Jesus Rejoices (Rabel)

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Luke 10:21-25, pp. 184-188 of transcript.

^10:21In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. ^10:22All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. ^10:23And turning to the disciples, he said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: ^10:24for I say unto you, that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not. ^10:25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and made trial of him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

A large part of our work in Truth should consist of trying to make room in our self for joy. One of the most trying things that a teacher in S.M.R.S. has to face is the sight of a student in class who is obviously not enjoying the teachings. That is, he may not rebel or fuss, but he just is not enjoying what he is hearing; and facial expression-language conveys this, this heavy, solid, unyielding in the face of some of the most wonderful truths ever given to the earth - no response of enjoyment on the part of the student. There could be many reasons for this; of course, if we want to go into psychoanalysis; but I do not like going into psychoanalysis. There would be valid reasons for this, but it is sad, because our Truth teachings certainly are enjoyable if they are believed in; so this learning to make room in ourselves for joy is very important. It is interesting to note that a number of times Jesus includes the need for practice of inner rejoicing as a part of His teaching. He does not just say that you are going to get this, you are going to get that, you are going to have self-improvement, but also advocates rejoicing as a conscious type of expression.

It becomes obvious that Jesus considered true or inner rejoicing as a very spiritual act, an essential ingredient of any constructive state of consciousness. He even stated that one of His main purposes was to help make our consciousness more joyful. "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full." You see, joyful. This is John 15, Chapter 11.

In one of Charles Fillmore’s books, and I cannot recall exactly which one, he says that inner rejoicing lets in light, and the more light that enters a person, the more we find to rejoice about, sort of a vicious circle on the benign side; but we must add to this that for most persons, there has to be some light already established here to begin with. That is, very few persons who have no light, are capable of starting out with rejoicing; so most people need some light to precede their rejoicing in order to then increase the light and then the resulting enjoyment. It becomes more possible for rejoicing to occur in a person if first something is done to let more light in.

Jesus is of such great help to us, because not only does He promise us joy, not only does He urge us to rejoice, but He helps us to get started by teaching us something that we can really rejoice about. He gives us some of His light to get started with, so that our subsequent rejoicing will attract more and more light into our understanding. Now, He has already given us one of the greatest reasons why we should rejoice, which we covered in the last lesson: rejoice because your names are written in heaven. If you can understand that, on any occasion you have something to be glad about.

After that He goes on, on Page 121 in your Harmonies at the end of His discourse: "In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding and didst reveal them unto babes. Yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father, and no one knowth who the Son is save the Father, and who the Father is save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him." And turning to the disciples, He said privately, 'Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, for I say unto you that many prophets desire to see the things that ye see and saw them not and to hear the things which ye hear and heard them not.'"

First, Jesus gives us the example of Himself rejoicing. We are told that He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, which would be, of course, inwardly; and He indicates that He is rejoicing about the way God revealed what He called "these things". He is happy about the way God reveals "these things". He says that the revelation of "these things" is withheld from the "wise and understanding but given to babes”. Now the question is, why should this cause Jesus to rejoice? And is there something here which should also cause us to do so?

First, what is meant by "these things"? Now, to me, it would seem logical that they would refer to the word and the meaning of spiritual Truth. Whatever pertains to God's good and Truth seems to be what Jesus would be referring to as "these things", metaphysical, spiritual principles. Now, some of these things surely would consist of the idea that "God within me is mighty to heal; inner forgiveness is always possible and always brings me freedom and peace; I can be happy and prosperous in the love of God." Each of us could make a long list of our own favorite examples of "these things". But then we come to the question of why are "these things" hidden from the wise and understanding and revealed unto babes? Now, it seems very reasonable to assume that Jesus would not be using exactly in the sense that they have been literally translated, the wise and understanding. For instance, project your imagination to 2,000 years from now, where the present mode of English language is archaic, almost obsolete; but knowledge of it is retained, and a new nation speaking a different language was at the foreground of spiritual evolution. In that nation there were translators of the language, which Is current and acceptable today.

Now, just supposing that they would run across one of your sermons, in which you would use the term "the wise guy, the know-it-all, the I-can-do boys", things like this. You would have used those words which says "wise guys", and literally translated, it would come out as "wise ones", or the "know-it-alls literally translated would mean those who know everything, super-conscious-aware people. That is not what you meant. You mean "wise-guys, the know-it-all", and I am convinced this is what Jesus means here, the "wise guys", the "know-it-alls, the already-have-it-made boys". The wise and understanding might be a literal translation from the Aramaic that Jesus used, but the connotation is not there, in that kind of a translation; and I am convinced that this is so on a number of occasions where Jesus used the language of the times, but the implications of such usage cannot be translated by one who was not "in on" the implication. It would be like slang and figures of speech of the moment, because in other places we know that Jesus lauds wisdom and understanding. All through the Scripture, “With all thy getting, get understanding", “give thy servant an understanding heart", so Jesus is evidently giving these words as they are translated, the special connotation used in that vernacular.

To me, it would seem that the term "wise and understanding" should be thought of here in the sense that we today say "the shrewd, the clever, the brilliant" and the sense of know-how. Then in direct contrast, He uses the word 'babes", and the word babes would refer to simplicity, uncomplicated, teachable. How much could you hope to teach a wise and understanding person in the sense that you would connote it here? You do not get very much across unless you say to him what he has already made up his mind he agrees with. So the wise and understanding in this connotation are very unteachable people, very difficult to teach until they have been somewhat humbled, and usually life will take care of this. When they have been humbled and softened a bit, one can get through to them. When I say one, I do not only mean another human being or a faculty member, I mean the very Spirit of Truth itself, the teacher within has a time getting through to those who have already made up their minds - they have got it, they have learned it, and now it is theirs, very difficult. Contrast the shrewd, clever, brilliant, strongly-developed sense of know-how with the babes, the guileless, uncomplicated, simple, trusting people. In strictly worldly matters, which of these two seem to have the advantage? The first category, as a rule. Strictly worldly matters seem to have the advantage, those who are most determined to get what they want using any means to an end. Do they not place most of their reliance on cleverness, shrewdness, sense of know-how? Do they not use pressure and aggressiveness, beating out competition and taking that as a sign of success? This is the current way of the world, and while these factors can gain a degree of good and of progress in life, they can also bring about much, much trouble, strife and hurt when they are emphasized too much. How far do these qualities count when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to the power of Truth thinking in bringing God's blessings into a person's life? They do not count there. They count only in the realm of worldly getting and competition beating. That is where they make their mark, but in the realm of spiritual attainment, they are not needed, not a bit.

Here is why Jesus is rejoicing, that this is so; and why we, too, can rejoice right along with Him for the very same reasons. Spiritual attainments, God's blessings, the manifesting of the Word of Truth, these do not come to us because of our use of cleverness, shrewdness, or sense of know-how. These come because of things like our sincerity, our honesty, our simplicity, our willingness. These are the qualities which most strongly attract the manifestations of God's blessings in our lives. God's good comes to us in manifestation, not because we have developed a strong sense of know-how in getting it, but because of our need for God and our faith in His love and our willingness to accept it. Now, these qualities can be had and cultivated and developed by all people in the human race. There is no competition there. My getting more of that does not in any way take from someone else; in fact, my getting more of it inspires more of it in others. But that is not the way with these other things. My getting more of it usually means that someone has to get less of it, profit-making, we call it or beating the competition. For example, take the blessing of healing. Try to imagine this horrible possibility: what if the only way you could demonstrate or manifest the Truth or the blessing of healing would be for you to become more clever, more shrewd, and more aggressive than others who also need healing. That's the way you would have to get your healing would be to get there before someone else who also needs healing, because there might be less there when you get there, if someone gets there before you do. Or maybe it will all be gone before you get there. It isn't that way; it's that the more people who are there getting healings, the better the chances for everybody else because the way is made easier. The action of the law is that usage causes increase, right usage causes increase. Spiritual law says that we do not have to demonstrate Truth by beating out others by competition with those who are also seeking the same blessing. The truth of healing, you see, demonstrates itself to our quiet faith, our simple trust in healing power by relaxed expectancy and willingness. These are the characteristics of the "babe" in our nature. Take the blessing of harmony and happiness. What if you could experience harmony and happiness in your relationships only according to how clever you are or how shrewd you become or how more brilliantly than others you can perform. Then who could hope to be happy? Nobody would be happy, and I will tell you why: because no matter where we are, around the next corner there is always somebody who is a little better than that. It does not matter what it is, no matter go in any kind of worldly thing, around the next corner is somebody who can do it a little better and is perfectly willing to show that he can. So, nobody would be happy. What is the truth of the matter?

Harmony and happiness are found and expressed as they are attracted by the gentleness in our nature. One of the corniest songs ever written also has some of the clearest truths, Try a Little Tenderness. Of course the song makes it all a gushy, buy-her-a-new-dress type of thing, but the principle is there, try a little tenderness, or try a little gentleness; and the simplicity of our approach to others is another thing. The simplicity of our approach to others makes for harmony and happiness, the harmony and humility which others are able to sense in us. We do not need to compete for harmony, nor grab our share of happiness. They are revealed and they are bestowed on the "babe" parts of our nature, so the question is, would you consider this cause for rejoicing? If you do not consider this cause for rejoicing, you are hopeless. But if you can see this constant cause for rejoicing, then there is great hope, great hope indeed. Jesus definitely says this is constant cause for rejoicing. Jesus is speaking to us when He concludes. I can visualize Jesus right in this classroom, now, saying to each of us here today, "Blessed are the eyes which are seeing the things which ye see." Just look around you and see what kind of co-workers and companions you have attracted into your life. You know you should have taken the walk I took this week-end in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas and see what kind of companionships are being attracted by some other states of consciousness. It makes you think. It makes you grateful and humble at the same time and inspires you to do anything you can to help that race consciousness, which works to attract like and like begets like. He says, "For I say unto you that many prophets and kings desire to see the things that ye see and saw them not and to hear the things which ye hear and heard them not."

Okay, the next time any of us are down-in-the-dumps, let us just remember that we do have a few things that we can start with. As we rejoice with what we can start with, the more light is let in. The more light that we are aware of, the more prone we will be to rejoice. The more we rejoice, the more light, ad infinitum.

Text of the original transcript of last paragraph of p.184 through the first paragraph of p.188.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-06-2014