A Higher Level of Being

A Higher Level of Being

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

A few weeks ago I listed a number of titles often used synonymously with Jesus [1]. These include Son of God, Son of Man, God’s Son, and others. Although these terms are used exclusively today to refer to Jesus in his divine nature, in Jesus’ time the titles were claimed by rulers to portray themselves as divinely anointed. They tried to create the illusion of inherent difference between themselves and the masses of those ruled to minimize challenges to their authority, as if one of us decided we could be God and dared to think that was possible. Those in authority wanted to be considered a higher level of being than others could hope to become. When the same titles are applied to Jesus, the implication is that we cannot hope to become like Jesus any more than we could hope to have been an emperor of old. That unattainable-level-of-being-illusion is a consequential misunderstanding most Christian churches continue to perpetuate today.

Another powerful title often applied to Jesus of Nazareth today is the Word, or the Living Word, or the Word of God. [2]^,[3] In the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries, the word translated as Word refers specifically to God and harkens back to the initial creation story in Genesis 1 that describes God as speaking creation into being: “And God said, ‘Let there be…’” While I do not consider it entirely wrong to equate Jesus with God, especially when Jesus claimed Oneness with God (whom he referred to as Father [4]), it is misleading in a way similar to how earthly rulers claimed personal anointings by God. Jesus did not claim to be God or even the Son of God. The Oneness with the Father he claimed was not one of sameness but of alignment. In other words, Jesus attained Oneness with God by surrendering the desires of his personal ego to the universal will of God, as best as he understood and could channel it. His references to his relationship with God maintain an implication of distinction between himself and God.

It is curious how nearly all references Jesus makes to his relationship to God are in the third-person, as if about someone else. When Jesus is recorded as saying, “The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son…” or “…just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself…”, instead of saying “…has given all judgement to me…” or “…has granted me also to have life…”, it sounds as if he is speaking of another being. One way to reconcile this is by imagining Jesus drawing a distinction between his expression as Jesus of Nazareth, an earthly being, and as Jesus the Christ – a higher level of being – whom he accessed through his Oneness with God. Because he wanted to lead others to a similar awakening, he couldn’t present himself as an entirely different species of being from his followers but had to show that both human and divine natures are present in us all. In other words, if I were playing the part of Abraham Lincoln, offstage I might say, “…Congress empowered the President to declare war on the successionist States,” but onstage I would say, “…Congress empowered me to declare war…” Both statements refer to me but in different ways. The initial statement, spoken in the third person, refers to something bigger than me – the office of the President, a role I am only temporarily portraying in the latter.

By awakening to his Oneness with God, Jesus attained the ability to perceive and behave at a higher level of being than those around him – not because he was physically different than others, but because his awakening opened new realms of possibility. He evolved or matured into a Son (or Child) of Man – the consummate human. He gained access to both physical and spiritual understandings and abilities equally and at will. We become children of God by growing beyond the restrictive and illusory boundaries of earthly life that we learn from parents, culture, schools, and churches. In awakening to a higher level of being, we are consciously reborn as a new creation, although in the same physical body. Thus, he encouraged people to follow instead of worship him. Following Jesus is about personal transformation, peer-to-peer. Worship is reserved for God, inferior-to-superior.

This is the 7^thin a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way. The opinions expressed here are mine. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, my email is ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

The New/Old Social Pandemic:

Homelessness, Marginalization, and Immigration

By Greg Hildenbrand

The New/Old Social Pandemic is an in-depth exploration of the social issues of homelessness, marginalization, and immigration as the predictable products of outdated, underfunded, and unjust social systems maintained by the privileged of society.

Now available from Greg or any major bookseller.

---

[1] See Life Notes: Jesus and the Christ, September 12, 2024.

[2] See John 1:1.

[3] The Word today is also often used synonymously (and inaccurately) with the Bible.

[4] John 10:30