Why Jesus Still Matters

Throughout this Age of Adam there have been many great men and women that have graced the human scene. There have been those that we considered to be a cut above the rest of humanity. These have each been exceptional in their time. But there has been one man that we just cannot stop obsessing about—the man Jesus. He was exceptional in his time, and he is still exceptional today. His relevance to the outworking of human destiny is just as great today as it was two thousand years ago.

What makes our obsession even more illogical is that humanly speaking his life was not what most of us have come to consider “successful.” He was born in a dusty out-of-the-way land and was raised in a town of ill-repute. Instead of being a super talented child prodigy, he became a carpenter’s apprentice. He was never trained intellectually and though he did learn to read he never did much writing. He was not desirable to women and not considered to be good “husband material.” He never even had a girl friend. In fact, he had no friends of any kind. Apart from carpentry, he had no livelihood skills. So he never even had the possibility of becoming rich and powerful. The public life that he was remembered for consisted of three short years, during which he lived as a homeless itinerant preacher. And in his dealings with people, more than a few hated him, thought he was a fraud, and tried virulently to discredit his strange worldview. Finally, his life was cut short at the age of thirty-three, when he was hung on a Roman cross like the worst sort of criminal. This was hardly a life of greatness and glory. In fact, in today’s world Jesus would probably be considered a major “loser”—that is, one of those unfortunate human beings that slips through the cracks and becomes incorrigibly deviate.

But even with these practical points against him, Jesus became arguably the most influential man in human history. Not only has he been a household name worldwide for the past two thousand years, but the religious institution that bears his name and which has had billions of members has insisted that he was not a man at all—that he was a god. Regardless of whether or not you agree with that claim, it must nonetheless be acknowledged that such an insistence shows that he was pretty darn influential.

What makes this mystical influence even more perplexing is how many people have sworn that Jesus changed their lives. Other great men and women have been highly respected, honored, and even envied, but we do not often hear it said that this one or that one changed lives. And not only did Jesus change lives back in his own day; he is still changing lives today. And he is not even alive anymore. What’s going on here?

To claim that Jesus was God is actually an easy solution to our conundrum. It neatly explains why he has been so influential and why so many have testified to his life-changing powers. It even explains his human lack of success, since if he was God those labels largely lose their meaning. In other words, God could be a human loser if He chose to and no one could say that such a practical standing disqualified Him from greatness.

But if Jesus was not a god, things get a little more intriguing. Then we have to ask ourselves: How did a loser come to be recognized as the greatest man that has ever lived? And when people claim that Jesus changed their life, what exactly are they talking about? Especially intriguing is the idea that his power to change lives is still in effect, even though he is no longer among the living.

As we attempt to answer these questions, let us consider another claim about Jesus that people often make. They not only claim that Jesus changed their life but they say, “Jesus saved me.” This is an important distinction because being saved is not necessarily the same as having one’s life changed. In terms of power and scope it can have a more far-reaching meaning.

And when people say that Jesus saved them, they generally are not talking about their physical lives. They are not intoning that Jesus saved them from a burning building or resuscitated them after they had had a heart attack. They are referring to a different kind of saving—one that is more vague and esoteric. They are actually referring to aspects of human life that many do not even believe exist—unseen spiritual aspects. Thus for someone to claim that Jesus saved them is also to reveal that one believes in unseen spiritual realities. One believes in the subtler sphere of human life—a sphere that by its very nature takes faith to perceive. But this is precisely why Jesus is still relevant today. If his influence had been strictly practical it would have diminished over time. But the fact that many people still experience life on an unseen mystical level means that Jesus can continue to be a savior in every generation.

Yes, it is the fact that human beings have always and still do relate to life on a mystical level that makes Jesus eternally relevant. In other words, most people have the palpable sense that there is more to human life than what meets the eye. There is an entire sphere of unseen reality—thought, feeling, imagination, etc. And though this sphere may take on differing degrees of importance or value to each of us, that does not mean that it does not exist. In fact, one of the truly mysterious things about human life is that even when we do not give that realm much credence, it has a way of commanding our attention when we are least expecting it.

Throughout this age human beings have become relatively adept at the practical side of life—at feeding themselves, housing and clothing themselves, fending off disease, having their social needs met, etc. One of the reasons for this is that most of us have made the practical side of life our foremost priority. We have given it our time, strength, energy, and ingenuity. This is what we are taught to do, and most people do not question this teaching. This does not mean we entirely negate the subtle realms; it only means that practical realities come first. Then once we have seen to our practical needs and have that aspect of our life covered we might feel free to “get a little spiritual”—that is, if we have any time and energy left. This is despite the fact that Jesus, among his many wonderful sayings, exhorted us to do just the opposite—that is, to put the spiritual realm first. Why did he say this? Because he was trying to teach us the right way to go about things if we desire to live this thing called human life to the full.

So most people at least acknowledge this mystical side to human life, even if they don’t have much time or energy for it. And it is in this realm that Jesus continues to be relevant. Therefore the more inclined we are to explore this realm; the more relevant Jesus tends to become. When people say that Jesus changed their life or saved them they are saying that somehow learning about Jesus had a very profound and positive effect on their inner realm. And the only way that one would value such things is if one was already somewhat focused on that realm. Conversely, if one is so caught up in the pursuit of practical fulfillment that one spends all one’s time and energy in that direction, Jesus will be of no interest or help to them.

The question then becomes: What is going on in the subtle inward realm of those that are drawn to receiving Jesus’ help that warrants such a posture? Or to put it another way: Why do human beings have need for help in that realm? What is going on with our thoughts and emotions that makes us feel so uncomfortable and lost that we become open to reaching out for a savior? Clearly, this is Jesus’ specialty. But the sad truth is that if we did not feel a need in that realm, we would never reach out for help. If we did not feel a lack of peace and equanimity we would not seek someone who promised to be able to bring us those qualities. If we did not feel confused and clueless we would not turn to one who claimed to have the answers that would satisfy us.

This then is our predicament. Only those among us who feel discomfort and confusion in that realm, even if vague and illogical, find Jesus to still be relevant. For some, this inner discomfort manifests as a kind of festering wound that has never properly healed. For others, it manifests as a tormenting relationship with their thoughts. For others, it manifests as a sense of alienation that makes them unable to participate in normal human social behavior. For others, it manifests as negative emotionalism, depression, and despair. What is the common denominator for all of this diverse inner unrest? It is our endowment of spiritual consciousness.

Not all people suffer this kind of existential malaise, but many do. It is, in fact, surprisingly common. Why? Because we are all conscious beings. We all have the same created endowment of spiritual consciousness, and that endowment is primarily concerned with our inner condition.

Why would our endowment of consciousness have a negative outworking in our inner realm? People have been wondering this for centuries. They have imagined human consciousness to be a special gift that is only good. What they have not understood is that our endowment of consciousness is impersonal and functions according to law. The reason then that our consciousness causes problems in our inner world is that something is out-of-sync with the law of our being. Something is fundamentally wrong with our approach to life that is going against the law of consciousness. We were created in one way but are living in another. We are in violation of our own created makeup. And so our endowment of consciousness, instead of enhancing our life experience, manifests painful inner sensations. Moreover, it tends to magnify those uncomfortable sensations.

This is a condition that very few among us have been able to correct. We have been adept at maintaining our practical lifestyle but have been clueless when it comes to our inner discomfort. Why is this? It is because we have yet to learn the truth about how our inner world functions—the truth about consciousness and how it impacts our inner condition. Our neglect in this matter has not only brought great suffering to the human experience; it has also kept us stuck in a kind of evolutionary holding pattern—a no-man’s-zone of inner pain—without the hope of it ever ending. This is why we very much needed a savior.

If Jesus was God, then his impulse and ability to be our savior was strictly a matter of divine mercy and condescension. God saw mankind struggling and reached out to make a way for us to do better. There is only one problem with this belief: what kind of a god would make Its help dependent upon joining a religious institution? That seems cruel indeed for those that do not feel so inclined. Is God then cruel? No, of course not. Rather to understand Jesus’ offer of salvation and why some lay hold of it while others do not, we need to first understand that he was not God but rather a man who was very well versed in the knowledge of how consciousness works.

As a man, Jesus saw how much people were struggling with inner realities. And as a man who understood the intricacies of human consciousness, Jesus knew how to offer real and tangible help. Jesus knew that it was not simply our endowment of consciousness that was negatively impacting our inner experience; it was our state of consciousness—a state that had taken control of the human collective and changed human life ever since our father Adam awoke to it in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus knew the intricacies of Adamic consciousness. He knew that it primarily brought about a shift in perspective in our inner world—a shift that caused us to view life through the lens of duality. He also knew that with this shift in our perspective there came a powerful sense of separation—one that caused each man and woman born into our world to feel the strong inclination to fend for themselves and to strive and fight their way through life. Lastly, he saw that as an outworking of these binding Adamic attributes mankind had become helplessly given over to sin. And so Jesus took it upon himself to try to help us undermine the effects of this state of consciousness.

To counter our troublesome perspective of duality Jesus lived his life in such a way that was only good. It was not good and evil, like it is for most of us. It was only good. By doing this he showed us that even though our perspective of duality was here to stay, we each have the power to choose only the good—to overcome the temptation of using evil as a means to have our needs met.

To counter our debilitating sense of separation and the helpless enslavement to sin that grew out of that sense Jesus offered up his life as a sacrifice of atonement and forgiveness for sin. He did this so that those with sufficient faith could consciously receive this offer and thereby retrain their Adamic mind to see themselves as reconciled to God and no longer separate. The result of this retraining of our mind was that once we no longer saw ourselves as desperately separate and on our own we could then gain the upper hand over sin. But the genius behind all that Jesus accomplished was that it had the overall effect of undermining the Adamic state of consciousness and thereby freed us to be able to go forward in the evolution of consciousness into a new state called the Christ.

This was Jesus’ greatest accomplishment—one that is only now becoming clear to us. Jesus was not concerned with religion. Even his role as a healer-teacher was secondary. For he had his sights set on something much bigger than any of us could have imagined. Knowing that it was our Adamic state of consciousness that was at the source of all human suffering, he actually devised these ways to break apart that state and release us from our helpless enslavement to it. Thus his help was not restricted to the time that he lived or to the locality where he ministered. It was for all of us and for all the earth. It could still be applicable to human life two thousand years after the fact. And that is why Jesus still very much matters.