Doctrine of Atonement - Bible Lesson
[Ref. ss #12]
Doctrine
is a fundamental governing policy: a system or teaching.
while
Atonement
refers to getting close to God through being of similar quality, having the same constituents. If one has got out of sorts [focussing on materiality] this might involve re-forming one’s qualities so there’s no difference/separation between our true selves and God. Then there is only harmony; unity with God, and the result only satisfaction and peace.
The key sentence, showing what ‘being at one with God is like’ is at the end of the lesson as it says it is like feeling like “a drop of water being at one with the ocean.”
Don’t we all want to be satisfied with ourselves knowing we are always a part of the the wholeness of God?
“As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being. ”
Luke tells us about Zacchaeus and how he wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus. At that time the Romans seemed to dominate everything for the Jews. They were often mean to the people. They had captured their country. There were Roman soldiers everywhere. They thought themselves superior as they came from a sophisticated country — ruling over everyone in the holy land. The local people resented them and thought Jesus had come to tell them that their kingdom would be restored back to them so that they could rule themselves. But Jesus hadn’t come to tell them about that sort of freedom; he’d come to tell them something better which would mean that they would be free from being dominated by absolutely everything that was bothering them not only Romans occupying their country but from all the evils that seemed to be in the world. God had always made them free in spirit and Jesus had been sent by God to tell the people that God still loved them and would free them from all their ills. He was telling them he’d come to restore the kingdom of heaven to them. To chase evil away. That not even the Romans could take this kingdom from them.
Jesus was teaching about the spirit of God and what an understanding of this could do for them. He was going round all the villages and towns; and people were flocking to see him and hear about this new way of life blessing everyone. They wanted toexperience being in the kingdom of heaven and feel blessed by God. And Jesus was telling them that by living pure, loving and honest lives would help them. That by improving themselves now, instead of waiting for a good time to eventually come to them in the future would bring light into their lives right now.
Crowds loved to hear the stories he told them of how they could improve life for themselves by remembering how the prophets had proved the power of God in everyday experiences. He proved that God is with us all the time, helping us to overcome everything that was opposed to him. Jesus was showing that such things as plagues, sickness, sin and death could be done away with forever by the power of the Christ.
At one time there were so many people following him that he had to tell them to meet him on a hillside. And it was there that he gave them the Sermon on the Mount.
In this sermon he showed them what the kingdom of heaven was like and he set out the principles of Christianity in the Beatitudes… which he carefully taught them. It was this sermon that changed so many people as it showed them how God could really bless them and be creative through them, as his people, if they learnt and followed the principles of Love in the Beatitudes!
It was at this time that Zacchaeus wanted to give up his old way of life.
He was employed as a Tax-collector, collecting money for the Roman Empire. He had got very rich collecting money sometimes asking too much, unfairly. But at this point he was not happy and not satisfied! He wanted something better than just making himself richer! The part about God’s forgiveness in the Christian way of life attracted him.
Play dough figure of Zacchaeus made by one of the children.
But people saw him as a nasty little man lining his own pocket at the same time as doing his job. How could he change? But Jesus always recognised a desire for reform and he could see unlike the others that Zacchaeus was ready to change and be loving to everyone. Now he wanted to spiritually enrich himself by becoming a better man, he wanted to re-form himself and saw he could do this by learning more about Christianity. Seeing Jesus and getting to know him would help. He knew he would be kind and loving towards him and this would make a big difference. He knew that just seeing Jesus would uplift him. But there were such crowds following Jesus, as he left the town of Jericho. No one would let him through the press to get to the front of the crowd. So he hurried ahead of them all, and climbed a sycamore tree, overhanging the path, to be ready. Jesus couldn’t miss him, andhe actually called to him by his name, telling him to come down quickly from the tree in order to get his house ready so that he could stay at his house. Zacchaeus was elated and we are told “received him joyfully.”
This really horrified the people. They thought of him as an evil man; an outcast doing such outrageously wrong things against his own people. How could a pure and holy man go to someone so sinful? But the new Zacchaeus stood his ground and told everyone there and then, that what wrong he did was never going to happen again. He was now giving half of his belongings to the poor, and would refund, fourfold, all the money he’d taken in the past, unlawfully.
Jesus was exultant with him telling the crowd that they should be so glad because at last salvation [a healthy attitude] had come to “this house” now that Zacchaeus had shown that he wanted to be good, like them, a true son of Abraham, honest, kind and considerate. Jesus’s example had healed him of greed.
Zacchaeus reformed!
Zacchaeus had really changed because he had been transformed by his desire to live a Christian life. His house must have become a changed place of self seeking material gains which had become totally changed by Jesus’s visit. His sense of what is good in life had altered dramatically and his family must have welcomed his newfound happiness and lack of greed. [See Luke 14:4]
Wasn’t this an example of the Beatitude working wonders.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
During this story a student asked
“Wasn’t it wrong that people followed Jesus if God was everywhere?”
Good question eh?
But they had to learn more about God as experiencing this was very new to them. They had forgotten what it was that the prophets had really been telling them. They had come to think that God was only in the holy of holies in the Temple. And in the Synagogue the Saducees and Pharisees only concentrated on all ins and outs of obeying the Laws that had come about through the laws of the Jewish people forgetting the spirit of the Commandments. They needed to learn that obeying God really meant loving doing God’s work in every aspect of their lives by acknowledging him in all their ways and not turning to material gods when things got tough.
“And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, for so much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. ”
Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount was well known for miles around. It was based on loving one another and feeling the kingdom of heaven within and for becoming really blessed. Everyone who even came near Jesus was blessed. Zacchaeus wanted to be part of this new loving restorative Christian movement. He wanted to feel fresh and whole. He wanted good morals which is what the Sermon on the Mount is about.
Which Beatitude does Zacchaeus exemplify? Could it be
“Blessed are those who… hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
“If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and conversation, you can finally say, ‘I have fought a good fight . . . I have kept the faith,’ because you are a better man. This is having our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love. Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting because of another’s goodness, suffering, and triumph, that they shall reach his harmony and reward. ”
“Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the human mind may be different, but they should be concordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence.
”
Let’s look up the Lord’s Prayer…. in Matthew 5.
And on page 16 of Science and Health - which will tell us what some of the words mean!