The Gospel of Jesus According to Eon, Part 1: His Divine Youth, from Eon's booklet: The Gospel of Jesus According to Eon, October 2, 1995

Blessings and good evening to you all, each and every one. How pleasant and wonderful, indeed, it is to greet you on this auspicious and glorious evening. We give you our heartiest welcome, and we state, for the moment, and for all time, that this space has now been purified by your heartfelt desire to be present here, and that you have invoked and invited the spirit of holy, divine presence, the unknowable and the unnamable divine holiness, here. And you did not need to invite it, because it is unlimited, and cannot be kept away from any place. And yet by inviting it, you have asked it to be revealed to you, and thusly it is possible, and indeed it is assured, that in this moment, in this evening, you will indeed receive the benefits of having been in the presence of the Lord.

This benefit does not emanate from Eon. This benefit emanates from all creation. There is not a speck of dust in this room that has not been created and infused with divine power. The energy of the creator is everpresent and never rests. Nothing in this chamber, nothing in your lives, and nothing on this earth is unholy. Everything belongs to God and God alone. There is no other owner. There are only borrowers. There are only those who have permission to utilize that which belongs to God. And even you, yourselves, do not have an independent ownership of yourself. Even you, yourselves, may feel, dear ones, that you are free, that you are independent, that you are empowered to be completely open to all possibilities. While this is true, at the same time there is nothing possible, save by the will and the desire of the creator.

We are deeply moved and very pleased at your being here this evening, because that which we shall address, the life, and the meaning, and the teachings of Jesus, called Christ, is a subject that all human beings should be well aware of. Therefore, we do not appreciate when any disparaging comments are made about the efforts that are often handled in the world, to teach the life of Jesus. There are many people who are not teaching this life only. They are also imposing their own thoughts, culture and values on people. That is neither here nor there. The teaching of the life of Jesus is a worthy teaching to reach all people who ever have lived on this earth. If there shall be teachers of this life who do not completely and purely respect those they are teaching, they should be corrected and forgiven. But the benefit of their teaching of Jesus' life cannot be tarnished or besmirched by their character failings, or their faults and flaws.

The life of Jesus is a life that is so powerful in its message to human beings that anyone who speaks of this life in any time, place or context, manages to invoke and reveal the truth of Jesus to those who are listening. It is impossible to speak about Jesus in a way which is not corrected, helped, assisted, guided, and indeed, willed, by the divine power that is Jesus. So, it is with great awe and humility that all of us are gathered here this evening to think about, to meditate upon, to honor and to rejoice in a life spent properly in the service of God, a life which is a pure example of how to live an uncompromising ideal.

None of us who are gathered here tonight should feel that we are the equal of Jesus. At the moment that we live now, we are all approaching the ideal lived by Jesus.

You should understand, dear ones, that that which you know of Jesus is the barest fragment of the picture. That which you know is nothing more than a few surviving remnants of some notes, of some memories. If you imagine your memories of your high school years, you understand that those memories do not take three years to review, or four years to review. There are a few highlights that you remember. Yet if you were to reveal to others those highlights, how much of your life in the high school time would be missing? All the details. For much of the meaning, and much of the experience of any life, or any time of life, is in the routine, and the mundane, that is not extraordinary, and that is not frequently remembered, and related.

So let us now admit the awe-inspiring fact, that that which is known about Jesus is very little of the life of Jesus. And also yet let us say, that as we have mentioned, it is impossible for anyone to speak of the life of Jesus in a way which does not reveal something of that truth. Therefore let it also be said, that those who collected their recollections, who created notes, who resurrected memories, and whose notes and recollections passed from hand to hand, until some of them have come even into your hands, those people likewise could not have spoken or noted their recollections of Jesus without correctly expressing at least some of the essence of who Jesus was, and the meaning of his life.

Jesus was born to live the life of Jesus. It is no accident that you live your life, and it is no accident that Jesus was born to live the life he lived. That life was no less and no more created by God than your own. And so you should reflect that you may feel free, that you may feel powerful, but that your destiny has been created by a power beyond you. And that you can not turn away from your personal destiny.

Jesus knew this from a very young age, and never, ever, turned away from his destiny. So in the first place, he is an inspirational example of someone who refused to be other than himself, who did not hide from his own nature, and did not run from his purpose. Anyone who holds to that strict ideal is walking in Jesus' footsteps.

When Jesus was born, his family did not anticipate his greatness, like many families of the era, and yet even to this day in many parts of this world. There were auspicious and portentous signs regarding his birth. But you should recollect for a moment that he was born into a complex world. Nothing was simple. Nothing was basic.

That was a time of incredible fear among the people who lived under the rule of the empire of Rome. There was an energy of terrorism that kept the people in line. And many of the high-ranking members of the Israel society, particularly in Jerusalem, were in cooperation with many of the middle-ranking elements of the empire of Rome, in order to forge a bond and an alliance that would allow their mutual needs to be met. And the sufferers of these bonds and alliances, as always is the case around the world, ever since time began, and will for the foreseeable future also be true, the sufferers of these bonds and alliances were the powerless, the peasants, the poor, the citizenry, the people.

Among these people there was a devout group who sought their release and their peace in faith. The religion of Judaism reached a high point around this time, highly sophisticated in its comprehension of the unity, the formless oneness of the almighty God, Yahweh.

The temple in Jerusalem was the ultimate example and representation of their faith in God to provide an abundant peaceful life. The God of Israel at this time, in the mind and the consciousness of the devout Jews, was a God of abundance and peace, a God who was generous in the agrarian classes, a God who was kind and helpful to the business classes, in many ways a God much like that God is hoped to be today. Hoped to be, but then was known to be.

Jesus was born at this time, when the world of humans was in chaos and disarray. Greed, expansionism, dominance and political fortunes were the rule of the world. But the rule of the spirit was faith in God.

The Roman empire, visiting this land, and conquering it, also had a degree of faith in God that must not be denied or overlooked, merely because their concept of God had many faces, and many personalities. The great triumph of the Jews was to take the ideas of many Gods, and decide, assert, believe, and realize the oneness of God. The Romans had not yet reached that realization, although it was coming in their own time. They were heading toward a sense of the oneness of God. And all the various forms of the God, that they represented as their Gods, would become consolidated in their own mind in a union.

Therefore, one must not view the Romans as areligious, as unspiritual, or as unadvanced. What they were, was human. The human beings, even though they may be devout, still are subjected to human feelings, frailties, passions and desires. And these human beings participated in their own way in their humanity, their human-side, by conquering territories. They were not the first, nor the last. They are not the villains of this story. They are merely players and pawns.

And yet there also was a rift among Jews at this time. Some were put off by the commercialism of religion, and set themselves off to live a life of austerity, and what might even be called meditation; not as you know it today, but they did not need to learn such things then. These some are called the Essenes. There were many other small sects that also took refuge in hills, in caves, in valleys, and even in the hearts of the cities and the villages. There were small groups of faithful Jews who gathered together in order to live the simple life of faith, and to practice their religion vigorously. They were impeccable in the following of the rituals of their religion. They perceived, these small sects, that the temple had become corrupted. This was a judgement, and should not be said to be true in fact. It is an opinion, but it is also an opinion that Jesus came close to sharing.

Jesus, therefore, was born, dear ones, in an age of turmoil, an uneasy truce that would last only a few score years after his own death, before the city of Jerusalem would be absolutely destroyed by the Romans, and annihilated. He, if he had lived to be about seventy years of age, would have witnessed the destruction of his city, the absolute erasure of the culture of the Israelites, an erasure from which this culture has not yet fully recovered, an erasure which has not yet been fully mourned.

He was born in a precipitous time, a dangerous time, very similar to your own era, when the army of the Germans occupied France, and an artificial government was installed in Vichy. The dangerous nature of life in occupied France was very similar to the dangerous nature of life in occupied Jerusalem.

What kind of a life then is this, to bear children? Why did the parents known to you as Joseph and Mary have children in such a difficult circumstance? Why do parents have children under any circumstances? It is because it is their nature to create more life. And it is especially an act of hope. Hope, because all parents regret the tragedies of the world as they are now, and hope that the world will be worthy of the beautiful child they are creating. All parents throughout all time have hoped for a better world for their children. And it is with this powerful hope that the world does indeed improve. And it is with that powerful hope that the form to be born as Jesus was created.

The legends that you know of Jesus' life are not true nor false. They are hints and recollections of the truth. Just as you can leave a mark if you pass, but the mark is not your passing, it is merely a sign of your passing, the legends that you know of Jesus' life are the signs of his life. They are not the life itself.

His parents had pious ancestry. Particularly the family of Mary was very devoted in worship. Their worship was naive in that it was related to following prescribed ritual, and fear of failing to follow the ritual. But nonetheless, naive faith is faith. And faith brings the vision and the reality of God present for the person, for the individual.

Mary's mother never missed, in her adult life, a single act of proper worship in the temple. Never missed a festival or holy day when it was required to perform certain rituals, never broke the Sabbath, and never violated dietary laws. Mary's mother was an example of perfect faith, and of fastidious, impeccable, correct living of that faith.

Mary herself received the benefits of this faith by way of osmosis. By living in this household as she was growing, she also became indoctrinated in the necessity of following the rules of the religion, and keeping the Sabbath particularly sacred was a very especial act for her. And Jesus was conceived on the Sabbath day.

The family of Joseph was simpler, and its concept of God was more vague. They had more fear of God than love for God. But this likewise bears fruit in an individual. If the fear is not the fear of something powerful and dangerous, but fear meaning awe, wonderment, and terror in the presence of greatness, this is the fear of the family of Joseph and their faith.

Joseph and Mary arranged that marriage by their families. This is traditional at this time. It was a proper marriage for these parties. It was a difficult marriage for the parents of Mary to accept, because the work of the Joseph, which was laboring, was work that was not below them, but which was uncertain, uncertain work.

It is said that Joseph was carpenter. This is correct in that he did build, but not only with wood. He was skillful at using stone, and the building materials of the time. No one who labored could afford at this time to be an extreme specialist. Joseph was handy, and made hard use of his body. And indeed, he had wounds on his hands from tools, and he had pain in his legs from carrying building materials and objects, and occasionally he carried baggage for people for hire. He worked hard. The concern of the family of Mary was that he was too rough, he was too worn, as a person.

He married Mary when he was a little older than the average age for these people to become married. The age was thirty-four years, and Mary was twenty-one years of age, rather old, also, for a young woman. But her piety kept her from marrying. She was reluctant to enter into marriage until she felt that it was proper and what God wanted. When their marriage was arranged, it was in a time when both Joseph and Mary wanted to get married; not merely to one another, but they wanted the institution to occur for them.

The marriage party was not large, nor small. It was a moderate sized festival, a very happy time. There was consumption of wine. There was feasting on various foods. Many people stayed up talking and singing. They, Mary and Joseph, were made a small room in the side of Mary's house of parents, a small room with a curtain on the door, and one very small window. That was their first home.

You have heard that the angel of the Lord came in a visitation and spoke to Mary. Almost everyone who hears this, doubts it, doubts its veracity. It is not hard to doubt that which one has never personally experienced. But the angel of the Lord came to Mary, and informed her without words that she would bear a blessed son.

This kind of message is not completely unheard of. For example, John, who became known as the Baptist, when he was in the mother's womb, she likewise heard the calling of an angel of the Lord, and received confirmation that the child she would bear would be a blessed child. It is unwritten, the closeness between these two children. But their closeness plays a very large role in both their lives.

When Jesus was born, it was a birth unremarkable in its poverty. It is correct that the family of Mary and Joseph had traveled to the city to pay their tax. And that they, in fact, had come in a very difficult time to receive comfortable lodging. That is not unusual. Many people slept under the stars at this time, because the gathering of people in this town was so large. All those whose ancestry was rooted there were called back, and obeyed the command.

And so the numbers of people assembled were huge and unheard of. Shortages of food and water were rampant. Likewise, diseases spread easily as the people were cramped in close quarters. You should picture not a bucolic scene, but a scene of wretching, coughing, dysentery, hunger, thirst, and hardship for thousands of poor people who made their way obediently back to be taxed and to be accounted for in the census. This was the circumstance of the birth of Jesus.

Mary went into labor on the road into the town. And before they reached Nazareth, she was in pain. It was therefore critical to find a place quickly for her to rest. They could have found more luxurious and comfortable lodgings by walking farther, but it was not helpful or possible. And so, when she could go no further, a comfortable space was made, not necessarily in what you might call a barn, but really in a shed. And it was a shed that was not private. Other families were close nearby. The circumstances were dire and difficult.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave birth to her son. And he was born, not without difficulty. But many children were born with difficulty in these times. He was born, and she was in the state of postpartum bliss, for his birth, while strenuous for her, resulted in an overpowering feeling of transcendence. Mary rose above her worldly circumstance in the moment of birth, and felt herself to be held by the hands of the God her mother had taught her to love, and to respect. And so she received a great blessing, and the first of many in the life of Jesus. She received the blessing of Jesus as he was born.

All those who were there when Jesus was born were transfixed by a power of holy energy and happiness. They felt a tremendous, overpowering sense of wellbeing, that did not leave them for many days. And Jesus' parents were so entranced, that they felt very quickly his specialness.

It is said that Jesus' parents did not understand Jesus as a child. This is not quite correct. Jesus' parents could not comprehend Jesus. They loved him tremendously, but they saw him as a child, not as an especially, particularly, holy, advanced and blessed individual.

So, all his actions were misinterpreted by his parents. When as a baby he cried, they believed he was behaving as a baby would behave. But it is true that even as a baby, Jesus was free of the bondage of this world. He did not cry for his mother's breast. But he cried that the human race is in such tatters and disarray.

The longing he felt at the moment of his birth for the salvation of the human race, was the paramount and overriding, permanent, nonchanging theme of his entire existence. From the moment of his birth, he perceived, realized and agonized for the human condition. And it was his agony for the human race which caused him to be seen as a great spiritual teacher in his own life.

He never could hide his agony. And let us say, the second gift of Jesus, was his agony. All those who were with him felt it, even when he seemed to be happy. And all those who live today can also share that agony, and by so sharing, experience Jesus' presence.

As a child Jesus was what you would call precocious. He was not a sluggard. He was not slow. He was spry, nimble, quick, impetuous, but he always came out on top. He was never harmed as a child, except to express his agony for the world.

Blood was a theme in the life of Jesus very early. He would cut himself, at times, with his father's tools, or on a rock, or on a bush of thorns. All of this was not any kind of premonition. For one who is born with a purpose which will never be abandoned, has no need of premonition. Jesus had awareness from the moment of birth of the entire course of his life. But he would cut himself, or bruise himself, or hurt himself at times, in order to sympathize with the suffering of humans, and in order to show the human race its own suffering. And many were shown. When the Jesus was a boy, many were shown the suffering of their own life through Jesus' suffering. By his agony, he taught that the world is in agony.

Jesus willingly allowed himself to be a part of this world. He willingly participated in the activities of the world. Thus he willingly allowed himself to be injured at times. This is the difference between a life of one who is clear about their purpose, and loyal to their purpose, and the lives of those who are uninterested in their purpose, or unable to perceive their purpose. They are thrust into the world unwillingly, unknowingly, and unconsciously. Jesus came to the world, fully aware, fully participating, and voluntarily.

When Jesus was a child he had friends, but he was the leader of his friends. He always stood out as a child. You should understand that all children stand out. All children stand out in their own way. But there are children who are indefinitely and unstoppably the leaders of their fellow humans. And Jesus was naturally a leader. Jesus never struggled or strove to be the leader. He never found it necessary to assert his dominance. By his aura, they knew him. The children around Jesus, as children often do, did not complicate him. They understood him as he was, as a child. It was only when the children around Jesus grew older, that they did not comprehend Jesus. When they were children together, they knew him.

And known to Jesus, was John. And John knew Jesus. These two children were best friends, and they were sometimes felt to be too close by their parents, because there was concern that they would forsake other family members and friends to be together. But it was hard to separate them. They longed to be together, and only wanted to be together. Others could join them, but they were rarely seen one without the other. Until Jesus was five years of age, and then the family of John moved some distance.

Moving was not a light idea in these times. It frequently meant permanent farewell. It was an endeavor, a difficult thing, Even to move twenty, thirty miles away, this was another world. People would travel, but by and large, most people did not travel that far, frequently. Travel was dangerous as well. When the family of John moved they were almost ambushed by bandits. Travel was a very harsh situation. And you should understand, along with the political and the religious atmosphere of the time, that the nature of travel in this time was very hard. It was a monumental undertaking to go any distance requiring overnight traveling. Particularly to travel without a destination was a very frightening thing to most people. Travel played a major role in the life of Jesus. From an early age, Jesus was an explorer, and would travel through the fields, climb hills and mountains. Jesus was very active and inquisitive, but not inquisitive out of curiosity, inquisitive to witness. Jesus had an urge within to know his surroundings, and to know the people. Although Jesus was quite active in the environment, climbing hills, fording rivers, Jesus was most active in knowing people.

Jesus was not one who could be lied to. Anyone who deceived, or attempted to deceive Jesus was immediately called upon, and felt that they had been revealed as a liar, and a deceiver. And this was an early power of Jesus which frightened people. Yes, throughout Jesus' life, some people were frightened by Jesus. This should not be surprising. Those who've lived only in darkness will be frightened by the light. Jesus tolerated lying and deceiving and stealing; tolerated it, but did not conspire to hide it. He had no difficulty, even as a young boy of six or eight years, in telling people they were lying, in informing people that they had stolen, in insisting that they repair the wrongs that they had done.

Jesus had an innate sense of propriety and balance. If a harm was committed against one person, compensation must be made. And Jesus knew that this was not for the benefit of the one who had been harmed, but for the perpetrator of the harm, and thus, also at an early age, Jesus preached the gospel of loving the fellow human being in the way you wished to be loved yourself. But this is not a simple gospel. Loving your fellow humans means also making reparation, and Jesus insisted upon this.

Jesus' parents took him to the temple, and as you know they lost him there. They were frightened and worried. You see, dear ones, Jesus' parents, as we said, did not comprehend him. They understood some of him. They believed that he was special, and blessed and lovely, and beautiful, and precocious and wonderful, and inspiring, and indeed would be a leader of men. That was their thought. But when they lost him they were parents. They were typical parents and they were quite frightened.

The temple, dear ones, was not a small matter. The temples are very large constructions with many courtyards, many degrees of holiness, many layers to go within, many places where certain things are done, and then you move on. He could be anywhere. And also, you must understand that temples were not necessarily safe. There were brigands, there were kidnappers. There were thieves. There were all kinds of vice and danger in the temple grounds. Temples were public places of congregation. And so pick-pockets, and robbers, and all kinds of riff-raff gathered in these areas. So when Jesus was found to be missing, his parents naturally, and quite properly, were very alarmed. And they not only searched, but they sent out an alarm to search for. It is interesting that Jesus was not revealed quickly in the search, for he was not hidden away. Jesus was actually nearby them the whole time, but thoroughly, as you well know, engrossed in teaching the elders and the religious managers of the temple.

He taught them in a most interesting way. He did not simply say, I have something to teach you. First, he told them that they were liars and thieves. This attracted their attention. But there was something in his manner that did not cause them to develop a violent impulse to strike the boy. But instead, an amusement, and an instant liking for him, that resulted in an honesty within them that they were indeed liars and thieves, although they as yet felt he did not truly understand how they were liars and thieves.

So they gathered around him and said, "Ah well, what do you mean by this? Explain yourself young man, or shall we thrash you?" He was not the least bit frightened, nor intimidated. He had no need of the feeling of fear, because by looking into their eyes, he saw who they were. You must have faith, dear ones, that Jesus knew everyone he looked at. And how can one have this ability? It is because Jesus truly was a child of God. And God has no limitations. God owns everything, knows everything, is everything. Jesus did not exercise special powers, but merely inhabited his nature, and he knew them. And his will was to correct them, not to condemn them.

And so, he did not call authorities to call attention to these people, and report them and cause problems. He instead called upon the authority of their own conscience, and revealed in the court of their heart, the evidence against them. They were transfixed. Their bemusement turned to wonderment, and finally, it turned to admiration. This was the effect that the boy Jesus had on people. He never confronted anyone, except with the result that they admired him. So he was much loved as a youth.

When he was in his early teen years, he began to do very hard work alongside his father. Approximately the age of thirteen years, Jesus underwent the ordinary rituals of a boy of that age. All of the family rituals were motivated by the piety of his mother, and the fear and simplicity of his father. And so his family took him to the temple, at times here and there, for important festivals. And the festival of Passover was remarked in this home to be especially important to honor. And Passover was faithfully celebrated in the home of Mary and Joseph.

Jesus, however, had an unwillingness to slaughter animals, and believed that there was no necessity for this. He understood that the slaughter of animals would be unnecessary very soon, as a result of his own assumption of that sacrifice. So he had a revulsion for the murder of the beasts in the temple. Lambs were killed in a ceremonial way. And goats also. Birds were especially killed, many of them. And the slaughter of these animals was a part of the religious ritual that worshipped God, and therefore it should be seen as an act of faith, and not be condemned by modern minds. But Jesus had a revulsion for the slaughter of the animals because he felt within himself that it was no longer necessary. He knew that he was to be the sacrifice for his people.

This time of Jesus' life was a time of reflection. In his teen years, he was not silent, but he became more quiet. As he became aware of his growing into an adult life, as he became a man, Jesus knew that he must be fully comprehending of his destiny. And so he spent, not one, but many long periods of time in solitude and wandering. You have heard as an adult, as a male, as a man of aged years, in his thirtieth year, that he went into desert and wrestled with the evil temptations. This is an allegorical representation of many journeys Jesus made into the desert; not just the physical desert of the land, but also the desert of the human heart. Jesus did not shirk from the most intense examination of himself, and all those around him. And that is the desert he visited most often: the desert of the people. He saw in their mind and heart, when he was in solitude and contemplation, he saw the barren nature of their spirits, and he perceived that they had not yet realized how to live a life of true purpose, and thus, in his conceptualization, a life that would lead to their freedom, and their joining with the God they worshipped. He perceived that most of them were dulled in their faith, or had blind faith that did not reflect the true nature of God.

And as he contemplated in years fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, in between working with his father to support his family, he suddenly became fully conscious of the next phase of his life, the mission of his life. And he was unafraid of his mission. For as we have said, Jesus was never a victim of the paralysis of fear. So, dear ones, let us say that Jesus had a momentous revelation, not a revelation from outside, the way his mother received a visitation, for Jesus was not ignorant of himself. But Jesus revealed by his own will his own destiny, and at the age of seventeen, when he stood in the desert, he was on top of a small hill that to this day is not noticed for its great holiness.

On that day, when he was seventeen years of age, the entire course of his life rolled out before him in a vision, and he understood every word he would say, every breath he would take, and every step he would have to make. And he welcomed, accepted, and stepped into, the vision at that moment. And with that momentous choice, he began the second phase of his life, the life of outward service, and service paramount. Not service because it was his nature, as had been to this day, but service because it was his mission, his purpose, his destiny, to save the human race from itself.

Thus ends the first part of the story of the life of Jesus as told by Eon. Let us tell you tonight, dear ones, that our view of the life of Jesus does not come from our having lived with Jesus, or in Jesus' time. It comes from our perceptions of the meaning and the truth of Jesus as we experience it. Jesus is an energy of love, that is all-pervading, that cannot be reduced, nor eliminated from any place or person. And so Jesus is everywhere, and all times, and was before he took his form.

In the ancient stories, Moses built a ship, or was it Noah? Moses built a very special ship also. Moses built a ship of faith and trust that carried across a very different kind of ocean, the ocean of danger. Noah built a ship of wood. When Noah built his ship, Jesus was present in the fibers of every being, and in the energy of all the creation. When Moses built a ship of faith and trust to sail across the desert of danger, Jesus was likewise present, in every fiber of every being, in all the creation. Jesus has always been, and always will be, and came to this human form for a very short time, to reveal to the human race that there is no reluctance on God's part to know you, fully, and to understand your every worry and concern. Jesus came to teach that God is here, and aware. And Jesus was the physical representation of God's concern for humanity.

When we speak to you again on this subject, we will tell you about the very, very interesting years in which Jesus passed from seventeen to thirty, a time unknown to your general awarenesses from your written documents, but a time of great work which he was engaged in. He did not merely talk of love for his last three years of life. Jesus developed his message, and used it to great benefit while he himself was purifying himself, and making himself the clearest voice he wanted to be. That is the story of the second part of the life of Jesus. We thank you all for your loving attention, and your being here tonight. By your presence you have sanctified this place, and made it into a temple.

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