The so-called mortal or human mind from its very nature appears to be static, and, in consequence, is resistive of spiritual truth, in which, when waking to a sense of its own nothingness, it recognizes its destroyer. This, it will be seen, is the inevitable antagonism of opposites, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, falsity arrayed against Truth, which it presumes to counterfeit. Speaking of this antagonism, Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 345): "The apostle says: 'For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.' This thought of human, material nothingness, which Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the main cause of the carnal mind's antagonism."
While human experience furnishes many illustrations of this condition, perhaps no more striking example of it can be found than in the persistent and apparently unyielding opposition on the part of the great mass of humanity to the acceptance of Christ Jesus by "prophets long foretold," as the Savior and Way-shower. Notwithstanding the experiences of mankind during all the centuries of the Christian era, proving conclusively the great need of the redemptive Christ as an active healing agency in the lives of men, and in face of the evidence of its tremendous potency, the tendency in certain quarters apparently is still sturdily to resist the imputation that the Prophet of Nazareth could by any possibility have expressed the all-healing Christ, the redeemer of mankind from all its ills, limitations, and sorrows; and this, be it said, in spite of the convincing words uttered by the Nazarene himself. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me," would seem to be so definite and conclusive a statement that none could gainsay the import of his mission, especially since his many mighty works so completely corroborated his claims to the Messiahship.
It is probable that this resistance among the Jews may be accounted for, at least in part, by the fact that Jesus himself, knowing well its futility, manifested no desire or purpose to set up a worldly kingdom; hence, did not meet the popular concept of Israel's glory restored. Instead, his consummate desire was to prove the power and presence of God and to show the way to make His power available in meeting the needs of humankind. He assumed no kingly prerogative—took unto himself nothing of the pride and circumstance which marked the sovereign in the Orient of that day. With unprecedented humility and self-abnegation he went about doing good, ministering to the needy in the humblest walks of life, consorting with fishermen and other simple folk. He healed the sick, cleansed the leper, raised the dead, manifesting the power of God to destroy everything unlike Himself,—that is, unlike perfect good. Yet he was "rejected of men;" and the Christ continues to be denied, both by those who have denied Christ Jesus' partially divine origin, and by many others indifferent to his mission and its meaning.
