WITHOUT a doubt Christ Jesus was the most successful Christianly scientific practitioner the world has ever known. Since the Master told his disciples that it was possible for them to follow his example as a healer, a demonstrator of spiritual law and its supremacy over matter, it will be helpful for us to ponder some of the reasons for his success and strive to apply them in our own lives.
One great and unique asset which Jesus had was of course the spiritual nature of his birth, which was free from material laws and sensuality. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 29, 30), "Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God." To Mary was revealed the truth that God alone is the Father and Life of man. Jesus was undoubtedly brought up to know this truth. We find him telling his followers (Matt. 23:9), "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."
A Christian Science practitioner today finds the knowledge that the real man is the son of God alone of great value in healing disease supposedly due to heredity. With Life, Truth, and Love as his Father, the real man can have no discordant inheritance. Knowing this, Jesus healed the man blind from his birth and answered his disciples' query as to the cause for this handicap in the words (John 9:3), "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." In that saying Jesus recognized God as the only parent, and' man as His sinless offspring, created to manifest the works of God.
The Master was well aware that the spiritual self, or Christ, coexists with the Father. In the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel he speaks of the glory which he, that is, his true spiritual selfhood in the image and likeness of God, had with the Father "before the world was." We too should claim our spiritual sonship with God, our pre-existence and coexistence with eternal Life and Love. This does not mean that a corporeal mortal can claim this sonship, for he is the very antipode of God's man; but it is the inherent nature of the true man, who is the offspring of divine Mind. Our spiritual progress demands that we should frequently claim man's unity with God and know, as Jesus did, that our real selfhood is forever with the Father.
Jesus was greatly helped by his knowledge of the Scriptures. Over and over again he quoted passages from the Old Testament. Christian Scientists and others find his rebuke (Luke 4:8), "Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," an inspiration and a guide in their overcoming error. Jesus placed great importance on the Ten Commandments. Spiritually understood, they form a firm foundation for Christian Science treatment. To an inquirer who asked him which was the greatest commandment Jesus replied in substance that to love God is the most important commandment, and that coincident therewith is the command to love one's fellow man.
Every Christian Science practitioner knows that the secret of success in healing is the reflection of divine Love. Jesus' way of loving was to know the only real man as the spiritual offspring of God, perfect as the Father. In this as in all else we must follow our Way-shower's example, for there is no other way of loving truly. In proportion as we possess the spiritual sense of Love, revealing man in God's likeness, have we the ability to heal.
The transfiguration of Jesus was the revelation that Life is timeless and that there is no death. This understanding of the deathlessness of the Christ-idea enabled Jesus to raise the dead. Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 246 of Science and Health: "Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight."
Jesus always saw the perfect man, regardless of whatever erroneous picture of man as mortal, sinful, and diseased was presented to him. In his own life he illustrated man's perfectness. The Christian Science practitioner must cast moral evils out of himself before he can be successful in healing others. This overcoming of sin gives him spiritual freedom which will enable him to cast physical evils out of his patients.
This is our aim as followers of the Master. Jesus knew that evil could not make him yield to its temptations. He was tempted, the Scriptures tell us, in all ways as we are, but refused so steadfastly to yield to temptation that he could say towards the close of his earthly career that he had overcome the world. Step by step we must overcome the suggestions of the carnal mind and gain dominion over sin and sickness by seeing their nothingness and the allness of God, good, the only creator.
The beauty and purity of Jesus' character did not lead him to ignore the supposititious existence of sin. He dealt very strongly with it. Sometimes he spoke forcefully against it, for example, when rebuking hypocrisy, but he never made a reality of sin. He saw it only as a lie. He was very quick to detect error, but he saw it as nothingness and so refused to give it identity. Thus he destroyed it. As long as a practitioner thinks of a patient as a sinner or as mortal, he cannot heal him. Only as evil is seen to be an illusion can it be destroyed and its seeming effects be annulled. The practitioner turns his thought away from a sinful person and sees, as Jesus saw, the perfect man of God's creating.
Another reason for Jesus' success as a practitioner was that he could read thought scientifically. He did this through his reflection of the all-knowing divine Mind, and always he did it in order to heal. As a Christian Science practitioner understands God's laws, these laws uncover the error which claims to be causing the disease or other problem, and so he is able to reverse the error and dismiss it.
Jesus was always very positive in his statements. There were no ifs and buts in his declarations of Truth. There was no hesitancy in his claims that he had come from the Father, that he was one with Him, and that he was about to go to the Father. He did not fear to say he was the bread from heaven, the vine his Father tended, the way, the truth, and the life. These statements referred to his spiritual nature as the Christ-idea. Every true Christian Science practitioner rejoices in this certainty, this unhesitating assurance of the Christ-power to heal and to bless. This enables him to claim with conviction the absolute truth regarding man's spiritual selfhood.
Spiritual dominion over time, matter, and limitation was demonstrated by Jesus. In a moment he and his disciples were transported from the middle of the Sea of Galilee to the shore; he walked on the water; he supplied food from a few loaves and fishes for multitudes of people. To do these things he must have understood the nothingness of matter and the supremacy of Mind. The Bible teaches that God is All, and that He is Spirit. Christian Science logically declares that God being Spirit, all is Spirit, and there can be no matter. Spirit, being God, is infinite and omnipresent. Spirit is divine Mind, and the universe of Spirit must be divinely mental.
What then are so-called material phenomena? They can only be the supposititious opposites of realities. They have no real source, for God is the only creator; no real substance, for Spirit is the only substance; no activity, for Mind is the I AM, or only Being. It follows that sin and sickness have no power, no substance, no activity. They can have no possible place in actuality, in the divine creation; nor can they affect the man of God's creating. Understanding and acceptance of these facts are essential to a Christian Science practitioner and enable him to follow the example of Jesus in healing the sick and overcoming material conditions. Many wonderful proofs of the power bestowed on man through this understanding are related in "The Story of Christian Science Wartime Activities, 1939-1946."
Jesus was not an ascetic or hermit. He loved all mankind. He foresaw and forewarned his disciples of events affecting the whole of mankind, at the same time comforting them with spiritual truths. Christian Scientists should take an interest in world affairs, strive to overcome narrow nationalism, beliefs of racial superiority, and other selfish claims of error to affect world peace. They should take a particular interest in working metaphysically regarding world events. To help all mankind Mrs. Eddy established The Christian Science Monitor, which emphasizes good news and gives us an opportunity to help to heal evil situations by reversing error and knowing the allness of God's government.
We are continually hearing or reading of conditions of lack and frustration in the world. Jesus never accepted lack as real. He knew substance to be Spirit, everywhere present at all times. It is our duty and privilege to see the limitlessness of the universe of Mind, ever filled with multitudinous spiritual ideas, expressing the abundance of good. As we realize this truth, we lose all sense of impoverishment, and our consciousness of spiritual abundance aids the world in reversing the sense of lack. And since God's ideas, which people the only true universe, are harmoniously active, successful, and capable, they cannot express frustration. There is only one real government, that of Principle, divine Love, and all that Love's universe includes is obedient to Love and radiates Love.
What an example we have in the pure Christ Jesus!
Light of the world, 'tis good to hold fast
To the clear vision thou hast shown;
So shall this vision gently mold
Our lives more closely to thine own.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 185.)
