Are you ready? May I continue with my discourse? So then.
Today's message is totally out of chronological context. I will relate an event that took place in the year 28. You will
remember that in our narration of Jesus' life we are still in the year 26. However, the situation that I want to describe fits
very well into yesterday's message.
The year 26, as you have seen so far, was a very happy year for Jesus. He was able to gather little by little a firm group
of followers, he conquered the hearts of a whole village, of Kpar Nahum, his village, and his teachings and fame began
to spread all over the country, up to Jerusalem.
Two years later, the situation was very different. People’s success always entails the envy of others. Good teachings
always provoke others to find what is bad or wrong in them, and if they cannot find it, they invent it. And an honest life
and right words may seem a threat to those, whose lives and deformed behavior contrast even more in comparison. It
was then, when many groups of Jews, Pharisees and others, launched their undertaking of discrediting Jesus. It was
then, when words fell such as: “You are possessed by demons. You are a Samaritan (a serious insult). You are a mamzer
(a bastard, a very serious insult according to the law)."
Naturally, we were worried about the growing hostility, and we discussed this problem also with the Master.
Jesus, as we have seen, had the habit of exposing his teachings in form of parables. He did not do so in order to hide
their true meaning, but to explain in the language of the common people something, which otherwise would have been
very difficult to explain. We have talked about the parable of the lilies in the field. Does it not express in a few words a
deep truth, which everybody can understand, and which one could write entire volumes about?
In the New Testament you can read sentences like these:
"I am the bread of life. The man who comes to me will never be hungry and the man who believes in me will never
be thirsty.”
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.”
"The kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, taken by a woman and put into three measures of flour until the whole had
risen."
"Keep your eyes open," said Jesus to them, "and be on your guard against the ’yeast’ of the Pharisees and
Sadducees! I wonder why you don’t yet understand that I wasn’t talking about bread at all — I told you to beware
of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they grasped the fact that he had not told them to beware of
yeast in the ordinary sense but of the influence of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
In these simple sentences you can readily recognize important contents:
Divine Love, so sweet in the soul, that leads us to desire always more of It.
Once again, Divine Love, which converts the soul through Its transforming power into something new, divine.
The bread of life, that is to say, the Master's teachings, which nurture us and give us life, because only through them we
are able to achieve true at-onement with God. These teachings are the way to perfect happiness, without hunger and
thirst.
And then, the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Well, this formula of “Pharisees and Sadducees,” or of “Pharisee
and Scribes,” is a monolithic and stereotypical block from a later time, when Jesus' opponents were symbolized by
means of this expression. But once again, Jesus compares teachings with yeast or with food. People understood this.
In another part of the New Testament you can read:
“It is not what goes into a men’s mouth that makes him common or unclean. It is what comes out of a man’s
mouth that makes him unclean. "Don’t you see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and
then out of the body altogether? But the things that come out of a man’s mouth come from his heart and mind,
and it is they that really make a man unclean.”
Also here, food is the symbol for doctrines. By the way, this verse is not about consuming pork and shrimps, about pure
or impure food, this had never been a topic of discussions. It is about teachings.
Now, some day in the year 28, we were gathered with the Master and...
Well, my dear brother, I am really trying hard, and so do you. However, I think that it is preferable to postpone the rest
for tomorrow. I can see that the message would not come through as I wish.
Don't worry, tomorrow will be another day. Go out into the garden for a while and enjoy the sun! Relax! You will see,
tomorrow all will turn out well.
I’ll see you then.
God bless you,
Judas
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