Good News / MetaFaith

The Christ Within Us All
by Hermit Crab 23.01.2006, changed 01.02.2006

Feedback Tell a friend Print

To not know that we have eternal life is, in a sense— in terms of our human experience —not to have it. This is because to wonder about it or doubt it is to hold it out as speculation, or a fantasy from a book one doesn't believe, i.e. something that can never be fully experienced. This is why we feel fragmented and alone in the universe: the tools that we've grown accustomed to using to know our way through the world are insufficient to know concepts like eternal life and God (except through use of symbols, which are not the real thing and therefore always subject to debate).

Jesus' ministry was to bring experiential knowledge of these blessings, knowledge that would heal wounds, calm our fears and erase those lines of fragmentation, within ourselves and among each other. He did not appeal to our tools of knowledge; He appealed directly to the experiencer—to God within us.

This was a revolutionary message in a part of the world and a time where it was assumed that no one had eternal life unless it was somehow earned, as if we could cajole God into dispensing his infinite blessings through the right sacrifice or the right prayer. Jesus sliced right through all of that and spoke plainly to the people: trust in God, and all will be provided. All he asked was that we trust his message, believe that he spoke the truth, that he knew of what he spoke from experience, not theoretical learning. He pointed out that heaven is not a place out there for theologians to speculate about and priests to buy and sell. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you, he said—all of you. Jew, Samaritan, Gentile: doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be accrued or acquired; it's there. Know it or not, you are spiritually alive.

Of course, Yahshua ben Yosef died almost 2000 years ago. Who was he? Where did he come from? This is theological fodder that I don't think he would have wanted to stand before his message. Men tend to believe what is given to them on authority, so He claimed the ultimate authority for His teachings, but I don't sense that He meant for His teachings to stand or fall based on His claim of authority—a cart-before-the-horse arrangement for sure. If the teachings don't resonate in our hearts, the claim of authority is useless.

And this is why almost 2000 years later we as Christians can talk of the man as a living savior: not because His teachings and exploits are preserved in a book, and not because He was pointing to Himself as the Way, but because, in short— and here's the exclamation point folks —because Jesus was a finger pointing to the Christ within us all. He identified Himself with Christ and nothing less, and he asked us to do the same. Die to your life in this world— your ego —and you will be able to know the Life—what was translated in the New Testament Greek as Khristos. This was the only way to bring about the Messianic Age that His people were waiting for (and still are). This is the way to know Life is eternal.

Sure, he said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) But for whom was He speaking when He said that? Yahshua ben Yosef? He died to that man three years before He was crucified. So whom was He talking about?

Aw buddy, aw buddy. It's Christ himself buddy, Christ himself. The Word of God in all.

[Editor's Note: This article excerpted from Chapter 14 of The Camerado Chronicles which are featured on the Fish Out Of Water Project (www.foow.org) and is republished here with the author's permission. The icon of Christ is borrowed from www.goarch.org.]