My Teachings, As Jesus

WED., JAN. 20, 1993, 8:58 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

The Wednesday morning study group has reassembled, and the decision is to launch into a study of My most famous teaching, when I inhabited the earth, as Jesus. Take Richard’s advice and read through the entire “Sermon”, at least every other day. Get the feel of what I said. Let the understanding come from your spirit rather than just your mind. If you approach the learning in this way I guarantee that it will be a good experience.

I taught in a number of ways. This “Sermon” that My disciple Matthew recalled was not delivered in exactly this way, but there were no tape recorders or video cameras to leave a permanent, accurate record of what happened that day on that mountain. I did say all of what is recorded in that Gospel, so it is unimportant whether it was all said at that time and in that sequence.

You must always remember that what is written as Holy Scripture has, finally, quite a mystical quality to it. This means it could be understood and applied by each disciple, by those varied folk in the multitude on that mountain (or was it a plain?), by Christians in the 4th, 14th, and 19th centuries, and by Christians in today’s middle class America, in a Bolivian village, in a Korean congregation… by Orthodox and by Pentecostals… an endless variety. The so-called misinterpretations that Richard presented are better labeled “different interpretations, for there are some hearers (or have been) for whom each approach is just right. The writer who so labeled these was not wrong, though it would have been more accurate to say that these were 6 approaches that he considered inadequate. One of My teaching approaches, as Jesus, was to ask several disciples how each interpreted what I had said, comparing these perceptions. Though the Gospels don’t reflect this well, I was very sold on dialogue and interchange, not so much to establish one way of understanding My admonition, story, or parable as to have them see several ways that it could touch spirits.

At the beginning of this “sermon” there are statements called Beatitudes. This can have several meanings. One I want you to ponder is that these are descriptions of beautiful living. In one sense they are ideals. In another they are challenges to be gentle and non-demanding. When you do live a particular situation in accordance with even one of these pronouncements you can feel beautiful. Use the term “blessed,” and you can expect and feel some sense of having been blessed by Me… or by someone in your life who might represent Me. Use the term “happy” and you have a description of an internal, spiritual feeling that comes from attempting to be beautiful in one of the ways I offered.

Each of these represents an expected encounter with Me, the Holy Spirit. I can, as an external force, bless what you do, attempt to do, even intend to do. As an internal “presence” I can help you feel happy that you are on a path close to the one I describe.