Novus Theos, no. 2
“A direct experience of union or deep intimacy may be beautiful behind words, but it also requires a certain sacrifice of your self-image as separate and distinct. We become vulnerable and less in control. We can no longer maintain the illusion that we are the master of our destiny.”~Gerald May
Illusion…everything is a lie. And it began in the garden. A lie was offered to Eve that God was lying to her, and she chose to believe the serpent (father of lies) and disobeyed God anyway. Here were the first humans walking with God in the garden, and they fell for the serpent's lie…unbelievable!
Jesus, Yeshua, is the truth! In the gospel of John, John 14:6 he records Jesus’ words when he said, “I am the way, truth, and the life.” Gerald May tells us that “Hebrew words connoting salvation often contain a root of the letters y and s, yodh, and shin. One example is the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yeshua, “God saves.” This y-s root implies being set free from bondage or confinement, enabled to move freely, empowered to be and do according to one's true nature.” His Hebrew name defines who he is. God saves us from bondage and confinement, enables to move freely, and empowers us to be and do according to one’s true nature. His role as Messiah was clear to the early Hebrews and indeed to the second temple Jews as well. It was his name.
He presents himself to the known world of the day, to the chosen people of Israel, as the prophets said he would. Humanity, historically, needed help as we do today. We’ve been told for centuries that we are to be masters of our destiny. The illusion is compelling. It is a message, a narrative of lies that eventually destroys us, and despair follows as we live out the illusion. I think we will see a day when we realize, if we are honest about it, the “Great Illusion” that everything is a lie.
When Jesus said I am the way, truth, and life, what was he telling them?
As the Messiah, the Son of God shows up when Rome is subjugating the Chosen Ones, He tells them, I am here to do what the prophets told you I would do. As he stated in the temple at the beginning of his ministry, He was here to preach a narrative, a message, of good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for prisoners, give sight to the blind, release the oppressed and proclaim God's favor, grace to his created.
“Stand fast in the liberty where Christ has set us free to be not entangled in the yoke of bondage”~Galatians 5:1
Or from another translation.
“Christ has set us free to live a free and unencumbered life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone, including your government, put a harness of slavery on you.”~Galatians 5:1
Yeshua's arrival meant that the stronghold the Powers had for centuries on humanity had ended. This was the prophesy Isiah gave concerning Yeshua many years earlier. It's what Messiahs offer! And it was needed as humanity had been under the power of illusion for centuries. Yeshua spent the next three years preaching till He was carried off to be crucified, as was prophesied. The ultimate goal that Jehova had was to offer propitiation for our ontology. An offer to shed the illusion we had lived under since the Garden and be set free of the bondage of our ontology, then make way for the Holy Spirit to arrive and transform us, grow us up to be, as the apostle Matthew tells us, wise as the serpents. He speaks to the spiritual battle raging since we shamefully left the Garden.
What does this mean to the postmoderns of today?
Humanity had everything it needed to wage war against our enemy adequately. An enemy that had convinced us we could be the masters of our destiny, only to find we mastered our way to a life of grand illusions. The Matrix must be taken down; it lies to us about everything. It is the work of the Powers. We don’t have to look too far to see the deception in our lives. Society is currently destroying itself. Need I elaborate?
As Gerald May tells us in his book, The Dark Night of the Soul, we have a problem with being vulnerable with each other, let alone being honest with our Creator, Jehova, about our ontological manifestations that are causing us great despair.
SUMMARY
Yeshua is our brother, friend, Messiah, and Savior. God sent him to free us from the bondage of sin and the bondage of the Powers. We have been “at war” for centuries. (read the old testament about the flood) We can not find our way out of this alone; we’ve tried. We need to be as wise as they are, “that which is hidden in Christ,” to see through the illusions that have engulfed all of humanity and are expressed in the postmodern culture we are in now. It is time to turn your attention to what God has offered us and make our way out of the bondage of the illusion and live as free men in Christ.
Gerald D. May, The Dark Night of the Soul (Harper Collins, 2005)
