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Discourses of Jesus
Discourses of Jesus
Discourses of Jesus
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Discourses of Jesus

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This book brings out the pearls of divine wisdom imparted by Jesus to his followers, presented by way of comparative study of the four gospels. His discourses covered great spiritual truths like the need for spiritual rebirth (to be born again) by abandoning the lower instincts; to accept what he taught us as the bread of life that came from heaven to give us eternal life; to accept God the Father as a loving and merciful Father; meditate over the words of Jesus until you succeed in breaking the barriers of discriminatory and logical, intellectual dimensions to reach the superconscious state of mind and get self-realized; you will not find God in temples or churches, but within you and worship him in truth and spirit, not through rites, rituals, and ceremonies; you are not the owner but the steward of all your talents and possessions, so take care of the poor and needy; etc., to be remembered by Christians to avoid decline and fall of the great religion.

This book gives a comprehensive study of the above and related facts and warns the reader not to wait for the Second Coming of Jesus. The great tribulation is over; animal sacrifices has stopped forever; the Jerusalem temple will not be rebuilt, etc. are the salient points covered here.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 15, 2019
ISBN9781728387987
Discourses of Jesus
Author

Koshy Mathew Thachireth

A Godfearing individual for whom Jesus Christ is the Rabbi, Master and Lord, having held senior finance positions in various Industries in India. After retirement practiced as Management/Company Law consultant. Now leading a retired life; studying the scriptures, particularly gospels and practicing Raja Yoga (meditation) and allied spiritual matters, enjoying peace of mind and heavenly bliss promised by Jesus to those who love him.

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    Discourses of Jesus - Koshy Mathew Thachireth

    CHAPTER 1

    DISCOURSE ON NEW BIRTH

    (Jn. 3: 1 – 21)

    Here, John presented an interesting and important subject that unfolds the divine mystery of new birth, a subject not known to or understood even by Rabbis of those days. This was a private discourse, which started with the arrival of Nicodemus, a God- fearing, righteous Pharisee who was impressed with the courage and conviction Jesus demonstrated in cleansing the temple of all unlawful activities and his zeal for maintaining its sanctity. Nicodemus, the person who came to meet Jesus secretly at night, was an influential teacher of the Pharisees and from available details, he was a ruler of the Jews, fair minded and a cautious enquirer of the new Philosophy that Jesus taught. He was a Rabbi, member of the Sanhedrin and one of the three richest men in Jerusalem those days. It is evident that he was a man of spiritual perception as he accepted Jesus as one who came from God and confessed that no ordinary man could ever do miracles that he did. Nicodemus being a Rabbi, taught that by keeping the commandments including those relating to animal sacrifices, one would be entitled to eternal life, but something urged him to meet Jesus and learn about the relationship between repentance and eternal life since John the Baptist and Jesus were calling people to repent to enter the kingdom of God. He, being an honest and sincere person, wanted to learn more about their teachings, regarding salvation and eternal life, since Nazarenes, a sect of Essenes to which they both belonged, were opposed to animal sacrifice.

    Till the time of Jesus, even teachers of Jews did not know the divine mystery of spiritual birth or how a person could be so born. ‘Born again’ literally means there must be a transformation from God and a renewal in righteousness and true holiness to be saved (2Co. 5:17-21). Though Nicodemus was a teacher well respected among Jews, he had the great quality of humility or else he would not have openly admitted his ignorance of the born- again (new wine in new bottles) concept. The self-righteous Pharisees, scribes and priests dismissed the call of John the Baptist ‘repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ because he was a Nazarene whereas they considered themselves God’s own people strictly adhering to the Law of Moses including offering animal sacrifices, sufficient to get their sins forgiven, and reach heaven on death. Jesus exhorted men to repent, and the Aramaic word for ‘repent’ means return or turn back to oneself to search one’s own being to discover whether he is morally strong, ethically correct, loving and disciplined, the characteristics of a perfect man. This is our intellectual concept of the ‘ideal me’ but mentally and physically (emotions and feelings) we behave in an opposite manner, revealing the ‘actual me’ or the dual personality. When Jesus spoke about the need to be ‘born again’, (Gr.gennethe anothen, be begotten from above) he emphasized the need to assess the gulf between the ‘ideal me’ and ‘actual me’, and strive to eliminate duality to achieve perfection in life. Nicodemus admitted that he was hearing about a man being ‘born again’ for the first time and thought that Jesus implied a new physical birth, which was rather impossible, and so wanted to know more about the process of it.

    Millions make the mistake of defining new birth in human terms and they claim that a person becomes ‘born again’ on publicly repenting, taking water baptism, and testifying Jesus as personal savior. The so- called born- again believers continue living as slaves to their emotions and feelings satisfying the demands of body, mind, intellect and ego. They do not realize that once born again, they should discard the demands of body and live satisfying the demands of the eternal spirit abiding in and activating them. Only then the born-again individual would get spiritually strengthened and ultimately liberated from worldly bondage and attain super-consciousness – see things beyond the conscious level. Do not forget what God created in his own image and likeness, is not the body but the spirit of man and only those who live according to the dictates of spirit could have dominion over: ‘fish of the sea, fowl of the air and over every living thing that move upon the earth (Ge.1:28 NASB)’ or every living thing including his own mind. Jesus told Nicodemus by way of introduction that what is born of flesh is flesh, having limitations and it can neither reach the kingdom of God nor attain eternal life, a great truth to be remembered by those Christians who believe in salvation and bodily resurrection. He then said what one needs to yearn for: ‘God will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all filthiness and all idols; He will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you, take away the stony heart out and give you a heart of flesh; He will then put the Holy Spirit and cause you to walk obeying His statutes and then you will be His people and He will be your God (Eze.36:25- 28 NASB).’ This is the process of spiritual regeneration while the body remains as such. Yes, the soul lying hidden under the heavy load of sinful thoughts and actions of men could be revived and set free only by removing the dirt over it- through repentance. Jesus taught that without getting spiritually regenerated through introspection, and repentance one would not inherit eternal life whereas the Jews believed that on physical death, the souls of those who kept the commandments and the Law of Moses, without realizing that none including the Pharisees or Priests kept it, would attain everlasting angelic existence in heaven and others like publicans and sinners consigned to hell fire.

    The words of Jesus ‘be born of water and of the spirit’ is interpreted by many as a mandate for baptism by water (cleanses the body and Brahmins in India do it daily) to enter the kingdom of God after death, but through water baptism, whether as child or adult, none could enter the kingdom or entry denied for want of it. All Old Testament saints were born again without water baptism (He.11; Ro.3:23-25); many New Testament saints were forgiven their sins by Jesus and consequently received Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts without water baptism. In v. 5, what Jesus told Nicodemus was in reply to his question ‘can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Yes, Jesus taught him of the two different processes of birth: by water and spirit. Initially the birth is by water, means protoplasm that begins its existence and growth in the amniotic fluid in the womb of the mother and not about baptism by getting immersed in water. Jesus told him emphatically that it was not required or possible for a man to enter again into the womb of his mother to be born again. Even if made possible, physical birth is again by water and does not make a man fit enough to enter the kingdom of God. So, man born out of water cannot, because of the limited power of his mind and intellect see or know anything about the heavenly kingdom, but things would be different once he gets baptized with the Spirit of God, that helps the soul overcome limitations imposed by body and intellect.

    In reply to Nicodemus’ question how to be born again, Jesus told that one should develop a never -ending thirst for the word of God which, is life and spirit, and go on consuming it until he becomes a spring of living waters. It would lead to a strong internal urge to see God that in turn help to: direct one’s focus to his being or self (image and likeness of God within) through meditation; see whether it is lying hidden under the heavy load of filth accumulated over the years through sinful thoughts and acts of wickedness and all sorts of sins committed secretly or otherwise; renounce everything he possessed including attachments to get the fetters of relationships, desires, anger and fear imposed by the sensory circumscribed mind broken; wash off the filth lying within with tears of repentance and flush it out; and keep the mind engaged in contemplation of God to withdraw it from sense objects and material pleasures; which leads to self-realization or resurrection of the spirit or spiritual re-birth (born-again). Only those born again would be privileged to receive spiritual vision to see those things in life which he missed till then and over a period get blessed with God realization. Spiritual rebirth is sudden and soothing like the wind blowing from one corner of the earth to another without one knowing how or wherefrom it came. One will then experience never ending and forbearing love, joy and peace filling his heart, the confirmation of new birth and it makes one prepared to live in the spiritual realm obeying demands of the spirit and ignoring those of the body. Just like one feels the wind and hears its sound, the approach and behavior of the born again one would be soothing and comforting others and words reflecting love and gentleness of God. In the womb of the mother, one was prepared to live according to the demands of this world, but the spiritual birth is of divine origin, that prepares one to live in the spiritual kingdom, achieved not by works of righteousness but by grace of God.

    Nicodemus on hearing what Jesus spoke of spiritual birth, wondered whether it is humanly possible to be born-again. Jesus noticed that Nicodemus was finding it difficult to believe what he said about spiritual rebirth because it was not something he saw in daily life. He asked him whether he could appreciate earthly things or the natural events that took place around him like: how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west daily; how the nature and its controller, God the Father work twenty- four hours, 365 days without taking rest even for a day whether Sabbath or not; how many species of life are there on earth (believed to be 8,400,000); etc. Yes, like most of us, Nicodemus was also not aware of many things taking place in nature and the source thereof because of self -imposed intellectual limitations. Jesus so far has been addressing himself as ‘I’ but changed to ‘we’ to make Nicodemus appreciate that his liberated soul has gone beyond the constraints of body and mind, was talking on behalf of and together with the Father. Jesus then asked how he, a man unaware of the mysteries of nature, would believe if he spoke of heavenly things that Nicodemus had never seen because of the limitations of his consciousness or spiritual blindness. Yes, he was a good man but spiritually blind like most of us. To get the spiritual eye opened, one must break off the limitation of reasoning (discriminatory and logical dimensions of intellect) self- imposed by each of us by not permitting the spirit to sore high. The difference between Jesus the son of Joseph and Christ son of God in him, was never understood by the Pharisees and scribes and so also the Christians of later generations. To create awareness in Nicodemus of the need to obey the Christ spirit in him, he said what they speak are things revealed to them and testify things that they had seen and experienced ever since that spirit was created and not from the date a soul was gifted to a body. Yes, the difference between a self- realized person and others is that he remembers everything happened ever since manifestation of that spirit whereas others remember things happened only from the time a soul entered the present body. Yes, Jesus, was speaking of what he heard or seen from the Father over multitudes of years because the Christ spirit in him was with the Father when the foundations of earth were laid.

    Jews did not believe what Jesus said because of the limitations of human senses, sensory dependent intellect and reason which do not have sufficient power to understand things that were not visible to the eyes or acceptable to their limited intellect. Heavenly truths can only be known by meditating upon the words of God that lead to spiritual re-birth and consequent development of intuition or opening of the spiritual eye and liberation of soul from bondage of the body. Some even doubt whether there is a heaven because nobody has seen it but realizing the subtle heaven beyond the universe is possible only through silence and inner concentration. No human body has ascended into or descended from heaven because of its etheric essence (applicable to Jesus like any other human being) which means that only liberated souls, not bodies, could ascend to or descend from, heaven. Yes, the soul of man has descended from heaven and it must ascend to wherefrom it came, only by getting purified through spiritual baptism irrespective of the number of births it must take. God expects every soul to return to Him, as it is the part or spark of God in man and Jesus taught us how it can be liberated during one’s lifetime. Jesus here spoke of souls of all human beings getting liberated at some stage of reincarnation and not of his ascension to heaven. His was the soul sent from the bosom of God, for a specific mission and lived on earth without getting contaminated and went back, on death of his body, through spiritual transcendence.

    Jesus then told of the manner of his death: that his body shall be lifted- up, like Moses lifted -up the brazen serpent in the wilderness (Nu.21:9) and that he would be lifted upon a cross for those who are bitten by the serpent of sin and on the verge of spiritual death to look at, repent their sins, control the wavering, wandering and sense-mongering mind, believe that his words would cleanse their soul of accumulated filth, receive spiritual baptism or be born again. Whoever believed in him, means totally identified with his life and sufferings by imitating him, forsaking body and its attachments, shall not perish but be pervaded by Christ consciousness and live eternally. The soul is eternal and man’s possession of it does not change the nature of this eternal diamond and it is the duty of man to live in a manner as to ensure it does not lose its shine but returns to the creator. Jesus declared that the Father loved the world and its population so much that he sent His wisdom incarnate in his body to save the world from perishing. Otherwise, he would have withdrawn Himself, the Cosmic Energy from the world and it would have perished. He again said that the Father sent the Christ spirit not to condemn earth-dwellers to destruction for their wickedness and iniquities or to annihilate wicked, cruel and sinful men on earth but to open the way to save those who believed in him, from eternal damnation. Yes, he opened-up the way by sacrificing himself so that souls of those who look at him, renounce their attachments and relationships of the world and get attuned with his consciousness by sacrificing their ego would be entitled to spiritual re-birth and receive eternal life and ascend to heaven. The Gr. word for ‘ascended’ is ‘anabaino’ means to go up of own power {let a man lift himself by his own Self alone: Geeta VI/5} gained through meditation, spiritual re-birth and God-communion, not taken up as was Enoch (Ge.5:24) or Elijah (2 Ki.2:11). Those who do not believe that Christ spirit embodied in Jesus came to the world to show the path of spiritual re-birth and save them from this sea of delusion are condemned because though the light came into this world they did not allow it to illuminate their inner selves. Those who prefer darkness and stick on to evil ways would keep their souls back on earth forever.

    Christians of our generation mostly belong to those who prefer darkness to hide themselves and their deeds but occasionally there arise sons of light (truly born-again) who obey, walk in truth and rejoice to make their deeds manifest in his light. In this connection, ask yourself whether you ever thought of the need for spiritual re-birth to become sons of light or happy with the water baptism received either as an infant or adult. Water baptism makes one physically clean, but it does not render one acceptable to God, who always looks at inner purity. For getting internally purified, you must develop a never- ending thirst for the word of God, the seeds of wisdom, meditate over it diligently (eating the bread of life), practice renunciation of and detachment from world and its attractions, repent and wash off the filth covering your soul, surrender your ego to His Will, allow the soul to shine and thereafter your words and deeds would spread light around. Getting your consciousness purified is the only way to get it attuned to the divine Consciousness and then His light would manifest through you to those who live in darkness and shadow of death. Today, we find many around us claiming themselves filled with Holy Spirit and possessing gifts of tongue and healing, but the world around them is getting plunged into darkness day by day because the light that came to lighten the world is not manifesting through their deeds. We read later of the loving services rendered by Nicodemus who remained a secret disciple of Jesus and few others in positions of power and authority like Joseph of Arimathea.

    In v. 22 we find a reference that Jesus did not return to Capernaum immediately after participating in the Passover feast in Jerusalem but toured all through Judea teaching and preaching in towns like Ephraim, Bethel, Jericho, Emmaus, Bethany, Bethlehem etc. though not specifically mentioned here. This was the early Judean ministry of Jesus, which is not seen endorsed by the synoptic gospels. Those Jews, who believed in him seeing the miracles and hearing the life -giving words he spoke at Jerusalem, were baptized by his disciples and there was good response from people to his call to repent.

    CHAPTER 2

    REVIVAL IN SAMARIA

    (Jn. 4: 4 – 42)

    Jesus departed from Judea and in between Judea on the south and Galilee lies Samaria and those travelling from south to north or vice-versa, must pass through Samaria unless the longer route via Decapolis is taken. Samaria was once the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel located on a 300ft. high hill, 42 miles north of Jerusalem. Omri, King of the ten tribes of Israel, purchased the Hill and built his capital there (I Ki.16: 24). Ahab his successor built a finer palace there for his wife Jezebel and himself. There were many prophesies against Israelites, whose kings particularly Omri and Ahab were highly corrupt and wicked and did not worship the God of their fathers. Despite the many warnings they did not repent and turn back to Lord their God and ultimately in fulfillment of the prophesies, the Assyrian King, in BC 722, attacked Israel, destroyed all their fortresses, carried them captives except the poor and marginal ones and deported to faraway places. No historical records available as to where unto the captives were exiled, except a statement appearing in the Book of Kings that they were placed in Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan (may be Ganges in India) and in the cities of Medes (2 Ki.17:6). The deportees thus lost their identity and were identified as the lost tribes of Israel. The Assyrians destroyed the city and brought in slaves from other countries and settled them in place of those deported. In the time of Zerubbabel, the mixed race of Samaritans, who claimed themselves children of Jacob, sought to form alliance with Jewish captives returned from Babylon to join them in building the temple, but were rejected (Ezr. 4:2,3) because they were not the rightful descendants of Jacob. Ever since Nehemiah’s time, the Jews considered Samaritans an inferior caste though some of them were following the religious practices of Israelites and claiming Jacob as their ancestor. In the days of Jesus, Samaria was known by the name Sebaste, a beautiful city, part of Palestine, built by Herod the Great, over the ruins of old Samaria.

    Jesus and disciples on their way entered Sychar, an important town of Shechem situated in the beautiful valley between mount Gerizim and mount Ebal closer to Judean province, in Samaria. It was in Shechem that: the bones of Joseph brought from Egypt were buried (Jos. 24:32); and Jacob erected the first altar to worship God on his way back from Laban, his uncle and had also dug a well (Gen.38:18-20) which is there even today known as Jacob’s well. Jacob, before his death, gave this parcel of land as a gift to Joseph, his son. Shechem was an important place for the united Israel as it was to this place in Palestine that Abraham their forefather came, and it was Shechem that witnessed the most important event in the history of Israel, the division of united monarchy. Jesus reached Sychar by twelve noon and sat on Jacob’s well while his disciples went to the town to get food for him. This well was about 105 ft. deep, 9 ft. in diameter and usually had 15 ft. of water. The well was cut out of solid rock and demonstrates the engineering skills of ancient times. It is evident that Jesus was sitting there alone expecting someone, as he wanted to converse with that person privately. He was not kept waiting for long and there came a Samaritan woman to draw water at that odd hour of the day, perhaps to avoid prying eyes. She without paying attention to the Jew sitting on the well drew water, filled her pot and when about to leave, Jesus asked her for water to drink. It was a practice among Israelites that young men who wished to marry, to go to the wells where young women came to draw water in the evening and asking for water to drink from one of the girls amounted to conveying desire to marry her. Even women of ill repute frequented such places in evenings to procure clients, but not at this time of the day. Here the purpose of Jesus asking for water was to involve her in a conversation and create awareness in her of the need to repent and get spiritually revived, as the later events proved.

    Her response was not courteous, as she thought that the man asking for water being a Jew was insulting her like other Jews because the full -blooded Jews considered Samaritans low caste and untouchables. Samaritans being uncircumcised, Jews do not eat or drink with them though ordinary buying and selling of goods were permitted. Jesus, contrary to her expectation, talked to her cordially and without any ill feeling, making her feel at home as he was not concerned with race, creed or social position of people. He knew that she had the potential to be spiritually resurrected and made a disciple and therefore, told her that had she known the gift of God (Christ) and who was the one that asked for water, she would have asked him for living waters pointing out her ignorance of the divine savior who would redeem her from fallen state, revive spirit and quench her never ending thirst for sensory pleasures. Reference to living water was not known to Samaritans though familiar to Jews and she knew not the difference between water and living water. So, she assumed that he was referring to the well water and hence curious to know how he would draw water from the well so deep, that too without any gadgets. She suddenly realized that there was some mystery in what he said about living water and that he was not referring to the well water. (Regular travelers usually carry a leather bucket to draw water from public wells, but Jesus did not have one).

    She therefore, asked whether he, who offered living water was someone greater than Jacob their ancestor, who gave them that well and himself drank there-from. Jesus told that the water she drew of the well was temporal which never satisfied the thirst of one forever, like ‘the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing (Ec.1:8 NASB) and asked her to thirst for that which gives permanent satisfaction by driving away all sensory desires and said that whoever drank the water he gave, spiritual fullness and inner joy, would never thirst again. Whosoever depended solely on body sustenance with its thirst for sensory experiences would never be satisfied because a thing that gave joy in the beginning became detestable in the long run and that exactly was her problem. What he gave will not only quench one’s thirst for possessions and pleasures, but the one who drank it would become a well of living water springing up into everlasting life. He asked her not to go after sensory pleasures which were false and fleeting but develop thirst for spiritual knowledge which alone gave everlasting peace and happiness: ‘my soul thirsts for God, the living God (Ps. 42:2 NASB)’ and ‘I stretch forth my hands unto you, my soul thirsts after you as a thirsty land (Ps. 143:6 NASB)’. Jesus wanted her to abandon carnal desires and develop thirst for God and His wisdom, but she did not understand and took his words to mean water that kills the physical thirst for ever and requested to give her that water, so that she need not have to come to the well daily to draw water at odd hours. Jesus having read her moral indiscretions agreed to give it provided she brought her husband along. On hearing her reply that she had no husband, Jesus concurred and said that she had five husbands but the one with whom she then lived was not her lawful husband. (Samaritans worship five tribal gods and also Jehovah, God of Israel). She was amazed at what he told, a total stranger telling about her private life was a miracle and realized that he was not an ordinary person but a prophet of God, someone to be feared and respected.

    Having accepted Jesus as a prophet of God, she quickly changed the subject lest he exposes more of her life and sought his opinion on the dispute between them and Jews regarding the right place of worship. Jews held that it was Jerusalem, but Samaritans believed that the right place of worship was Mount Gerizim near to Jacob’s well. The dispute started from BC 332 when Sanballat, Governor of Samaria then under the Persians opposed Israel under Nehemiah from constructing the walls of Jerusalem but on not getting support from Persian Emperor, went over to the camp of Alexander the Great who gave him permission to build a temple identical to the one in Jerusalem at Mt. Gerizim. Thereupon Sanballat built the temple and made his son-in-law Manasseh the High Priest, established rival worship to Jerusalem, and accepted Pentateuch as their Bible (Josephus). The Samaritans had other reasons to support their claim of superiority for the temple in Gerizim: it was in Shechem that Abraham (Ge. 12:7) and later Jacob (Ge.33:20) built altars to worship the Lord God of Israel; it was on Mount Gerizim that the Levites and Priests stood proclaiming the blessings on Israelites as commanded by Moses (Jo. 8:33); and that it was on Mount Gerizim that Abraham brought his son, Isaac to be sacrificed as commanded by God. For these reasons, they claimed Mount Gerizim holier and more important than Jerusalem which according to the Jews was the abode of Lord their God, on earth.

    In reply Jesus told that the mass of worshippers, be it there or in Jerusalem, takes part in ceremonials and rituals without knowing the object of their worship, like the Christians of our generation. Here we find that Jesus vehemently endorses the view that the image and likeness of God in the heart of man is the true God to be worshipped and that the one in your heart being part of God, you are part of God, and hence your body, mind and intellect must be kept pure and holy for Him to reside therein. The object of worship, God he said, is Spirit and is omnipresent and hence place of worship does not matter. In fact, Jesus conveyed a great principle that true worship is that of the heart that is pure, and the place is not important because the Most High dwells not in manmade temples but within their hearts (Is. 66:1-2). He also told that time will come when they shall worship the father neither at Mount Gerizim nor at Jerusalem for these temples are mutable and be wiped off (the great prophecy of Jesus which means that Jerusalem would not be rebuilt) from the face of the earth like all manifested creations as ‘even the earth and heaven will perish and wax old like a garment and these shall be changed but there is one that endures forever and that is God (Ps 102:26 KJV)’. He thus prophesied about the coming of a time when the Samaritans as well as Jews (even Christians) would change their opinion about the place of worship like changing vesture, as all manmade limitations would vanish. Yes, Jesus wanted his followers to ignore the places, rites, rituals and ceremonies but purify their hearts by offering body, mind and intellect as oblations to God and welcome Him to dwell within and offer the soul for God to make it his throne.

    Jesus’ words ‘that you know not what you worship’ were not meant to insult the Samaritans but for all ignorant worshippers, including Christians who are satisfied with the rites, sacraments, rituals and places of worship. They, ‘know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel (Mi.4:12 KJV)’ do not realize the need to resurrect their spirit by turning back to themselves and removing the filth, over it through repentance. Similarly, the utterance ‘we know what we worship’ was not a reference to the Jewish community but the community of those who strive through meditation to attain self-realization, the door to the kingdom of God and feasts of divine wisdom that leads to God realization. St. Paul explained it when he said ‘while we look not at the things which are seen; for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Co. 14:18 NASB) that those who put their trust not on temporal, but on unseen, eternal things are the ones who truly worship God. By saying ‘for salvation is of the Jews’ he affirmed that the one who redeems people from bondage of Satan and gives eternal life comes from those who worship God in truth and spirit (God’s own people) and not to mean it the birth right of Jews. Jesus used the term ‘we’ to mean all those who believed in him, got their consciousness attuned to Christ’s and commune with God in worship and true worship is the communion between individual soul and the all-pervading divine Spirit. All creations including man is spirit manifested and that Spirit which created all but remains un-manifested is God; it understands only the language of the soul and effective worship is possible only when the soul communes with it. Observing rites and rituals, or singing hymns, crying and shouting whether in temple, or church could not be called worship pleasing to God, the un-manifested Spirit.

    The Samaritan woman did not fully comprehend the meaning of what Jesus spoke but felt uneasiness in heart and so to put an end to the conversation, on the place and manner of true worship, made a casual remark that when Messiah, the Christ comes, he would make these things clear to them. She thereby declared that the Samaritans like the Jews, also expected Messiah, the savior to save them from the tyranny of the Roman Empire and reconcile with Jews, as they believed themselves children of Jacob. They believed that the prophecies: ‘he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people’ (Is.2:4 KJV) and ‘he was coming to the people that walked in darkness and to those that dwell in the land of the shadow of death’ (Is.9:2 KJV) were applicable to them. Even after hearing what Jesus said of her past and taught about worship, she did not recognize that the one speaking to her was the Christ and therefore Jesus revealed himself by declaring ‘I that speak unto thee am he’. On hearing from Jesus that he was the Messiah, she got overwhelmed with joy, and peace, left her water pot, ran to the town and told people around, of all that Jesus spoke of her past and how he healed her of moral blemishes. Yes, as the prophet said, ‘His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay (Je.20:9 KJV)’, she got inspired with Holy Spirit and wanted to declare whatever she heard and the inner changes experienced, to all Samaritans. Seeing her courage to admit her dark past and the visible change in attitude, those who heard her

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