METAPHYSICAL INTERPRETATION OF JOHN CHAPTER 2
2:1And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2:2and Jesus also was bidden, and his disciples, to the marriage. 2:3And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 2:4And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 2:5His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. 2:6Now there were six waterpots of stone set there after the Jews' manner of purifying, containing two or three firkins apiece. 2:7Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 2:8And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the ruler of the feast. And they bare it. 2:9And when the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and knew not whence it was (but the servants that had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast calleth the bridegroom, 2:10and saith unto him, Every man setteth on first the good wine; and when men have drunk freely, then that which is worse: thou hast kept the good wine until now.2:11This beginning of his signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
SPIRITUALLY A marriage represents the union of two dominant states of consciousness. Mary, the mother of Jesus, represents intuition, the spiritual soul, Eve, "the mother of all living." Jesus is the personal I AM and His apostles are the twelve faculties.
Cana is a "place of reeds"; so is the larynx found in the body. The name Galilee means "to whirl"; air is rapidly forced through the larynx in speaking or singing. The apostles represent the dominant
nerve centers, the spiritual symbolism of each being concealed in the name. Philip means "one who is fond of horses." The horse symbolizes vigor, vitality, power. Vigor or its opposite, weakness, is betrayed by the voice, so we designate Philip as the power faculty, and his place in body expression is in the larynx (at Cana).
Water may be compared to natural or human life, and wine to spiritual life. In the regeneration spirit and body are united, but before this union can be accomplished the exhausted natural life must be quickened with spirit (symbolized by the turning of water into wine). This lack of vitalizing life is first realized by Mary, the source of all life, but Jesus, the directive I AM in all bodily activities, does not feel that He is yet ready to perform this seeming miracle and pleads delay: "Mine hour has not yet come."
But the urge of the inner forces is strong and the confident mother is sure that her son can do all things: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."
The water pots filled to the brim with water by the servants represent the extent to which nature is prepared to fulfill the transformation from negative life to spiritual life through the power of the word of the Master, Jesus: "Draw out now, and bear to the ruler of the feast." The ruler of the feast, the supreme I AM, pronounced the transformed water to be superior to the best wine.
This transformation of the negative, watery fluid of the organism into vitalizing Spirit is accomplished by adding to every word a spiritual idea. The idea of omnipresent life will then quicken the natural life
in man, and it will make conscious contact with the one life and draw it out for the benefit of the many.
When the I is "lifted up" there is a higher vital action imparted to the whole consciousness. Jesus said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." The lifting up of the I is the result of spiritual perception of Truth. When we discern the real truth of being and our relation to it, there is a new and higher consciousness established. This greater energy is first imparted to the soul or thought realm and through it to the body. This whole process is under law. There is a definite consecutive connection of thought and thing, through laws that may be discerned by man and used universally. At the close of chapter 1, Jesus had caught sight of the spiritual realm and said: "Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
This high perception of man's union, through the I AM, with the divine harmony sets up a sympathetic vibration that is imparted to every part of consciousness. The marriage that took place in Cana of Galilee symbolizes this union in which the negative watery elements of the body were "lifted up" to wine or Spirit. A Bible authority says that His remark is more correctly stated in the words: "Woman, what is there between me and thee?" This interrogation depicts the questioning attitude of the personal I AM, Jesus. It is not clear in its understanding of what is to be done. It is looking forward to a time when it will act, but its "hour is not yet come." We find ourselves wanting to see all the
steps of our actions before we begin, but in spiritual processes we have to proceed without foreknowing the various steps. If we go ahead and speak the word, the law will see us through. The elemental forces of Being (servants) are at hand to carry out our orders, and the intuitive perfection of Truth (woman) within us commands that those forces do our bidding.
The symbolism of this miracle has to do with the abundance of vital energy that may be generated from a union of man with the "water of life" or nerve substance in the various centers of his organism. With every thought we are putting the nerve substance into a state of action, and it rushes to any part of the body that is the center of attention. When we have been much excited or interested there is a concentration of vitality in the head, and if we do not know how to restore and equalize this vitality again in the body, we have a headache or the stuffy condition called a cold. To equalize: Center the attention in the larynx and declare, "All equalizing, harmonizing power is given unto me in mind and body."
In regeneration there is a permanent transmutation of physical vitality into higher consciousness, and a new element is introduced into the organism. "The ruler of the feast" (the Lord) praises the transmuted substance as the best offered at the wedding feast.
2:12After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples; and there they abode not many days.
Capernaum designates or represents an inner conviction of the abiding compassion and restoring power of Being. When one enters this state of consciousness a healing virtue pours out of the soul and transforms all discord into harmony.
Jesus and His mother and His brethren and His disciples went into this state of consciousness.
2:13And the passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
It is the nature of thought to repeat itself. At each repetition it will grow stronger or weaker as it is consciously recognized or ignored by man. Thus we can cultivate a good movement of the mind by giving it a special affirmation (feast). The Feast of the Passover that Jesus went up to Jerusalem to attend symbolizes an escape from bondage. When we begin to discipline our mind we always go up in consciousness, because it is from our spiritual height that we see things clearly and in their right relation.
2:14And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
When we throw the light of Spirit into the subconscious courts of the body temple, we find queer and often startling conditions there. One would hardly expect to see butcher stalls and money-changers in a temple built for the worship of God, yet similar conditions exist in all of us.
2:15and he made a scourge of cords, and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables; 2:16and to them that sold the doves he said, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.
So the body temple must be cleansed; it is the house of God ("for we are a temple of the living God"), and it should be put in order. The first step in this cleansing process is to recognize its need. The next step is the "scourge of small cords" (A.V.): to formulate the word or statement of denial. When we deny in general terms we cleanse the consciousness, but secret sins may yet lurk in the inner parts. The words that most easily reach these hidden errors are not great ones, such as "I am one with Almightiness; my environment is God" but small, definite statements that cut like whipcords into the sensuous, fleshly mentality.
To get perfect results it is necessary to deal with our mind in both the absolute and the relative. In the early morning we may affirm, "All the affairs of my life are under the law of justice, and my own comes to me in ways divine," and before noon find ourselves searching the papers for advertisements of bargains in the stores. Such an experience shows that we have not gone into the temple and tipped over the tables and scattered the coins.
2:17His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for thy house shall eat me up.
Excessive zeal in observing the forms of religious worship eats up the truly spiritual. "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." When we become
very zealous in observing the rites of the church, we are prone to forget the church itself, which is Christ.
The light of Jesus Christ is, symbolically, the life of everyone who enters the same state of mind that He did. You always reap the consequences of your thought, and to enter the Christ Mind you have but to think along Jesus Christ lines.
Every man produces a thought atmosphere that has character and power in proportion to his ability as a thinker. Power increases with expansion; in thought, power is great or small as the ideals are high or low. When you follow narrow ideals your thought atmosphere is correspondingly contracted; but mental breadth enlarges and strengthens it in all directions.
"How can a man conceal himself?" said Confucius. In the light of the ever-present thought atmosphere with which we surround ourselves, he cannot. Nearly all people have the ability of sensing the thought atmosphere of those they meet; and a man may cultivate this ability to project himself until he becomes an open book and the air about him is filled with his silent yet potent words, ever telling what he has thought.
The thought atmosphere is a real, substantial thing, and has in it all that makes the body. We have a way of considering the things we cannot see as unsubstantial, and although we are told that we cannot conceal ourselves we go right on believing that we can. Hence it is good for us to know that of a truth we do carry about with us this open book
of our life, out of which all persons read whether we realize it or not. Some people are good thought readers while others are dull, but all can read a little, and you cannot conceal yourself. Also your thought atmosphere is constantly printing its slowly cooling words on your body, where they are seen of men. But with a little practice we can feet the thought force of this atmosphere that surrounds us and gradually gain a realization of its existence that is as real as that of the outer world.
"Think on these things," said Paul. Think about Christ as a life force penetrating your whole being. Try to feel this force as an energy pulsating through every nerve and fiber of your body. Then imagine you can see this life force as a light lighting up every cell. Light represents intelligence, and when the light in you breaks forth into understanding you will know that there is a spiritual mind that is as much greater than the ordinary mind as the sun is greater than the moon. In Him is life, and this life is the light of men.
2:18The Jews therefore answered and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 2:19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 2:20The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? 2:21But he spake of the temple of his body. 2:22When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spake this; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
That the temple referred to means the body is
clearly stated in verse 21: "But he spake of the temple of his body." Man's ability to preserve his body from destruction is the proof that he has mastered his mind. So long as our body shows signs of decay it is evident that we have not cast out of the inner realms the "thought butchers" that for a sacrifice kill doves, sheep, oxen, and goats. The allusion here is to the destructive thoughts lying deep in the consciousness at the very issues of life.
The "three days" are spirit, soul, and body, the three "degrees" or parts of man's consciousness. When the I AM of man has purified and mastered these three, man is in the dominion proclaimed for him in the 1st chapter of Genesis; the Scripture or Word of God is fulfilled in him, and his faculties (disciples) recognize and respond to it every time that the uplifting word (the resurrecting word) is proclaimed.
2:23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, during the feast, many believed on his name, beholding his signs which he did. 2:24But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, 2:25and because he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.
Truth is of the absolute order and does not have to be proved. Jesus recognized this fact and therefore did not feel it necessary to place any great value on the opinion of those who had not yet fully attained spiritual consciousness.
