Article by James M. Gannon (Sept 9, 2024)

Significance of Jesus

Sin: as to “Miss the Mark”.

From The Ascents of James by Stephen Andrew Missick: P31: The veil was a barrier between

the Holy of Holies and the rest of the temple = a barrier between God and mankind, When

Jesus died the Veil was Torn – removing the barrier between God and humans.

According to Florence Scoville Shin Jesus essentially allowed us to be under The Law of Grace,

rather than the Law of Karma. We could improve and seek forgiveness instead of suffering

guaranteed retribution for our errors. We learned Gratitude.

Personally I have always considered that Jesus wanted to make clear for people to follow the

Meaning of the Law and not just zombie like following the Letter of the Law, so we stop missing

the point (aka missing the mark = sinning).

When Jesus tells the story of the “poor man Lazarus and the Rich Man” in Luke 16, 19-31: The

story emphasizes an afterlife different from the presumed afterlife of Sheol (Hades in Greek).

Thus Jesus saves us from the despair of death by giving a picture of the afterlife and showing an

eternal justice as well. That is certainly a psychological saving grace. Also, more subtle, is the

fact that Lazarus “was transferred to Abraham’s bosom” and the Rich Man asked Abraham for

assistance, indicates the afterlife is in fact a life, good or bad depending on behavior in this life

realm, but also that Abraham was alive in Jesus’ example which is yet another reminder that

when God states being “God of the Living” he means it.

In cultures such as India, there was/is belief in reincarnation, but that pathway is like pulling

into a roadway rotary and going around indefinitely, but Jesus offers an exit directly to God and

we do not have to keep going through the pains, pressures and drama of life forever: one time

being the lion, the other the gazelle, one time the spider, another the fly, one time a king and

another a beggar, one time a judge, another the thief: No, Jesus gives us the chance to repent

(radical change of heart, or, if you will, an internal reincarnation of self) directly into a Christlike

state.

During the Transfiguration of Jesus, again having Moses and Elijah appear, indicates they were,

and are, living, thus breaking the conceptual chains of death mankind carried and many of us

still carry. Also, I think that location of the Transfiguration was within the Promised Land,

which means Moses did eventually enter the Promised Land ;)

Jesus’ life & death made us worthy. “Don’t ye know you are Gods”? – John 10:34. In Catholic

service we say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the

word and my Soul shall be healed.” I think it should say, ‘Lord, I am honored that you enter

under my roof, you have said the word and my Soul is healed’. In fact, I think it insulting to God

to dwell on the “I’m not worthy”, God made us in his image. That’s like denying Gods Gift, “you

shouldn’t have”. Imagine God saying, “What do you think, I sent a part of triune self, my son

Jesus to live among you and show you the way to paradise and sent my Holy Spirit to dwell

within you to inspire, protect and guide you every moment?” – our conditioned reply, “Really

God, you shouldn’t have”. Is that not an insult?

Jesus taught us to approach God as a loving father rather than as a capricious powerful but

angry entity spewing wrath upon humankind. Which world would you rather live in? Some of

these ideas may not mean as much to us in these times because we live in the post Jesus world,

but think if you lived under the old terms, how much a relief Jesus’ message would be.

However, if you are one who has been “educated/indoctrinated” to believe life on earth was a

random chance event of an single cell life merging from nothing, then an amoeba enveloping

but not digesting a paramecium to form a more complex cellular life and then randomly

becoming more organizationally complex and eventually evolving into something with at least

some capacity of logic, reason and planning and that therefore life means nothing, because it is

all an unlikely random occurrence anyhow: you may find some comfort in Jesus’s message in

knowing that your life and what you do means something. By the way, randomness generally

gets more disorganized (law of entropy), not more organized. Thus even in the randomness

model, there had to be some impetus towards a more complex organization- God. Also those

random events are alleged to have occurred over millions of years to perhaps a billion years,

but statistically should have taken trillions of years – a miracle.

So when those smug self-righteous college admissions czars ask their stupid question, “what is

your privilege”, instead of disavowing your family for generations of honest work and success

and denigrating yourself for your academic achievements, you can say, “My greatest privilege

is, I am a child of God.” According to scripture you could answer that your privilege is, “I am

God”, at least a part of God sent to perform my best service in my domain. Jesus reminding the

religious legal scholars of his day, “Don’t you know you are Gods”, is not a call to decadence,

but to benevolence as an awesome wonder, opportunity and responsibility.

May the blessing of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Ghost be with you always,

James M. Gannon