To human sense, God cannot be understood until His power is proved. Have you ever tried explaining the allness of God to someone? “There is no matter” can be quite a conversation-stopper. The material world just doesn’t “get it”—and, frankly, it never will. In the Bible, even Philip on the night of the Last Supper asked Jesus: “Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8). And this was one of the disciples, who had spent three years with Jesus—the man upon whom God poured His spirit “without measure” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 30). As their abandonment of Jesus at the crucifixion showed, all but one of the disciples still failed to grasp the immensity of what Jesus taught, which was nothing less than the revelation of the allness and goodness of God, Spirit.
Today, when it might seem easier to rely on material “things”—whether it’s the Internet for a sense of enjoyment, a bank account for a sense of well-being, or medical treatment for a sense of health—the space we leave open for Spirit can feel as if it’s shrinking. Relying on God utterly and only—the central tenet of Jesus’ ministry—is in some quarters seen as naive and even reckless. Moreover, the current of modern thought can, in the words of Jesus, “deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24)—causing the spiritually minded to doubt their convictions. In short, many aspects of the modern world seem to make it hard for some to follow Christian Science joyfully and faithfully.
That explains why Mary Baker Eddy once said: “The true Science—divine Science—will be lost sight of again unless we arouse ourselves.… The building up of churches, the writing of articles, and the speaking in public is the old way of building up a cause. The way I brought this Cause into sight was through healing; …” (Lida Fitzpatrick, We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume II, pp. 111–112).
A Christian Scientist’s lifework is dedicated to revealing to humanity the goodness and allness of God, and that includes a recognition of how essential healing is to this mission. To the materially minded, an omnipotent and loving God must be, at least in some degree, a myth. But healing is the demonstration of Immanuel, or “ ‘God with us’ ” (Science and Health, p. xi)—bringing to human consciousness a flood of spiritual light so overwhelming that the human will relents and God is seen on His own terms—ruling the universe harmoniously. Healing is the language of Spirit, unattenuated by human words, and it alone can plead the Cause of Christian Science to human hearts.
The question then is: How do we heal? That vast question can begin to be answered by another: Why did Moses take the serpent by the tail?
God asked Moses to throw his rod on the ground—in essence, to take the one solid and helpful thing he had with him and throw it away.
The story of God talking to Moses at Mount Horeb provides rich lessons for spiritual searchers today (see Exodus, chaps. 3, 4). God told Moses to go before the Israelites, who knew him only as the Pharaoh’s grandson and as the murderer of an Egyptian slave driver, and tell them God had chosen him to liberate them from the most powerful state on earth. Moses worried that if he followed this command, everyone would think he was delusional: “They will not believe me” (Exodus 4:1).
So what did God do? He asked Moses to throw his rod on the ground—in essence, to take the one solid and helpful thing he had with him and throw it away. When he obeyed, it became a serpent. In other words, that decision appeared ready to turn around and bite him. And Moses ran from it, terrified.
What did God do then? He told Moses to reach out his hand and take it by the tail. Humanly, this doesn’t make much sense, because unless you know exactly what you’re doing, a snake could turn around and bite you. But God was not giving a human demand. In fact, He was doing precisely the opposite. Had Moses picked up the snake by the head, he might have reasoned his safety came from some human wisdom; by taking it by the tail, he had to rely on God’s wisdom alone. And the humility and absolute faith to be obedient to that precise command turned the serpent into a rod.
What did Moses learn? The writer of the Revelation of St. John expressed the same idea in his own language: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10). To me what the Revelator is saying is that we must turn away from all material means if we are to gain the revelation of Spirit—the overflowing of divine goodness—that appears as healing. For instance, it is not enough simply to “not go to doctors,” which is how many people who don’t understand Christian Science mistakenly characterize it. That is only a negative choice. As Moses learned, we dispense with human reasoning to make a positive choice: to choose the somethingness of Spirit instead of matter. With the tender help of God, Mind, we learn to lean on this Mind alone. Christian Science must be—is!—the complete surrender to God, Spirit, in all ways, times, and conditions, in order to gain God, Spirit, in all ways, times, and conditions.
As Moses learned, we dispense with human reasoning to make a positive choice: to choose the somethingness of Spirit instead of matter.
Recently, when what seemed to be an allergic reaction caused my face to swell alarmingly, I prayed to have the humility not to be tempted to use the world’s weapons. When the Jews came to crucify Jesus, and Peter tried to fend them off with a sword, Jesus rebuked him. He knew that God’s love was enough to provide him with “more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53). Jesus’ purely spiritual decision to rely only on God, even when faced with torture and death, was of incalculable power. It not only made the resurrection possible, but it forever changed a world that had never before witnessed the substance of divine grace in such measure. My prayer was to know what that felt like, at least in some degree, and not to be detoured by human reasoning—whether it be doubt, fear, or measuring my health by a physical diagnosis.
My enduring memory of that experience is sitting in a sunlit garden a couple of days later, declaring that no condition of matter could prevent me from experiencing, at that moment, all the joy of God’s kingdom. I don’t know exactly when all the swelling disappeared—I was no longer concerned by it after that afternoon—but it happened quickly and painlessly.
I was grateful for the healing, but the cup of my rejoicing overflowed because of the closeness I felt to God. We gain infinitely more than mastery over matter in taking the serpent by the tail. The Bible indicates that, ultimately, the sign of the serpent was only part of God’s message to Moses. The Bible says that the Israelites should hearken to the voice of the sign (see Exodus 4:8). Pharaoh’s magicians could reproduce the sign—the rod becoming a serpent—but they could not repeat the voice, which was the spiritual Truth back of Moses’ demonstration (see Exodus 7:11, 12). This voice was the Christ, the divine Spirit that speaks “in every age and clime” (Science and Health, p. 46), and that swallowed up the magicians’ serpents. Later, Moses’ growing understanding of that voice enabled him to part the Red Sea.
He commanded the people: “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” (Exodus 14:13). This was no vision of mortal sense, but the coming from heaven of Immanuel, before which every supposed impediment “melted like wax” (Psalms 97:5).
To those leaning on this rod—this utter conviction of a Life apart from and above matter—every day brings blessings beyond what the world can know.
