"Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? ..." (Luke 5:22-24)

"Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." (Luke 5:22-24)

Here Jesus is responding to Jewish teachers who were in the crowd who were questioning Jesus' ability to forgive sins. The text states:

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Luke 5:21)

Does this offensive thinking by the Pharisees and the Jewish teachers mean that Jesus is God since he was able to forgive the man's sins? 

Did they understand why Jesus could forgive sins?

No, because they did not know who Jesus was. The reason they do not know him is that they are trying to cheat their way into their authority. They have no real authority. Their seminary degrees and appointments by high priests - and today by bishops and deacons - offer them no access to the spiritual realm of love for God. These degrees and appointments only offer authority over physical things: Jewish temples, church buildings, organizations, money and so on, together with those rewards and salaries in return for their services.

And while they might be able to give eloquent sermons on Saturday or Sunday, unfortunately, their sermons have no power to change people's hearts. Some might even offer confessions or other rituals supposed to forgive people of their sins in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet these rituals have no effect. They cannot deliver the authority of Jesus or God because that authority only comes from a heart full of love for God - which Jesus had. Such authority doesn't come from seminary degrees, appointments by high priests, deacons or bishops, or elections by cardinals.

So how did Jesus gain the authority to forgive sins? Only through love of God, and the granting of this authority by the Supreme Being.

This is why Jesus said:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matt. 28:18)

"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in himself. And He has given him authority to judge because he is the son of man." (John 5:26-27)

The key to this lies in the question:

What does "son of man" mean?

The English phrase, "son of man," has no practical meaning. Why would it be such an important title for Jesus to attribute to himself? Every man is a son of a man. Why is this so special?

The problem lies in the translation of the Greek phrase, υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. The word υἱός (huios) has been translated to "son" incorrectly in this context. υἱός can mean a male offspring with regard to the family, but the word also refers to a devotional relationship. Thayer's Greek lexicon states that υἱός can be "used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower." Consider this for a moment. Someone who depends on someone and follows that person is devoted to the person they are following, yes?

This means that the correct translation of υἱός (huios) in this context - Jesus' referring to himself, should be either "follower," "devotee" or "devoted servant."

The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos) can mean "man," "mankind" or "humanity." Jesus is obviously not speaking of a specific man. He can only be speaking of mankind, humankind or humanity.

Thus the appropriate translation of υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (τοῦ means "of") would be:

'Servant of Humanity'

Why does Jesus consider being a servant of humanity so special? Consider what he told his close disciples:

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (Mark 9:35)

"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve..." (Mark 10:42-45)

God also gave this same title ("son of man" = "servant of humanity") to Ezekial. And both Job and David also referred to themselves with the same title.

This is the essence of Jesus' position, and he is encouraging his students to also take up that position. And what is that position? It is the position of servant. Jesus is God's servant, and by virtue of his service to God, he is also the servant of all of God's children.

Why? Because Jesus' service is to bring us back to the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being loves each of us and wants us to come home to Him. He wants us to return to our natural position as one of His loving servants. Why? Because the Supreme Being loves us. He wants us to be happy. And we can only be happy when we are in our natural position.

Just as Jesus' position as the servant of humanity is expressed with the phrase, υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, Jesus' position as the servant of God is expressed with the Greek phrase, υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ. The Greek word θεοῦ (theosis) is God's Holy Name. Thus Jesus is being described as the devoted servant of God.

Knowing these facts, we can now understand why Jesus has the authority to forgive someone's sins.

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matt. 28:18)

"For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man." (John 5:26-27)

The authority that Jesus is referring to is not his. By his own admission, this authority has been given to Jesus. This means the authority is not from Jesus, but the Supreme Being.

The Supreme Being never has to be given authority. Authority originates with the Supreme Being. Thus we can know from Jesus' referral to himself as servant, and as being given authority, that by acting as the Supreme Being's confidential loving servant, Jesus is given certain authority.

Now what exactly is the authority to "forgive sins"? What is "sin" and what is "forgiveness"?

Here "sin" is translated from ἁμαρτία (hamartia), meaning to "to err, be mistaken," "miss the mark," "an offense" and "to wander from the law of God, violate God's law."

A sin is thus a self-centered act, and sinning is self-centered consciousness. It is a consciousness that sees me as the center of the universe. It sees my happiness as my central mission. Thus, self-centeredness is the opposite of love.

What is the essence of "God's law"?

Love for God, as taught by Jesus, Moses and others, as the central, key commandment (Matt. 22:37, Deut. 6:5).

The Supreme Being set up the physical world and these physical bodies with consequences. This is because this is a place of learning - a rehabilitation center of sorts, for those of us who turned our back on the Supreme Being and our true nature.

Thus, every self-centered act has a consequence. Furthermore, the consciousness of being self-centered has a great effect: The effect of offensiveness. By being self-centered, we are ignoring the Supreme Being. By ignoring the Supreme Being, we are offending Him.

This is why "sins" are spoken of as being forgiven. A person who forgives another person has been slighted somehow by that other person. If it was an automatic process of removal, the phrase would be "your sins are removed."

This is similar to Jesus' situation. Such a servant of the Supreme Being and a servant of humanity is given authorization by God to act on His behalf. This includes forgiving sins because Jesus knows under what circumstances the Supreme Being requires to have that person's sins forgiven. He has been authorized through his loving service relationship with God.

And the Supreme Being, who enjoys a close loving relationship with His loving servant, always complies with His devoted servant and immediately forgives the person. It is actually quite immediate because God's loving servant enjoys such a trusting relationship with God that the Supreme Being immediately executes the desires of His loving servant.

This is because the desire of the loving servant is linked up with God's desires. Their desires are one and the same, because of the devotional love of God's servant.

Thus, practically any contact with God's loving servant will have a purifying effect - because of that relationship of love that exists between God and His loving servant. This can even include a picture or other representation of God's representative.

This is why the man's paralysis also became cured. Because the consequences of his past activities that created his current physical condition - his paralysis - were forgiven and removed from the person.

The Supreme Being is ready to forgive any of us for our sinful nature. But in order to be forgiven of something we have to also feel sorry.

Let's say that we bumped into a person while walking down the street, and he fell down. Would the person forgive us if we yelled at them for being in our way? Would they forgive us if we just walked on and left them laying on the ground?

But if we stopped and said we were so sorry, and then helped them up, we would certainly be forgiven by the man.

Will God forgive us?

The Supreme Being doesn't need us to be sorry in order to be forgiven. He already forgives us. But in order to be relieved of the consequences of our previous acts, our consciousness must change. We have to become sorry for those activities. We have to feel sorry that we have ignored the Supreme Being for so long. In this condition, the consequences of our self-centered life will be relieved.

Typically a person cannot do this alone. This is because the physical world is so strong, and our envy and self-centeredness are so ingrained that it is nearly impossible for us to have a change of heart, and thus become cleansed of the consequences of our prior self-centered activities and consciousness.

This is where the representative of the Supreme Being comes in. Jesus is God's representative, and his teachings have the ability to change a person's heart from being self-centered to being God-centered. He can introduce us to the Supreme Being, and change our consciousness from self-centeredness to loving the Supreme Being.

This allows one's entrance into the spiritual realm, as the spiritual realm is the domain where its citizens each enjoy a fulfilling loving service relationship with the Supreme Being.

Because the loving servant of the Supreme Being is engaged in a loving relationship with God, and because of their love and commitment to God's children to help them, the Supreme Being bestows upon His representative powers as needed to change the hearts of others.

And as those hearts are changed by the teachings and activities of God's representative and loving servant, our consciousness can change, and we can also enter into the devoted servitude of the Supreme Being - as Jesus asked his disciples to enter into.

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged...." (Luke 6:37)

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37)

Why is Jesus saying this?

Jesus is speaking to "a large crowd of his disciples" according to Luke 6:17. This means not only that Jesus had far more than 12 disciples. He had many followers who had become disciples.

Now Jesus is providing key takeaway teachings that his students can apply to their lives immediately. This central teaching is not only applicable then to his disciples. It is applicable to practically everyone.

Ultimately, Jesus is discussing a common issue that most of us have: That we tend to easily judge others, and will often condemn others with our statements.

When we sit in judgment of others, we are considering ourselves above those we judge. What we do not realize is that our judging of others actually degrades us.

Judging others is not our natural position. Judgment only belongs to those who are full of knowledge - as God is. By judging others, we are mistakenly putting ourselves in the position of God: That of knowing everything.

Do we know everything?

No. Knowing everything is not our natural position. Our senses are limited. Our minds and brains are limited. We cannot claim to understand much at all, because we are limited by nature.

The Supreme Being, however, knows everything and controls everything. Therefore, only He can sit in judgment. Only He can truly understand everyone enough to judge us.

We may be children of God, but we are children of God. Consider, for example, a child who is born into a family. Can the newborn child start making decisions about what happens among the family members? No, because the child doesn't know anything. The child is a newcomer.

But the mother and father are aware of the family because they've been around. So they are able to make decisions about things should go, because they are aware. They are knowledgeable. The newborn baby is not. The newborn is a newcomer.

Isn't this our position?

Even if we have been living on this planet for a few decades, we are still newcomers compared to God. We are ignorant when we compare ourselves to the Supreme Being, who knows everything. When we are in the newcomer position we should reserve judgment. When we don't know what is what and who is who - we don't have any business judging others.

Our lack of awareness comes from the fact that we are separated from God. We are separated from the Source of knowledge.

When separated from God and acting on our own behalf we have no knowledge. We are separated from the Source of power and authority.

But when we assume our natural position as God's loving caregiver - serving God with love - we can become connected. Being connected allows us to have greater knowledge, and this creates compassion towards others - the opposite of judgment.

Connecting with God also fulfills our ultimate position of humility - not false humility, but the real humility of accepting our actual position as one of God's loving servants.

When we act on behalf of the Supreme Being we fulfill our needs to love and be loved. To care for and be cared for.

This is why becoming forgiving of others, as Jesus states, results in our being forgiven. When we are tolerant of others, understanding of others, caring for others, and forgiving of others when they may offend us, we become linked up with the Supreme Being because this is God's nature. God loves us unconditionally, and understands us, is tolerant of us, and is forgiving.

We become linked up with that forgiving nature when we forgive others, and thus we line ourselves up with receiving the forgiving nature of the Supreme Being.

Can we learn to forgive?

Learning to forgive others is part of the purpose of the suffering and strife of the physical world. We are spiritual beings - not these physical bodies. Our bodies are temporary vehicles meant to take us through consequences that provide lessons meant to show us love, forgiveness, humility, and kindness. The physical world is a rehabilitation center for those of us who became self-centered and forgot how to love.

When we receive the consequences of our prior activities we, in fact, get to see how it feels to subject someone else to our selfish acts. Then we get to compare these with acts of kindness. We get to play out our desires and compare the results with acts that help others. 

Eventually, we learn that helping others and caring for others provides us with more fulfillment than caring only for ourselves. This leads us towards understanding, and towards love, which gradually unveils the Source of love, the Supreme Being.

As we reach a point where we are able to truly forgive others, we also reach the point where the Supreme Being becomes increasingly visible in our lives. Should we be sincere, the Supreme Being will gradually guide us closer and closer to Him, even though we may have rejected Him in the past.

This is because He wants us to come home to Him. He wants us to be happy. This is love. This is forgiveness.

"Simon, I have something to tell you. Two people owed money ..." (Luke 7:40-48)

"Simon, I have something to tell you. Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little." Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." (Luke 7:40-48)

What does Jesus' parable mean?

This event and Jesus' parable about the debt is only understood when Jesus' role, purpose, and relationship with the Supreme Being are understood.

First, we must ask: Who was this woman who was washing Jesus' feet?

We find the following verses describing the same woman in the Book of John:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) (John 11:1-2)

So we find that this woman who was washing Jesus' feet was none other than Mary Magdalene, the sister of Martha. We can see by the verses in John that Mary and Martha were beloved students and disciples of Jesus, and they referred to Jesus as "Lord" and "Rabbi" - as disciples were accustomed to. We also find that Mary also sometimes traveled with Jesus' entourage as he preached from town to town:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out - (Luke 8:1-2)

Later we find that of all of Jesus' disciples, Mary was the only one who stayed by Jesus' side when he was gruesomely persecuted on the cross. She sat at the bottom of the cross, and also checked on the tomb of his body afterward. It was Mary who is said to have seen Jesus first when he re-appeared after having left his physical body at the time of death.

We also find in the Gospel of Mary that Mary was a close student of Jesus, and Jesus shared with her confidential teachings, which she shared with Peter and some of the other disciples.

The bottom line is that it is obvious that Mary became a dedicated and glorious disciple of Jesus. And she was not deserving of some of the depictions given her by early church institution teachers.

What about Mary's 'demons'?

But it is clear from Luke that prior to Jesus' cleansing of her, she had "demons" ("evil spirits and diseases").

Just what are "evil spirits" and what was the nature of Mary's affliction?

The concept of "demons" and "evil spirits" is largely misunderstood. Why? Because it requires an understanding of our spiritual identity.

The fundamental understanding required is that we are not these physical bodies. The physical body is a temporary vehicle the spirit-person occupies. And each of us is spirit-persons: We are spiritual in nature, not physical, and we each occupy - possess - a physical body for a temporary period of time.

This has already been determined scientifically. Biologists know that the physical body is constantly recycling atoms and molecules, and it has been calculated that within five years, the entire body will be recycled and will contain new atoms and molecules. This means that the body is not constant.

We might compare this to a waterfall. The water in the waterfall is always changing. If we turn away and look again at a waterfall, it will be a completely different waterfall because new water is always flowing through the waterfall.

In the same way, if we look at a picture of our baby body, we know that the baby body is gone now, and we are now wearing an adult body. Every atom and molecule is different. This means we have functionally changed bodies.

Yet we know I am the same person that occupied the younger body. We know that I existed then and now, yet the molecules that made up that young body are now gone. I have functionally changed bodies but I am still the same person. This person - the real me - is spiritual, not physical.

And this is why clinical death research has proven that when a person dies, we leave the physical body and can even look down upon the body. Who is looking at the body? This is the spirit-person. This is who each of us is.

Understanding this, we can now begin to relate better with the concept of "evil spirits and diseases." The reality is, a "demon" or "evil spirit" can take many forms. It does not functionally need to be an actual entity - but it can be. As understood during Jesus' times, "demons" may also include bad habits, afflictions or addictions. Even to this day, an expression for a person who struggled with bad habits/addictions will often be something to like: "He wrestled with his demons."

Therefore, in this case, a cleansing would be the removal of these bad habits or addictions.

An addiction or bad habit may also be influenced by an outside party, be they an associate or even a ghost.

Such influence doesn't necessarily mean occupation, but that is certainly possible. It may simply be that the person is under the influence of a person they respect or have to serve. This may cloud the consciousness of a person's mind.

What about cleansing habits?

When we become attached to materialistic life, we will develop particular desires, which lead to habits. These can be cleansed by God's representative, as illustrated by Jesus.

The cleansing of desires and habits can be accomplished by changing our heart. This is accomplished by giving us knowledge and introducing us to the loving nature of the Supreme Being.

This is precisely what Jesus did in the case of Mary.

This is how Jesus was able to cleanse many others. By introducing them to the Supreme Being: By teaching about God, and changing their hearts from being self-centered to wanting to love and serve the Supreme Being.

Such a cleansing does not simply cleanse one or two habits. The teachings of God's representative can change our heart and this may cleanse many habits at once. Or, most likely, they may provoke a gradual change of heart, producing a gradual cleansing of desires and habits.

Just consider a person who might be struggling with depression, perhaps who frequently gets drunk and takes drugs and sometimes hurts those around them as a result.

This person may have multiple addictions and bad habits - which could be referred to as "demons." But such a person may be surrounded by so-called social friends who through their influence, contribute to the person's getting drunk, doing drugs or doing other things. Shouldn't these so-called friends also be considered "demons"?

Certainly, their influencing the drinking and drug-taking of the depressed person would qualify them, in the context of their bad influence, to be described as "demons."

But should such a person be introduced to the Supreme Being, and develop the desire to love and serve God, such a change of heart would naturally result in these multiple "demons" going away. And the person would effectively replace those influencers and their habits with activities that please the Supreme Being.

This is precisely Jesus' role: To affect our influencers and provoke a change of lifestyle, and if we are sincere, over time we can have a change of heart.

What is cleansing?

It is often characterized that such "cleansings" were done by Jesus with a touch or simple command to a particular demon to go away.

While we know that Jesus - as God's representative - had this potential and command to cleanse attachments and desires, we also know that many of these cleansing events accompanied Jesus teaching or outwardly praising and proclaiming God's Name. We also know that Jesus was the ultimate influencer when it comes to teaching love of God.

The Gospels were written many decades after Jesus' persecution and rarely convey the entire scene and event. We know there are missing elements. Therefore, it only makes sense that we see the practical nature of how Jesus influenced those who were encumbered with bad habits and desires. He influenced people to have a change of heart.

In other words, what is missing from many of these "cleansings" and "healings" is that Jesus was preaching - introducing people to God. And as their heart was changed, they became cleansed of various bad habits - and whatever influential people or unembodied spirits that surrounded them were naturally repulsed by the worship of the Supreme Being.

This expansion is in fact portrayed in this case about Mary. Then we find later that this statement of forgiveness is later being described as "from whom wicked spirits had been cast out ."

In reality, they are the same event, but the "wicked spirits had been cast out " were inclusive of the bad habits (which may have included drunkenness) - as well as the repulsion of those around her who influenced those activities.

What does cleansing have to do with forgiving sins?

Some might ask what cleansing of demons has to do with Jesus' forgiving her sins.

It is called love, and this requires a loving relationship.

Let's use an example. Let's say that a rebellious teenager disobeys her parents and goes out partying - drinking and doing drugs - with her friends. Her parents then ground her as a consequence. At some point in her being grounded, she has a talk with her parents and they extend to her how much they love her and care about her, and this is why they grounded her.

And let's say that this sinks in and she realizes that her parents simply love her and care about her. She then sincerely apologizes for her behavior and they all hug. The parents, understanding the teenager has learned her lesson and also the love they exchanged, releases her from being grounded.

This compares favorably to being forgiven by the Supreme Being for our sins: It is not a mechanical thing - it is about love. In fact, love for God - which is part of asking for forgiveness - has a cleansing effect in itself because that love replaces self-centeredness, which traps the person within their desires. This is reflected in Jesus' statement:

"Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little." [Then Jesus said to her,] "Your sins are forgiven."

Then we find later that this statement of forgiveness is later being described as "from whom seven demons had come out."

In reality, they are the same event, but the "seven demons" that "came out" were inclusive of the "evil spirits and diseases" - which included bad habits (which may have included drunkenness) - as well as the repulsion of those influencing or participating in those activities.

Some might ask what cleansing of demons has to do with Jesus' forgiving her sins. It is called love, and this requires a loving relationship.

Why is Jesus forgiving her sins?

Jesus is God's representative, and her love is what is yielding forgiveness.

We could again compare this to the story about the teenager. Let's say that after the parents and the teenager have their big hug, the teenager goes back to her room. Then, as her brother heard everything, the brother asks the parents to remove her curfew and grounding. An hour later, her brother comes in and tells her that she is no longer grounded.

In this case, the parents still made the decision. But the brother still made the request and is at least partially responsible. But who ultimately made the decision to lift the curfew? The parents.

This is what is effectively taking place between God, Jesus and Mary.

You see, Jesus and God enjoy a loving relationship. Jesus is God's loving servant and God reciprocates that relationship. When a person serves such a loving representative of God that person partakes of the relationship between God's representative of God, because by serving God's representative, God is pleased.

And because God's representative knows that God is pleased by this service, Jesus can immediately say what he said: That because of her loving service to Jesus, her sins are forgiven by God.

Jesus' statement indelibly connects forgiveness to love. In fact, the two are synchronous. Consider again the parents lifting the teenagers' grounding after the brother's plea. The process is based on love. Her brother loves her and her parents love her. And because she reciprocated that love, the mutual love resulted in forgiveness.

Does love lead to forgiveness?

"Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown."

Jesus is speaking of loving service here. In the same way, if someone offended us and then later showed their love for us with loving service we would immediately forgive them even if they didn't apologize for their offense. We would forgive them because of their loving service to us. Their loving service to us effectively erases any issue we have with them.

This is our innate nature because we were created by God and this is God's nature. God is a loving person. He is a soft, gentle person. He can be rough on us (expressed through our physical bodies) when He sees we need to change. But on a personal basis, He is lovable and caring. Always.

Notice Jesus' next statement:

"But whoever has been forgiven little loves little."

Again, this statement connects love to forgiveness. While it might seem like a quid pro quo scenario of loving more because one was forgiven more, it actually reflects something deeper and more profound than this.

It is not as if the more sinful things we did and were forgiven for, the more love we will have. This would mean that being more sinful would equate to a better position in heaven later.

What Jesus is talking about is humility and gratitude. It is the depth of the love being given to God, not the amount of love being given to us by God.

In other words, two people may be forgiven for the same thing but one person appreciates the forgiveness and the other person may not. Were they forgiven the same? Yes, but the one who appreciated the forgiveness the most received more forgiveness. This is again because forgiveness relates directly to love.

This is confirmed in Jesus' parable:

"Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

The "moneylender" forgave the borrowers equally. There was no prejudice between them.

But Jesus is saying that the love coming back from the debtors to the moneylender would correlate with how much was forgiven.

This question of how much doesn't relate to the relative dollars: It relates to the value that the forgiven person put upon those dollars.

For example, who would be impacted the most: a person who has $50 to their name being forgiven a $100 debt, or a person who has $10,000 in the bank being forgiven $1,000? The person being forgiven the $1000 will have the most money forgiven, but that $1000 forgiveness doesn't affect him as much as the many who has $50?

Certainly, the man who has $50 will be impacted more and will likely appreciate being forgiven for $100 more than the person being forgiven $1,000 who has $10,000.

Jesus, however, was assuming in his parable a direct comparison - that each person had similar relative worth, reflected by the phrase, "Neither of them had the money to pay him back..."

Since we are talking about love here and not bank accounts, it is the amount of gratitude a person feels that relates to the depth of their love. A person who has been given so much by God yet appreciates it little or not at all while a person who may not have as much might appreciate every little bit of what he has been given.

So Jesus is speaking of the intensity of the appreciation and gratitude felt by Mary as she wept and washed Jesus' feet with oil mixed with her tears. She was feeling so much love and appreciation for what had been given to her.

And just what had Jesus given to her? Was it just forgiveness of her sins?

What does forgiveness mean?

The word "forgiven" comes from the Greek word ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), which means "to send away," "to bid going away or depart," "to disregard," and "to let go" according to the lexicon.

This means that what is taking place is that her past activities - or bad habits - are being disregarded or dismissed. How does this work?

Sins are actions taken on the basis of self-centeredness. They are selfish activities.

These types of activities become offensive because while we are mired in self-centered consciousness, we disregard our innate loving service relationship with God. While in that consciousness, we ignore God and His love and care for us.

It might be compared to a person ignoring their parents after they were raised by their parents and nurtured over the years until they grow up and leave the house. Their parents might try to call them by phone one day and they purposely do not pick up the phone. Then they purposely do not call back. This is offensive to the parents because the parents loved and cared for their child for so many years.

In the same way, by ignoring God and His representative - not responding when they call us back to Him - we offend God. When we ignore them because we'd rather go to a party or take drugs or something else, those activities become offensive to God.

But when we reach out to God and/or His representative and ask for forgiveness, and then feel gratitude for being taken back despite our having ignored God for so long, this rekindles our innate loving relationship with our Supreme Best Friend. With such an attitude, we can now begin to travel the path of regaining our innate loving service relationship with the Supreme Being.

This is what Jesus was trying to teach them. A relationship with God is about love and loving service. It is not a quid pro quo relationship. It has nothing to do with the number of things, money or any other physical objects. It is about loving with sincerity, humility, and gratitude. This is why Jesus's central teaching was:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)

"Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." (Luke 13:12)

Here is the situation:

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. (Luke 13:10-13)

Why is Jesus setting her free?

The phrase "set free" is taken from the Greek word ἀπολύω (apolyō), which means to set a person free or liberate them. What was Jesus' setting her free of? One might say just her disease, but this is a narrow view.

Jesus is purifying her. He is cleansing her of her self-centeredness and her past sins with spiritual potency. This is the same as forgiving sins - because as taught by Jesus elsewhere, our current physical situation relates to what we need to learn from this life combined with our past activities:

"Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14)

This is why the woman responded to Jesus' healing by praising God. Because she became purified.

Why was Jesus was teaching in a synagogue?

It should also be noted that Jesus was teaching from within a synagogue - which means that people accepted him as a rabbi. This seems to conflict with the notion that Jesus was a rebel who did not observe the Jewish teachings.

This is not true. Jesus quite certainly was observant, as we can see that he is not only teaching within a synagogue but is teaching on a Sabbath, which is customary within the Jewish teachings. The original purpose of the Sabbath was to focus oneself on the Supreme Being - rather than on business and one's other material interests.

Yet the Jewish priests of the time - Jesus excluded - thought that Jesus had abandoned this principle because he healed on the Sabbath. This, however, is not seeing clearly, because the purpose of Jesus' healings were to refocus people upon their relationship with the Supreme Being.

This is illustrated by the young woman's response after being healed:

immediately she straightened up and praised God.

What is praising God and why is this important?

Praising God means to incant His Holy Name and glorify Him. It means to put oneself in a position of admiration of the Supreme Being. It means to honor Him and love Him. This is the core of Jesus' teachings.

Yet often we take love very lightly. Why do we do that? Where does love come from?

Is love merely genetic?

Some modern scientists say that love is only genetic - a genetic urge to help us survive.

Where in our genes, then, is that urge to love someone even when there is no physical advantage? Where is the urge to love someone so great that someone is willing to die for that person - as many have done in human society and even among animals? 

People risk their lives to save their loved ones all the time. We have even seen dogs risk their lives for those who have nothing to do with their own survival. If love is genetic that relates to survival, why would someone agree not to survive because they care for someone else?

This, of course, is confusing to such cosmologists, because they don't understand where love comes from. Even though they think it is all a genetic switch, they still go home to their family and want to engage in loving affairs with their kids and spouses. Why? If it is all an accident, why can they not rise above it if they are so smart?

They can't. They need love just as we all need love. Even if their body must be kept alive with machines such as Stephen Hawking. They still need love and they still need relationships. Why do we need love so badly?

Because we are not these physical bodies. We are not a bunch of genes or DNA or brain cells or nerve cells or neurotransmitters. Our composition is spiritual, not physical. 

This is why our bodies can change but we are the same person. This is why an elderly person is the same person they were when their body was a teenager, though the body is now completely different.

This is why he can tell his life story even though his body is practically gone - because he is not his body. He, like all of us, is the living spirit who is temporarily residing in that body.

Why do we search for the perfect person?

If you ask any single young person what they are looking for, it will undoubtedly be their "soul mate." They want to find their soul mate.

For others, they might be at various stages of thinking they have found their soul mate - the last of which is to realize the person they thought was their soul mate actually isn't.

For those who continue to believe they have found their soul mate, they will gradually reduce the criteria they once had - because they have found what they feel is the best they can do: Someone who will at least stick with them and share things with them.

But this is not what we originally imagine our soul mate to be when we start looking. In the beginning one imagines one's soul mate to be the perfect person: A person who is beautiful, kind, funny, strong, fair, honest and forthright.

And if early on we think we find such a person, we are soon disappointed as we gradually find their faults. Then we realize they are not the perfect person. As time goes on, if we are smart, we realize that there isn't such a thing as a perfect person in human society so we'd better just accept the best we can do. So we accept the faults of our current mate.

But the initial search - and for some an ongoing search - for the perfect person, our soul mate - isn't the one we end up with. They quite simply are not perfect, and this is one reason why there are so many divorces. Because we think there is a better person out there.

The expectation of a perfect person, quite simply, is our deep yet lost connection with the Supreme Being. He is our soul mate. He is that perfect person we begin to look for as kids. He is the most beautiful, the most kind, the strongest, the fairest, the most honest, and the most forthright person. He is perfect in all ways. In fact, all those attributes originate from the Supreme Being. The only reason we aspire for those things is because they are God's qualities.

We should, in fact, notice that everyone's criteria for their soul mate is pretty consistent. The qualities we are looking for in our soul mate all pretty much match - with some variation with regard to our body's gender and other dispositions. But these variations are mundane. They don't capture the bigger criteria we seek in our soul mate - beauty, kindness, etc.

Why does everyone basically want the same qualities in their soul mate? Because we are looking for the same person.

If we were to believe the cosmologists who believe there is no Supreme Being and creation is just a random event that happened and we are all then accidents, then the criteria for different people's expectations of a soul mate would be completely different. It would be random, right? Some would want an ugly person who is mean and just wants to hurt others, right?

But no one wants an ugly, mean soul mate. Such a concept is contradictory. An ugly, mean soul mate who only wants to hurt others will simply hurt them as well.

Who is the "soul" in "soul mate"?

This is the reason for the term "soul" in soul mate - because we are speaking of the soul - the spirit-person within.

And this spirit-person - this soul - each of us as individuals - is created by the Supreme Being who also happens to be the Supreme Spirit-Person.

And it is this Supreme Person who we in fact are looking for as we seek our soul mate and as we seek family relationships and seek children and seek lovers and seek beauty and seek kindness and seek honesty and seek humor.

Because in the spiritual realm, the Supreme Being exhibits all of these qualities. This spiritual realm is our home. And in this home we each have spiritual forms. No, we do not float into nothingness or the void. The spiritual realm is a place of activity. It is a place of loving relationships. It is that place we are seeking when we pine for the perfect home - our home.

The spiritual realm is our home because our soul mate lives there. This is God - the Source of all - who is praised by so many with different names among the great faiths of the world.

And Jesus, who is already engaged in his loving relationship with this Supreme Being - came here quite simply because he wants to bring us home - and return us to our innate relationship with our Soul Mate.

This is why Jesus taught. This is why Jesus healed. He wanted us to become reunited with our Best Friend and Soul Mate. And this is why Jesus' healing of the woman resulted in her praising God. Because after she was purified by Jesus, she directed her purified self towards her relationship with the Supreme Being - by praising Him.

"For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled ..." (Luke 18:10-14)

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14)

What does Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector mean?

Jesus' parable or analogy illustrates the critical element related to one's relationship with the Supreme Being: Recognizing our actual position as His humble servant.

The tax collector in Jesus' analogy - who saw his own sinful, selfish nature - understood that he needed God's mercy. He was not feeling himself capable. The Pharisee was feeling very capable. He was feeling that he had his act together. He was feeling proud of his accomplishments and his position.

This pride kept him from having mercy or forgiveness upon the tax collector - and thus asking for and receiving God's mercy. He only had disdain for the tax collector and others he was proud not to be like. This disdain and lack of forgiveness towards others is a critical reason for our inability to connect with the Supreme Being.

Jesus confirmed the importance of mercy as he quoted God speaking through Hosea:

"But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt. 9:13)

Jesus also stressed the importance of forgiveness as he suggested a manner of prayer to God:

"Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." (Luke 11:4)

Pride and a lack of mercy and forgiveness of others keep us from realizing our natural position. And realizing our natural position keeps us from connecting with God. These keep us from being able to receive His mercy. They keep us from learning. It is pride - feeling that we are so good and we know it all - along with not forgiving others - that keep us from understanding our innate relationship with God.

Do we know ourselves?

Most of us living within the physical dimension don't want to see ourselves as we really are. Our spiritual vision is blocked by our focus upon the temporary names and forms of this physical world.

The reality that we avoid is that we are in the physical dimension wearing a temporary physical body that will die within a few years - and then decompose within a few more.

These facts are hard to handle for most of us because we don't want to believe them. We don't want to believe that our bodies will die. But they will. And they all do. Sooner or later.

We don't want to believe that the bodies of our mother and father and sister and brother and children and grandchildren will all die. But they will. And they do. Sooner or later.

For this reason, we are heartbroken and saddened when those who are in the family of our body die. Some of us will blame God - saying that God doesn't care or even that He doesn't exist - because why, if God existed or cared, would everyone die? What kind of mean God would do this, some of us might ask?

And still others will say that God must not exist because how could God create all the suffering that exists in the physical world?

Yet all of these questions are wrapped up in the same issue that Jesus is discussing in his analogy - the fact that we aren't seeing ourselves as we really are.

So who are we - really?

From the practical, scientific, and scriptural evidence, we are not these physical bodies. These are not our real identities. Whatever we think our identity is - whatever our gender, our occupation, our age, our nationality, our race, our family, our occupation or otherwise - is not who we are. These are parts of the temporary identities we have assumed temporarily.

This means that when this body dies, all of that goes away. Our race, our nationality, our gender, our occupation, our family, our wealth or lack thereof - all of these dissolve as we leave this physical body.

As such, any kind of pride we might have - whether it is being proud of our body's appearance, our body's health, our body's family, our body's country, our body's occupation, the success we achieved with this body - all of these are also useless. Because these don't belong to me and they never did. They are all temporary - as any of these positions or accomplishments will also dissolve into thin air when we leave behind this physical body at the time of death.

This is why Jesus warned his students:

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

So what is 'life' according to Jesus?

"Life" is the foundation of our real selves - our spirit-person: The person who is operating this physical body. Jesus defined life clearly in his first and foremost instruction:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’" (Mark 12:30)

Jesus also clarifies the difference between "life" and being "dead" as he differentiates materialism versus spiritual growth:

“Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matt. 8:22)

“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60)

This is Jesus' response to a student who wanted to return home to help bury the father of his body.

Jesus is using the word "dead" as a homonym: This is using the same word with two meanings. The first use of the word "dead" is describing someone who Jesus is calling spiritually dead, while the other use of the word "dead" is describing a physical body that has died.

The reason this is important is that Jesus is teaching that by focusing on the physical body and the things of this world, we become spiritually dead. By thinking that the position of the physical body - one's gender, sex, family, race and so on - is important, we lose sight of what is really important: We lose sight of our relationship with God.

The first reality is mentioned above: That we are spirit-persons, not these physical bodies. We have a constitution founded upon the spiritual dimension - a dimension that our physical eyes or physical minds cannot perceive.

Are we infinitesimal?

The second reality is what Jesus is speaking of in his analogy: That we are infinitesimal creations of the Supreme Being. We are His creation. He created us for the purpose of exchanging a loving relationship with Him.

So we are His subjects. Whatever we have, whatever we do, whatever we have done - is because of Him. Thus, being proud of anything - is simply irrational.

And because God wants to exchange real love, He also gave us the freedom to love Him or not. Just consider why people want to have relationships with other living beings rather than robots: We want loving relationships with living beings because living beings have the choice to love us or not.

A robot has no choice. A robot is created through programming to do precisely what it is programmed to do. There is no freedom of choice.

Are we God's robots then?

No. He created us with the freedom of choice - so we can choose to love Him or not.

So what happens to those who decide not to love God?

This is why we've ended up in the physical realm: We are the ones who have chosen not to love God. We have chosen to escape our innate loving relationship with God.

So God let us go. He created a world where we could exercise our freedom, and forget about Him. This is the physical realm - complete with temporary bodies, temporary families, and temporary occupations that can overwhelm our consciousness and allow us to forget Him.

The physical universe is real - but it is still virtual. We might compare it to a dream. In our dreams, we can act out our fantasies and undergo scary things and even experience dying - but then we wake up and it's gone. Our dreams are virtual to our waking lives, yes. And our dreams dwell on the mental plane rather than the molecular plane.

But the molecular plane is only a shade less virtual than the dreamscape: The temporary structures of this world are made up of moving atoms and molecules that reflect light in order to give us the façade of structure. These structures are not as solid as they appear to our senses.

As the atoms and molecules that make up the structures of this dimension move around - things change. They erode, dissolve, recycle and otherwise degrade. For this reason, our body is constantly changing. The molecules that made up our body five years ago have already been replaced. We now have a new body on. The body we were wearing when the body was young is not the same body we are wearing today.

In the dreamscape, instead of light reflecting off of molecules, our consciousness is being reflected off of our mind's thoughts and memories. These can also provide the façade of structure - and truly, while we are dreaming - most of the time we also think the dreamscape is real.

But once we wake up, we realize that dreamscape wasn't real - all the while believing that this particular 'scape' of the physical world is real. Yet isn't it odd that so many people are dying in this 'scape' yet we don't know where they go? Their bodies remain but their personalities disappear?

In this physical world of atoms and molecules, events and structures are driven through the consequences of thought and action: This is equivalent to the model of 'as you sow, so shall you reap.' When we desire something, events unfold. When we take action, there are consequences.

This combination of desires and consequences creates the reality of the physical world. And thus whatever reality we are in - whether we are in a body that is wealthy and healthy or a body that is poor and sick - our reality is driven by a combination of the consequences of our prior actions and desires.

Is suffering God's fault?

This relates specifically to the suffering of the world: Suffering is not God's fault. Suffering is our fault. God didn't create a world of suffering to see us in pain. God simply created a virtual world that allowed us the freedom to create our own consequences: A world of fairness.

Just think if God had created a world where anyone could hurt others and be outrageously mean to others and make others suffer without consequence. What kind of unfair world would that be?

And assuming God made a world of fairness - with consequences to good and bad - where would those consequences occur if not here?

Yes, in His wisdom, God created a dimension that rewards everyone the consequences they deserve from prior actions - whether in this lifetime or a previous lifetime.

This fact was communicated clearly by Jesus, as he told a man he had healed:

“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14)

And the fact that Jesus taught that one's activities - and sins - carry over to consequences in their next life was communicated when Jesus' disciples asked him about a man who was born blind:

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)

Jesus and his peers generally accepted that the spirit-person can take on a physical body after the end of this lifetime.

During and before Jesus' time, this teaching was generally accepted. This was communicated in several verses, including these:

Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life." (Luke 9:18-19)

This communicates the people of Israel ("the crowds") generally accepted that the spirit-person (or soul) can come back in another lifetime - and by default, into another body.

This is, in fact, what they were admitting to as they talked about Jesus being John or Elijah. They were admitting that they believed in reincarnation.

In fact, ancient Judaism did accept reincarnation as a reality for those who are not ready to return to heaven.

Even early church fathers such as Origen (a peer of Clement) openly taught that the soul can have multiple lifetimes - until the Roman Emperor Justinian sent forth this edict:

“If anyone asserts the fabulous preexistence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema." (attached to the decrees of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, A.D. 545, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser. 14:318)

Note that "anathema" means to basically be ex-communicated - thrown out of the Church and subject to arrest. Notice that this edict did not come from a priest. It did not come from a cardinal or a bishop or even a pope. It came from the Emperor of Rome: A violent emperor from a lineage of vicious Roman emperors.

And notably, the current pope at that time - Pope Vigilius - REFUSED to acknowledge the edict. He was called to Constantinople by Justinian to convince him, and after refusing, was essentially arrested and harassed.

Note that this occurred in 545 A.D. This means that the Church and Jesus' followers to that point openly believed in this teaching - which was an accepted teaching at the time of Jesus.

So we cannot say truly that the teaching of the pre-existence of souls was initially banned by the Roman Catholic Church. It was banned by the Roman Emperor Justinian. Note that Justinian is known to have ordered the killing of 30,000 unarmed civilians in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. He also apparently had family members executed.

And why did Justinian ban this accepted teaching of early Christianity? Because he wanted to control the people. He and other Romans didn't want the Christian people to think they might have a second chance. They wanted them to think that if they didn't join the Roman Catholic institution they would go to hell eternally and never have a second chance!

No second chance? 

So what kind of loving, forgiving God is this? No path to forgiveness if we mess up this lifetime? Such a notion completely contradicts Scripture:

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him (Daniel 9:9)

An assumption that this is our only lifetime means that life is not fair. If this is our only lifetime, then being born into a poor family, a poor country, or even a family of atheists would not be fair.

Think carefully about this. Why is one baby born into starvation while another is born into wealth? Why does one person die early from cancer while another lives to be 100?

It can only be fair when these are all related to our prior activities within prior physical lifetimes, and the lessons we must learn as a result. Whatever we did in the past to others - good or bad - we will have to experience that upon ourselves. Our current lifetime is the consequence of our former activities.

Now think about how fair this is: What effect does this ultimately have upon us? Just think of what happens when a person gets harmed in some way. Assuming they learn from the experience, it will teach them not to harm others in that way. They will know how it feels and thus hopefully learn not to do it to others.

This is rehabilitation. If someone commits a crime they get sent to prison, but the main objectives of any good prison (theoretically) are to not only understand there are consequences to committing a crime - but most importantly - to rehabilitate that person so they will have a change of heart.

This is what the physical world is designed to do: To effect a change of heart for those who are ready to learn from it.

What about 'eternal damnation'?

Eternal definitely means an extended period. Theoretically, one who decides to continue to reject God could become stuck in the physical realm for a very long time - transmigrating from one body to another. that could certainly feel like an eternity.

Most important to this understanding - and the teachings by Jesus and Origen and others - is that just as we can wake up from a dream, we can leave this virtual reality of the physical body and return to our home in the spiritual realm. Just as we can awake from whatever virtual suffering or pleasure happening in a dream - we can wake up from the dream-like condition of this physical world and our spirit-person can leave all of this behind. We can return to our real family.

This can happen by realizing our true position in God's family - as His humble loving servant.

You see, despite how many family and friends we are surrounded by in this world, we will still suffer from loneliness. This is because our real selves - our spirit-persons - need another type of relationship: A relationship based on humble love and loving service: A loving relationship that is reciprocated. This is satisfied by our innate relationship with the Supreme Being. When we are in our natural relationship with God, we feel loved all the time. We feel cared for. We feel complete. We feel satisfied.

Are we looking for real love?

Without that loving relationship with the Supreme Being - our real soulmate - we are constantly searching. This is why we hear people saying they are looking for "the one:" That one special person that completes them. And sure, we might find a person to share things with - but they still won't fulfill the position of being "the one"

This is because "the one" we are searching for is the Supreme Being. He is our Best Friend. He is our Confidant. He is someone we can always trust. Someone who will never let us down. Someone who is always there for us - and won't leave us or die on us. He is someone who forgives us for offending Him and ignoring Him.

But regaining this relationship requires us understanding our humble position: Our inconsequential position. Our reliant position: He is the Supreme Being, our only shelter, and we are nothing without Him.

“Judas – are you betraying the Servant of Humanity with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48)

This statement by Jesus - from the Lost Gospels of Jesus - is spoken to Judas, who has walked up to Jesus and kissed him, showing the guards of Caiaphas the High Priest whom to arrest:

While he was speaking, a throng appeared and the one called Judas – one of the twelve – was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him. (Luke 22:47)

What does Jesus mean by, 'betraying'?

The word, "betraying" comes from the Greek word παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) which means, "to give into the hands (of another)," according to the lexicon. In this circumstance, Judas was effectively handing Jesus over to the guards of Caiaphas.

This would be deemed a betrayal in this context, but in other contexts, it means specifically handing over someone, or having someone arrested.

Jesus knew that Judas was bringing the guards to arrest him. At the 'last supper,' Jesus said to Judas:

“What you are about to do, do quickly.” (John 13:27)

From other statements, Jesus knew this was the night he would be arrested:

"Yet consider that the hand of the one who has me arrested is here with mine at the table." (Luke 22:21)

So Jesus not only knew that Judas was going to have him arrested, but he actually instructed Judas to go do it.

Does this mean that Jesus wanted to be arrested?

No. How do we know this? We know this because Jesus was struggling with what was going to happen. We can see this from his prayer to God and the fact that he was struggling as he prayed.

From a personal perspective, Jesus would have preferred not to be arrested and persecuted. Can anyone blame him? Who would have wanted to bring this upon himself?

But Jesus had a bigger objective: He was serving the Supreme Being. He was using his life to please his beloved Lord.

Did this mean Jesus was God's sacrificial lamb?

Did Jesus mean to be tortured in order to be the sacrifice for all of our sins? And if so, is this why God sent Jesus?

This is certainly the theory of those who formed the ecclesiastical institutions that followed Jesus - those institutions that became precisely like those Jewish institutions that Jesus abhorred and preached against.

Many of the institutions claiming to follow Jesus want us to believe that in order to be cleansed of sins, we needed to have someone be sacrificed for us: And Jesus was this sacrificial lamb. Their view is that Jesus is like a doormat, that we can just wipe our sins off onto.

Let's look at such a proposition carefully.

First, it proposes that forgiveness can only be accomplished through some sacrificial ritual.

If Jesus taught this, why did Jesus himself teach his students to ask God directly to be forgiven for their sins? As part of his Lord's Prayer, he suggested they request this directly from God:

"Please forgive our offenses, as we forgive those who offend us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from wickedness." (Matt. 6:12-13)

But wait, wasn't the only way those before Jesus could be cleansed was through the sacrifice of animals? Isn't this what all the burnt sacrifices were all about?

Actually, no. They were about making offerings to God. Moses himself showed us how God's forgiveness could be requested directly:

"Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance." (Exodus 34:9 NIV)

Many other Prophets - servants of God - throughout the Bible asked God for His forgiveness. Including Solomon within his prayer:

And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you..." (1 King 8:50 NIV)

Job also requested God to forgive his sins:

"Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins?" (Job 7:21 NIV)

David also asked God to forgive his sins:

"Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us and forgive our sins for Your Name’s sake." (Psalms 79:9 NIV)

Note that the Israelites conducted animal sacrifices regularly. Why would Moses, David, Solomon, and Job need to ask God's forgiveness if the animal sacrifices were cleansing their sins?

The reality is that those who taught that God needs animal sacrifices - or the sacrifice of His loving servant Jesus - in order to cleanse sins are wrong.

It is a preposterous proposition that God has to comply with or submit to any ritual in order to accomplish something.

We are speaking of the Supreme Being here. Why would some ritual be required for the Supreme Being to be able to forgive people of their sins? Such a requirement would mean that the Supreme Being is subject to rituals - that He has to comply with some rules of rituals.

He doesn't because He is God. He is the Supreme Being. He doesn't have to comply with any ritual or any other requirement. He can do what He wants.

Can't God forgive us directly?

Yes. He can forgive our sins anytime He wants. He can cleanse our sins or not - as He wishes.

God does not need to send us his "son" ("servant") in order to cleanse our sins. He can cleanse our sins anytime He wants.

We see this clearly in the Scriptures. Jesus emphasized in his teachings that his students seek the forgiveness of their sins from God directly:

"For if you forgive others for their offenses, your spiritual LORD will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive the offenses of others, neither will your LORD forgive your offenses." (Matt. 6:14-15)

Now if Jesus' persecution was going to forgive everyone's sins automatically - as if he was a sacrificial lamb - then why would he advise his students to ask God to forgive them? Why didn't he just tell them to wait until he was persecuted on the cross, and just accept that he was going to die for their sins and they would be clean?

Because Jesus didn't teach this.

These supposed followers of Jesus have manipulated, mistranslated and lifted certain verses out of context and made it seem as though Jesus' persecution cleanses sins automatically. But this isn't the reality.

What is being spoken of with respect to forgiveness - and what Jesus indicated with his statement about forgiving others before we can be forgiven - is having a change of heart.

You see, it is not as if we have these black marks against us and they are magically erased. Being forgiven isn't about us getting a clean slate so we can continue our self-centeredness. It means gaining a pure heart - a heart cleansed of self-centeredness.

Throughout the New Testament, for example, the words "forgive" and "forgiveness" are being translated from the Greek word, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi). This word means "to send away - to bid going away or depart," "to send forth, yield up, to expire." And the word "sin" is being translated from the Greek word ἁμαρτία (hamartia), which refers to "offenses" or "being offensive."

What is being "let go" or being "sent away" during forgiveness? It is one's self-centeredness: This is what is offensive to the Supreme Being.

How do we seek forgiveness then?

Forgiveness means having a change of heart - from being self-centered to being God-centered. A change from loving oneself to loving the Supreme Being.

Thus becoming forgiven is not like wiping our feet off on a mat. It is having a change of consciousness.

This is what the aspiring lover of God asks of God. They ask God to allow them to leave behind their self-centered lives and enter into a life centered around loving and serving the Supreme Being.

Such a state of purified consciousness is prayed for by those who wish to please God because in such a state, we can embrace our pure state of happiness: Love of God. This is actually our original state - before we became diseased with self-centeredness.

So can Jesus' persecution help accomplish such a renewed definition of forgiveness?

Remember first, that we have scripturally proven that one can gain such a renewed purified consciousness by approaching the Supreme Being and requesting this from Him in prayer.

Such a sincere prayer can help us accomplish this changed consciousness because the Supreme Being is also the Supreme Guide. If we want Him to guide us and help us have a change of heart, then He will help us do so. It is not necessarily an overnight thing either: A real change of heart typically takes time.

Jesus' persecution can help us accomplish such a changed consciousness - should we come to realize Jesus' loving relationship with the Supreme Being. By seeing Jesus' act of loving service to God - his allowing his body to be persecuted on behalf of his teachings of love for God - one can gain access to the consciousness of love for God.

Such a consciousness is still being accomplished through the grace and mercy of the Supreme Being. This is not a group thing. It has nothing to do with joining this sect or that sect. It has nothing to do with what others think of us. It is something personal, between us and the Supreme Being.

This is why Jesus suggested we pray privately to our wise and loving Best Friend:

"And when you pray, do not do what the hypocrites do, for they like to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your closet and shut the door, and pray to your LORD who is in secret; and your LORD who sees what is done secretly shall reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use tedious repetition as the pagans do, for they assume they will be heard due to their many words. Don’t be like them, for your LORD knows what things you need before you ask Him." (Matt. 6:5-8)

"You foolish men who are slow to believe ..." (Luke 24:25-26)

"You foolish men who are slow to believe everything the Prophets have taught. Wasn’t it necessary for the Anointed of God [Christ, Messiah] to suffer these things before returning to His majesty?" (Luke 24:25-26 Lost Gospels)

Did they know who was saying this?

Jesus is speaking to Peter and Cleopas as he is walking with them. Note that at this moment, they still did not realize they were speaking with Jesus. Because they didn't recognize him. This is how the conversation went:

One of them – named Cleopas – replied, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem not aware of the things that have happened here recently?” He asked, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet – powerful in deed and word in the presence of God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our elders condemned him to the sentence of death – and crucified him. But we had hoped he was going to liberate Israel. And yet this is the third day after all these things happened. But then again, some of the women with us amazed us: They were at the tomb early this morning – yet didn’t find his body. They returned and told us they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But they didn’t see him.” (Luke 24:18-24)

Jesus then says the above-quoted statement in response. Why? Let's look at each of his two statements separately:

Why does Jesus bring up the Prophets?

"You foolish men who are slow to believe everything the Prophets have taught."

This clearly indicates that Jesus stressed the importance of the teachings of the Prophets. Jesus quoted the teachings of the Prophets frequently in his own teachings. An example of this is Jesus' most important teaching, which was a quote taken from Moses (Deuteronomy 6:5):

“ ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)

Jesus doesn't simply quote Moses here. He states that this is the "first" and "greatest" instruction. How much more clear can Jesus be? This means that Jesus' teachings didn't simply support the teachings of the Prophets - Jesus was passing on the true teachings of the Prophets. He was the embodiment of the teachings of the Prophets. Why?

Because Jesus is the pure lover of the Supreme Being. He loves the Supreme Being with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind. This is the purpose of Jesus' sacrifice - to illustrate Jesus' pure love for the Supreme Being.

What about the Anointed of God?

"Wasn’t it necessary for the Anointed of God [Christ, Messiah] to suffer these things before returning to His majesty?"

Here the Greek word Χριστός is being translated to "Anointed of God [Christ, Messiah]." This Greek word specifically means "anointed one" or "anointed of God" according to the lexicon. This directly reflects upon the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (mashiyach) - which is translated to "anointed" and often followed by "priest" in the Old Testament. This word is also directly translated to "messiah," which is also translated to "Christ."

Here are two examples of the use of this Hebrew word - God speaking in both:

"I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in My heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before My anointed one always." (2 Samuel 2:35)

"Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve Me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.” (Exodus 40:15)

What does the 'Anointed of God' have to do with the Prophets?

Note again that Jesus was discussing Jesus' persecution, but also of the Prophets, many of whom were also persecuted. Thus we find it clear from this that the Prophets were each anointed - and they were thus each considered Messiahs. At the time of Jesus, this was the accepted teaching of the Jewish tradition.

The question the Temple teachers had at the time was when the next Messiah (or Anointed of God) would come.

This is also one of the reasons why they were so opposed to Jesus. It was obvious to many that Jesus was the Messiah or Anointed of God that was predicted by some of the Prophets. And Jesus was also coming in line with the Prophets. Because his teachings supported and reflected the teachings of the Prophets - while the teachings of the Temple priests had strayed from the Prophets' teachings.

The Jewish high priests at the time were all about authority and rule - they were taking advantage of the Prophets' teachings for their own positions of power. So when Jesus appeared and taught the pure teachings of the Prophets, he was rejected by the Temple high priests because Jesus was threatening their authority. Because Jesus was the Messiah the prophets had predicted.

Why was it "necessary" for Jesus to suffer?

Was it necessary in order to cleanse our sins - as many today preach?

Yes and no. No in that it isn't that Jesus suffered so that any and every self-centered joiner can just do what they want and then wipe their sins off on Jesus as though he is some sort of doormat.

And it isn't that Jesus had to suffer in order to relieve our sins - as many of today's preachers suggest. The Supreme Being can forgive our sins and offenses at any time. It is not that He needed Jesus to "die" in order to forgive our sins. This fact is proven over and over in the scriptures, as people have been encouraged to directly ask God for forgiveness. Even Jesus suggested his followers ask God to forgive them with the Lord's Prayer. Why would Jesus deceive them if his suffering was their only means of forgiveness?

We must remember that God is God. He has all the power. All the authority. He doesn't need to sacrifice anyone in order to cleanse sins. He can cleanse sins simply with a thought.

But surely, if a person sees Jesus' tremendous love for the Supreme Being, illustrated by his willingness to suffer because of his teachings of love for God, then this will purify one's consciousness. And such purification will have the result of cleansing sinfulness. But this type of cleansing also comes by the grace of the Supreme Being - because it is Jesus' love for God that allows for this purification of the heart.

Why did God allow Jesus to suffer?

Some will ask, why then God would allow Jesus to suffer? Why didn't God prevent this from happening to Jesus?

This is because love requires freedom. If God didn't give people the freedom to reject Him and His representative, then how could we freely come to love God? One must have the freedom not to love in order to freely love.

And because God wants us to come to love Him out of our free will, He also allows us to reject Him and reject those He sends to us. This means people also have the freedom to physically harm His representative - as shown with Jesus' crucifixion.

But this doesn't mean God wasn't protecting Jesus. The reality is - as we discussed with the previous verse - Jesus is not the physical body. He was temporarily wearing a physical body - which died on the cross. The person of Jesus - the exalted spirit-person - left that physical body at the time of its death and continued to live in the glorious spiritual state.

This is the eternal spiritual state - the eternal person who returned to the spiritual realm to be with the Supreme Being. This is reflected by Jesus' statement:

"... before returning to His majesty"

Indeed, Jesus returned to the spiritual realm to be by the side of the Supreme Being - where he could continue to engage in his loving relationship with God. This is "His majesty." The spirit-person of Jesus thus had complete protection throughout his ordeal by virtue of his love for God.

And should we follow the teachings of the Prophets and Jesus - by coming to love and serve the Supreme Being - we too can return to our pure loving service relationship with Him in the spiritual realm. This is the relationship each of us seeks as we search for real love in this world.