Enjoy GEMs of Spirit’s fruit meant to nourish YOU—and ALL!
from insights of Cobbey Crisler and others for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Spirit”
for August 8, 2021
shared by Warren Huff
CedarS Executive Director Emeritus warren@cedarscamps.org
Here’s a link to the audio of today’s (8-2-21) “Prac Talk“ by David Price, CS, on “the fruit of the Spirit” (Golden Text/Gal. 5:22) as well as of the cashew tree.
David told us of the massive size of cashew trees in Brazil and of how the cashew nuts we enjoy are really their fruit. He also shared the list of “the fruit of the Spirit” from the Golden Text (Galatians 5:22, 23) and how we might find nourishment in this fruit throughout our day. For “list-lovers” like David “… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22, 23, KJV) – or these fruitful qualities as translated in The New Living Translation are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (NLT)
(NO further text from CedarS Prac Talks is available, so give loving attention to the audio.)
YOU HAVE A SPIRITUAL SENSE MINDSET AS A CHILD OF GOD – and FIND IT LIBERATING & NATURAL TO BE DIVINE!
Cobbey Crisler on citation B3/Romans 8:17 & verses around it, plus Col. 3:2-4 & Hymn 370)
(Cobbey on Colossians 3:2) Have you heard the modern expression mind-set? Verse 2 is almost that literally in Greek. “That our mind-set must be on things above.” Can we have an inner spiritual sense entertained that provides the divine reason for our being, even when we’re living on the earth at a human level if we “set our mind on things above, not on things of the earth”?
(Verse 3) “For ye are dead.” That’s exactly what the body is. If we are to be absent from the body, the body itself is now dead to our thought and our thought no longer responds to it. No longer worships it. The Greek word means to be away from something, to be separated from. “And your life,” we haven’t lost anything then. “Our life is,” or literally, “has been hidden with Christ in God.”
[Warren: Hymn 370 echoes this verse: “Hid with Christ in God, O gladness: / O the meekness and the might, / When the risen Christ has lifted / All our thoughts into the light, …” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 370:2)
(Cobbey again on Verse 4,) “When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear,” what about us? “We also will appear.”
“We will appear with him,” How? “In glory.” In imperishable radiance. That’s not an abstraction. It is supersensible, but it’s concrete being. It’s a sharing of the glorious liberty of the children who find it natural to be divine.”
In Romans 8:16/citation B3 Paul tells the Romans and us that “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
[In his comments on the following verse, Cobbey expands on this:] “Paul says in Romans 8:17 “We are joint heirs with Christ,” – inheritors of the divine being. We are sharers, “partakers of the divine nature.”(II Pet. 1:4)
[W.] So, let’s be Part-takers in God’s Cast of children — typecast to be spiritual – with a natural spiritual sense mindset!
“Glory: Divine Nature in the Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SILENCE DIVISIVENESS! “Think without STRIFE!” (a CedarS song directive)
PRAY for our DIVINE SENSE of ONENESS to INCREASE!
[Warren:] As CedarS wraps up our eight weeks of harmonious camper sessions for Summer 2021, and as we prepare to kick off our full Family Camp week, it’s very fitting and helpful that our Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson contains what Jesus was trained to pray to begin each day (and what all Jews still are supposed to pray to begin as well as to end each day). Jews call this key prayer of theirs the “Shema” – the Hebrew word for “Hear”— because Deuteronomy 6:4/citation B7 starts with that word.
4 Hear, O Israel: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (citation B7/Deut. 6:4,5, plus bonus verses)
[The rest of the Shema prayer… ] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9, (NIV), verses 6-9 after citation B71
Please note how constantly throughout each day (as yellow-highlighted above) Jews are supposed to prayerfully affirm the supremacy of God’s oneness and commandments to rule over all!
Another significance of this key prayer of oneness for us is that it led into the Christian Science Bible Lesson that began 2021. In it the word “one” in used 60 times while alerting us of the importance of oneness as a healing keynote to focus on throughout each day. This will be especially helpful in the coming weeks and months of the world’s emergence from the pandemic as well as from an escalated exchange of missiles and violence in the Middle East.
As Christie Hanzlik, CS, points out in the opening paragraph of the CedarS Met for that week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson: “It is tempting to see a world consisting of millions of human opinions, warring media reports, racial strife, class warfare, tribalism, gender inequity, political personalities, family disagreements and even conflicts within ourselves. The singular answer to this seeming divisiveness is the oneness of Truth, the oneness of good, the oneness of God. God is indivisible. And therefore we, as the outcome of God, are also indivisible.”
Verse 3 of Christian Science Hymn 157 calls for us to make daily progress in demonstrating unity: “Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase.” This prayer request to God for oneness comes from no other than Jesus in the final hours before he allows himself to be captured for crucifixion, when he prayed for his disciples and us that we may feel at one with God and with one another! (John 17:11, 21, 22)
Christian Science Hymn 157
“Jesus’ prayer for all his brethren: / Father, that they may be one, / Echoes down through all the ages, / Nor prayed he for these alone / But for all, that through all time / God’s will be done.
One the Mind and Life of all things, / For we live in God alone; / One the Love whose ever-presence / Blesses all and injures none. / Safe within this Love we find all / being one.
Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase, / Till among all men and nations / Warfare shall forever cease, / So God’s children all shall dwell / in joy and peace.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 157:1–3)
Kerry Jenkins, CS, who wrote CedarS Metaphysical application ideas for this week’s Bible Lesson shares in the second paragraph of Section 3 more about what the power of the oneness of God means to man:
Kerry writes there: “This section is bringing to our attention the power we have when we put God first and love Spirit above all else, put aside our personal desires, to check with what might be God’s will first. Mary Baker Eddy says that the First Commandment is her favorite text. (cit. S11/340:16) She then lists what it means to man. One way that I pray with this paragraph is to put “One infinite God, good” in front of each thing that she lists as God’s doing. It looks like this in bold:
“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; one infinite God, good, constitutes the brotherhood of man; one infinite God, good, ends wars; one infinite God, good, fulfills the Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,”; one infinite God, good, annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,; one infinite God, good, annihilates whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; one infinite God, good, equalizes the sexes; one infinite God, good, annuls the curse on man; and one infinite God, good, leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” (modified cit. S11/340:16) I just feel this brings more attention to what God does!”
MAKE YOUR OWN JESUS’ GEM OF A RADICALLY DIFFERENT VIEW OF MATTER & NATIVITY.
Cobbey Crisler insights on John 6:62, 63/cit. B11 and Mary Baker Eddy’s in citation S12/356:15
[Cobbey:]John 6:62, “What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?” Nativity in the Spirit. There can’t be the magnetic pull back to earth if that connection has been severed or proved never to have been a real connection.
In John 6:63 (cit. B7), Jesus impinges upon what has been considered laws of physics because he views matter in a radical way. He makes the statement, “It is the spirit that quickeneth.” That is where you find life. So, if you want to talk about nativity anywhere, you better deal with origin and Spirit. “The flesh profiteth nothing.”
You see how close one needs to be to Jesus in thought to understand what has been referred to as the Communion Supper. If he is accurate in saying, “the flesh profiteth nothing, “neither would symbolically eating it profit anything. So, it must not be the flesh he is talking about, but that great transformation that he is proving in his life to be possible to the Son of Man. John 1:14 refers to it as “the Word that was made flesh.” The Word connects us to Spirit, not flesh. Here is part of that Word underscoring the message that, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
C.S. P.S.: The Science and Health portion of this section leads off with Mary Baker Eddy’s statement that “Jesus knew, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.” (cit. S12/356:15)
REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FLESH AS THE CONTAINER OF YOUR INDIVIDUALITY!
Freedom from the flesh according to Paul from Romans 8:5, 6, 8, 9/cit. B12 (+v. 19-21):
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (plus, verse 6 bonus— “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (cit. B12/Romans 6:6, KJV)
[Warren] The Contemporary English Version (CEV) translates this citation as “People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.”
[Warren] The Living Bible (TLB) renders these verses: “Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God. 6 Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death.”
Cobbey Crisler writes about how Paul continues to develop this theme in Romans 8:9/cit. B12.
[Cobbey:] on Romans 8:9 “How many auditoriums would empty in ridicule if Paul stood before them today and announced, “You are not in the flesh”? That’s an invitation to laughter, isn’t it? “You are not in the flesh,” Paul said. Flesh is not the container, then, of our individuality. We [are encouraged to think that] we are [our bodies]. We’re proud of that “fact”. We have turned the glory into shame by thinking out from the basis of flesh. We suffer from the incurred problems of an evolution that traces itself back through dust-like levels, so that heredity becomes a problem in health. We take pride in those “designer-genes” that form our genetic code.
In the Bible it’s a case of choosing between Genesis or genetics. Genesis (1:1, 25) has us in the beginning created by God with dominion and in God’s image. So, flesh cannot be part of that image. Where are we seeing ourselves? “Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9)
Where are we instead of in the flesh according to Romans 8, Verse 9? We’re “in the spirit” That’s home, then. Do we really feel at home in the Spirit? To be inspired is to have Spirit within, literally, in Latin. Do we enjoy living in an inspired state? Everything moves aside. Everything is subordinated to that inspiration. “we’re in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us.”…
(bonus verses from Romans 8)
In Verse 19 would you agree with Paul that “the earnest expectation of the whole human race is waiting for this manifestation of the sons of God”? That it could be manifested, this sense of glory?
“Verse 21 mentions “the creature itself.” Look what is going to happen to the human body as the result of the evangelization of our mentality. As our mentality becomes more and more like God, the human body, “the creature itself, also shall be delivered.” There’s freedom, freedom from “every ill that flesh is heir to,” as Shakespeare says. “Delivered from the slavery,” literally in Greek, “the bondage of corruption,” “the slavery of decay into,” literally, “the freedom of the children of God.” The divine mode of being, as one dictionary says glory is, “into the freedom of the glory of the divine mode of being, of the divine nature, of the radiant thought of the children of God.”
If (only) all our thoughts could be at the level of such radiance. We’ve seen light come out from a human expression. We’ve met people who radiate a sense of insight… That’s in the fleshly. That’s simply an outward manifestation of what’s going on within. More should be going on within. And we’re spending most of our time trying to dress the without.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
REACH OUT TO FEEL GOD’S PRESENCE, EVEN IF CIRCUMSTANCES SEEM TO HAVE YOU in the DEPTHS OF HELL! “Whither Shall I Go from Thy Spirit” from Psalm 139:7, 8 (cit. B13) comforts us with assurance of the uplifting ever-presence of Spirit. We can sing together of this in
Hymn 599, “Whither Shall I Go from Thy Spirit”, in the 2017 Christian Science Hymnal.
BONUS Christian Science Camps VERSION of HYMN 599 from Psalm 139!
Thanks to the initiating and copyright coordinating efforts by CedarS Director of Operations, Holly Huff Bruland, all six of the North American camps for Christian Scientists came together to sing “Whither!” This happened when this Psalm was in the Christian Science Bible Lesson and we were all apart and unable (in early summer of 2020) to accept campers in person. Holly arranged for all to sing their segments and send them in to Nathan Wood to edit together so that each camp could have the following Vimeo link to post to its social media and circulate as it saw fit: https://vimeo.com/413393023
P.S. This Hymn is a favorite at several camps and is especially lovely when sung with a guitar as Erin Williams did in this YouTube version of it.
REMAIN AT PEACE WITH ALL WHO ARE FREAKED-OUT BY TURMOIL,
EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE IN THE SAME BOAT.
Cobbey Crisler on Mark 4:35-41. (citation B15)
[Cobbey: In Mark, chapter 4,] “Verse 37. … we have the “storm of wind, the waves.”
Verse 38. And another thing that Peter remembers is that Jesus was “asleep on a pillow.” No other gospel tells us that Jesus was asleep on a pillow. Things linger with Peter. Do you remember Peter’s roof in Mark 2:4? It took him longer to fix that roof than it took Jesus to heal the paralytic man inside the house.
“Now we have another thing that stuck with Peter. In the middle of crisis, there’s Jesus “in the lap of luxury” asleep on a pillow. He was not concerned about that boat or its occupants. There was a great sense of peace, obviously, in the mind of Jesus. But the frantic disciples go and shake him, wake him up. “Don’t you care that we’re perishing out here?” They hadn’t thought that he was in the same boat. Actually, when one bases it on a different mental concept, he wasn’t m the same boat with the disciples at all.
“You know how you and I feel when we’re awakened out of a sleep? We usually need a little time to get over the grogginess. Not with Jesus. He immediately arose, and rebuked the wind, just as he did to the man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue. He saw church right out there. So, church includes nature. Nature was trying to get outside the definition of church.
“Verse 39. Jesus said, “No” and “Yes” to God’s definition of church,
“Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
Verse 40. Then he pointed to the problem. The problem was mental. ”You are fearful.” That obviously is what needs then to be said “No” to. “You have no faith.” Faith is what apparently needs to be said “Yes” to. That calms storms without as well as storms within, showing that the real conquest is that of inner space, not of outer space.”
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Bonus PS: Mary Baker Eddy appropriates Jesus’ words in Mark 4:39 when he stills this big storm. “Human will-power may infringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power that says to disease, “Peace be still.” (Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, 144:22)
Bonus story of the winner of an art contest to perfectly depict peace: I first heard about “Peace in the storm” in a Christian Science Sunday School class and just found this link that shares it— https://wesleyumc-dover.com/peace-in-the-storm/
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7
“An art contest was held to find “the perfect picture of peace”. The challenge stirred the imagination of artists everywhere, and paintings arrived from far and wide. Finally the great day of revelation arrived, and the field had been narrowed down to just two paintings.
“As a judge pulled the cover from first one, a hush fell over the crowd. A mirror-smooth lake reflected lacy, green birches under the soft blush of the evening sky. Along the grassy shore, a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed.
“Surely this was the winner!
“But when the second painting was uncovered, the crowd gasped in surprise.
“A tumultuous waterfall cascaded down a rocky precipice; the crowd could almost feel its cold, penetrating spray. Stormy-gray clouds threatened to explode with lightning, wind, and rain. In the midst of the thundering noises and bitter chill, a spindly tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls.
“But in that tree, a little bird had built a nest. Content and undisturbed in her stormy surroundings, she rested on her eggs. With her eyes closed and her wings ready to cover her little ones, she manifested peace that transcends all earthly turmoil.
“Perhaps today, you’ve been guilty of searching for the kind of peace in the first picture. But the problem is that IT JUST DOESN’T EXIST. Real peace—the kind in the second picture—is one that’s ready and available to you when you take shelter in the arms of the Savior.
“Prayer Challenge: Pray that despite your circumstances, God would through Jesus Christ give you peace that surpasses all earthly understanding.” See in full at https://wesleyumc-dover.com/peace-in-the-storm/
**Bonus peace-related poems: “If” by Rudyard Kipling is lifted higher by “Mother’s Evening Prayer” by Mary Baker Eddy. “If” starts by extolling the virtue of achieving manhood by retaining the inner peace to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” Mary Baker Eddy lifts this peace to a divine sense, beyond that of man’s understanding, by opening her “Mother’s Evening Prayer” with “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power.” She ends it with “and mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.”
“If” has been a special poem to me since childhood because my fun-loving grandfather had a framed version of it that he pointed out to me more than once in reciting it for me by heart. (You can Download a picture of the framed version of “If” that he gave to my mom who in turn gave it to me.) The best gift is one that only God can give though. It’s “the peace of God that passes all understanding” which is all that will truly allow us to fulfill the promise of the final verse to live into and up to our (spiritual) manhood. When Kipling advocates trusting yourself, Christ Jesus tells us to follow him and trust God alone; when Kipling talks of treating the impostors of Triumph and Disaster just the same, Mary Baker Eddy tells us that “loss is gain” (Hymn 207); when Kipling advises to “not be tired by waiting… and don’t give way to hating” Mary Baker Eddy tells us to “Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear / No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain. /”
Hymn 207, “Mother’s Evening Prayer” in full, by Mary Baker Eddy
“O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; / O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour, / Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight! / Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight. /
“Love is our refuge; only with mine eye / Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall: / His habitation high is here, and nigh, / His arm encircles me, and mine, and all. /
“O make me glad for every scalding tear, / For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain! / Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear / No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain. /
“Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing; / In that sweet secret of the narrow way, / Seeking and finding, with the angels sing: / “Lo, I am with you alway,”—watch and pray. /
“No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain; / No night drops down upon the troubled breast, / When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain, / And mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.
(The Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207:1–5) https://login.concord.christianscience.com/concord/secure/dashboard
Click here or on the link below for the words in print or here for an audio version of the poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling.
STAND WITH A PURIFIED HUMANHOOD THAT IS NO LONGER INFLUENCEABLE BY ATTACKERS THAT WOULD CLAIM OUR MENTALITY AS THEIR OWN
IN AN ATTEMPT TO POSSESS OUR THINKING.
Cobbey Crisler on Mark 5:1-15 also told as this week to us in Luke 8:22, 26-35 (cit. B18):
[Cobbey:] “In [Luke 8:22-35 and] Mark Chapter 5, Verse 1, we have the very strange incident in the country of the Gadarenes. The ancient texts vary all over the lot here: Gadarenes, Gadara, Garisenes, Garis, Gurgesenes, or Gergesa? Gadara was a town. Gerasa was also a town. Neither of them were anywhere near the shore of the lake. But Gergesa is. Right on the shore and located, at least according to recent findings, at the only spot on the Sea of Galilee where the event could ever have happened anyway. The only spot where the sea-place approaches the shore. So, it’s probably Gergesa. Matthew has Gergesenes and Luke Gadarenes.
“Mark 5, Verse 2. (Luke 8, Verse 26)“Coming out of the ship.” He’s over in Gentile territory, by the way. This is not Jewish territory. It’s on the Eastern side. It’s where the Decapolis cities are, the confederacy of Greek cities. Today the Golan Heights is part of the region.
“Verse 3. “He runs into a man who is living in the tombs.” Interestingly enough, there are rock formations right smack at the point where the Heights approach the sea, where you would say they have the appearance of tombs. “This man had not the strong man bound.” We see the strong man is really mentality, not anatomy.
Verse 3. You and I may have seen some of the pumping-iron movies, and we begin to think anatomy is the strong man. Hardly. Here we have a man of above-average muscular development, but mentally so out of sorts with what is normal. This man has exceeded certain human limitations and “he is able to break iron fetters, chains.”
Verse 4. “Nobody could control him.”
Verse 5. This shows mentality unleashed, undisciplined, and filled with a dualism. He would even attempt to oppose God, or in some cases imitate or ape God. This man’s dwelling is at both extremes. Night and day are extremes. Mountains and tombs are extremes.
Of course, you and I don’t recognize this mental effect, do we? Or do we commute between our mountains and our tombs? Are we in the pits? We know of manic depression, sure. But what about the mountains? Do we have our moments of altitudinous thinking, as well? Really inspired thinking? There we are, buying round trips daily on the mountain-to-tomb local. We get off on occasion somewhere in between. This man had taken it too.
You can see what happens when the carnal mind can no longer take the extremes. The dual personality splits. The kingdom becomes divided against itself. That is being illustrated here.
And the drug effect. Look at the drug effect, the mountains and tombs where these highs and lows flourish. Uppers and downers where one gets captured by the whole necessity for this. It becomes something so addictive, that in order to feel high or low, we need chemical inducement. So, this is not an outdated, outmoded, human problem. This kind of insanity is everywhere attempting to rule human thinking, including within ourselves. Jesus knew this. He was in a Gentile territory. It’s even out of the Jewish context. Therefore, it has a universality about it.
Verse 7. The man with the unclean spirit knows the presence of the cure. Notice the great resistance to the cure that we see illustrated here. “What have I to do with thee, Jesus?” How often is that statement repeated in varying degrees by every single person on this globe? Everyone who has ever heard of the Christ message? Even those claiming to be followers. “What have I to do with thee?”
When we compromise ourselves, or when we lower our standards under pressure, is it not the equivalent of saying, “What do I have to do with thee, Jesus?” Do we resent the role model he represents to thought? “Don’t torment me.”
Verse 8. We’ve got three different treatments here. One, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit.”The word for man is anthropu, which is the root of anthropological. It is not so much a specific man as man in general. It’s a generic term for man. “Come out of manhood, unclean spirit.” He’s talking about impurity. Impurity doesn’t belong within God’s definition of manhood. There’s momentum, again, being applied. Is there a healing? No.
Verse 9. So, the second, “He asked him, ‘What is thy name?’” Jesus is trying to pinpoint or identify the problem. And we find out, it’s very difficult to pinpoint because it’s “Legion.” Remember, when the remedy id oneness or monism, you already know what the problem is. The problem is always the opposite of the remedy. So, you have this multiplicity of problems and psychological reasons for why we’re in the fix we are. “Fix,” as sometimes applied to drugs.
“My name is Legion.” That’s a definition of impurity, by the way, “legion.” Purity is an unmixed state. So, we know what we’re dealing with. Remember one of the Beatitudes mentioned Matthew 5:8, it’s “the pure in heart that see God.”
So, purity is what we need as our “anchor of the soul” as Hebrews 6:19 says. Remember, that later Jesus calls upon “legions of angels,” (Matthew 26:53). Also, “Michael and his angels,” Revelation 12:7, are fighting “the dragon and his angels.”
So, we actually have this conflict here of thoughts. This is a confused mentality. Obviously, it’s chaotic thinking. It has no discipline at all. It’s no “first the blade, then the ear, and then the full grain,” Mark 4:28. That orderly sense of discipline in thought. It has lost all connection or link to possible discipline.
The third treatment given by Jesus in this individual case is one that actually has aroused a great deal of compassion for the swine among its readers. It would not seem to be part of Jesus’ normal procedure to wipe out a herd like this to make a spiritual point. But there is indeed a spiritual point here. One that has to do with the definition of manhood. Remember, Legion is the problem and oneness is the remedy.
Does man’s thinking, as you and I define it, contain a swinish element or nature? What is capable of being agitated by erroneous mental influence? Can manhood be ever defined as calm and free in his thought, when he has elements within his thought, that still victimize him rather than see him as the victor? Perhaps, we are being told here, through this illustration and event, that one of the “no’s” we are to be saying mentally is to the swinish nature that has attached itself to our identity and called itself “Legion.” Perhaps we are subjected to many influences, a legion of influences, instead of God alone the One on the throne.
We know that human nature does commute between the mountains and the tombs. The swine are said, in Luke’s 8:32 version (B14) of this, to be nibbling on the mountains. Symbolically does the swinish nature nibble at our altitudinous and highest moments? There is a violence to this self-destruction that occurs at the only spot on the Sea of Galilee where it is possible. If nothing else, we certainly can conclude that swinish nature had no built-in defense to such mental invasions.
Verse 15. Yet manhood can be freed from such influence. For this man, now “clothed and in this right mind” no longer is under subjection to legion. If his right mind is in this sense of oneness, the other mental state obviously was wrong. What expressed that mental state is self-destroyed.
Before this incident, we might have concluded that man had no defense against such mental incursions. Therefore our mental hospitals are destined to be filled. But rather, we discover that man can separate himself out of swinish influences and still stand as a man. Yes, and stand humanly with a humanhood that has been purified. One that is no longer influenceable by the legion of attackers that would claim our mentality as its own in its attempt to possess our thinking without any rights of ownership.
When this incident begins to come to a close, we find that we can even see the sequence of things. Remember Mark 4:28, “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn.” There’s more behind this blade. (That’s even the definition of animal later.)
Right now, as with everything else, we have the worldview upside down. You and I have been told that we are descendants of the animal kingdom. If that’s the wrong point of view, then the remedy is the opposite. Notice, animals and their natures belong to mankind, and can be found in the definition of man, rather than man finding himself in the definition of the animal.
That’s something we haven’t seriously considered in our twentieth century. Back in the first century, the notion that mankind may have descended from animals was considered absurd. But over time, the evolutionary theory suggested an entirely different kind of origin. This was the result of darkened and dualistic thinking. The mind that defines itself as coming from the animal realm, rather than the realm of the divine, becomes animal in concept. But divine revelation can clean us up. God defines man in a concept of holiness rather than unholiness. We need just to breathe in the Holy Spirit and take into thought what is holy.
I once heard a talk by Geith Plimmer. He recalled a biblical incident where, with such a compassion behind his expressed words, he discussed a dear man who was possessed. And he rejoiced with that idea of possession being used, because it showed that it didn’t really belong to him. He was possessed. The remedy he suggested was to dispossess. To dispossess is the remedy to possession.
Verse 19. How he loved those most glorious words humanly expressing love, “Go home to thy friends.” Here’s a man that had lived in the mountains and the tombs. How long has he had anyone whom he could call a friend? Where is his home? You see what Jesus is now defining as home and friends.
“Tell them.” Notice, he doesn’t tell him not to say anything. This is in a Gentile territory where he encourages the Word to go to other Gentiles. “Go home to thy friends.” Mr. Plimmer pointed out that here, when we first met him, he was a man that could be defined as completely irresponsible. Jesus not only heals him, but he restores the dignity of manhood, as he did in every healing. It was part of the healing. He also gave him responsibility. “Go home to thy friends and tell them.” He was one of the first Gentile disciples, if you could use that word, that took Christianity into that territory. What a prime responsibility for someone who couldn’t account for his actions not very long before! Even before Paul, this man went to the Gentiles.
Is there any record of what he did? There is none past this. But it’s interesting that when the Temple in Jerusalem fell to the Romans in A.D. 70, the Christians, having an advance awareness that this was happening, moved in Pella, part of the Decapolis area. A lot of preparation had been done.
“What Mark Recorded,” B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND ONENESS with God “AS A HUMBLE RAY OF SUNLIGHT THAT IS ONE WITH THE SUN”
from citation S24/26:10-14 a Jesus quote from John 10:30 (See also SH 315:3+361:16 as sung in “I and My Father” Music Video on YouTube
Below is a YouTube link to an inspiring song by a CedarS mom and award-winning Country Music artist, Cherie Brennan. It emphasizes the “I and my Father are one” mindset of Christ Jesus and mentioned in this week’s Bible Lesson citation S24/26:10-14 from John 10:30.
Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZMNlpZavkA
You can learn more about Cherie and buy her CD “You are Loved” (“I and My Father” is the 4th song) on her website through Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ii5CBrdNs6f8Y3t4l5XHl
Or, on Watchfire Music by CedarS friend, Peter Link, — LISTEN TO A SAMPLE of “I and my Father are one” SUNG by Mindy Jostyn and BUY IT and the SHEET MUSIC for SOLOISTS at: https://watchfiremusic.com/shop/recordings/songs/i-and-my-father-are-one-2/
