Jesus Christ
[I AM A
DRUNKARD. You may believe it or not, but I am a drunkard. You can look into my
eyes and you can see it -- I. am drunk with Jesus. And Jesus is a wine; he is
not a man, he's an intoxication. And once you have tasted of him, then nothing
of this world will ever be meaningful to you. Once the meaning from the beyond
enters into your life, this whole world becomes futile, immaterial,
insignificant.
- OSHO- Come Follow To You]
- OSHO- Come Follow To You]
There is very little written about
Jesus's early life. The Gospel of Luke recounts that a 12-year-old Jesus had
accompanied his parents on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and became separated. He
was found several days later in a temple, discussing affairs with some of
Jerusalem’s elders. Throughout the New Testament, there are trace references of
Jesus working as a carpenter while a young adult. It is believed that he began
his ministry at age 30 when he was baptized by John the Baptist, who upon seeing Jesus,
declared him the Son of God.
Jesus returned to
Galilee and made trips to neighboring villages. During this time, several
people became his disciples. One of these was Mary Magdalene, she is considered to have been involved in Jesus's ministry from the
beginning to his death and after.
After the wedding, Jesus, his mother Mary and his disciples traveled to
Jerusalem for Passover. At the temple, they saw moneychangers and merchants
selling wares. In a rare display of anger, Jesus overturned the tables and,
with a whip made of cords, drove them out, declaring that his Father’s house is
not a house for merchants.
As Jesus continued preaching about the kingdom of God, the crowds grew
larger and began to proclaim him as the son of David and as the Messiah.
It supports the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living
God.
Jesus confronted moneychangers and merchants in the temple, and debated
with the high priests who questioned Jesus's authority. He told his disciples
about the coming days and that Jerusalem's temple would be destroyed.
Meanwhile, the chief priests and elders met with high priest Caiaphas, and set
plans in motion to arrest Jesus. One of the disciples, Judas, met with the
chief priests and told them how he would deliver Jesus to them. They agreed to
pay him 30 pieces of silver.
Jesus was crucified around 33 AD.
Select Jesus’s Quotes
Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.
Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Ask,
and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.
[ Story about Jesus
Who Can Throw Stones
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
Jesus did not excuse the sin, but he made it clear who had the right to judge it.]
Jesus says …..
Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it.
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall
lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what
is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth
me. Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such
is the kingdom of heaven.
[ Story..
Become like children
Castles in the Sand
Some
children were playing beside a river. They made castles of sand, and each child
defended his castle and said, 'This one is mine.' They kept their castles
separate and would not allow any mistakes about which was whose. When the
castles were all finished, one child kicked over someone else's castle and
completely destroyed it. The owner of the castle flew into a rage, pulled the
other child's hair, struck him with his fist and bawled out, 'He has spoiled my
castle! Come along all of you and help me punish him as he deserves.' The
others all came to his help. They beat the child ... Then they went on playing
in their sand castles, each saying, 'This is mine; no one else may have it.
Keep away! Don't touch my castle!'
But
evening came, it was getting dark and they all thought they ought to be going
home. No one now cared what became of his castle. One child stamped on his, another
pushed his over with both hands. Then they turned away and went back, each to
his home.]
More Quotes about Jesus
Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but
few chosen.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul?
"My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
(When Jesus was being crucified)
[Jesus
Told Stories to Make a Point
Jesus was the master
storyteller. He’d say, “Hey, did you hear the one about…” and then tell a
parable to teach a truth.
Storytelling was Jesus’
favorite technique when speaking to the crowd: “Jesus spoke all these things to
the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a
parable.” There are many benefits to using stories to communicate spiritual
truth:
Stories
hold our attention. Stories stir our emotions. They impact us in ways that
precepts and propositions never do. If you want to change lives, you must craft
the message for impact, not for information.
Stories
help us remember. Long after the outline is forgotten, people will remember the
stories of the sermon. Read now …
Two men went into the temple to pray. One was a
Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood over by
himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not greedy, dishonest, and
unfaithful in marriage like other people. And I am really glad that I am
not like that tax collector over there. I go without eating for two days
a week, and I give you one tenth of all I earn."The tax collector stood off at a distance and did not think he was good enough even to look up toward heaven. He was so sorry for what he had done that he pounded his chest and prayed, "God, have pity on me! I am such a sinner."
Then Jesus said, "When the two men went home, it was the tax collector and not the Pharisee who was pleasing to God. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored." ]
Further…
Judge
not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:
forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Do not
judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
The Kingdom is inside of you, and
it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become
known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living
Father.
This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead
are not alive, and the living will not die
His
disciples said to Him, "When will the Kingdom come?"
Jesus
said, "It will not come by waiting
for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'Here it is' or 'There it is.'
Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not
see it."
More about Jesus
The figure that has come
down in history to us as Jesus was most likely born somewhere between 7
BCE and 3 CE somewhere in Judea, quite possibly in Bethlehem. He may have
labored as a carpenter or a stone mason, either way he was also a student of
both the Oral and Written Torah. ( A scroll of
parchment containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, used in a
synagogue during services). He became a teacher or Rabbi in his twenties
and soon began to work among the sick and the poor as he traveled throughout
the area of Galilee. As a Rabbi, he soon gained a following who regarded him as
a Messiah, which would have meant they considered him King of Israel, and
followed his example of praying in what corresponds to today’s Orthodox
synagogues.
It was sometime
around 30 CE that Jesus came to the attention of the Roman officials and was
placed on trial, convicted for insurrection, and crucified as a rebel. He was
most likely turned over to the Romans by the High Priest of the Temple with the
help of the Sadducees
( a member of an ancient Jewish sect around the time of Jesus;
opposed to the Pharisees), who
supported the High Priest.
After his death,
Jesus’ followers believed that had been resurrected from the grave and after
meeting with the core of the movement, was taken to heaven in the same way as
that of Elijah. God would set up a new era of peace in the entire world where
the Kingdom of Israel would be at peace with it’s neighbors for at least a
thousand years.
In
his thirties, Jesus began his public teaching and display of recorded miracles,
yet still never travelled more than 200 miles from his birthplace. Over a three
year period, despite his efforts to keep a low profile, Jesus' reputation
spread nationwide. The Roman governors and rulers of Israel's provinces and the
leaders of the Jewish people (the religious counsels) took note of him. Jesus'
key messages included:
Many have asked "Who is Jesus Christ?" Jesus' most controversial act was that he
repeatedly claimed to be God, which was a direct violation of the Jewish law.
Therefore the religious leaders asked the Roman government to execute him. In
each of several official trials, the Romans found that he was not guilty of
breaking any Roman law. Even the Jewish leaders recognized that other than
Jesus' claim to be God, Jesus followed the Jewish law perfectly. Still the
religious leaders, using the argument of political disfavor, persuaded Pilate,
a Roman governor of the Southern province of Israel, to authorize an execution.
Tortured and then hung by his hands, which
were nailed to a horizontal wooden beam (cross). This method of execution
restricted the airflow to his lungs, killing him in three hours. However,
according to more than 500 witnesses, Jesus returned from the dead three days
later, and over the next 40 days journeyed in both the southern and northern provinces
of Israel. To many, this was conclusive proof that Jesus' claims to be God were
real. Then Jesus returned to Jerusalem, the city where he was recently
executed, and according to witnesses, he left the earth alive by rising up into
the sky.
Within 100 years,
people throughout the Roman empire (Asia Minor, Europe) became followers of
Jesus. In 325 AD, the following of Jesus, Christianity, became the official
religion of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Within 500 years, even Greece's
temples of Greek gods were transformed into churches for Followers of Jesus.
Although some of Jesus' messages and teachings were diluted or miscommunicated
through the expansion of a religious institution, Jesus' original words and
life still speak loudly for themselves.
[Jesus’s Indian connection ..
Miguel
Serrano, in his book The Serpent of Paradise, writes: “Nobody knows what he did
or where he lived until he was thirty, the year he began his preaching. There
is a legend, however, that says he was in Kashir – the original name of Kashmir. Ka means the same as or equal to, and shir, Syria.”
It is also reported that a Russian traveler, Nicholas
Notovich, who came to India sometime in 1887, visited Ladakh in Tibet where he
was taken ill and stayed in the famous Hemis Gumpa. During his stay in the
Gompa he went through various volumes of Buddhist scriptures and literature
wherein he found extensive mention of Jesus, his teaching, and his visit to
Ladakh. Later Notovich published the book, Life of Saint Jesus, in which he
related all that he had found about the visit of Jesus to Ladakh and to other
countries in the East.
It is recorded that from Ladakh, after traveling through
lofty mountain passes, along snowy paths and glaciers, Jesus reached Pahalgam
in Kashmir. He lived there for a long period as a shepherd looking after his
flock. It is here that Jesus found some traces of the lost tribes of Israel.]
[
When we
try to run, can Nasruddin be far behind …
"You ought to
stand on your two feet and show your wife who is running things at your
house," a big, bossy fellow said to his friend, Mulla Nasrudin.
"There is no need to," said Nasrudin, "She already knows
The stranger was
talking in the tavern. "For fifteen years," he said, "my habits
were as regular as clockwork. I rose exactly at six. Half an hour later I was
at breakfast. At seven I was at work. I had lunch at one, and supper at six,
and was in bed at nine-thirty. I ate only plain food, and didn't have a day of
sickness during all those years."
"MY," said
Mulla Nasrudin who was listening to the story, "And what were you in jail
for?"
Mulla Nasrudin had
been arrested for stealing a dog. The trial was short and sweet. There was no
concrete evidence against the Mulla and the judge dismissed the case against
him. But for some reason the Mulla seemed not to understand. "The case is
dismissed," the judge said, "It is over. You are acquitted. You can go."
"Well, thanks, judge," said Nasrudin. "But do I have to give him
back his dog?"
Mulla Nasrudin kept
begging the noted pianist to play. "Well, all right, since you
insist," he said. "What shall I play?" "Anything you
like," said Nasrudin. "It's only to annoy the neighbors."
No comments:
Post a Comment