No More Conflict

Continued from yesterday…

When the Messiah would come, the Midrash Torah prophesied that there would be no more war, conflict, or hunger on earth, but everyone would be occupied with knowing or being aware of God.

The consciousness of the planet would radically shift so much that even wildlife would be affected. According to the Hebrew prophet Isaiah, the wolf and the lamb, and the leopard and the goat would lie down together.

Even the eating habits of lions would change to that of the ox, where they would now feast on straw rather than meat (imagine that: lions on a vegan diet). The change would be so radical that the entire earth would be filled with an awareness of God.

The general thought, however, was that the messianic rule would not come without conflict. Military force would be required to overcome the hostile powers of the world. The egoic mind sees the world through a duality of opposites. There are good people, and there are evil people. There’s darkness, and there’s light.

Overcoming evil would occur when good people fought, killed, and annihilated those they considered evil. Ironically, when we seek to root out evil by using the tools of evil, such as killing another person even if it’s done in the name of good, we become what we hate. We become evil to someone else.

It’s in that context that Jesus appears on the scene in Israel. The people were looking for a savior who would free them from the oppression of the Roman Empire and bring peace on earth.

The carpenter’s son from a little town in Judea called Nazareth certainly didn’t fit the bill as the dominant political figure they expected. Jesus spoke about God in parental terminology and introduced a new vision of God as the selfless or ego-emptying love that unites and makes all things whole.

Continued tomorrow…

Adapted from Section 3 of Awakening To I Am Love by David Youngren