The Gospels – The Gospel According to Matthew
The grain of mustard seed
Matthew 13:31-32 Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; (32) it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Christ here referred to the gradual growth that will characterize the spread of the Word of God. At the beginning it was always going to be difficult because of the prevailing darkness but in spite of all the darkness and the opposition to the Word of God, this Word must still be spread and must take root on earth. In spite of all the fight against It, It will grow and finally the Kingdom of God will come to be established. Only a very few people initially will accept the Word but unstoppable, It will become so strong through the support of the Power of God that finally all human beings will come to acknowledge It and come to nest in its fold.
All fighting will be of no avail, all opposition will prove to be as nothing. It will crush all opposition in Its path. Like an unstoppable juggernaut, it will force Its way into the consciousness of mankind. All those who would accept It will be allowed to enjoy of this Kingdom but all those who dare to oppose It will be crushed under It so that those at last who accept It might work in peace without the detraction brought about by those who oppose the Light.
Matthew 13:33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to small yeast hidden in a large measure of flour. The yeast, however, gradually worked its way through the whole flour. Here He described the gradual taking root of the Word in the souls of people. As many people thought about the Word of Jesus within themselves It grew stronger and stronger within them and the darkness surrounding them had to give way.
As this phenomenon occurred with individuals, so did it occur with the populace in general. As the Word of God spread among the people, the darkness that surrounded the people had to loosen its grip on them. This way the Light penetrated the darkness more and more and gradually the entire land would be suffused by this Light until there would be nothing left any more of the darkness. This is how it will be. It could not be completed at that time because Christ’s Mission was violently cut short. The darkness seeing itself losing ground roused all its supporters in its violent struggle against the Mission of Jesus and goaded them to commit such deeds as could hardly be imagined against the Son of God.
The Word of God will gradually take hold of the entire earth and all the human beings in it. We all must open ourselves at last to this Word to allow It to penetrate into our spirits and by so doing disperse the darkness within us. Working this way in every human being, the darkness will be forced to retreat and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth draws nearer. The darkness then will be forced to lose ground on the entire earth as rays upon rays of Light penetrate the darkness of the souls of mankind. Just like the yeast parable, the yeast of the Word of God will gradually take over the whole bread of mankind.
The decision however rests with us. It depends entirely on us if we want the Word of God to succeed on earth or if we want to darkness to continue to dictate our destinies. If we all open ourselves to the rays of the Word of God, then it will be impossible for the darkness to have any foothold here. We could decide to either open our spirits to God and His Word or to continue to give in to the darkness. The fate of the earth and all its inhabitants rests on our decision to either allow the Light to flow through opening our spirits to It or allow the darkness to flow through in the same manner. Through opening ourselves to the inflow of spiritual power, we allow God to establish His Kingdom here now. If we fail to do this we allow Lucifer instead to set his foot here and declare this place to be his kingdom which he already has.
I have described here how it has been in the past. Now it is different. Whether we like it or not, the Kingdom of God must now be established here. Hitherto it had depended on mankind’s will to determine the fate of this earth through the exercise of their free wills and the process described above. Mankind, however, never voluntarily chose the path leading to God. Over and over again we chose the path leading to the darkness making the road to destruction wider and wider. In spite of all the prophets sent to mankind to induce us voluntarily to change and finally with the Son of God, nothing happened. The ultimate crime was finally committed: the murder of the Word of God. With this deed we set the seal to our fates. With this deed there was to be no second chance for those who behaved in such a dastardly way. It is from then on retribution in the most terrible way for these people who would dare to imagine that they could treat the Word of God with such disdain and expect to get away with it.
Now our free wills in terms of its ability to decide whether the Light or the darkness controls the earth has henceforth been suspended. It has been of no use anyway. It has brought nothing but disaster to this part of Creation. It has brought suffering upon suffering on those other creatures that have had the misfortune of sharing this earth with us. Like the germinating mustard seed, unstoppable but not dependent on anything but the Will of God for its sustenance, the Word and the Will of God must now be forcibly established here and human beings demanded to adhere to It. Those who would not will be destroyed and removed from this earth. All those remaining will be forced to relentlessly adhere to this new Kingdom. The Millennium therefore is not going to be as rosy as many of us have preferred to picture it. It will be a time of the strictest demand for the adherence to the Will of God so that at last peace is established. As the germinating mustard seed forcibly made its way to become a tree, so will be the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Matthew 13:36-43 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. (37) He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; (38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; (39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. (40) As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. (41) The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; (42) And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (43) Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
This is self explanatory and has been discussed above. Everything will be allowed to grow and go through its life cycle so that it will germinate, develop and show its fruits for all to see. At the end of time, which is comparable to the harvest time on earth, the bad fruits are destroyed and the good ones retained.
The Son of Man, Whom Jesus referred to here will be discussed more fully by Him later. The seeds are the human spirits who have been planted by this Son of Man and the field into which He planted the human spirits is the world. Jesus here painted a picture of the activity in Creation that no one until now has been able to fully grasp. This is the vast survey of the origin, the development and evolution of the human spirits. With a few words, He described the entrance of the human spirit into this material world and how this entrance took place and also here alluded to the great cycle of development that each human spirit and indeed the material world is subject to. The cycle of development of the germination, ripening, growth and the harvest.
Human spirits have their origin in the spiritual part of Creation called Paradise. They originated as unconscious spirit seeds or germs. With the coming into being of the vast spiritual Creation, the human spirits could not come directly into consciousness under the great pressure of the Power of God in the Spiritual Realm, while within this same Realm were other spirits who could already come into consciousness. The urge to come into consciousness, however, resided in the human spirit and it was this urge which arose like a prayer to God to grant the possibility of coming into consciousness. It is only through coming into full consciousness that the human spirit could attain to its full value and contribute to the further development of Creation.
In Paradise, it was impossible for these human spirits to come into consciousness because the pressure existing therein was too great to permit the unfolding of their abilities. This pressure was due to the proximity of the Almighty. The urge within the human spirits, however, as mentioned earlier rose like a prayer to God and He yielded and granted that these human spirit seeds also be allowed to develop and realize the potential which they carried within them.
Only in lower lying regions of Creation, where the pressure was not so great because of the greater distance of these regions from the Almighty could these spirit seeds be able to unfold and perhaps over a long period of time develop their abilities to perfection. God allowed the formation of material creation (the world) into which these spirit seeds could descend. In this material creation laid the possibility for the unfolding of the human spirit because it was so far away from God that the pressure here allowed this unfolding. The pressure had slackened so greatly that it permitted the human beings to come in to consciousness, something absolutely impossible in Paradise due to the enormous pressure therein.
With the formation of this material realm, the world, the road was open for the human spirits also to gradually come to self-consciousness through the development of the abilities that they carried within. There was therefore to be no further ado than for them to make their descent into this vast material field that had now been opened to them. The formation of this material field, of this material world had been carried out under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God allowed the formation of this realm. Under His Command also these seeds descended into this vast field. It was like the Hand of the Holy Spirit was sowing these seeds in the world of matter, the material world. Under His Gaze and scrutiny, these seeds made their way from the Spiritual Realm from which they could not unfold into the lower lying world or field that had been prepared for them. It was this great event in Creation that Jesus rendered in such a stupendous pictorial form. The very beginning of our journey and its very end is what Jesus so described.
Nothing takes place in Creation without the authority of the Holy Spirit. Such a stupendous event therefore as the beginning of the cycle of development of mankind could not have occurred without His Permission or Sanction. It is this sanction that could be described as that He with His own Hand sowed these seeds. With our entrance into this world, it was like we had been buried in matter. Sowed into the ground. In the world, within the field, in matter, we were to gradually awaken to the recognition of ourselves. While in matter, we were to awaken the free will and use it for the development of our abilities. All the seeds that the Holy Spirit planted were good but with the passing of time, some of the good seeds became bad through the use of their free will to choose what is evil. Some human spirits at the very outset chose evil. Each one would follow his self-chosen path.
Each one had started on his journey, which was meant to develop his abilities, perfect his personality and return to Paradise his home at the completion of the development of these abilities. By which time he would have been strong enough spiritually to withstand the power of the pressure brought about by the proximity of God. During our sojourn in matter, however, we came across Lucifer’s principles and some of us succumb to his enticements. The abilities which we were meant to develop were never developed but instead we acquired new abilities from Lucifer which abilities were never part of the original make up of human spirits.
The sower of the seeds was the Holy Spirit and the reaper will also have to be the Holy Spirit since the sower always reaps whatever he sows. Since He did not sow the evil spirit seeds, He will not accept these as His but will reject them as not belonging to Him. Why should He reap a harvest that is not His. He planted only the good and if some had returned as bad then it is the fault of these human spirit seeds who had not seen to it that they remained good. It is the duty of these spirit seeds through the gift of the free will to make certain the goodness of their hearts. The Angels are His messengers who will help in the preparation and the execution of the Judgment.
Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (45) “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, (46) who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Any human being who finds the Word of God and knows the value of It leaves all the old behind. He leaves all that may hinder him and pursues only that which he knows will profit him forever. He who loves God and has discovered Him will give up everything else and pursue that which He has commanded him to do.
This is not to say that we should live in material poverty but what Jesus was saying here is that if we have discovered God and His purpose for our lives, then we should then pursue this purpose with all our vigour neither looking right or left. We must make every sacrifice to make sure that we fulfill this purpose.
We must make every effort to guarantee that we do the Will of God because as has been mentioned earlier, our earthly lives and conditions are temporary but the attainment of the Kingdom of God is eternal. This decision will often involve renunciation of our old ways of doing things. It is simply the renunciation of the materialistic way of life and the building anew of a spiritual one. The selling of everything in the parable indicates the discarding of all that is old associated with this man and his willingness to make a fresh start.
The same could be said of the merchant who discarded the old. The old value system and habits and his former ways of doing things he was ready to sacrifice for the new, which he found in the Word of God.
Matthew 13:47-52 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; (48) when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. (49) So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, (50) and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. (51) “Have you understood all this?” They said to him, “Yes.” (52) And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
The same process of separation at the close of age is emphasized by Jesus. We should ask ourselves why these emphases. Jesus has already painted several pictures of the same event to His disciples and followers. It is obvious that this event is so important that He explained it over and over again using different modes of expression painting different pictures of the same event.
With these explanations He wished to emphasize how important it was that we understand the mechanism of Creation and also the coming Judgment so that we do not have to be lost at the end time. The Judgment is the Last or Final Judgment and the consequences of being found wanting at this time was what made Jesus spend so much time explaining this event to us. The consequences are disastrous in the extreme. It is only through the understanding of the impending events in the Judgment that we can escape the consequences. Without understanding it is impossible to free ourselves in time from the world of matter and escape the terrible disintegration which must engulf the part of the world in which we live.
As explained earlier, we find ourselves in this material world because of our inability to come to full consciousness in the Spiritual realm. We needed to descend down here so that through the experiences that we acquire we might unfold our abilities, perfect our personalities and go back to Paradise. This is the great cycle of development of a human spirit. In the process of this cycle, through the activity of Lucifer, some human spirits do not follow this course outlined by the Divine Will. They follow an entirely different course set out by the fallen one, Lucifer. Therefore in material creation good and evil human spirits live side by side. Hence the great picture of the weed and the seeds.
The field that we descended into was the finest part of the material creation called the Fine Ethereal realm. The uppermost part of the World of Matter. It must suffice to explain here that Creation itself is divided into two large parts: the Spiritual realm which has nothing material about it and represents the origin of all human spirits, and the Material part which is further divided into the 1.) the World of Ethereal Matter 2.) the World of Gross Matter. the former lies higher, it is lighter than the latter. Between Spiritual world and the Material world is that world where the animals and the nature beings have their origin called the Animistic world.
On descending into fine ethereal matter, the seeds then made their way gradually downwards through the medium ethereal and heavy ethereal realms until they reach the gross material world. Now this realm is subdivided like the ethereal world into fine, medium and heavy. Each of this is a distinct layer. On passing through each of this layer, they acquire the covering of these layers as bodies or coverings much like we acquire the body or covering of the earth at incarnation.
Gradually then we make our way downwards. In doing this we experience every one of these layers as we descend and pass through them. In experiencing each layer, we get to know them and our knowledge as a result increase. We become more and more aware of our environments and as such become more and more aware of ourselves and our abilities. This is the beginning of self-consciousness which must gradually continue until we have fully achieved full self-consciousness through the experiencing of all the layers of Creation.
So we acquire the body of fine, then medium and then finally with our incarnation on earth the body of heavy gross matter. We also experience the earth, we awaken more. We return to the Ethereal realm or to areas in fine or medium gross matter depending on how we have lived on earth. There is a going back and forth between the ethereal, fine gross material or medium gross material and the earth in repeated incarnations until we have fully developed all our abilities. Each time we go through this mini-cycle we learn more, we atone for our guilt, we know that little more about Creation and we become more aware of our abilities.
It finally reaches that point where we would have known and learnt enough that we do not need any more to incarnate on earth; then a mini-cycle of reincarnation is completed and then what is left is our journey within the ethereal realm. This is a vast realm where most of the maturing takes place. We gradually rise through this realm in the opposite way that we came; progressing from heavy ethereal, then medium ethereal and then fine ethereal until we reach the Spiritual Realm again at the end of a long journey of self awareness and discovery. This is then the true end of our cycles. These are the fortunate seeds that have followed a straight line and have not wasted too much time in reincarnation upon reincarnation on earth brought about by guilt, which they must atone for through these reincarnations.
Those who are not so fortunate, are caught up in the world of fine and medium gross matter and on earth. They have not been so pure as to be able to completely leave gross matter behind. They still cling to all their faults and weaknesses, which really are to be found only in these realms. Here they stay until the Judgment Day. The allotted time for the development of their abilities has not been well spent. It has been frittered away. Among these of course are many good souls who have been prevented from seeking the Will of God through pressure from the evil ones and those who only need a little guidance for a total change. Then of course there are the evil ones.
This is the great picture as the Holy Spirit looks down on the field. Just before the final Judgment, these good ones who still need some guidance will be helped so that they can in a very short time complete their development. The Word will be offered once more to mankind so that these good ones will not be lost without any good reason, through no fault of their own but through the disturbance brought on by those who are heading for perdition. Those who make use of this new Word will be harvested into the basket by the Holy Spirit while those who still reject It will finally prove themselves as being utterly depraved and destroyed.
Many of us did not take full advantage of the Word and Mission of Jesus either through spiritual indolence or through the wilful prevention of the spread of this true Word by the distortion of the intellect. In any case this Word has not until now been understood by mankind because of the false interpretation given to it in the desire of those who had the opportunity. They used this Word for their own earthly ends and not for the salvation of mankind. Otherwise it would have been easy to find the right interpretation of Christ’s words if we had looked for it.
Because of all this and also because the Justice of God would never allow the minority of people who still longed for Him to perish with the undeserving ones, He would still allow His Message to be once more spread among all mankind. This is the completion of the Message of Jesus which was so violently cut short and also the necessary extension of knowledge for all mankind which is so important at this time. It is the duty of all human spirits at this time to look out for this new Teaching. It will be impossible for us to complete our development without this new Teaching. We should look for It lest we be weeded out with the evil ones.
The Teaching of Jesus is like a new treasure that enhances the old Mosaic teachings. He who is well-grounded in the religion of the Jews will be in a unique position to understand Christ best. Not in the manner of the scribes and Pharisees but in the examination of these laws with open spirits. They would welcome the Word of Christ and indeed would understand Him best. He would be best prepared spiritually to receive of this Word. His old treasures which are what he had imbibed in his spirit through absorption in the Mosaic law would be revitalized by the new Word of Jesus. It would complement it and would make many things which had not hitherto been clear understandable.