Resigning to a Limber Mind

“He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
    light has dawned.’

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

It is fitting that the Khristós begins His ministry in the land that was His home, and from there He sets out to walk to His disciples. I want to circle this with red ink, because it seems heretical to treat this nonchalantly: This is the Divine, this is the man, this is God walking to His would be disciples.

Forgive me for reiterating, but this is Jesus of Nazareth, born of the Spirit and of the flesh, both man and God, leaving His home in a microcosmic portrayal of the Father leaving the ineffable, boundless essence of indivisibility, defying all logical comprehension, and manifesting as man on earth… walking… to—TO—men minding their business, fishing, and then… God, G-O-D, says “Follow me.”

Dude!

Can you imagine being behind the barista counter making customers overpriced lattes and the Son of God walks in, looks at you, and says, “Follow me.”

I’m not sure how many portafilters would fall to the ground like the nets of the men that leave, “immediately,” to do so. This is much more than simple obedience, a stereotype of Western Christendom where we are likened sheep: docile and manipulated; this is a trust and redefines the nature of man’s relationship with God.

His home is us. God is with you. Now, presently, wherever you are He is.

We are His beloved, His kin, and complementary aspects of His kingdom.

In the last Coyote Witness we were talking about how God, who becomes one with us and defeats death, kin to us all, pronounces there is a blasphemy that is above all other blasphemies, and committing this profanation “will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

In order to understand Jesus’ declaration of what is known as the eternal sin, we need to recognize what He is expressing to us. Evoking a clearer picture of what is unforgivable requires beginning where we arrive, at home with our kin, the Khristós, coming out of the desert after rebuking the temptations of the devil, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come.”

Repentance in Ancient Greek is “μετανοώ” meaning to change one’s mind, to turn away—having the connotation that one turn’s away from a life of sin, toward God. This is a modern grasp on the word, without an appreciation of the poetic synthesis happening when the Khristós advances the Word of God. The root “meta” means “beyond, behind, and higher.” The suffix “νοῦς” is Greek for thought or mind—it means quite a bit more as well, for now, though, we’ll say the affix is pronounced “nous,” and pick it up later.  

The word, pronounced “Metanoia,” when viewed with this fusion of currents reveals to us what the Khristós was really talking about in His ministry: The Way begins with a call to go beyond our reflexive processes of thinking, go beyond our unconscious, conjured reality, look behind all the veils put up by ego and society separating us from God. These are our stumbling blocks to Truth.

Repentance, under the yoke of discipleship, is ultimately a sacrifice of how we wish to see which in turn dictates our actions by offering up this outdated model, an old covenant with Him. This is what God asks of us, each and every one, as His disciples in His kingdom we are asked to get over ourselves, go beyond our normal faculties of cognition and leave the world we thought was real behind to enter into communion with Him. 

There is not us and Him, there is us with Him. And Him with us, beckoning those with ears to hear to “open your mind and follow me.” 

God meets us where we are and when the dawn comes we’re given a choice between remaining in darkness or following the light, but we cannot do both. The choice, of course, seems rather obvious, however what has been in the dark when illuminated by the light might be difficult for us to accept. We may find our home divided. This is why there is an emphasis, a harsh intensity, where the Khristós says, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”

The above is an utterance from the Khristós directed at the Pharisees, a strict socio-religious sect who viewed Jesus’ ministry as a threat. The Pharisees name comes from the Ancient Greek “Φαρισαῖος” which itself is derived from the Aramaic “parush” meaning “set apart” or “separated.” The Pharisees saw themselves as distinct, exclusive, and disconnected from both Gentiles and Jews they saw as not adhering to the law as strictly as they did. It is in their name that we find the key to understanding what Jesus is talking about concerning the unforgivable sin.    

When a new covenant is unveiled the old model will try obscuring it to hold on to its authority over you, and because we have lived under its dominance for so long it might feel we are being threatened as well, we have investments in this reality, we have things in this reality, and we identify with this reality. This principle will do what it can to survive. It has too much to lose and will use its parlor tricks to pull you back to earth, clinging to material, consumption, and a separateness with God. It is the role of the Pharisees in the ministry of Jesus and within each of us. An obstruction of the divine within and without.

Sin is weakness inherent to the human experience; sin is inescapable, and sin is categorically under the authorship of the devil. Sin and the devil are why μετανοώ is an integral characteristic of the conscious Christian life, by extension making discernment an aspect, too, who are we following?

Who we walk with is in direct relation to how we see and how much room we have to recognize the kingdom of God, accepting a reality of Him who has no boundary. It can also influence us in opposition to an openness to God where we shrink back into old models of thinking. If we find ourselves mastered by the latter then we are at risk by not only being separate from God, our reality will become like God and our assuredness will be motivation to cut off others from the kingdom as well. 

There is always a sacrifice to be made, we either make it out of love or we make it out of fear, but it must be made, the dawn beckons all and waits for none. We either give ourselves to this new covenant, hope and home with God, developing the trust exemplified by the disciples, or we give in to fear, falling back into an outdated mode of seeing and sitting in the shadow of death.

“Many are called, but few are chosen.”

Do you follow?

Si comprehendis, non est Deus