The Gospel in Brief

Chapter Two GOD IS A SPIRIT

And therefore man should work, not for the flesh, but for the spirit.

WHO ART IN HEAVEN

Considering themselves to be orthodox believers, the Jews revere the external God, the creator of the flesh. According to their teaching, this external God had made an agreement with them, wherein he promised to help the Jews, and the Jews had promised to reverence him, and the main condition of this agreement was the observance of the Sabbath. Jesus rejected the observance of the Sabbath. He says, “The Sabbath is an institution of man. A living man is more important in his spirit than all external rituals. Observance of the Sabbath ritual, like all external worship, contains a fallacy at its core. It is impossible to do nothing on the Sabbath. A man should do good deeds at all times, and if the Sabbath is preventing the doing of a good deed, then that means the Sabbath is a lie.”

The orthodox Jews considered another condition of this agreement to be the avoidance of interaction with non-believers. To this, Jesus says that God does not want sacrifices from people, but love between them.

They considered one more condition of the agreement to be the rules of ablution and purification. Addressing this, Jesus states that God does not demand external purity but demands only charity and love toward other people.

Jesus makes the point that external ordinances are harmful and that church traditions themselves are evil. Church traditions make it so that people throw out the most important acts of love—for example, love for one’s father and mother—and justify it with church tradition.

Concerning all things external, all the rules of the previous law that determined those situations in which a person might become defiled, Jesus says, “You all know that nothing can defile a person from the outside; only what he thinks can defile a person.”

Jesus comes to Jerusalem, a city considered to be holy, and he goes into the temple, where the orthodox believed God himself lived, and he says that it is unnecessary to make sacrifices to God, that a person is more important than the temple, and that all one must do is love and help his neighbor.

One need not worship God in some special place, instead one must serve God in deed and in spirit. The spirit is impossible to see or to show. The spirit is a person’s consciousness of their status as a son of the endless spirit. A temple is not necessary. The true temple is the world of people, united in love. All external worship is not only false and harmful when it facilitates evil deeds, but it is harmful because the person that fulfills external ordinances considers himself correct and frees himself from the need to perform any acts of love. The only person who strives for goodness and performs acts of love is the one who feels his own imperfection. External worship leads to the error of self-satisfaction, therefore all external worship is unnecessary and should be thrown out. It is impossible to combine acts of love with the fulfillment of ordinances and impossible under the guise of external worship to perform acts of love. Man is the son of God in spirit, and therefore he should serve the father in spirit.

It happened that once, on the Sabbath, Jesus was walking through a field with his students. The students had gotten hungry and along the way had torn off some heads of grain, plucked the kernels with their hands and began to eat. But according to the orthodox teaching, God had established a covenant with Moses that required all to observe the Sabbath and to do nothing at all on the Sabbath day. According to the orthodox teaching, God had commanded that whoever worked on the Sabbath should be beaten with stones.

The orthodox saw that the students were plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath and they said, “That is not to be done on the Sabbath. We are forbidden to work on the Sabbath and yet you are plucking ears of corn. God established the Sabbath and commanded that its violation be punished by death.”

Jesus heard this and said, “If you understood what these words of God mean, ‘I want love and not sacrifice,’ you would not be condemning them for something which bears no guilt. Man is more important than the Sabbath.”

It happened on another Sabbath as Jesus was teaching in a meeting that a sick woman approached him and asked him to help her. And Jesus began to care for her.

Then, an orthodox church elder became angry at Jesus for this and said to the people, “In God’s law it is said ‘There are six days in the week for work.’”

And at this, Jesus asked the orthodox legalists, “What, then, in your opinion, is it also forbidden to help another person on the Sabbath?”

And they did not know what to answer.

Then Jesus said, “Deceivers! Don’t each of you untether your animal from the manger and lead it to drink on the Sabbath? And if someone’s sheep falls into the well, then of course, does he not run and pull it out, even if it is the Sabbath?”

Once, Jesus saw a tax collector gathering taxes. This tax collector was named Matthew. Jesus spoke with him and Matthew understood him, came to love his teaching, and called him to his home as a guest, preparing refreshments for him.

When Jesus came to Matthew, some acquaintances, tax collectors and non-believers, were visiting him. But Jesus did not shun them and sat down himself, as did his students.

And now the orthodox saw this and said to Jesus’s students, “How is it that your teacher is eating with tax collectors and these other wayward people? On the contrary, according to orthodox law, God has commanded us not to communicate with the non-believing.”

Jesus heard this and said, “Whoever rejoices in his health has no need for a healer, but whoever is sick needs one. Understand what God’s words mean: ‘I want love, not sacrifice.’ It is impossible for me to teach those who consider themselves orthodox to change their faith, so instead I teach those who consider themselves wayward.”

The orthodox legalists came to Jesus from Jerusalem. And they saw that his students and he himself ate bread with unwashed hands. And the orthodox legalists began to condemn him for this, because they themselves behaved strictly according to church tradition, such as their requirement for washing dishes: if they are not washed properly, they do not eat off of them. And also, after making their purchases, they will not eat anything if they do not wash it first.

And the orthodox legalists asked him, “What is your reason for not living by church tradition but taking your bread and eating it with unwashed hands?”

And he answered them, “How is it that you break the commandments of God by living the church traditions? God has told you: honor your father and mother. And you came up with the idea that everyone can say: I offer to God what I would have given to my parents. And then you can go without feeding your father and mother. That is how you break the commandments of God with church tradition.

“Deceivers! The prophet Isaiah spoke the truth of you: ‘Because this people only prostrates itself before me in words and honors me with its tongue, while its heart is far from me, and because its fear before me is only a requirement of man, which it has memorized, for that I will perform an amazing and peculiar act for this people: the wisdom of its wise men will tumble and the intelligence of its educated ones will fade. Woe to those who trouble themselves to hide their desires from the Eternal and who perform their acts in the dark.’

“Just so, you leave behind what is important in the law, the portion that is God’s commandment, and you live your own human traditions, cleaning off cups.”

And Jesus called together all the people and said, “Listen all of you, and understand. There is nothing in the world that can enter into a person and defile him, but what comes out of him, that is what defiles a person. Let there be love and charity in your soul and then everything will be clean. Try to understand this.”

And when he returned home, his students asked him what those words meant.

And he said, “Even you did not understand? Don’t you understand that all things external and mortal cannot defile a person? Because it enters his belly and not his soul. It enters his belly and exits out of his rear with the excrement. Only what comes out of a person, what comes out of his soul, can defile a person.

“This is because evil comes from a person’s soul: fornication, bawdiness, murder, thievery, greed, malice, deceit, insolence, jealousy, slander, pride and all kinds of foolishness. All of this evil comes from a person’s soul and only these things can defile a person.”

After this, Passover approached and Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the temple.

At the porch of the temple there stood livestock: cows, bulls, and rams. A cage for doves had been built there as well. Behind this, booths were set up for moneychangers with their money. All of this was necessary in order to make offerings to God. They killed and made the offering in the temple. This was the method of prayer for the Jews, as it had been taught to them by the orthodox legalists.

Jesus entered the temple, brandished a whip, drove out all the livestock from the porch, set free all of the doves and scattered all of the money. And he commanded that none of these things be carried into the temple.

He said, “The prophet Isaiah said to you, ‘The house of God is not the temple in Jerusalem, but the whole world of God’s people.’ And in addition, the prophet Jeremiah said to you, ‘Do not believe false speeches concerning how this is the home of the Eternal. Do not believe that, but instead change your life and do not judge falsely, do not oppress the traveler, the widow or the orphan, do not spill innocent blood and do not come to the house of God and say: Now we can do our obscenities in peace. Do not think that a den of bandits could be the home of the father.’”

And the Jews took up the argument and said to him, “You say that our worship service is incorrect; how are you going to prove this?”

And, turning to address them, Jesus said, “Tear down this temple and in three days I will raise a new, living temple.”

And the Jews said, “How will you make a new temple now, when it took forty-six years to build this one?”

And Jesus told them, “I am speaking to you about something that is more important than the temple. You would not be saying these things if you understood what these words of the prophets mean: ‘I, God, do not rejoice in your offerings, but I rejoice in your love one to another.’ The living temple is the whole world of people when they love one another.”

And then in Jerusalem, many people began to believe in what he had said. But he himself did not believe in anything external because he knew that all things are within a person. He did not need anybody to teach him about man, because he knew that inside of a man is a soul.

And once, Jesus had to travel through Samaria. He walked by the village of the Samaritan Sychar, nearby the place that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was located there. Jesus was weary from the road and sat down at the well, and his students went into the city for bread.

And a woman came out from the Sychar for water. Jesus asked her for something to drink.

And she said to him, “How is it that you are asking me for something to drink? After all, you Jews don’t associate with us Samaritans.”

And he said to her, “If you knew me and knew what I teach, you would not say this, but would give me something to drink and I would give you the water of life. Whoever drinks his fill of your water will become thirsty again. But whoever drinks his fill of my water will be satisfied forever, and this water of mine will lead him to eternal life.”

The woman understood that he was speaking of the divine and said to him, “I see that you are a prophet, if you want to, teach me. But how can you teach me the divine when you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan? Our people pray to God on this mountain and you Jews say that God’s house is only in Jerusalem. You cannot teach me the divine because you have one faith and we have another.”

And Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, the time has already arrived when people will cease to pray to the father either here on this mountain or in Jerusalem. Because if they pray to God, then they pray to that which they do not know, but if they pray to the father, then they pray to someone who is impossible not to know.

“The time has come that the real venerators of God will not worship God, but will worship the father in spirit and in action. These are the kind of venerators that the father needs. God is a spirit, and we must worship him in spirit and in action.”

The woman could not make out what he had said to her so she said, “I heard that God’s messenger was coming, he who is called the anointed one. He will then tell us everything.”

And Jesus said to her, “I am that very one, speaking with you now. Do not wait for anyone else.”

After that, Jesus came to the land of Judea and lived there with his students and taught. At that time, John taught the people near Salim and bathed them in the river Aenon. Because John still had not been put in prison.

And a debate started up between John’s students and Jesus’s students about which is better: John’s cleansing in water or Jesus’s teachings.

And they came to John and said to him, “Now, you purify with water and Jesus only teaches; yet everyone goes to him. What do you say about him?”

John said, “A man cannot teach anything, if God does not teach him. Whoever speaks about earthly things is earthly but if someone speaks of God, then he is from God. It is impossible to prove whether the words they are speaking are from God or not from God. God is a spirit, he is impossible to measure and impossible to prove. Whoever understands the words of the spirit will be able to prove with this understanding that he is from the spirit.

“The father, loving the son, gave everything to him. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life; and whoever does not believe in the son does not have life. God is the spirit within man.”

After that, one orthodox believer came to Jesus and invited him into his home for breakfast. He went in and sat at the table. The orthodox believer noticed that he did not wash before breakfast and was amazed.

And Jesus said to him, “You orthodox wash everything on the outside: but are you clean on the inside? Be charitable toward people and all will be clean.”

And as he was sitting in the home of the orthodox believer, a woman who had been unfaithful arrived from the city. She had discovered that Jesus was in the home of the orthodox believer and so she went there and brought a flask with perfumes. She knelt at his feet, began to cry and shed tears on his feet, wiped them with her hair and poured perfume from the flask.

The orthodox believer saw this and thought to himself, “He cannot really be a prophet. If he were really a prophet, he would realize what kind of woman this is washing his feet, he would realize that this is an unfaithful woman and he would not allow her to come close enough to touch him.”

Jesus guessed at this, turned to him and said, “Should I tell you what I think?”

“Tell me,” the man said.

And Jesus said, “Here’s what: Two men counted themselves among the debtors of a certain master, one by five hundred pieces of money and the other by fifty pieces. And neither the one nor the other had anything with which to repay the debt. The master pardoned both. So then, according to your thinking, who will love the master more and care for him more?”

And the man said, “Everyone knows that it would be the one who had the larger debt.”

Jesus gestured toward the woman and said, “So it is with you and this woman. You consider yourself orthodox and therefore a minor debtor, she considers herself unfaithful and therefore a major debtor. I came to you, into your home, and you did not offer me water for washing my feet; she washes my feet with tears and dries them with her hair. You did not kiss me, but she is kissing my feet. You did not offer me oil to anoint my head, but she is anointing my feet with expensive perfumes.

“He who considers himself orthodox will not perform any acts of love. And he who considers himself unfaithful will perform acts of love. And acts of love will deliver you out of all error.”

And he said to her, “Yes, you have delivered yourself from your errors.”

Jesus said, “The whole matter with faith is who one considers oneself to be. Whoever considers himself to be good in his faith will not be good; and whoever considers himself to be bad in his faith will be good.”

And Jesus said further, “Once two men went into the temple to pray; one was orthodox, the other an unfaithful tax collector. The orthodox believer prayed like this, ‘I thank you, Lord, that I am not like others: I am not a miser, not a cheat, not a libertine and not such a scoundrel as this tax collector here. I fast two days a week and I pay a tithe on all my holdings.’

“But the tax collector stood a ways off and didn’t dare to look at the heavens, but simply beat himself on the chest and murmured, ‘Lord! Look at me, a worthless man.’

“And so? This one was better than the orthodox because he who elevates himself will be lowered and he who lowers himself will be elevated.”

And after this, some students of John came to Jesus and said, “Why is it that, along with the orthodox, we fast so much and your students do not fast at all? Because according to the orthodox law, God has commanded us to fast.”

And Jesus said to them, “As long as the groom is at the wedding, no one can be sad. It is only when there is no groom that they are sad. If there is life, then there is no need to be sad.

“It is impossible to combine external worship with acts of love. It is impossible to combine the old teaching of external worship with my teaching of performing acts of love toward one’s neighbor. To combine my teaching with the old one is the same as tearing a piece of fabric from a new garment and sewing it onto an old one. So you tear apart the new one and fail to repair the old one. One must accept mine in its entirety or the old one in its entirety. And having accepted my teaching, it is impossible to hold on to the old one of purification, fasts, and Sabbaths. Likewise, it is impossible to pour new wine into old skins, because the skins will burst and the new wine will leak out. But new wine must be poured into new skins, and both the one and the other will remain whole.”

The following prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in Jesus: “The people were in darkness and suddenly they saw the light. People lived in death’s gloom and for them, a light suddenly shined out.”

And yet another of Isaiah’s prophecies came to fruition: “Behold here is my beloved child. My soul delights in him. Because my spirit is within him and he will proclaim truth to all the nations. He does not argue and does not scream and his voice is not to be heard in the streets. In order for the truth to triumph over the lie, he will not tear up the straw and will not blow out the night lights. In his teachings the people will have hope.”

And many people followed after him as he walked from city to village proclaiming true goodness.