This is the day of resurrection. In the Christian world it is Easter Day, a time when the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated. But this is the day of resurrection. Most people find it a little difficult to relate to the idea of resurrection. As we have noted before, it is easy to relate to the event of the crucifixion. We all, I’m sure, feel that we have been treated unjustly, at times at least, and we all can relate to suffering. But resurrection is a different matter. There is seemingly no experience in this regard, so imagination has been used. This is understandable by reason of the fact that there has been no experience of resurrection for human beings in general. For something to be known it must be experienced; otherwise it only exists in imagination.
Nevertheless this is the day of resurrection for all people; not just for special candidates, but for the whole human race. Does this mean that it will happen during this twenty-four hours? It is happening during this twenty-four hours, but a day in this sense relates to a period of time. There are certain days of creation recorded in the Book of Genesis. Some have assumed this meant that the world was created in a week. But the word day used in this way is a period of time. This is the day of resurrection; this is the period of time in which resurrection is taking place. In some ways this period of time might be looked upon as having been quite lengthy thus far, because it was particularly initiated almost two thousand years ago. The process of resurrection has been in operation ever since, working at levels where the conscious mind had virtually no awareness at all.
This day of resurrection for mankind was set in motion, as I say, almost two thousand years ago. This was done on an individual basis by one man. As we were noting, we could easily relate to some of His experiences leading up to the crucifixion. It is easily seen that He didn’t resist what was occurring. He let it work out the way it was going. He didn’t make any plea for His human rights, something which is very strongly in the minds of human beings these days. He didn’t resist; He didn’t even object. He simply let it happen. It seems to me that one of the comments He is supposed to have made was, “Resist not evil.” So He was true to His own instruction. There came a moment when He was on the cross when He accepted the actual state of mankind into Himself. This was at the point when it was said He gave up the ghost, when in fact He relinquished the awareness of His conscious mind.
This is the actual state of mankind. There is no true awareness, in the conscious sense, in the body of mankind, or there has been no awareness. The only awareness there has been has been of the nature of a dream state. One may think of oneself as being present in one’s dream, moving around, doing whatever it is, but it is something that is simply occurring subconsciously, and yet there is a conscious awareness of it. That is pretty well descriptive of the state of mankind, functioning at a subconscious level, with some conscious awareness of the fact. That could hardly be described better than a dream.
It was indicated that should human beings eat of the forbidden fruit, become subject through their own feeling reactions to the world around them, judging it this way and that, they would die. It would be a fatal mistake. That has certainly proved out to be the case. A sure thing is death, they say. But the body of mankind as a whole is still in existence. The death sentence hasn’t been carried out yet—individually speaking, yes, generation after generation. At that point on the cross this Man assumed into Himself the state of mankind. His body shortly thereafter was removed from the cross and placed in a sepulcher. Clearly He was unconscious, in the mental sense, during that time. It is assumed that He was dead, although it didn’t prove out to be the case. According to the record some words were imputed to Him which were supposed to mean something, which in fact they didn’t: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”—supposedly “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” a quotation from the Psalms. I doubt if He was too interested in quoting from the Psalms under those circumstances! Would you be? No, the indication here was, as it might be translated: “Darkness, darkness, covers my face.” In other words He was relinquishing the awareness of His conscious mind; He was losing consciousness. It is indicated that He “gave up the ghost.” This has been used subsequently to indicate that a person is dead at that point when he has given up the ghost.
But fundamentally, while the conscious mind was relinquished, the subconscious mind was still in operation, the realm of the ghost; the control was being given into that realm. There was no more conscious mind on hand to do anything. But something was happening in the subconscious levels; here was present a pure heart—one point within the total consciousness of mankind at that time, of a pure heart. We recognize that all people participate in the consciousness of mankind. This was true of this one man, the same as everybody else; the distinction was that His heart was pure. In other words there was free access for the spirit of God through this open window of heaven. It was by reason of this fact that what has been called the resurrection took place.
We have an awareness that the subconscious levels of the mind constitute the realm of power: “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” The Holy Ghost relates immediately to these levels of the mind of man, at least rightly so. It has been a pretty unholy ghost of course heretofore. But at that point of initiation of the creative cycle of resurrection for the body of mankind there was one point of purity of heart. Through that one point something could work. It proved out that it did work by reason of the resurrection of the body of Jesus. Here was the power of not only transformation but transmutation at work. This was the action of the spirit of God through the pure heart and subconscious levels of mind in that particular form.
One can speculate about these things but it is of little consequence because such speculation is all in the realm of imagination. It only has meaning when there is the actual experience. This is the day of resurrection. It has been this day for the last almost two thousand years. It has now reached this point. During this whole period the creative action of the spirit of God has been working—initially through that one point but subsequently there has been an expansion in that regard—within the scope of the subconscious levels of the mind of mankind. Changes have been in the process of being wrought. This is the case whether human beings like it or not, whether they know it or not. Something has been happening. Perhaps we begin to be in position, with others, to realize these things, because what has been happening has finally begun to emerge and break through to the level of consciousness, to the level of the conscious mind, the waking conscious mind. This waking conscious mind is aware of a world that is not at all the same as the world of which the sleeping mind is aware, not the same as the dream world in other words. I’m sure all of you would acknowledge that in whatever measure you have had the opportunity to see things in a different way, to understand things in a different way from that which is common in the world as human beings know it, your understanding, your approach, is different—or has the opportunity of being different. There is somewhat of a distinction here. Some have taken advantage of the opportunity; others haven’t. All these things prove themselves out.
In any case here is the day of resurrection. The One who came on earth, and was called Jesus, offered a different way, to start with; but clearly that was rejected. Christians subsequently have tried to convince themselves that somehow it wasn’t rejected, because they were picking up the scraps, so to speak, afterwards. But what He brought was absolutely rejected. And there is nothing that anybody could do about it subsequently to try to gather it together again. What He brought was gone. But He did establish, by assuming the responsibility which He did while hanging on the cross, the day of resurrection, resurrection which would come inevitably. Who would be included in the experience might be a question. But the day comes. The day is here. The fulfilment comes. We have called the resurrection the restoration of mankind to the true state of man, revealing the likeness of God on earth. Simple. This is not something that human beings by their own efforts could possibly do. They do not know God, after all.
But the working of this creative spirit, through the mass consciousness of mankind since this working was initiated, has wrought many changes. Human beings are inclined to take credit for these changes when they seem to be indicative of real evolution in the human race: technology for instance. This is claimed as though the human mind thought it up, and people feel proud of themselves in this and compliment each other about it—the great men of the earth. In every field this is the way it works from the human standpoint; but it isn’t the way it is really working, because anything that has happened has happened because of this creative working through the subconscious minds of the human race as such, emerging specifically in this individual and that and invariably being mistranslated, translated according to the structures that were already present in the impure hearts of human beings. So all kinds of marvelous things have happened. There is a great civilization, were told. It doesn’t seem to be quite so great and stable as it might be.
So in this day of resurrection the creative spirit of God has been at work, transforming things in the mass consciousness. Many people have the notion these days that we’re moving into some sort of a new age. If we see it in the terms which I have been describing I suppose that could be one way of describing what is happening. As this creative spirit has been at work changes have been wrought, and according to the quality that was present in individual human beings they have either been caused to move upward in the process of resurrection—that is, letting something clarify in their own subconscious minds—or they have been resisting the process. If the resistance is over fifty percent, I suppose, then the individual tends to go down; it tends to be a destructive and painful experience. While the choice may not for the most part—to start with at least—be a conscious one, a choice is constantly being made by people as to how they shall relate to the creative movement of this spirit through their own subconscious minds.
Of course the already existing structures that are present in the subconscious minds of human beings the world around tend to influence what happens in the individual experience. Tradition dies hard, for instance. All that tradition is is a more or less rigid structure which has been built in the consciousness of human beings over the centuries, over the millennia indeed. And so they have these things still in their subconscious minds and the creative spirit of God comes up against them. They either are allowed to yield, because the character of the individual is such as to permit this to happen, or if there is no yielding there is resistance. And there is nothing that can stand in the way of the movement of that creative spirit, so people find themselves being thrown down. That is an uncomfortable experience; it’s much more comfortable to be resilient, to be willing to let go and not to feel that one is betraying anything by doing so. The reason why people feel that they are betraying something is because they have worshipped these images, these traditions, these rigid structures in their subconscious minds. And they occasionally come out into the conscious mind; human beings describe them this way and that; but it has been more important to most people, seemingly, to be loyal and true to these rigid structures than to be true to the creative spirit of God. Of course the choice hasn’t been clear-cut in their own consciousness, but it has become clear-cut in our consciousness, hasn’t it? It started out by being a subconscious thing, and finally it broke surface somewhere along the way and we became conscious of the truth, conscious of the way things really are—at least to the extent that we could see it at that point, which certainly was not a complete view, and isn’t a complete view yet. But we can understand something of what is happening on the grand scale—we could put it that way—at least grand in the eyes of human beings; small potatoes from the universal standpoint.
Seeing this larger view of things we can emerge out of our self-centeredness a little more, if we will, and recognize what our individual responsibility is in the matter, because if we do have a conscious awareness of these things, such as it is at the moment, then we have a responsibility to handle what arises in our own subconscious minds on the basis of what we see, what we know, and not on the basis of the usual traditional eruptions out of the subconscious state. We have noted recently that all human thinking, all of it, has been based in the fact that human beings in their present state have impure hearts, so that what rises up to be thought about rises up out of an impure heart, so that what is called thinking is always rationalization, rationalizing something that is already present in the impure heart. Human beings have become expert at this. There are some brilliant rationalizers in the world—they are sometimes called brilliant minds—very capable of making things seem to be something that they aren’t, making it all seem so logical and reasonable when it isn’t, when all it is is explaining away the impurities that are present in human hearts. This is a futile undertaking, leading nowhere. The nowhere is called the grave.
The body of Jesus was placed in the sepulcher, in the tomb, but obviously there was something happening with respect to that body or it surely couldn’t have stood upon its feet and walked out into the garden. Of course there was the little problem of rolling away the stone from the mouth of the sepulcher to start with. The illustration is absolutely accurate. He had taken upon Himself, accepted the state of, the body of mankind, which is lying in a tomb. Who can dispute that fact? Is not the consciousness of mankind oriented in death? It is a general attitude that death is the most important thing in life! Rather contradictory, one would suppose, but death occupies center stage. And, as Job put it one time, “The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me.” We worship death through fear. It’s interesting to observe that death is the central theme of human experience, the absolutely sure thing in their view. They put taxes alongside; but they’re not really quite the same as death, are they? Here is the one thing that is supposed to be absolutely sure; here is god, eternal god: death. Of course people don’t look at it that way, but that’s the attitude that is being taken. And they revolve around this god.
But there is something at work in the mass consciousness, as there was something at work in the subconscious mind of Jesus in the tomb. He was in a coma there. Human beings, the body of mankind, has been in a coma for a long time: no conscious awareness of the truth, no conscious awareness of what the being of man is, just a sick figment of fancy, an un- pleasant dream in the tomb. This is the human state. Whether anyone believes it or not, likes it or not, that’s the way it is. Human beings have long lost consciousness of the truth as it relates to themselves. Because there has been such a big blank there they have invented all kinds of things to try to fill the blank, but not too successfully. There has always been that emptiness, that sense of insecurity, which they try to fix one way or an- other. We’ve all indulged in this stuff. And all that leads to nothing.
But now, the human race having been given opportunity repeatedly to rise up of its own choice consciously, and having refused to do that, the only way left by which it can be done is subconsciously. This is what is happening. There is the creative action of the spirit of God, initiated at that starting point long ago and working in the subconscious mind of man ever since to sort things out there; so that there will be those who rise up and there will be those who go down. And this is what is happening. We have the experience, in some measure at least, of rising up, or of being given the opportunity to rise up; and again I make that distinction. There are others of course in the world; certainly we’re not the only ones! Everyone in fact is participating in this process: up or down. For a while there are those who are in between—the lukewarm they were called, weren’t they? Neither one thing nor the other. But eventually the issue is presented and each individual either rises up or goes down.
In the rising-up process of course something begins to be seen of a larger vision. To start with, that larger vision is always translated on the basis of previous traditions, but obviously what is to be known in the resurrection is not something that has ever occurred before. It can’t be translated on the basis of forms out of the past. You’ll note that the writers of the Gospels had a little difficulty in describing what happened after the resurrection. Of course! They didn’t know what happened. So they wrote some stories, which may have within them a kernel of truth but they are rather deceptive, because the resurrected state is not the same state as the unresurrected state. The state and condition of the experience of Jesus was not the same after the resurrection as it was before the crucifixion—something different, about which human beings know nothing. They have no experience of it, so all they can do is invent imaginative stories. How about finding out what it is?
Well we have the opportunity, not just for ourselves as individuals but because we are a part of the whole body of mankind. What is happening is happening to the whole body of mankind, no exceptions. Those who compose that body of mankind participate in the resurrection or in the disintegration of what has existed in the experience of human beings heretofore. This nightmare state is passing away. We either identify ourselves with the nightmare state and pass away with it or we allow ourselves to move in the resurrecting process. This is happening, as I say, with human beings everywhere. Some have come to a level of breakthrough into a conscious awareness of the true identity of mankind: Man, made in the image and likeness of God, a facility for God’s action on earth. The identity of man is God, but it hasn’t been in his own consciousness. He has tried to have something separate, all his own, so he could do as he pleased.
Now we come again, in this cycle of resurrection, to the opportunity of participating ever more fully in a true conscious awareness of the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Here is the Son state of consciousness. But the Son state of consciousness is not separate from the subconscious levels, the Holy Ghost state of consciousness. It is all one and is all being clarified. The process of resurrection is in operation. Awakening to this, then consciously we are in position to be deliberate in our attitudes, deliberate with respect to whatever it is of the impurity, the filthiness, of the subconscious mind which may present itself to us. Human beings are inclined to kowtow to these things and say they can’t help it. They are going to be unpleasant if they feel like it. They are going to judge things, they are going to judge people, they’re going to condemn, they’re going to criticize, if they feel like it. Well that’s a dead giveaway! Very dead. If they feel like it: the filthiness of the heart coming out and establishing the control as to how the individual is going to operate, what he’s going to do, what he’s going to say, how he’s going to act, how he’s going to behave. In the resurrection one acts and behaves in the consciousness of the Son of God, or the Daughter of God, and not on the basis of the way one feels. So many people say, “Well I would be dishonest: I feel this way, therefore I have to act this way.” That is dishonesty! It is denying the truth, denying the reality that is present to be expressed. The individual says, “I can’t express that reality; that would be dishonest because I feel some other way.” Who cares how human beings feel? What is it that should be expressed that is honorable and true and right and which does not judge and condemn and criticize and throw down? When we begin to associate ourselves with that truth, which is the only truth, then we find ourselves participating in the resurrection of life. The other aspect of the resurrection is the resurrection of damnation, as it was called—in other words going down, refusing to accept honestly the truth of one’s own divine character. That acceptance is the only honest thing to do; everything else is dishonesty.
So here we are to share in the resurrection, not because we set it up or are so much better than somebody else; but we have the opportunity of seeing, of knowing, and woe unto those who have this opportunity and do not accept the responsibility that goes with it. So we share in allowing the conscious mind of the body of humanity to be reconstituted. By reason of the Son, this conscious mind, the direction is given, the control is extended, with respect to anything that is not fitting that rises up out of the sub- conscious mind. “Get thee hence, satan!” Quite simple. But it takes deliberate action to do it.
This is the day of resurrection. Behold, I come quickly. It may have seemed to be rather slow heretofore, having taken almost two thousand years to get to this point, but I think you and many others are quite aware that something is coming quite quickly now. There has been a clearing, the creative action of the spirit of God is present, and human beings either yield to it, forget all their human nonsense, or they go down. We have the opportunity to the extent that we see, understand and know these things, to offer a point of orientation to all those who, although they do not see clearly, nevertheless sense what is happening and are moving in that resurrecting way. We rejoice to provide for them an enfoldment, a love with no judgment. But we will not be in position to offer no judgment if we have been judging the person sitting right next to us, or if we’ve been judging ourselves, and condemning and criticizing, tearing down, and refusing to face honestly one’s own impure heart, trying to justify and excuse oneself. Ugh! Horrible, isn’t it, if you really look at it. I had the misfortune to see quite a little of it, and one sees it in oneself too.
Let the resurrection occur under the hand of the Lord, by the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost at work in the subconscious mind raising up what needs to come to the conscious mind, so that it may be dealt with. Behold I make all things new. And as that consciousness clarifies, the dream state, the old world of the dream state, passes away and the true world, which is in fact already present, becomes known.
Ken Carey— Martin, all of us here this morning have the opportunity of participating with you, and not only the opportunity of resurrection but the privilege and the responsibility of resurrection as well. And I thank you for the powerful and dynamic expression of spirit that might shake all of us out of our lethargy and get us moving in the creative currents of the spirit, that together we might move. And nothing can stand before that collective movement, because that is what this is all about. It’s such a beautiful thing.
Martin Cecil— That movement is easy when it is our movement; it’s tough when we resist it. So there is a little hint: Do you find anything tough? You know why. Move easily in the creative spirit of God and participate thereby in these final cycles of the day of resurrection, final hours I suppose, of the day of resurrection. Praise the Lord for this opportunity. As we well know, the true character of God in expression through man reveals itself in thanksgiving and thankfulness, amongst other ways. Let us be thankful for this glorious way which is consciously open before our awareness. Let us give thanks for it and walk in that way.
Easter Day commemorates for us the resurrection of our LORD and Master. The reason there is a vivid interest, continuing down through the centuries, in the resurrection which is commemorated today, is to be found in the fact that we have a sense of sharing in that, but even though it is a sense of sharing in it, people think of it primarily as something that happened nearly two thousand years ago. Why did the Master come? To save His people from their sins. And why did He come forth from the tomb? To prove His Victory over the prince of this world. It seems to me that, although there has been a sense of sharing in these things—even though it is largely limited to belief—that it should be evident to people everywhere that it has not been shared as fully, as meaningfully, as it could have been, as it should have been. It is glorious that He arose, but we must let Christ arise in our hearts and minds, in our lives, that the risen Christ in us may inspire others to let Christ arise in them.
Before any individual can truly, fully share in the Spirit and reality of the resurrection, he must do more than love God. Millions have loved God to varying degrees down through the centuries, but the conditions that continue in the world, the misery and the suffering and the sorrow and the death that hold sway, prove that those millions have not realized the resurrection fully enough or keenly enough, vividly enough, even though they did love God. It is not enough just to love Him. If there is to be a true manifestation of the resurrecting power of God, it is important that individuals receive the Water of Truth as well as the Sunlight of His Love. If we are to share in that resurrecting power and so function as to allow others to more fully and vividly share in it, we must realize that the Sunlight of God's Love brings barrenness unless there is an abundance of the Water of Truth.
Human beings, in their own individual expressions of life forget that there is a River of Life filled with the Water of Truth. They seem to feel that there is such a shortage of the Water of Truth, and the harvest is not what it ought to be. But when we know that there is an inexhaustible Fountain of Water available to each and every one, and each individual lets that Water be used in all phases of his activity and function in the Garden of his Life, he finds that the warmth of God's Love begins to have glorious meaning in the multitudes of greens that appear, and the beauty of color in flower and fruit.
The Master of us all said, “By their fruits ye shall know them”, and indicated that we must bring forth fruit more abundantly, and finally, bring forth “much fruit”. Then, through us, by reason of the bringing forth of much fruit, there would be the restoration of the Garden of God on earth, for where the things of God are brought forth abundantly in human lives, there the Garden of God is, and he who serves faithfully in the Garden of God finds that in the cool of the day the LORD God comes Walking in the Garden, that he may commune with the Almighty.
We rejoice that Christ arose, that our Master came forth from the tomb, but how futile is belief in these matters unless we share in that resurrection, and let Christ arise in us, and let the Christ expression of the Lord come forth from the tomb which human beings are, as long as they continue in self-activity. And when the stone is rolled away so that the hardness of the human heart ceases to bar the Way, the risen Lord appears through the individual life expression, and the risen Christ is made manifest. To whom? To His disciples, to those who are attuned to the Spirit, to those who are responding to our KING, for though the LORD arose, He was not seen, or if He was seen He was not recognized by those who were not following Him, and even among those who claimed to follow Him there were those who doubted, those who questioned and held back—and so is it today.
We must let the victory of the risen LORD be made manifest through us to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, that they may be drawn, step by step, more fully into the Way, the Truth and the Life, that sharing in that victory all who will may come to know the reality of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is not enough to believe in it. We mustshare in it if it is to have true meaning to us, true meaning in our lives; we must share in it if we are to live and Walk in the Garden of God on earth, and know what it is, when the LORD God comes Walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, to share in that blending of Heaven and Earth wherein we know that they truly are One.
I would like to read to you certain words that are written in the 20th Chapter of John, Verses 1-23:
“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
“Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
“Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
“Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
“But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her. Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.”
There are many things to be found in these words, but a few of them I would consider with you now. In the 19th verse we have the word: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week,” and then, in the first verse we read: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher”. The first day of the week—the significance of these words has been overlooked by multitudes who have heard them read and who have read them.
We have begun to realize something of what the Sabbath Rest of the Lord means. In one of the Summer Session Services I dealt with the principles involved with respect to the Commandment: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work”. Human beings have tried to keep the Lord's Day, or the Sabbath, according to human concepts that have been developed, and again they have failed to fully share in that which God was offering to them. It is recognized that for fallen human beings there must be allowed a period when a certain degree of self-active function is permissible while they are on the Way back—on the Way back Home, on the Way back to the Father.
In the much loved Psalm, we find the words, “He restoreth my soul”. To what? To that lost Estate from which man fell. So there are six days, or Six Cycles of time—six periods, shall we say—that are allowed to man wherein man is supposed to complete all of his work which he must do self-actively under the curse, and then he is to come to a time when he, in the self-active sense, shall do no more work. He is to come to the Sabbath Day, the Day of the Lord, and according to the Commandment, it is written: “Init thou shalt not do any work”, which is to say that the period allotted to man to return to the Father should then have been completed, so that man should cease from all his self-active labors, from all of those works which he must do under the curse. Then, having returned to the Father, having let his soul be restored, having come to the Day of the Lord, he was supposed to cease all self-active works from then on, forevermore, Eternally.
The Master came, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, and He revealed these things in His Life. He told men how to let the Father do the works, so that it should no longer be the self-active function of human beings. He told those who were interested, to follow Him, and concerning Himself He said, “The works I do shall ye do also”—but what of those works? “The words I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father Who dwelleth in Me He doeth the works”—and we are supposed to follow Him. That means that when we share with Him the Victory of the Resurrection, we come to the Lord's Day. We come to that time when we let the Father do the works, and when we come to the Lord's Day, that Commandment holds in it the key, for that is the Lord's Day: “Thou shalt not do any work”—let the Father do the works then, from then on eternally—and then those who should so function are privileged to share with Him the Victory of the Resurrection.
So it was on the first day of the week—the Lord's Day had come; the Great Master had appeared in the earth. It was on Friday that He was crucified; on the Sabbath He was in the tomb; and on the first day of the week He came forth. The world had come to the Lord's Day, the world as a whole. From the standpoint of the world a certain amount of self-activity had been permitted in the cycles which led up to that time, but then, from a world standpoint, the Lord's Day had come—and human beings had celebrated the Lord's Day by putting the Body of the Lord in the tomb, the body of the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings; and so the world doomed itself to a period of darkness in the tomb, but nevertheless, even so, the Lord's Day had come. On the first day of the week, there was the beginning of the New Cycle of function, wherein the disciples and all who should follow Him were supposed to cease from all their self-active works, and let the Father do the works. Up until that time it had not been expected of any of the children of men that they should come into that fullness, but when the Master Himself had revealed the Way, the Truth and the Life, by letting the Father do the works, then it was possible for those who should follow Him, to do likewise.
So that was the beginning of a New Cycle of time, the first day of the week. The Lord's Day had come, and from that time onward, from a world standpoint, there was no further excuse for self-activity. Those who should begin to Respond to Him were, of course, allowed a little time in which to come clear of their self-activity, that they might come individually to the Lord's Day in full realization, but for the world the Lord's Day had come already, and for those who should follow Him there should be a recognition that the Lord's Day had come, and that for them there should be no more works in the self-active sense. They must let the Father do the works.
So that is the Principle with respect to the Resurrection which we find established and made manifest for ourselves now, this Easter Day, of the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and forty seven. For the world the stone had been rolled away, and it only remained then for individuals to let the stone roll away for themselves, individually, that they might share in the Resurrection. Human beings, not understanding these things and marvelling at the Resurrection of the Lord Who was crucified, have neglected to let the Water of Truth concerning these things be so used in their own lives that they might truly share in the Resurrection and the Life, so that they might bring forth much fruit in the Garden of God.
“But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre.” Mary symbolizes those in the world who, according to the worldly idea, think of themselves as followers of the Master, but they have never gotten beyond this point. They are without at the sepulchre, weeping. They stoop down and look into the sepulchre, and they see that the Lord is not there. The Lord has sent Angels, unto the Responding Ones, and they have said, “Why weepest thou”, and the followers of our Lord have answered, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. That is where, so far from a world standpoint, the Responding Ones have stopped following the example set by Mary. They should go another step further and stop looking into the empty tomb; they should remember the words that are contained in the 14th verse of the 20th Chapter of John, because therein are the keys to Life: “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.” She did not simply stay there looking into the empty tomb, weeping. She turned herself back, and then she saw Jesus standing. She had been looking for Him in the tomb and He was not there.
Human beings, since that day, have been doing the same thing, but they have not followed the Direction of the Spirit to turn around; stop looking in the empty tomb; stop being so concerned about where they have laid Him; because Jesus is standing. He reigns Supreme. Though they may not recognize Him immediately, if they will turn around He will begin to reveal Himself to them, and finally, when they have reached that point of response where they may hear His Word, as Mary heard when He called her name—just one word, her name, “Mary”—they may turn more fully, for then she turned fully to Him and answered, “Master”. In those few verses we have the key to the entering into, the key whereby we may share in the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Then the Master said, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father: and to my God, and your God”. “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.” Notice what she was told to say, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God”, and Mary did what she was told to do. “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”
In this outworking we have a picture of the outworking of the First Age, the one in which the Master came. That first “day of the week” came to a close in 1768. In the evening of that Age there had been reformations and great stirrings, the disciples coming together in the world through various religious activities, but they were—what? Where they were, the doors were shut. The disciples assembled together, but the doors were shut. The Lord came unto them in Spirit, and they were—many of them—greatly inspired, but they did not understand enough of the Truth to know what to do, and how to do it; they did not let the Spirit direct, and there were those who were like unto Thomas who would not believe—doubting Thomas. So the effectiveness of that first manifestation, or appearance, was not very great and we find that as it relates to the period of the Age that has drawn to a close, the same thing is true.
But then, a week later, “again”—i.e., after eight days had passed—“Then came Jesus, the doors being shut”—the doors were still shut—“and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you”, and that indicates the beginning of the New Age, the New Cycle, the New Day, in which we find ourselves. The record does not tell just when the third manifestation came. It only says, “After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise”—three times, representing the necessity of letting the Resurrection take place in all three planes, or phases, of human expression, so that the Lord might be revealed physically, mentally and spiritually.
So we see that the Day of the Lord has truly come, that the period permitted for human self-activity has drawn to a close for the world, and is rapidly drawing to a close for individuals; that, although His disciples have shut themselves within doors so that they do not see the True Light, and understand the Way, the Truth and the Life, nevertheless He is revealing Himself on earth, so that in this New Day, in this New Cycle, the second “day of the week”, when He appears the second time, He may be a Reality for us, and in addition we may let the third appearance become a reality in and through and for us to His Glory and to the blessing of all the children of men, so that we may share in the Resurrection and in the Life.
Concerning that function in Service with Him, we have His Words here, after His Resurrection, “And Jesus said unto them, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. He did not make any distinctions between His function on earth and ours; He did not make any changes. He said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”, that we all in Oneness might be the revelation of that which He had revealed to the world. “And then He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”
Concerning those, then, whom He sent, and should send, who should be a part of His Body on earth and who should receive the Holy Spirit, He had this to say, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained,” showing that His Body on earth, having become a reality, and having received the Holy Spirit, and recognizing the Truth of His Word: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,” should have the same power on earth to forgive sins which He Himself had exercised on earth, under exactly the same Laws and the same conditions that had existed for Him. So it is that those who come to a realization of what it means to truly share in the Victory of the Resurrection, are drawn into the One Vine, into the One Christ Body on earth, that they may share in revealing the Way, the Truth and the Life to all those who are willing to share in the Resurrection and the Life.
O LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, we rejoice exceedingly this Easter Day in the Holy Privilege of coming before Thee, that as we let go in humility of Spirit and Love response, we may let ourselves share in that Victory which Thou didst make manifest on earth, that we may of a Truth accomplish that to which we are called in Thy Holy Name; that being sent by Thee into the earth we may prove the Way, the Truth and the Life that rolls away the stone in human hearts, that the Victory of the Resurrection may let the fruits of the Spirit be made manifest on earth, that thereby the Garden of God may again appear and Heaven and earth be One. And we thank Thee for the assurance that all those who Respond, from whatsoever race, nation, kindred, tongue or people, may come and share in that Victory, for we know that it is only as we let Thy Will be done that we can prove Thy Word on earth, and only those who Love Thee and keep Thy Commandments can share in that Victory. Therefore, we would so minister that all who are willing to receive the Water of Truth may begin to share in the Restoration of Life, under the Sunlight of Thy Love, IN the Christ. Aum-en.
