Jesus was not a religious man. Nor did he come to start a new religion. He did not come to uphold the status quo of priests and prelates who lorded over the people, interjecting themselves between the people and their relationship to God. Those who believe that Jesus was a pious Jew who followed all their rules are simply in denial of what Jesus said and did in this regard.
Jesus was, in fact, in constant conflict with the religious authorities of his day. He healed on the Sabbath. He overturned the tables in the temple. He rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees. These actions flowed from Jesus’ inner connection with God - all for a purpose.
He came to shake things up. In doing so, Jesus desired to awaken and liberate the people from their dependence on the fixed ideas of the outer authorities, as well as an attempt to reform the Jewish religion. For much like the Christian religion that followed it, Judaism had become ossified by demanding a rigid adherence to outer rules, customs, and mores. In Jesus day, following these rules to the letter was presented as the only means to salvation while the priests were setup as the judge and jury over it.
Yet Jesus knew that God – a God of unconditional love – accepted no outer rules or conditions to enter his Kingdom. In other words, Jesus understood that no amount of prayers, rituals, fasting, sacrifices, pilgrimages or position of authority could guarantee entrée into God’s kingdom. Nor can not doing these things necessarily keep you from it.
So where then is this kingdom, how does one find it? Well, in perhaps the most profound of all Jesus’ statements recorded in the gospels, listen to what he says to the Pharisees as they question him on this subject:
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, 'the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you!"(Luke 17:20-21)
Clearly, Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God does not come from observing outer rules and rituals alone; but rather it comes from your own inner connection to God. For the kingdom of God is not outside of you. It is not in some remote place in the sky. Rather, its right where you are – right within you!
This is not to setup a false dichotomy between following outer religious customs and seeking an inner connection with God. Obviously, outer rituals can be highly beneficial to spiritual progress. But such practices were never meant as a replacement for one’s own direct inner experience of God. Instead, outer practices are meant to be a stepping stone or tool to help us achieve the inner connection.
By declaring in no uncertain terms that the kingdom of God is within us, Jesus is telling us that we can and are meant to have a direct experience of God - that we have the capacity for such spiritual experiences right within our hearts and minds. Further, this inner experience requires no outer authority to achieve, be it from a minister, scripture or ceremony.
This is because the kingdom of God that’s within you is not a physical place. It is rather, a state of mind, a state of consciousness. Consciousness is something that is a natural part of us. It doesn’t require outer authorities or churches, nor can it be controlled by these authorities or institutions if we don’t let them. So the kingdom of God is really something that can be reached by anyone. Anyone, that is, who is willing to give up a state of mind that keeps them out of the kingdom; anyone, who is willing to have a direct experience of God within themselves.
The Pharisees, however, were not looking for God within themselves. For them – and indeed for most religions throughout recorded history – their man made descriptions of an outer God served as a substitute for the reality of the inner experience of God. It’s important to see here that a great gap can exist between a description of something and the actual experience of something. For example, if someone had never tasted an apple and only had the taste described to them, this experience would not be the same as actually tasting the apple itself. In other words, you really don’t know what and apple tastes like unless you take a bite out of it.
This is especially true of spiritual matters. You have to experience God to know God. Many spiritual concepts, however, are primarily derived from mental images of God and not from a direct experience of God. These mental images in turn are usually established by religious leaders who may or may not have had any direct connection with God.
Furthermore, principles derived from these mental images that are not tied to the reality of God and can easily be manipulated by spiritual leaders to fit their own agenda. This often causes spiritual blindness, both in the leaders themselves and their followers. In the case of the Pharisees, since their concepts of God were based entirely on descriptions of God and not actual experience, they kept both themselves and their followers squarely inside a mental box of what was right and wrong as defined by their own relative outer standards.
The Key of Knowledge
The Pharisees were unwilling to apply what Jesus called the "key of knowledge." The key of knowledge – the thing that Jesus said the Pharisees were hindering the people from finding - simply is the ability to discover spiritual truth within ourselves independent of some outer authority. In the Old Testament, it is said that I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
This helps us understand that God has written truth within each of us – we just need the ability and the confidence to find it. The key of knowledge is the inner confirmation of what we already know to be true. It is the remembrance of what we once knew at deeper levels of our being. Note that this concept in no way excludes information coming from sources outside of ourselves; it only requires that the information resonates with the Spirit of Truth within us.
The importance of using the key of knowledge cannot be underestimated. Think of all the suffering that has been wrought in this world because people have been led to believe that truth can only be found only within a particular religion, church, clergy, doctrine, custom, creed or political philosophy. This is because these various institutions, dogmas and philosophies where not fashioned out the Spirit of Truth within but rather out of spiritual blindness – out of the “fleshly” mindset. When you use the key of knowledge to find truth, however, you can never be enslaved or controlled by any outer authority as the only authority you can accept is the authority of God within you.
Can you see now how Jesus message of the inner kingdom was such a threat to the Pharisees authority? They hated him because they could not control him. They couldn’t control Jesus because he used the key of knowledge and found the kingdom of God within him. And because of this Jesus turned their whole world upside down simply by being who he already was - true to his real identity.
He refused to be imprisoned inside their rigid mental boxes. He could not be controlled by their fixed ideas – their graven images - of whom and what God had to be. Jesus did not need their authority or their validation because both were derived from his oneness with God within. He also knew that his followers could do the same and he encouraged them to do so.
Can you imagine what would have happened if hundreds, thousands or millions of people starting doing the same as Jesus did? Can you see how the earth would be dramatically different today if that had taken place then or now? If you really contemplate Jesus’ statement "the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father" (John14:12) can you see that this is precisely what Jesus wants for his followers?
Far from setting himself up as an idol to be worshiped, from the very beginning Jesus has always wanted us to follow in his footsteps, awaken to our true identity, enter the inner kingdom and walk the earth as sons and daughters of God who can say with him, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He has wanted us to know the same oneness with the Father that he had. And thus he prayed: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11).
As it was then so today, I believe Jesus wants us to Be in the kingdom in the here and now and not wait for the hereafter. You will only wait for the kingdom of God when you feel it is outside of yourself, beyond your ability to enter on your own. Yet truly the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14) because it’s always inside of us – waiting for us to enter.
So what’s preventing us from Be-ing there? Well, if the kingdom of God is inside our own hearts and minds, is it not logical to assume that something inside our hearts and minds keeps us from finding and entering it? But if that’s true, what is that something? What’s keeping us squarely inside the mental prisons, immobilized on a cross of our own making, right where the Pharisees, lawyersand their latter day descendants want us?
To answer that, we need to go back to the beginning. Back to the Garden and beyond. If you have the courage, I invite you to come along.
Jesus was, in fact, in constant conflict with the religious authorities of his day. He healed on the Sabbath. He overturned the tables in the temple. He rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees. These actions flowed from Jesus’ inner connection with God - all for a purpose.
He came to shake things up. In doing so, Jesus desired to awaken and liberate the people from their dependence on the fixed ideas of the outer authorities, as well as an attempt to reform the Jewish religion. For much like the Christian religion that followed it, Judaism had become ossified by demanding a rigid adherence to outer rules, customs, and mores. In Jesus day, following these rules to the letter was presented as the only means to salvation while the priests were setup as the judge and jury over it.
Yet Jesus knew that God – a God of unconditional love – accepted no outer rules or conditions to enter his Kingdom. In other words, Jesus understood that no amount of prayers, rituals, fasting, sacrifices, pilgrimages or position of authority could guarantee entrée into God’s kingdom. Nor can not doing these things necessarily keep you from it.
So where then is this kingdom, how does one find it? Well, in perhaps the most profound of all Jesus’ statements recorded in the gospels, listen to what he says to the Pharisees as they question him on this subject:
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, 'the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you!"(Luke 17:20-21)
Clearly, Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God does not come from observing outer rules and rituals alone; but rather it comes from your own inner connection to God. For the kingdom of God is not outside of you. It is not in some remote place in the sky. Rather, its right where you are – right within you!
This is not to setup a false dichotomy between following outer religious customs and seeking an inner connection with God. Obviously, outer rituals can be highly beneficial to spiritual progress. But such practices were never meant as a replacement for one’s own direct inner experience of God. Instead, outer practices are meant to be a stepping stone or tool to help us achieve the inner connection.
By declaring in no uncertain terms that the kingdom of God is within us, Jesus is telling us that we can and are meant to have a direct experience of God - that we have the capacity for such spiritual experiences right within our hearts and minds. Further, this inner experience requires no outer authority to achieve, be it from a minister, scripture or ceremony.
This is because the kingdom of God that’s within you is not a physical place. It is rather, a state of mind, a state of consciousness. Consciousness is something that is a natural part of us. It doesn’t require outer authorities or churches, nor can it be controlled by these authorities or institutions if we don’t let them. So the kingdom of God is really something that can be reached by anyone. Anyone, that is, who is willing to give up a state of mind that keeps them out of the kingdom; anyone, who is willing to have a direct experience of God within themselves.
The Pharisees, however, were not looking for God within themselves. For them – and indeed for most religions throughout recorded history – their man made descriptions of an outer God served as a substitute for the reality of the inner experience of God. It’s important to see here that a great gap can exist between a description of something and the actual experience of something. For example, if someone had never tasted an apple and only had the taste described to them, this experience would not be the same as actually tasting the apple itself. In other words, you really don’t know what and apple tastes like unless you take a bite out of it.
This is especially true of spiritual matters. You have to experience God to know God. Many spiritual concepts, however, are primarily derived from mental images of God and not from a direct experience of God. These mental images in turn are usually established by religious leaders who may or may not have had any direct connection with God.
Furthermore, principles derived from these mental images that are not tied to the reality of God and can easily be manipulated by spiritual leaders to fit their own agenda. This often causes spiritual blindness, both in the leaders themselves and their followers. In the case of the Pharisees, since their concepts of God were based entirely on descriptions of God and not actual experience, they kept both themselves and their followers squarely inside a mental box of what was right and wrong as defined by their own relative outer standards.
The Key of Knowledge
The Pharisees were unwilling to apply what Jesus called the "key of knowledge." The key of knowledge – the thing that Jesus said the Pharisees were hindering the people from finding - simply is the ability to discover spiritual truth within ourselves independent of some outer authority. In the Old Testament, it is said that I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
This helps us understand that God has written truth within each of us – we just need the ability and the confidence to find it. The key of knowledge is the inner confirmation of what we already know to be true. It is the remembrance of what we once knew at deeper levels of our being. Note that this concept in no way excludes information coming from sources outside of ourselves; it only requires that the information resonates with the Spirit of Truth within us.
The importance of using the key of knowledge cannot be underestimated. Think of all the suffering that has been wrought in this world because people have been led to believe that truth can only be found only within a particular religion, church, clergy, doctrine, custom, creed or political philosophy. This is because these various institutions, dogmas and philosophies where not fashioned out the Spirit of Truth within but rather out of spiritual blindness – out of the “fleshly” mindset. When you use the key of knowledge to find truth, however, you can never be enslaved or controlled by any outer authority as the only authority you can accept is the authority of God within you.
Can you see now how Jesus message of the inner kingdom was such a threat to the Pharisees authority? They hated him because they could not control him. They couldn’t control Jesus because he used the key of knowledge and found the kingdom of God within him. And because of this Jesus turned their whole world upside down simply by being who he already was - true to his real identity.
He refused to be imprisoned inside their rigid mental boxes. He could not be controlled by their fixed ideas – their graven images - of whom and what God had to be. Jesus did not need their authority or their validation because both were derived from his oneness with God within. He also knew that his followers could do the same and he encouraged them to do so.
Can you imagine what would have happened if hundreds, thousands or millions of people starting doing the same as Jesus did? Can you see how the earth would be dramatically different today if that had taken place then or now? If you really contemplate Jesus’ statement "the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father" (John14:12) can you see that this is precisely what Jesus wants for his followers?
Far from setting himself up as an idol to be worshiped, from the very beginning Jesus has always wanted us to follow in his footsteps, awaken to our true identity, enter the inner kingdom and walk the earth as sons and daughters of God who can say with him, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He has wanted us to know the same oneness with the Father that he had. And thus he prayed: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11).
As it was then so today, I believe Jesus wants us to Be in the kingdom in the here and now and not wait for the hereafter. You will only wait for the kingdom of God when you feel it is outside of yourself, beyond your ability to enter on your own. Yet truly the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14) because it’s always inside of us – waiting for us to enter.
So what’s preventing us from Be-ing there? Well, if the kingdom of God is inside our own hearts and minds, is it not logical to assume that something inside our hearts and minds keeps us from finding and entering it? But if that’s true, what is that something? What’s keeping us squarely inside the mental prisons, immobilized on a cross of our own making, right where the Pharisees, lawyersand their latter day descendants want us?
To answer that, we need to go back to the beginning. Back to the Garden and beyond. If you have the courage, I invite you to come along.
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