First, it should be stated that Jesus is not special, and never claimed to be. You can find that not only in the Course, but even in the Bible when it "momentarily stumbles upon the truth" as Pursah once put it.
From the Course:
- If you want to be like me I will help you, knowing that we are alike. If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind. I can teach you, but only you can choose to listen to my teaching.
- There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.
- In the Bible Jesus is quoted as saying, "In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Pursah rhetorically asks in The Disappearance of the Universe, "If he wasn’t a man who had lessons to learn like you, then why would he have to overcome the world in the first place?"
- "....Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."
The message of the crucifixion has been interpreted by the world as a message of sacrifice. That is not the lesson J intended it to be. His lesson was one of resurrection rather than crucifixion. J says there is no death, and that the body is nothing. The church has confused the manner of his death as a call to sacrifice and suffer for God. That is incorrect.
It is not necessary for you to repeat the example of the crucifixion. As J tells you in the Course, "You are not asked to be crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive, and not to accept them as false justifications for anger." Remembering that, all you need to do is understand the real lesson of it and apply it, through your forgiveness attitude, to your own body and your own personal life’s circumstances. Here is part of what J says in the Course in the section titled The Message of the Crucifixion. You will never find a more striking example of refusing to compromise on the truth.
"Assault can ultimately be made only on the body. There is little doubt that one body can assault another, and can even destroy it. Yet if destruction itself is impossible, anything that is destructible cannot be real. Its destruction, therefore, does not justify anger. To the extent to which you believe that it does, you are accepting false premises and teaching them to others. The message the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of assault in persecution, because you cannot be persecuted. If you respond with anger, you must be equating yourself with the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely."
He then goes on to say in that same section, "The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear: Teach only love, for that is what you are. If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended."
Mikey's Note: Just remember that J is not calling for martyrs but for teachers. Like Pursah famously puts in Gary's 2nd book, Your Immortal Reality, "Remember, the Course is done at the level of the mind. If you’re a woman and a man is trying to rape you, kick him in the balls." You can forgive it later.
Another excerpt from Disappearance
The law of forgiveness is this, "Fear binds the world, forgiveness sets it free." The world feels solid to you because fear binds it. It didn't feel solid to J because he had forgiven the world. That's why the nails didn't hurt him as they were being driven into his flesh. Being guiltless, his mind could not suffer – and someday you will attain the condition where you cannot suffer. That is the destiny the Holy Spirit holds out to you when you forgive the episodic fantasies of your bodily addicted ego.
And to close this puppy out with a funny from Disappearance:
Arten: People have a lot of assumptions, but J didn’t come to the world in order to start some religion so people could make other people wrong for having bodies and wanting to use them. He taught forgiveness, and still does, in order to teach people the total insignificance of the body.
Gary: So I can live and forgive simultaneously – and it’s possible to have both an erection and a resurrection.
Arten: That’s true – just not at the same time!
Giddy up!
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