(Back) Jesus Rejoices Jesus Visits Martha and Mary (Next)
This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Winter semester 1976 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Part of Lecture 30 given on March 22, 1976
10:25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and made trial of him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 10:26And he said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 10:27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. 10:28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 10:29But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 10:30Jesus made answer and said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 10:31And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 10:32And in like manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side.10:33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, 10:34and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 10:35And on the morrow he took out two shillings, and gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee.10:36Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers? 10:37And he said, He that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Right after this discourse, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives the very, very famous parable of the Good Samaritan, that is Luke 10:25-37. I will not read the parable, but an interesting thing is that among the parables of Jesus, this one about the good Samaritan seems to be the least understood, metaphysically, for the very logical reason that it is usually taken quite literally. Now, this alone, rather defeats the purpose of the parable. You see, a parable is a story not meant to be taken literally. It is a story which says one thing containing a meaning that is something else, and that is what makes it a parable, you see. Taking the parable or the story of the formed parable as the meaning, cancels out the parable. Then you are dealing with literalism and fact, so when the Gospels designate that something that Jesus is saying is a parable, which it does over and over again, we have to immediately reconcile ourselves that it does not say what it means. The meaning is within, either what is not said, or on a level of interpretation not found in the narrative itself as such.
Now, in the case of the story of the good Samaritan, what is the meaning of the story? Many people could answer this way: It means we ought to be kind to injured strangers. Do you need a parable to tell you that? If that is the meaning, then the story is not a parable, because the story is about being kind to injured strangers. So, we have to regard this story as a parable in order to gain the understanding of Jesus' meaning, which is always metaphysical, never sociological. First, we must determine who this "certain man" is who gets beaten and robbed and left half-dead. Who are the passing priests and Levites? Who is the helpful Samaritan? What are the oil and the wine which are poured on the wounds? What is the point and meaning behind all this? So, first, we get our first clue as to who this "certain man" is when we read that he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Anytime the words down are used in Jesus' parable or in most parts of the Bible, down usually refers to externalization into manifestation, into physical matter, into greater limitation, grosser vibratory rate, etc. Jerusalem means habitation of peace, and metaphysically it stands for the innermost spiritual dimension of consciousness, while the word Jericho means his breath, his soul. Metaphysically, he stands for the intellectual nature of man, leading more and more into the material and limits of manifestation.
The activity of our consciousness is a movement from the spiritual center through the mental phase, Jericho; its direction is designated as going down, in the Bible, or more toward exteriorization. Man's consciousness, then, moves from center to circumference, from interior to exterior, from on high, source, to resulting manifestation. So, your consciousness, moving from the within of you, toward the without of you, is called externalized direction of consciousness; and it is the most important part of the process which produces your manifest, physical organism. According to almost all schools of metaphysical and occult thought. It is the externalization of consciousness, which is directly behind and responsible for the formation of the garment of the physical organism. This is the key, the clue, which tells us who the “certain man" of our parable is. He is the physical body of each one of us, the physical organism, the product of our current externalized consciousness, poor physical worries.
Jesus says some naughty things happen to the poor physical body; for instance, it falls among robbers, who strip him, beat him, and leave him half-dead, all too true. Our physical body does become the victim of robbers. In our Bible, robbers and thieves stand for our own negative thoughts, erroneous beliefs, destructive emotions, which result in depletion and regeneration of the manifesting body cells. See how they do rob the physical body manifestation. Pressure, exhaustion, bad habits - these and many other things play havoc with our physical body manifestation. Even such a so-called normal thing as the belief in the reality of time passing is an erroneous belief, and everybody is falling for it; all over the place, the belief that time passes is accepted by people and the belief becomes apparent in their body organism. We have all tuned in together and belief in this as a reality, because the clock moves, you see.
Another one of the most persistent and dangerous robbers of the body is this very mysterious manifestation of collective negative thinking, which we call accidents, robbing people's body organisms left and right of comfort and ease of functioning, of capability - the robber: accidents. All these things we have mentioned can cause the physical body to become sick, injured, and depleted to a practically half-dead state, or as Jesus symbolically states it, "leaving the certain man stripped, beaten, and half-dead." Then Jesus introduces the characters of a passing priest, a passing Levite, and a good Samaritan, who does not just pass by but stops and does something helpful and promises to return and give more help if necessary. You see, here we are reminded of the incident wherein the disciples evidently were quite willing to simply have diagnose the sin that caused the blindness and then "better luck next incarnation". Jesus would not have that. Jesus goes over and makes the contact and does the work, which was possible to do there; and these passing priests and passing Levites would simply mean the reaction of intellectually taking notice of but justifying or analyzing or karmic reading or psychoanalyzing, what happened here, but no more than that. You see, these first two characters stand for useless or unhelpful attitudes, which we might sometimes have toward sick or injured body conditions. It might be resentment.
You know, some persons do feel a sort of resentment toward a physical organism that is sick or injured. "I just resent the fact that you exist, that this is happening." "Since it was probably your own consciousness that drew it to you, I resent you." A lot of nurses seem to have that attitude once in a while. It is very disturbing to a patient, and yet we know that they are not permanent attitudes. Some persons also get the feeling that their body has become ill or an accident has happened to it on purpose, "that he should be born blind" on purpose, just to cause them trouble; and then they resent it.
Then there is the attitude of fear. There are times when we actually fear a sick or injured body, our own or another's. There is something about the state of it that causes a fear reaction in us, also fearing that it cannot be helped or healed; and this strikes terror in some person's reactions. Of course we have the ultimate fear in this respect: the fear that a sick body can kill them. But notice Jesus designates these false and useless attitudes about the body as “passing”, doesn't He? They are not arriving, they are not to stay, they are passing: passing priest, passing Levite. In other words, these negative reactions of ours toward the body are not permanent. All false and useless beliefs and attitudes toward the body, especially toward it's sickness or injuries, and what can be done, are passing away. In their place is coming knowledge of truth, just as in the place of the unhelpful priest and Levite, comes the good, helpful Samaritan. Jesus is actually tracing a pattern of evolution, here, in the race consciousness.
The Samaritan, used in this parable, would represent the right reaction, the right belief and helpful attitude to have toward the physical body after it has become sick or injured or depleted in any way.
Jesus says that the Samaritan, as he approached the injured man, came where he was. Does that say anything to you? "Came where he was", instead of saying, "You ought to be where I am." This is a subtle thing. You come in contact with a sick or injured body, and you must watch that something insidious does not say, "Well, I am not sick. I am not injured. Why aren't you where I am?" No, you go to where he is, where the need exists, with your compassion; with your acceptance, with your belief? No. But your compassion? Yes. Make contact. Jesus said, "He came to where he was, and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion and came to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine."
He came where he was, meaning that a need for help in healing must be recognized and acknowledged right when and where it confronts us. Wishful thinking has no bearing in an emergency. When we encounter a need for healing, we should react positively to it, and would this be resentment, fear, indignation, difference? No. These are all incorrect reactions, because they are of no help. That is what makes them incorrect. They do not help and are symbolized in the passing priests and Levites.
The first correct reaction to a healing need in any physical body is compassion. The compassion in the Samaritan was expressed in the outpouring of oil and wine upon the injured body. In the Bible, to outpour means, first, to share our consciousness with, of course, and then to think and speak words. This is to outpour words. Oil symbolizes love and compassion. Wine symbolizes the realization of spiritual light, so to outpour oil and wine on wounds means to think and speak compassionate healing words with love, as motivation, toward the damaged body. In these few words, Jesus has given us the pattern for proper and useful reactions and attitudes to have toward the physical body in time of need for healing; but please understand this, friends. This is not a lesson in healing! It is a lesson in how to react in a need for healing.
The good Samaritan parable is not a parable on how to heal, but how to react to an unpleasant healing need. It is just as valid as any other kind of Truth lesson, so the love for it and compassion for it and thoughts and words of spiritual light poured out upon the fact; so in essence this parable of the good Samaritan is a metaphysical outline of these important points: first, points not helpful to approaching healing. Healing of these beliefs, these reactions, are not helpful to the practice of spiritual healing. Healing is not helped by pretending sickness does not exist. Healing is not helped by theory or diagnosing illness. Healing is not helped by resenting the body for becoming sick nor judging why the sickness occurred.
Text of the original transcript of second paragraph of p.188 through the first three paragraphs of p.190.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-06-2014
