Jesus – The Embodiment of Compassion
Jesus opened the possibilities for a relationship with God with perspectives not known previously in his land or his culture. In the time of Jesus, Israel had a temple system of worship and this was undergoing a slow transition to synagogue worship, focused on the word of God, which consisted of the Torah (commonly known as the Law of Moses), the prophets, and holy writings. Jesus received much criticism from the authorities for what he was doing to established religion. He was making worship available to people by telling them to go into their hearts and find God there. He was also telling people to love God by loving their neighbor. This represented a problem for those who understood worship to be something that could only occur in a temple, after certain purifications and prayers had occurred, and with the prescribed offerings.
Sathya Sai Baba, in His Christmas day discourses, has often revealed previously unknown aspects of Jesus’ life. Sai Baba confirms that Jesus left home around the age of fourteen. He also confirmed the legends that Jesus stayed in a Tibetan monastery and that his name is recorded there. Sai Baba further says that Jesus purposefully and deliberately wandered in deserts for twelve years contemplating alone.
Jesus honored his parents
Sai Baba reveals a unique dimension of the home life of Jesus. Before each and every important aspect of Jesus’ mission, Baba tells us he asked his mother, Mary, for permission to do those things. For example, Jesus felt he was the messenger of God, and asked his mother for permission to speak to people about God as a messenger. Baba has further said, `At one time Jesus took permission of his mother and spent 42 days in penance in the desert.’ After Joseph (Mary’s husband) passed away, Jesus sought his mother’s permission to devote himself to the service of the needy and forlorn. Jesus treated his mother with respect and sought her permission to undertake tasks related to his mission.
Many things stand out about Jesus. He was an itinerant religious miracle worker who performed many good deeds and healed many people of sickness. In one of the Gospels, the story is told of a leper who waited for the crowds to disperse and then went up to Jesus. The leper said to him, `If you want to, you can heal me.’ Jesus at once was filled with pity and compassion and replied, “Of course I want to. Be healed.” The leper was made whole.
The next part of the story is significant: Jesus told the leper to go to the temple and to show himself to the priests in accordance with the Law of Moses, to make the prescribed offerings at the temple for his purification, and to keep the matter of being healed quiet. In this, Jesus affirmed that he had not come to destroy the existing religious law, but to make it perfect. The leper, by the way, danced around and told anyone who would hear, that Jesus of Nazareth had made him perfect. As with Sathya Sai Baba, so with Jesus: they focused on the man and his acts, rather than the unconditional love that he represents.
An “on the lookout” God
Sathya Sai Baba has often said, `God is in search of the true devotee.’ Jesus told the parable of the ‘Prodigal Son,’ a story about a son who demanded his due from his father and wasted it in riotous living. Coming to his senses, the son decided to return home and fall upon his father’s mercy and beg forgiveness. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and kissed him. This story is told about a wastrel; sometimes it is called the `resentful elder brother’ parable, for it was the wastrel’s brother who remonstrated with the father over the merry-making upon the return of the prodigal. God, pure love, is always on the lookout for us, even though we have left him. Hidden in this story is the eternal love of the father for his son, the father of all who is always on the lookout. Sai Baba says, `Take one step toward me and I shall take one hundred toward you.’
On Christmas day in 1982, Swami said, `I am searching, I am searching; Still searching. I searched in the past, I search and search now for the man knowing and observing his dharma [righteousness] true.’
Jesus had a firm conviction about the Kingdom of God and proclaimed that the Kingdom of God is within. This is the language of his time and place, yet it is an eternal language. Sathya Sai Baba tells us that Christ announced himself as the messenger of God. He identified his body as having been given to him for alleviating human misery and serving the helpless and homeless. He denied the demands of the flesh and devoted his skills and strength to relieve agony and pain. Then, when his consciousness rose to the level of the mind, he became aware that he was the son of God. He strove hard to discover the distinction between appearance and reality, between truth and mental image, and he became aware of the higher level of consciousness that transcends the vagaries of the mind. From this peak of intelligence he became aware that, `My Father and I are one.’
The discovery of this oneness with the Father of all is the discovery of the Kingdom of God.
Revealing God
There is a line in St. John’s Gospel: No one has seen God, except the Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, and has made him known. What was it that Jesus made known about God?
Jesus taught that all were children of the one Father who makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Using the language of Father to describe God in a culture that emphasized temple, ritualism, cultic purity, and had no idols for God—(symbolizing the utter holiness and otherness of God)—this is an extraordinary revelation, a breaking through to proximity with God. Many were those who, for their occupation, their station in life, their poverty, their ritual lack of cleanliness (think of the lepers, the tax collectors and the many others who simply for their profession, were called sinners) were unable to reach God, unable to worship God in the ways they had known from their birth! Using this personal word, father, Jesus uses the language of the heart and firmly places God in the human heart.
On doing good deeds and service to the poor. Jesus spoke about those who parade their good deed before men. On giving his advice, Jesus revealed the omniscience of God: Do your good deeds in secret, and the Father who sees all that is done in secret, himself shall reward you openly. The omnipresence of God is within and without. Teaching about prayer, Jesus told his followers to go into their `own rooms’ (the heart) and to pray to the Father who is found there.
In speaking about the cares of the world, Jesus revealed the all encompassing love of the Father for all of creation: Behold the birds of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. In this story, Jesus then addresses the concerns of the ego which worries about where the next meal is going to come from: Do not give thought to what you shall eat or what clothes you shall wear. Life is more than food and the raiment of the body. Jesus then urged the disciples to consider the lilies of the field: If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you. Jesus then goes on to say, Think not of what you shall eat and drink and neither be doubtful about these things. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knows that you have need of these things.
There is an event in the Gospels that breaks open the reality of the relationship between Jesus and the Father, and reveals their oneness. After teaching crowds for a long time, it was time for them to go. It was late in the day and those present were not able to feed themselves. Jesus had five loaves and two fish brought to him. He blessed the food and instructed the disciples to distribute the food. Thus five thousand people were fed. Here, Jesus is revealing not only the omnipotence of his Father, he is revealing that the Father and the Son are the one and same reality. The Father shares all that is His with the Son.
Jesus and values
The five human values that Sai Baba teaches can be found in the life and teachings of Jesus. The story of the woman taken in adultery illustrates both integrity and non-violence. The crowd brought her before Jesus. The Law said such persons should be stoned. Jesus began to write on ground, ignoring their queries whether to stone her to death or not. Then he stood up and told the crowd, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The crowd began to leave, one by one. When they were all gone, Jesus said to her, “Where are your accusers?” `They have all gone,’ was the reply. Jesus told her to go her way and to sin no more.
Dharma is the dress, the vesture of truth and the right order of the universe. It is the dharma of the Sun to provide light and heat. It is the dharma of an apple to taste like an apple and not a peach. Right action is known for its own sake and speaks the truth of what it means to be human. Jesus gives an illustration of dharma: For every tree is known by its own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather the grapes. In referring to men, Jesus is saying, by their deeds you shall know them. In referring to the fruits of their deeds, Jesus is referring to dharma.
Man has the faculty of intellect and conscience. One cannot have integrity if one ignores the voice of the conscience. Integrity is unity of thought, word, and deed. Dharma, Swami said during the Sixth World Conference, is purity of thought, word, and deed. Jesus utters the same words: Either make the tree good, and His fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and His fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by His fruit. Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
Sathya Sai Baba has repeatedly taught that love and sacrifice are the qualities that make a human a true human being. Without these, a person only has the human form. Jesus taught the same in the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan.’ A man was beaten, robbed and left for dead on the side of a road. A priest and a Pharisee [separated one] both pass him by. A Samaritan arrives, binds the man’s wounds, puts him on his own mount [horse] and takes the injured to an inn. At the Inn the Samaritan pays for the man’s needs and promises to make good any deficit on his return. The Samaritan, through his love and sacrifice, embodies this true humanness.
Perhaps the best image of this love and sacrifice that Jesus uses is the parable of the ‘Good Shepherd.’ The shepherd knows his own sheep and the sheep know his voice and follow him. The shepherd leads them to fresh pastures. The shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. The hireling, who does not own the sheep and cares not for the sheep, flees when the wolf is coming. The sheep are caught by the wolf and scattered. True humanness lies not in doing a task (shepherding) for the merits that come from the action (money, food, etc.); it lies in embodying the five human values in whatever task is undertaken.
Jesus and service
In the Bible it is recorded that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. When they asked him why he was doing so, Jesus answered, “I am washing your feet as your servant, so that you may learn to serve the world.” Jesus brought a new dimension into a culture that had untouchables in the name of religious purity. He taught and healed people who were considered outside of the chosen people of God, not people of the Covenant. Jesus willingly associated with those considered sinners and outcasts, to demonstrate that all belong to the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that he had come to serve and not to be served.
Sathya Sai Baba, in the Christmas day discourse of 1981 said, “Love must be manifested as service. Service must take the form of food for the hungry, solace for the forlorn, and consolation for the sick and suffering.” Jesus wore himself out in such service. The heart full of compassion is the temple of God. Jesus pleaded for such compassion. Compassion was his message. He was sorely distressed at the sight of the poor. This is a dimension of selfless service that is often overlooked, as we ourselves look around for where we might do service and do not consider where such compassion might be needed. Service is love in action, devotion in action that cleanses us of impurities and surrenders the ego.
Jesus made contrasts between the kingdom of God and the world. He told the disciples that there are those who exercise authority and lordship over men. This must not be so among the disciples. Jesus taught whoever would be great among you must become the least and the servant of all. This was the key to the kingdom—if a man asks for your cloak, give the cloak and the shirt off your back; if a man wants your oxen, let him have that also. Jesus taught the same teaching as Sathya Sai Baba—it is in giving that we receive even more, particularly in giving love. Serve selflessly, the fruit will be the experience of bliss, that Sat-chit-ananda that comes from love and sacrifice.
The Last Supper of Jesus before the crucifixion is the Christian memorial of Jesus. Jesus, after his death, appeared to various disciples and they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. This is the symbol of the living Christ. Easter and the death of Jesus are not celebrated in Sai Baba’s Ashram. This festival is held in equal importance and significance as Christmas, by many Christians. Sathya Sai Baba teaches us that all human beings have emanated from God and are indeed God.
Furthermore, on Christmas day, 1978, Sai Baba said, “Jesus said the bread taken in the Last Supper was His flesh and the wine His blood. He meant that all beings alive with flesh and blood are to be treated as He Himself and that no distinction should be made of friend or foe. Every body is His body, sustained by the bread; every drop of blood flowing through the veins of every living being is His, animated by the activity that the wine imparted to it. That is to say, every man is Divine and is to be revered as such.” Hence, in revering all reality as a reflection of the Divine, we are honoring the sacrifice of Jesus and the love and compassion that he gave to the world.
In Chapter 14 of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “There are many rooms in my Father’s house.” A little further on Jesus says, “You know the way to the place I am going.” That is to say, in three brief years, Jesus had taught his followers the secret of eternal life, as it is phrased in the language of the Bible. After the Last Supper, Jesus gave a new commandment to his disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you. This is the secret to eternal life, the way to the many rooms in the Father’s mansion.”
As the Father [Sai Baba] tells us, “There is only one caste, the caste of humanity; There is only one language, the language of the heart; There is only one religion, the religion of love; There is only one God, and He is omnipresent.”
~Sharon Falotico
Source: Spiritual Impressions
