John Cali
We’ve had an interesting discussion this past week or so at our discussion group. One of our members asked the question, “Did Jesus exist?” In other words, was he real, just a myth, or some combination of the two?
This reminds me of that wonderful movie, Miracle on 34th Street. For those of you who’ve never seen it, the movie asks the question, “Does Santa Claus really exist?”
At the end of the movie, the answer to that question was: “It doesn’t really matter.”
Here’s Spirit.
Spirit
This is a most interesting question to us in these dimensions of spirit.
It’s interesting because, as we observe you — our dear friends on the earth plane — we clearly see how many of you strive to base your lives on this historical figure you call Jesus.
Did Jesus exist? Was he real? How do you separate fact from fantasy? Myth from mumbo jumbo?
First, let us say the image, the vision many of you hold of Jesus, the Christ, is a magnificent one. You’ve created him as you would like to be yourselves.
Does that mean he’s not real?
Not at all. He is real — he lives in your hearts. He represents the joys, the hopes, the dreams all of you hold for yourselves and your loved ones.
In a very real sense, Jesus is your creation. The creation of a vision, a dream you have — a dream of heaven on earth when peace and love will reign supreme among all peoples.
Are we saying he did not exist in the physical over 2,000 years ago?
No, we are not saying that either.
But we are saying the figure many of you view as the historic Jesus did not exist in the way you think he did.
Your historic Jesus was a composite of at least several different and powerful spiritual teachers who lived around that time.
Those who wrote the words of your Bible, the early versions, were doing the same thing many of you are today — creating Jesus the way you would like to create (or re-create) yourselves.
They were seeing in him the qualities, the power, the love they wanted to see in themselves — and which you would dearly love to see in yourselves.
Well friends, you do have those qualities, that power, that love within you. But you don’t believe it. And so you’ve created a leader, a guru who has all that. Someone you can look up to, imitate and — some day — hope to be like.
That is what Jesus is all about. That’s what any true leader is all about — one who inspires you to be the best you can be.
He or she is not there to save you, but only to remind you of who you really are.
You are your own savior.
anny
Hello John,
I revisited the Myth of Jesus and this time followed it to this blog which I had not done before. The idea that the image of Jesus that we know has been made up by us is not new to me. As Jesus was the most important person in my life, I bought many books about him through the years and as I was exploring other religions, I found that their writers had written books about him as well (Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist) and they all had very different approaches.
I found it fascinating to read what views they had developed about him, based on the principles of their own religion, and that made it obvious that the views that Christians have also must have been manmade as well. Which is okay by me.
I have long since abandoned the idea that the stories in the Bible are a historical report on his life. In my book, they are not but they are meant to tell us something about ourselves. So in that respect it is not really important whether he actually lived or not. Though I still like to think he did because not only the message is important, but also our lives with all we think, say and do have an impact on all that is, so his impact would have been enormous.
Love,
Anny
John Cali
Thank you very much, Anny. I agree that it’s not important whether the historical, biblical Jesus really lived or not. What is important is the message — which, as I’ve always interpreted it, is to simply love one another.
Love,
John
Mary Carol
Hi John,
I followed the tag over from Melody’s blog and am so glad I did. What a lovely and powerful reminder of who we really are. Thank you!
Isn’t it wonderful that the Universe is so gentle and patient?! I had a great example tonight as I was doing a math puzzle. The wind chime started sounding, and I thought okay, okay, I’m almost done. It kept going and going, and I kept resisting quitting. Finally I started to laugh, put down the pencil, and took my lovely dog for a walk. The chimes have been silent ever since.
Peace, namaste,
Mary Carol
John Cali
Hi Mary Carol,
Glad you followed the link at Melody’s. We wrote that article some years ago, and Melody’s great post reminded me of it.
I love your little story of the wind chime. The universe takes good care of us all!
Hugs,
John