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Message of the Crucifixion You
have been asked to take me as your model for Everyone teaches, and teaches all the time. This is a responsibility which he inevitably assumes the moment he accepts any premise at all, and no one can organize his life without any thought system. Once he has developed a thought system of any kind, he lives by it and teaches it. For teaching purposes, let us consider the crucifixion again. We have not dwelt on it before, because of its fearful connotations. The only emphasis we laid upon it was that it was not a form of punishment. Nothing, however, can be really explained in negative terms only. There is a positive interpretation of the crucifixion which is wholly devoid of fear, and therefore wholly benign in what it teaches, if it is properly understood.
Its value, like the value of any teaching device, lies solely in the kind of learning it facilitates. It can be, and has been, misunderstood. This is only because the fearful are apt to perceive fearfully. I have already told you that you can always call on me to share my decision and thus make it stronger. I also told you that the crucifixion was the last foolish journey that the Sonship need take, and that it should mean release from fear to anyone who understands it. Your Role As Teachers While we emphasized only the resurrection before, the purpose of the crucifixion and how it actually led to the resurrection was not clarified at that time. Nevertheless, it has a definite contribution to make to your own lives. And if you will consider it without fear, it will help you understand your own role as teachers. You have reacted for years as if you were being crucified. This is a marked tendency of the separated ones, who always refuse to consider what they have done to themselves. Projection (of responsibilty) means anger, anger fosters assault, and assault promotes fear.
This
(assault), of course, is impossible (in reality),
and must be fully understood as an impossibility.
In
fact, unless it is fully understood as only
that, I cannot serve as a real model for learning.
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 (in reality), then anything that is destructible cannot be real. Therefore, its destruction does not justify anger. To the extent to which you believe that it does, you must be accepting false premises and teaching them to others. The
message which 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 (in reality).
I have made it perfectly clear that I am like you, and you are like me, but our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision. You
are free to perceive yourselves as persecuted
if you choose. You might remember, however, If
you will believe it, you will help me to teach it.
We have said before, “As you teach so shall you learn.” If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution. This is not a lesson which the Sons of God should want to teach if they are to realize their own salvation. Rather, teach your own perfect immunity, which is the truth in you, and know that it cannot be assailed. Do not protect it yourselves, or you have believed that it is assailable. 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 falsely as justifications for anger. There can be no justification for the unjustifiable (anger). Do not believe there is, and do not teach that there is. Remember always that what you believe, you will teach.
Re-Awakening Your resurrection is your re-awakening. I am the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your minds of what is already in them. God placed it there Himself, and so it is true forever. I believed in it, and therefore made it forever true for me.
My brothers slept during the so-called “agony” in the garden, but I could not be angry with them because I had learned I could not be abandoned. Peter swore he would never deny me, but he did so three times. He did offer to defend me with the sword, which I naturally refused, not being at all in need of bodily protection. The Way, The Truth and The Light I am sorry when my brothers do not share my decision to hear only one voice—because it weakens them as teachers and as learners—yet I know that they cannot really betray themselves or me, and that it is still on them that I must build my church. There is no choice in this because only you can be the foundation of God’s church. A church is where an altar is, and the presence of the altar is what makes it a church. Any church which does not inspire love has a hidden altar which is not serving the purpose for which God intended it.
Disciples are followers, but if the model they follow
has chosen to save them pain in all respects, they
are probably unwise not to follow him.
We are still equal as learners, even though we need not have equal experiences. The Holy Spirit is glad when you can learn enough from mine to be re-awakened by them. That was their only purpose, and that is the only way in which I can be perceived as
Hear Only His Voice
On the contrary, by enabling yourselves to hear the Holy Spirit in others, you can learn from their experiences, and gain from them without experiencing them yourselves. That is because the Holy Spirit is one, and anyone who listens is inevitably led to demonstrate His way for all.
You are not asked to repeat my experiences because the Holy Spirit, Whom we share, makes this unnecessary. To use my experiences constructively, however, you must still follow my example in how to perceive them.
My one lesson, which I must teach as I learned, is that no perception which is out of accord with the judgment of the Holy Spirit can be justified. I undertook to show this was true in a very extreme case, merely because it would serve as a good teaching aid to those whose temptations to give in to anger and assault would not be so extreme.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is the communication link between God the Father and His separated Sons.
When
you perceive only this need in them and
do not respond to any other, you will have learned
of me, and will be as eager to share your learning
as I am.
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A Course in Miracles is a self-study curriculum that guides students toward a spiritual way of life by restoring their contact with what it calls the Holy Spirit.
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Upside-Down Thinking In the New Testament The crucifixion cannot be shared because it is the symbol of projection, but the resurrection is the symbol of sharing because the re-awakening of every Son of God is necessary to enable the Sonship to know its wholeness. Only this is knowledge. 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. The
Apostles often misunderstood it, and always for the same reason
that makes anyone misunderstand Nor could they speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger because their own sense of guilt had made them angry. There are two (2) glaring examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament, whose whole gospel is only the message of love. These are not like the several slips into impatience which I made. I had learned the Atonement Prayer, which I also came to teach, too well to engage in upside-down thinking myself. (1) If the Apostles had not felt guilty they never could have quoted me as saying, “I come not to bring peace but a sword.” Matthew 10:34 This is clearly the exact opposite of everything I taught. (2) Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did if they had really understood me. They would have realized I could not have said, “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” Luke 22:48 unless I believed in betrayal. The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did not. The “punishment” which I am said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar reversal. Judas was my brother and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself. Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible? I am very grateful to the Apostles for their teaching and fully aware of the extent of their devotion to me. Nevertheless, as you read their teachings, remember that I told them myself that there was much they would understand later because they were not wholly ready to follow me at the time. (John 16:12 and John 16:25) I emphasize this only because I do not want you to allow any fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am guiding you. I do not call for martyrs, but for teachers. No one is “punished” for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners. Any concept of “punishment” involves the projection of blame, and re-inforces the idea that blame is justified. The behavior that results is a lesson in blame, just as all behavior teaches the beliefs which motivate it. The crucifixion was a complex of behaviors arising out of clearly opposed thought systems. As such, it was the perfect symbol of conflict between the ego and the Son of God. The conflict is just as real now, and its lessons, too, have equal reality when they are learned. I do not need gratitude any more than I needed protection, but you need to develop your weakened ability to be grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. He does not need your appreciation, but you do. You cannot love what you do not appreciate, and fear makes appreciation impossible. Separation Is The Notion of Rejection Whenever you are afraid of what you are you do not appreciate it, and will therefore reject it. As a result, you will teach rejection. The power of the Sons of God is operating all the time because they were created as creators. Their influence on each other is without limit, and must be used for their joint salvation. Each one must learn to teach that all forms of rejection are utterly meaningless. The separation is the notion of rejection. As long as you teach this (rejection), you still believe it. This is not as God thinks, and you must think as He thinks if you are to know Him again. |
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