More than 2.2 billion or 32% of world population follow
Christianity today in the world. It is a mind boggling figure, because to find
such a huge number of followers in terms of a single religion, clearly depicts
that there is something special about Christianity and in the sermons of Jesus
Christ, which has attracted so many people towards Christianity. But who was
this person called Jesus, who declared, “My kingdom is not of this world” and
preached the liberty of soul, and proclaimed “Render unto Caesar the things
which are of Caesar and unto God things which are God’s”. In the midst of the
mundane affairs of the world, he tried to find a refuse for the soul. There is
an exceptional singularity in Christ’s teachings, which stresses on pursuing
the path of self-suffering, through absolute purity of heart and abnegating any
kind of attachment, to obtain triumph over brute force. Gandhiji’s concept of
non-violence or ‘Ahimsa’ is also to some extent is due to the influence of this
teaching of Jesus Christ, because he was an ardent reader of the Bible from his
early days.
Christ had an
exceptionally humble beginning like all great souls. He was born at Nazareth, a
small majestic town of Galilee, which was in the lap of nature. This natural
serene milieu provided him an inspiration to further develop his already
fertile imagination through education. Though He was born in the reign of
Augustus, yet his precise date of birth is still surrounded in mystery. His
foster-father Joseph and his mother Mary led a very simple life of artisans,
who laboured day and night to meet their two ends meet. Though his father died
early, Jesus still spent his early years of his life at Nazareth. After the death
of his father, his mother became the sole head of the family; therefore, Jesus
is usually referred to as the son of Mary. Jesus also adopted carpentry for a
living, which was his father’s profession. He learnt to read and write by rote,
but he never married, because his objective in life was to pursue God and His
Kingdom from his early childhood. He was aware from the beginning the sequence
of his life and, therefore, He knew He was not an ordinary soul to be born and
dead, but He was sent by God, the heavenly Father, with a special purpose. He
passed through every event of his life, not being influenced by any compulsive extraneous
situations, but solely for the exaltation of reflective human beings. Therefore,
the recording of the ineffable drama associated with the life of Jesus Christ by
the four evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – was done with a sole
purpose to guide and benefit the later generations.
A fete was
organised at Jerusalem annually, where people assembled to exchange their
ideas. Jesus made it his routine to visit this fete every year from his infancy,
which gave him enough opportunity to learn the ideas of his countrymen about
the shortcomings associated with the official representatives of Judaism. He
spoke a Syrian dialect, with an admixture of Hebrew. The principles propounded
by Hillel impacted Jesus considerably; similarly the Psalms and Allegories
incorporated in the Old Testament also inspired him equally. He preferred to
live a solitary and an ascetic life, yet He was always impelled by a zeal and
propensity to do something new towards emancipation of humanity and propel them
towards God. In the mean time, He learnt about John the Baptist, whose
reputation was fast spreading across Palestine. This man had a messianic zeal
and wielded a vast influence on the local people. Jesus found in John’s
teachings much in akin to his own; therefore, He wanted to meet John. This was
his natural inclination, because only a few people know that John and Jesus in
their past incarnations were Elijah (Elias) and Elisha (Eliseus). At the end of
the Old Testament, there is prediction on the reincarnation of Elijah and
Elisha, “Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (Malachi 4:5). Therefore, John was born
slightly earlier to act messenger for Christ.
Jesus has also
twice identified Elijah (Elias) as John, “Elias is come already, and they knew
him not ... Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the
Baptist.” (Matthew 17:12-13) Again Jesus said, “For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was
for to come.” (Matthew 11:13-14) But the message behind John’s denial that he
was not Elias (Elijah) (John 1:21), was quite loud and clear: he did not want
to overshadow the glory of his disciple Elisha in his humble garb of John. John
had realised by now that the mantle of Elijah was no longer needed for his
divinely perfect disciple Elisha/Christ, since the latter had already taken the
mantle of “Elijah that fell from him.” (II Kings 2:14) Even when Jesus was
finally being transfigured on the mountain (Matthew 17:3), He saw Elias, his
guru, beside Moses. In his extreme hour of distress on the Cross, Jesus cried
out for help to Elias, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” Which means “My God My
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard
that, said, this man calleth for Elias ... Let us see whether Elias will come
to save him” (Matthew 27:46-49)
This clearly testifies that an immutable
relation existed between John and Jesus since time immemorial. Therefore,
Jesus’ desperate search for John was quite natural. His meeting with John
further made him more determined in pursuance of his ideal. The teaching of
Jesus was principally oral in nature. The chief sources of information relating
to Jesus and his times are incorporated in five great collections of writings:
i) The Gospels and the writings of the New Testament, ii) The compositions,
Apocrypha, iii) The works of Philo, iv) The writings of Josephus, and v) The
Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, particularly the Jewish portion, the
book of Enoch and the book of Daniel. Jesus never claimed himself as God,
rather He preached that He was always in union with God, therefore, he was the
son of God. He never tried to establish
any dogma or any system, but He tried to establish the universal fatherhood of
God, which tried to depict the God of Christianity was principally the God of
humanity. Universal brotherhood is the theme of Christianity, because God is
one, who is the Father of all. In a true Christian, all the virtues such as
humility, forgiveness, charity, abnegation, self-denial etc. should become
manifest. As regards justice Christianity says, “Whatever ye would that men
should do unto you do ye even unto them.” Jesus was not satisfied with this
preaching, he further expressed in more eloquent language, “Whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also...” Jesus was
extremely against performance of any tough religious rituals for pleasing God,
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)
Christianity
teaches us to live at peace with all men. A great thing about Christianity is
that it taught us to respect women, “You have heard that it was said by them of
old times, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his
heart. And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it
from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish
and not the whole body be cast into Hell.” (Matt 5:27-30)Unfortunately today
most of the westerners have out rightly ignored this great message of Christ. Jesus
knew the ostensible traits of common people; they never accept anything without
a pinch of salt, unless they observe some miracles being performed. Therefore,
when he was asked by the nobleman to heal his dying son at Capernaum, Jesus
replied humorously, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” But
immediately he added,”Go thy way, thy son liveth.” (John 4:46-54)Great masters
frequently perform miracles, but their objective is different, it is not to
display their spiritual power, but to fulfil certain spiritual missions. Therefore,
Jesus and his contemporaries employed these methods, but in case of Jesus, he
performed his miracles but with a degree of reluctance. Satan (in Hebrew it is
‘adversary’ and in Hinduism, it is ‘Maya’), which is also identified as devil,
always attempts to lead a man astray from his spiritual path to matter, from
reality to unreality, which means to sense objects. Jesus also identifies the
Satan as a devil, a murderer and a liar. (John 8:44) “The devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil”, (I John 3:8) which means when man is attuned
with God or Supreme Consciousness, he effortlessly overcomes illusions.
Jesus taught us
to exalt the son of man within who is the son of God, “When you exalt the son
of man you will know that I speak nothing of myself.” But the Jews did not
understand his teachings, “Who is this son of man that must be lifted up?”
(John 12:34) And to this question Jesus replied, “Yet a little while is the
light in you, walk while ye have light, that darkness overtake you not; he that
walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” Jesus is further decisive,
“Look therefore whether the light that is in thee be not darkness.” (Luke
11:35) Here also Jesus teaches us not to be unnecessarily overwhelmed by
temptations, but to have absolute faith in the power of God. The greatest of
all virtues is humility, which is highly pleasing to God, the Bible teaches us
to be extremely humble, “Whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he
that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12) Jesus further
explained, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do nothing of himself,
but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also
doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5:19)
Jesus abhorred
covetousness, which is the very basis of Christian morality. Unfortunately our
modern societies are founded upon very rigorous ideas of property and
possession; poor and deprived are highly neglected and repulsed. He forcefully
insisted, “Sell that ye have and give alms.” His teachings are replete with the
establishment of human brotherhood based on pristine love in its widest sense,
though his idea of the establishment of the Kingdom of God has been interpreted
in diverse ways by his followers. “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man
says he has faith and has not works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or
sister be naked, and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, go in
peace, be ye warmed and filled and yet ye give them not the things needful to
the body what does it profit? Even so faith, if it has not works is dead in
itself ...” (James 2:14-22)
The last episode
of the life of Jesus is most significant as it illuminates his entire life and
teachings. At the end of the month of December, he went to Jerusalem to
celebrate the Feast of Lights. At Bethany, he performed the miracle of raising
Lazarus, which irritated his detractors. Annas used to say, “Better the death
of one man than the ruin of a people.” Jesus apprised his disciples of his
approaching end. Once while praying at nightfall at the Mount of Olives, he was
arrested by the troops of Judas on the order of the high priest. Though the
assembly knew that Jesus’ declaration of “I am able to destroy the temple of
God and to build it in three days,” was only a reference to his own
resurrection, yet it declared him guilty. Pilate wanted to save Jesus, but
fearing an uprising of the people, passed the death sentence on Jesus. Jesus
was only 33, when he was crucified. He made a last prayer, “Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do.”
In fact, Jesus was
willingly taking upon himself the consequences of others’ sins. Having been blessed
with the divine powers, Jesus could have easily escaped crucifixion, but he did
not want to violate the cosmic law of cause and effect like Krishna, when he
was pierced by an arrow, which hastened his end. Just before he was led away to
be crucified, Jesus uttered, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my
Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But
how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” (Matt.
26:53-4)
