the essential element of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost.
We see in Romans 6, that there is a oneness that we can have through Jesus. Romans 6:3, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?" What does baptism mean? Baptism means to wash. "John the washer" was there to cleanse people, to have them repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. To change their way of thinking, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
We have been washed in Christ Jesus and have been washed into his death, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. In order that as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Notice that we are not simply talking about a religious object to be worshipped, nor are we talking about a religious subject that we are to learn from. We are talking about a totality, both subject and object. A subject who teaches and an object who pours out his very power. We then become one with him, united with him.
As it says in Romans 6:5, "If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly, certainly we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. If we have died with Christ we shall also live with him."
This is the clearest language possible, to indicate that Jesus' death and resurrection can and must become your death and resurrection!
Paul then continues with another verse, which most of Christianity's ignorance will not allow them to see. Romans 6:10,
"For the death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
The Bible is telling you, then to transform your thinking, to repent. It is telling you to stop thinking about yourself like you are a sinner. Consider yourself, think about yourself, as though you are dead to sin. Think about yourself as being 100% totally and utterly alive to God. Change your thinking.
We blaspheme the Holy Name of God, we blaspheme ourselves, every Sunday when we wake up to say that "We are by nature sinful and unclean," because we are not. We are by nature holy and perfect, we are by nature good, good and very good. We have adopted for ourselves a sinful "un-nature", but this is very unnatural and completely against what God would have us be. When we then continue to say that "we justly deserve God's present and eternal punishment," it is obvious we don't understand anything about God or time or eternity or punishment.
And when we call ourselves "poor, wretched, sinful beings" we are, in the name of God and in the name of truth and in the name of the Church and in the name of Christianity, disobeying and blaspheming God's holy word, which orders us to stop thinking about ourselves as sinners, to stop thinking about ourselves as alive to sin, but to start thinking about ourselves as alive to God in Christ!
We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And we cannot do that if we continually hold on to the same old ways of thinking. When Adam and Eve were created they were good, they were perfect, they lived in total harmony with themselves, with each other and with God. We are to return to that state. And we will return to that state. But we cannot do that if we are constantly thinking of ourselves as disgusting, miserable, wretched sinners. If we are going to change, if we are going to be united with Christ in his resurrection, then it must begin by changing our way of thinking. God passes over our ignorance and makes available to us a transformation.
We see, then, the miracle of Jesus, as part religious subject, part
religious object. Teaching us and guiding us and empowering us. We actually,
metaphysically unite with him and become one with all he is. He pours out through his
passion the antidote for all sin. And we become re-united with him. Our minds become pure
and we recognize the truth that has always been there, that all is good, that God is good
and God is forever.
