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SearchDoesn't everyone feel a great need, deep down, to get to know Jesus?
Question:
We feel that there is a great need to get to know Jesus and to connect from the heart. Is it only we who feel this way, or do you find this need expressed everywhere you go?
Answer:
To get to know Jesus is to get to know yourSelf. Jesus is a good topic to go into deeply. It is impossible to get to know the historical Jesus, because the true Jesus is the I AM presence. Many people have resistance to the name of Jesus and have a lot of issues with him. Some have been raised to fear him. Even Helen Schucman who scribed the Course became angry with Jesus. Much of her poetry expresses feelings of abandonment and rejection, as if she was saying: How could you leave me here?
On the flip side are feelings of making Jesus special, as if he is somehow different from everyone else. One of the most confusing parts of ACIM, for many students, is when Jesus says: "Forgive me your illusions." People ask me, “Why do I have to forgive Jesus? Of all people, why Jesus? I can see forgiving my uncle Fred or my Aunt Jane, my father, my mother, my children, but why do I have to forgive Jesus?” What Jesus means by this is that we must forgive the illusion. He means you will have to forgive the body. You will have to forgive the concept of the person of Jesus. You will have to forgive the apostles. You will have to forgive the whole drama of 2000 years ago. And while you're at it, you have to forgive all of history. In other words, the Christ idea is not male or female, and the Christ idea was never a body. This is the final step in accepting yourself as Christ and involves forgiving the person of Jesus. Jesus encourages us to accept the lessons: "I am as God created me." "I am Spirit." "I am not a body. I am free."
Many Christians want to have a personal relationship with him, and this is like a stepping stone for them. What they really want is a sense of intimacy with Jesus, as if he is guiding them in their hearts.
But as you work with "A Course in Miracles," you will see that all personal relationships are undone, and you are left in a divine relationship with our Creator, just like Jesus, who said: "I and the Father are one." God is no respecter of persons. Even Jesus when he was in a teaching session refused to stop it for his mother. He continued teaching, saying "Who is my father, mother, sister, brother?" His hand swung across the whole room: "He that does our Father's Will is my father, mother, sister, brother." So no person was special to Jesus. He saw that everyone was the Christ.
Love,
David