Easter
Chapter 3
Jesus' mission
Jesus of Nazareth is thus the world saviour who in his everyday activity became the most eminent exponent of the
holy spirit.
That, of course, does not mean that the
"return of Christ", i.e. future world saviours, will become less important.
But the mission of Christ, world salvation, at the present time faces quite a different task from the one it faced when the torch of the
holy spirit was about to be lit again on the earth; with that I shall deal later in this little book.
The task of the world saviour from Nazareth was principally to be the model through whom the physical transformation of earthly man into a "divine man" could be carried out.
In other words, in Jesus' life was shown
how every man on earth could learn to accept his fate, learn how to behave properly in the unpleasant situations which occur on earth, such as unfriendliness and injustice, suffering, worries and other unhappiness, and through those experiences learn to conquer the terror of death, to become finally ruler over life and to be reborn in divine heavenly bliss.
The mission of the world saviour Jesus was thus not just theoretical teaching, but through his own life and activities he made a practical physical demonstration of the kind of way of life with its results which is so necessary to man on earth.
And because the adoption of such a way of conduct in everyday practical life is a necessary condition for the evolution of earthly man from beast to human, from a primitive to a blissful existence, and from ignorance to the highest knowledge, that way of life is the only road along which man on earth can be saved from darkness, can be freed from suffering, and can experience immortality and "unity with the Father".
The belief that Jesus' task was to appease an angry God or free men from responsibility for their "sins" or "crimes", the belief that the destruction of Jesus' body and the shedding of his blood was a sacrifice pleasant to God and therefore demanded by Him can originate only in a pagan ideology, in naivety, or ignorance, and in addition it reminds one suspiciously of perversion, indeed sadism.
Yet through the centuries millions of men have lived with a belief in such a God; and that was rendered possible by the strong effect of suggestion and through ignorance of the true analysis of the idea of world salvation.
One can understand that such a faith found its way into the primitive barbaric consciousness much more easily than could the true idea of world salvation:
"Put up again thy sword into its place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword"; or "whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also".
This latter idea indeed must have seemed completely absurd to the believers in vengeance.
But the idea of an angry vindictive god ruthlessly demanding torture and bloodshed from at least one creature did not conflict so much with the logical feeling of primitive people as did the idea of loving someone by whom one was being attacked.
Centuries passed and torrents of blood flowed on the altars of religion before the world began to use its eyes, intellect and common sense to consider the real God of the Nazarene, the God of love.
For centuries the world saviour Jesus was ceaselessly crucified in his own church in his own name by superstition and paganism which led to the burning of "heretics" and "witches", enforcement of religion, dogmas and intolerance.
All these raged for a long time until they began to weaken, to raise doubts in people's minds and disappear.