What Did Jesus DO?

                                                                By John Wellsman





                                        (John is a life-long student of Christian Science,
                                                           and lives in Arizona.)
                                                         



        Many individuals today are earnestly contemplating what Jesus, the Master Christian, would do in various world situations.  The simple answer to that question:  "He would heal the situation" was touched upon in a previous post by this author.  However that response begs another, deeper question:  What did Jesus actually DO in his healing ministry?  And HOW did he do it?

        First we must ask ourselves, did Jesus actually change reality?  In other words were the conditions Jesus healed actually something real that he was able by some miraculous personal dispensation to change into another state?  For example, did he actually change sick persons to well persons?  Did he change a crippled person into a person able to "take up his bed and walk"?  Did he change a blind person to a sighted person?  Or ultimately did he change a dead person into a live person?  Or did he reveal a reality hidden to most of the world steeped as it was and continues to be in materiality?

        Even the Christian world generally accepts the position that Jesus did in fact change reality through a miraculous personal dispensation from a material god who creates and maintains both evil and good conditions but occasionally sets aside his maintenance of certain evil conditions to allow healing.  And, of course many in the world today simply deny that Jesus' healing actually occurred.

        Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of the Christian Science religion however took a radically different position.  In doing so she was herself able to duplicate many of Jesus' so-called "miracles" including restoring apparently dead individuals to life and health.  And she taught literally thousands of individuals to heal both themselves and others.  In the ensuing century additional thousands of individuals have been instructed in Jesus' method of healing as taught in Christian Science, thus proving Jesus' "miracles" were not a one-time personal dispensation from a changeable and sometimes vindictive material god.

        Any serious exploration of Christian Science and its' healing efficacy inevitably brings one to the conclusion Jesus did not change reality, but revealed it.  Mrs. Eddy, whose own healing from what had been pronounced by the medical faculty to be a fatal accident, states in her textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:  "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals.  In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."  (p. 476:32).

        The above passage is part of Mrs. Eddy's answer to the question, "What is man?" which begins on the previous page (p. 475:5).  That answer, she boldly opens with the statement, "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements."  And she immediately continues with:  "The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness.  The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit."

        Jesus, of course, had no human father and this fact enabled him to see far more clearly than others the entirely spiritual nature of man behind the frail material facade.  Nonetheless even Jesus was tempted by the appearances of so-called human existence.  However he put down every attempt of the devil (evil) to convince him of the reality of material conditions. See the Bible, Matt 4:1-11. When Jesus put out of thought all of the devil's temptations,"...angels came and ministered unto him." And from that point on he began his world-changing healing ministry.

        In-depth study of the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy cannot help drawing one to the conclusion that what Jesus actually did in his healing ministry was to change beliefs and perceptions rather than material conditions.  So clear was Jesus' perception of the perfection of God and man he was able to change the consciousness of others--and teach his disciples to do the same on a limited scale.  This changed consciousness resulted in changed beliefs. Mrs. Eddy explains Jesus' perception and its' effects thus:  "Holding the right idea of man in my mind , I can improve my own, and other people's individuality, health, and morals."  Miscellaneous Writings, p. 62:1).

        The power of a changed belief can be seen in the results of discarding the belief that the world was flat.  For millennia the ancients had believed the world to be flat.  So strongly were their thoughts held to this fallacy they actually put to death the first man to seriously challenge their opinions.  Now the world was never flat but the ancients believed (and feared) that it was.  And they "saw" what they believed.  However look at the progress of the world since they finally discarded that belief of flatness for the reality of the world's actual roundness.  They didn't change the world, just their view of it.  Now virtually everyone "sees" a round earth.

        In like fashion Jesus changed the beliefs of the world regarding sin, disease and death.  Not realities but the beliefs were changed.  Just as the world was never flat, man was never in reality a sinner, nor was he ever diseased or subject to death.  Man was always the image and likeness of God, spiritual and perfect.  Jesus' perception of this fact became apparent humanly to those present as improved material conditions.

        The power of even a brief realization of the perfect status of man as God's spiritual image and likeness is inculculable.  Mrs. Eddy states it this way in Science and Health:  "Become conscious for a single moment that life and intelligence are purely spiritual,--neither in nor of matter,--and the body will then utter no complaints.  If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well."  (S&H 14:12).  An understanding of this statement will demonstrate that there is no separation in time from the perception to the evidence of the reality.  This explains the seemingly miraculous phenomenon of instantaneous healings.  Both in Jesus' works and Mrs. Eddy's as well as those of other students of Christian Science.

        Is this not what Jesus actually did?  Rather than changing reality he became conscious of the reality of God and man in His image and likeness. This consciousness changed the world's--and their own--perception of the individuals Jesus healed as Mrs. Eddy explains in the above quote from Miscellaneous Writings.