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Mysteries of John
Chapter 20
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[Mysteries of John]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
John: Chapter 20
Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene
early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the
stone taken away from the tomb. 2 She runneth therefore,
and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom
Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the
Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid
him. 3 Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple,
and they went toward the tomb. 4 And they ran both
together: and the other disciple outran Peter, and came
first to the tomb; 5 and stooping and looking in, he seeth
the linen cloths lying; yet entered he not in. 6 Simon
Peter therefore also cometh, following him, and entered
into the tomb; and he beholdeth the linen cloths lying, 7
and the napkin, that was upon his head, not lying with the
linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then
entered in therefore the other disciple also, who came
first to the tomb, and he saw, and believed. 9 For as yet
they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from
the dead. 10 So the disciples went away again unto their
own home.
11 But Mary was standing without at the tomb weeping: so,
as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and
she beholdeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head,
and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith
unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know
not where they have laid him. 14 When she had thus said,
she turned herself back, and beholdeth Jesus standing, and
knew not that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to
be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne
him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will
take him away. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She
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turneth herself, and saith unto him in Hebrew, Rabboni;
which is to say, Teacher. 17 Jesus saith to her, Touch me
not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto
my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and
your Father, and my God and your God. 18 Mary Magdalene
cometh and telleth the disciples, I have seen the Lord; and
that he had said these things unto her.
ON THE RESURRECTION morning the friends and followers of
Jesus seemed to have forgotten His promise that He would
rise from the dead, and they looked for His body in the
tomb. This incident shows that when the belief in death has
overshadowed us, it darkens our understanding; we must pass
from under this cloud before we can be conscious of the
presence of awakened life. Mary was searching for her Lord
and Master in the tomb even while He was at her side. John
and Peter, failing to find Him where they expected Him to
be, "went away again unto their own home."
Don't look in the tomb for the one you loved. Spirit is not
confined in the chambers of the dead. When we fail to
realize the new life in Christ we are sorrowful indeed. It
is then that we should turn back to Christ Jesus (the I AM)
who stands nearby and who says to the soul, "Why weepest
thou? whom seekest thou?" Grief and the search for the lost
one in some external place are then done away with quickly.
The ascending thought of the I AM is the saving idea. "I
ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your
God."
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A resurrection takes place in us every time we thus rise to
a realization of the perpetual indwelling life that
connects us with the Father. We leave in the tomb of matter
the graveclothes of mortal sense (the sense of being
mortal), which are thoughts of man's limitation and
inevitable subjection to material laws. Material laws are
the laws that man has made for himself and his world.
The I AM is Spirit, but in order to rise into the realm of
pure ideas it must not be attached to the clinging
affections of the soul. (Jesus said to Mary, "Touch me
not.") The two angels, "one at the head, and one at the
feet, where the body of Jesus had lain," represent the
positive words of life that bring spiritual powers to bear
that lift the body out of matter into Spirit. These two
bright and shining powers are possessed of animated
intelligence as they say to the weeping Mary: "Why seek ye
the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen."
The most effective consolation that we can give to those
who are immersed in the grief of separation and loss is to
deny for them the human belief in death and affirm in
thought, word and citations of Scripture the omnipresence
of life. This dissipates the flood of sorrow thoughts that
submerges the souls of those who mourn. Jesus did not want
the sorrowing Mary thought to touch Him. The spiritual mind
does not grieve; it does not look to matter and the
limitations of the flesh for life eternal, and it
dissipates the thoughts of sorrow by a denial of their
reality or power to affect the mind of the Son of God.
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Always keep to your highest thoughts and deny every
suggestion of sorrow or loss. The children of darkness wear
sackcloth and sit in ashes, but the children of light
rejoice, look up ("ascend" in every thought to the Father
of life and light), and are set free thereby from the
burden of grief and from belief in death and separation.
19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first
day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood
in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20
And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands
and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they
saw the Lord. 21 Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace
be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I
you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: 23 whose
soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose
soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Christianity began with Jesus Christ, was carried on by the
apostles and the Seventy whom Jesus sent out two by two;
then by other persons as they came into an understanding of
Truth. This process of Christianizing will continue until
the entire race is redeemed from error. Even so, as our
faculties, our senses, and our thoughts learn the truth,
they in turn give light and life to the thoughts that are
still in darkness. In this way the entire man becomes
established in immortality, eternal life.
Jesus Christ commissioned His followers to make disciples
of all nations. This commission was given
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to them on a mountain in Galilee. A mountain always
symbolizes spiritual elevation or a high place in
consciousness. When the spiritually awakened and
spiritually taught faculties and thoughts assemble with the
I AM in spiritual consciousness, they are sent throughout
the entire man, to the very outermost parts of the body
consciousness.
In order to make the world Christian individuals must
become Christian. The Christ Spirit must enter everyone.
The Christ is knocking at the door of every heart, and He
will enter when He is invited to come in. The mind that is
open to Truth invites Christ to enter. When all men are
filled with the Christ consciousness, international law
will embody the Christ standard and the Christ kingdom will
be established in the earth.
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not
with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore
said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto
them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the
nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and
put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26 And after eight days again his disciples were within,
and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut,
and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see
my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my
side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 Thomas
answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus
saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed.
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30 Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of
the disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 but
these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life
in his name.
Thomas is the apostle of Jesus who represents the
understanding faculty of the natural man. Understanding and
will function or should function in unison; each has its
center of activity in the front brain, the forehead.
Among the apostles of Jesus Thomas stood for the head,
representing the reason and intellectual perception. Jesus
did not ignore Thomas's demand for physical evidence of His
identity but respected it. He convinced Thomas by corporeal
evidence that there had been a body resurrection and that
it was not a ghost body that he saw but the same body that
had been crucified, as was evidenced by the wounds that
Thomas saw and felt.
The peace of Jesus came through the knowledge that there is
no reality in death but that life is from everlasting to
everlasting. He had proved His power to overcome the last
enemy, death, and therefore He was established in "the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding."
Jesus manifested Himself to the Eleven, and He upbraided
them for disbelieving the accounts of His resurrection.
Apparently the resurrection of Jesus is a great mystery,
and to those who read the Bible in the letter and have no
discernment of the power of Spirit to transform the body it
must remain a mystery. The question often is asked whether
or not
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we believe that Jesus rose from the dead with the same
flesh body in which He walked the earth and, if so, what
became of that body.
In former times believers accepted it as a miracle and made
no attempt to explain the law by which it was accomplished,
but blind faith is not so popular in the church as it once
was, and skeptics are more bold. The school of "high
criticism" is openly attacking Bible occurrences that it
cannot account for under natural law. Thinking people are
seeking a comprehensive explanation of the so-called
miracles of the Bible. They wish to know how Jesus did His
mighty works, including the resurrection of His body. The
historical account makes clear that the flesh body that had
been crucified was the body that Jesus had after His
resurrection.
That Jesus knew how to restore life to dead organs is
evidenced by His healing of paralytics, blind people, and
in three cases by raising those who had died. He knew a way
of restoring life that others living in His age did not
know. He tried to explain it to His disciples and
companions, but they did not understand. He told them that
He would come to life again, but they seemed to have no
comprehension of what He was saying. They thought He was
talking to them about the Temple at Jerusalem, but He was
talking of His body temple, which He could lay down and
take up at will.
It is not at all surprising that the very near friends of
Jesus were filled with astonishment and fear when they
found that He was not in the tomb where they had laid Him.
They could not understand
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that for years He had been training His soul to accomplish
this very thing. He had spent whole nights in prayer, and
through the intensity of His devotions had made union with
Divine Mind. This union was so full and so complete that
His whole being was flooded with spiritual life, power, and
substance and the wisdom to use them in divine order. In
this manner He projected the divine-body idea, and through
it His mortal body was transformed into an immortal body.
This was accomplished before the Crucifixion, and Jesus
knew that He had so strengthened His soul that it would
restore His body, no matter how harshly the body might be
used by destructive man.
Jesus had obtained power on the three planes of
consciousness: the spiritual, the psychical, and the
material. After His resurrection He held His body on the
psychical and the astral planes for forty days, and then
translated it to the spiritual, where it exists to this day
as a body of ethereal substance directed and controlled by
His thought and mind force. Having a body of spiritually
electrified atoms, Jesus is able to quicken the bodies of
people who attract His presence by believing in Him; He
radiates a glorious life that energizes those who believe
in His power.
By positive affirmations we must all appropriate this same
Christ life, substance, and Truth as ours individually and
as the very foundation and substance of our body.
Thousands in this day have found the law that Jesus
demonstrated and the inner meaning of the
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Truth that He taught. They are working, praying, denying,
affirming, concentrating, willing. They are in all ways
building up the perfect-idea body, transforming flesh
corruptible into substance incorruptible. Thus they are
following Jesus in the regeneration. When they have renewed
every organ and every part both within and without, and
have put away all evidences of old age, the world at large
will begin to accept their claims as true: that the destiny
of all men is to transform the body of flesh into a body of
Spirit and thus immortalize it. In this manner death is to
be overcome and the earth made the dwelling place of
immortal men.
This process of revealing and making use of the hidden
forces of nature has already begun in the use of
electricity, the radio, X rays, radar, and other invisible
energies. The discovery that the atom has an electrical
center was the first scientific break into omnipresent
spiritual life. This life will be exploited by men until
they exhaust the capacity of the machines they build to
utilize it; then they will look for more efficient agents,
which they will find in the development of the human body.
Man's body directed by his mind is the only dynamo that can
generate life and control it. Men can now build machines
that smash the atom and liberate its latent forces, but the
released energy can destroy the machinery and even the
bodies of those who set it free.
Nature has within her all the elements necessary to the
construction of heaven here on the earth and in the ether
surrounding the earth. It won't be long
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before we shall be constructing houses in the air, but we
must first learn how to levitate our body, as did Jesus;
then resurrection will be part of our spiritual evolution
and we shall know experimentally what Jesus meant by His
death and resurrection, also just where He lives at the
present time and what is required of us before we can meet
Him in the heavens.
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[Mysteries of John]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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