The Way Maker
Commentary to JWK: MJL #11, Who Precedes the Ascended One
There is one thing we have to be clear about: there is no Jesus as a historical figure, there are only stories about him. The “historical Jesus,” is part of the illusion, just as much as you and I are, as people. Joel S. Goldsmith titled his biographical book A parenthesis in eternity, and that says it all. In my life, I was first introduced to Jesus as an abstract notion: God’s Help, for that is the meaning of the name Jehoshua. And years later, Ken Wapnick gave me an even better way to look at it:
Jesus is a what that looks like a who, as long as you think you are a who.
(Kenneth Wapnick, PhD).
and in the Course Jesus clarifies what it means to find him:
I am the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and when you see me it will be because you have invited Him. ²For He will send you His witnesses if you will but look upon them. ³Remember always that you see what you seek, for what you seek you will find. ⁴The ego finds what it seeks, and only that. ⁵It does not find love, for that is not what it is seeking. ⁶Yet seeking and finding are the same, and if you seek for two goals you will find them, but you will recognize neither. ⁷You will think they are the same because you want both of them. ⁸The mind always strives for integration, and if it is split and wants to keep the split, it will still believe it has one goal by making it seem to be one. (ACIM, T-12.VII.6:1-8)
There are interesting stories in some of the apocryphal acts of the apostles, reflecting how the apostles experienced Jesus very differently on a personal level, even after the crucifixion. Some of those stories may make more sense if you have read some of Gary Renard’s books, and realized how he experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in physical form as his teachers Arten and Pursah.
Having said all that, Kaiser throughout his work looks at the Biblical literature and more widely at mythological traditions from around the world as parables for our inner experiences, and in this essay, he focuses on the figure that precedes the coming of Jesus into our lives. In Judaism he was known as Elijah, but in the Jesus tradition he is known as John the Baptist: Jehochanan, God gives Blessings. In the Gospel stories, which are the story of salvation, told by people as best they could, and shrouded in the language of their day, John the Baptist comes before Jesus. Experiencing him is the precursor to recognizing Jesus. So let’s pick up the thread with Kaiser, and the story of Elijah.
He points out that we tend to personify these experiences on our path. We see our inner experience as characters on the stage. The Course says:
²The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. ³But though it is no more than that, it is not less. ⁴Therefore, to you it is important. ⁵It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. (ACIM, T-21.in.1:2-5)
Thus when we shift even a little bit towards the Holy Spirit, other things and characters show up on the stage of our particular dream, and that is what we are talking about here. There is a popular saying in spiritual circles, that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Same thing.
To the ego this can be painful, and a lot of the tradition talks about this. But the Course’s process of forgiveness makes this process easier, for we are slowly becoming aware that we are letting go of our investment in the ego, in our separate identity, on the installment plan. The Course allows that some of these experiences can be quite disconcerting but then every once in a while we get a little hop in the behind when we are reminded that:
Remember that the Holy Spirit is the Answer, not the question. ²The ego always speaks first. ³It is capricious and does not mean its maker well. ⁴It believes, and correctly, that its maker may withdraw his support from it at any moment. ⁵If it meant you well it would be glad, as the Holy Spirit will be glad when He has brought you home and you no longer need His guidance. ⁶The ego does not regard itself as part of you. ⁷Herein lies its primary error, the foundation of its whole thought system. (ACIM, T-6.IV.1:1-7)
In short the journey is the letting go of our ego’s judgments, attachments and investments in the values of the world, and letting go of the things we are used to is painful, but in the end what matters is we are letting go of our attachments, and we will no longer expect salvation from a new car, a great vacation, or a new house, all of which are part of this world and will all eventually disappoint. The higher our expectations, the greater the disappointment.
Next, the article explores on how our inner household is ruled by that despot king, Baal, who is merely another ego-expression, usurping the power of the true king and thus substituting our pseudo-reality for the Kingdom. So our soul (Isebel), lives with Ahab, who is subservient to Baal. Then follows a choice description of what our pseudo reality is all about, the endless games of victim and victimizer. The appearance of Elijah then is the herald of change.
What follows is a “famine,” deprivation of the common satisfactions of the ego, lasting a time, times and half a time, or 42 months, i.e. 3.5 trips through the zodiac. About the widow in Zarphat, he points out that she symbolizes the deprivation, and unfulfilling nature of the ego’s life in this time-space reality. Kaiser continues the exploration of our experience of loss, because our old way of being is on the way out, and the new one is not born yet. And in our despair of the dark night of the soul, we periodically we see Elijah as a threat.
The symbolism of the “son,” in the story, symbolizes our self of tomorrow, which is moribund if it is a mere continuation of the past, but Elijah is there and inspires him with a new spirit of life, and he comes back to us with inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Our new son is of course the Jesus child that is born within our soul, as we disinvest in the the old ways of our ego-bound existence, and grow up into a new and inspiring life of Spirit.