The magnitude of Jesus’ work, his material disappearance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled the disciples to understand what Jesus had said. Heretofore they had only believed; now they understood. The advent of this understanding is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, — that influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecostal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.
Jesus’ last proof was the highest, the most convincing, the most profitable to his students. The malignity of brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to the glorification of the man and of the true idea of God, which Jesus’ persecutors had mocked and tried to slay. The final demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught, and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetuated and extended it.
Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned him, but he was demonstrating divine Science. Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies, he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of matter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him. The divine must overcome the human at every point. The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelligence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs.
Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and the supremacy of Spirit be demonstrated.
The true meaning of Easter is wondrous! Its message promises such blessings to each one of us and to our world. To hide it behind bunnies and eggs, secularism and skepticism, is saddening.
Jesus was crucified by the materialistic world’s hatred of his divinity. His grace and power to bring peace and healing to the world was unsurpassed and something human power could not control. It tried to silence his holy message by crucifying him. But how he reacted to such evil intent was an example to us all. He responded with the lovingkindness, calmness and confidence that could only come from the deepest understanding that evil cannot conquer goodness any more than the darkness can conquer the light.
For three days it seemed like evil had won. Then, when even the disciples had given up hope, Jesus emerged from the tomb alive.
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science church, described this surprising re-appearance, when she said, ‘The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problems of being… He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate.’ (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p44)
In the resurrection, Jesus proved that there is life beyond what we see, like someone journeying on after they have sailed out of our sight. I think of it like writing a sum on a page, say 2+2=4. If we destroy the page, is the truth that sum represents also destroyed, or is it eternally true and untouched? Jesus showed us that each one of us has just such an eternally true identity, something that the outward appearance only hints at, something that never dies. What a glorious message.
He also showed that to react with love instead of hate or anger, disempowers evil. This love, however, is more than human love or kindness. It is a love that has its source in God, a God that the Bible tells us is Love itself. Hatred and evil, being a lack of love, can no more stand in the face of divine Love than the darkest night can stand in the presence of the light of the dawn. Not reacting stops evil from spreading. That’s why Jesus counteracted the old thought of ‘eye for an eye’ with ‘turn the other cheek’ – don’t ever react to evil, stop it in its tracks. Is this not a message the world needs to remember and live by much more consistently? Is this not a message that could bring peace to our world? Is this not the ‘Golden Rule’ – ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’?
The true meaning of Easter is of the utmost importance to our own lives and to the world. If we remember it in our hearts and live it in our lives, then that precious sacrifice made by Jesus is not lost but is still as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.
This article was contributed by Beth Packer, a practitioner of Christian Science healing.
Please join us at 10.00 am on Easer Sunday at the corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton in Canberra.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:God – Parent, Shepherd, Friend
God is Love (The Bible – I John 4: 8)
DIVINE LOVE ] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [LOVE] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE’S] rod and [LOVE’S] staff they comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.
God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
Did you know that International Women’s Day was first observed in the early 1900s? And I was surprised to learn that protests against gender inequality started much earlier, with the First Women’s Rights Convention being held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.
It’s interesting to me that this was also the era in which the founder of this news organization, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), experienced profound changes in her life. She went from being a single mother struggling with chronic health problems and financial difficulties to being a well-known religious leader and the founder of a worldwide church.
Despite the inequality faced by women of her time, Mary Baker Eddy succeeded as an author, publisher, editor, healer, lecturer – all at a time when women could not vote and were considered incapable of managing their own affairs. Her book on spirituality and healing (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”) was included on the Women’s National Book Association list of “75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World.” (Listen to this complete article or continue reading)
This recording is of the readings on the topic:Secure Amid the Storm.
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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(The Bible KJV – Romans 8: 38, 39)
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Every Wednesday at 6.15pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science church in Canberra (corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton). At these meetings short readings on a particular topic are followed by time for members of the congregation to share how they have been helped and healed through prayer.
My flesh and my heart fail; God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(The Bible NKJV – Psalms 73: 26)
God. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p587)
Christian Science Canberra 