The Other Disciple

“THEN WENT IN also the other disciple.” The other disciple who went into the tomb and found it empty is, symbolically speaking, you. It is  you who have experienced all the manifestations of the Christ-consciousness– the healing of sickness and sin, the transformation of one substance into another, the supplying of all things needful, and the overcoming of gravitation, yes, the raising from the dead, and now you have come to a place where proof is given you of self-resurrection. The swaddling-clothes (bondage) of the babe become the grave-clothes eventually left in the tomb. They are the human bondages that must sooner or later be laid aside for the robes that are white and glistening, the garments of light and praise. 

Eventually you are brought face to face with the fact that in the final analysis self-resurrection will take place. “I have power to pick it up or lay it down.” Until a man comes to the place of the “other disciple” and goes in, he will be toying still with the idea that his help comes from some other source than God. It is true that up to a certain point much help is given, but after a while the disciple is left to himself. He must either perform the process of self-resurrection, which is put in various terminology, or go the way of all flesh. “He must be born again,” and this “borning” must be from within. It is manifested within each person; it is a personal and individual experience that no one else can do for you. “Marvel not”– do not be surprised when these  things come to you; your eyes will not always be “holden that thou shall not know Him.”  You  will not always walk to Emmaus with the Master and fail to see Him.”  The scales will drop from your eyes, and you will perceive the things which eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, and the things that you have not yet thought of. 

It takes more than the human sense to recognize when anything has truly happened.  The human sense did not recognize Jesus when he presented his risen body. Why?  Because the human sense first judges from the intellectual standpoint, which says emphatically that no one when dead rises again. If they rise, they were not really dead, or else a miracle happened. 

Go thou in and shut the door, and contemplate the presence– then you will see the nothingness of all the evils to which the flesh is heir. 

“These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly.” Surely there is no ambiguity about this statement, “I shall show you plainly.” The one who is ready, and who has passed beyond the curious stage, and who is not looking for signs and wonders, who is not searching for the loaves and the fishes, will see. He will hear the things which could not be told because formerly he could not bear to hear them. “When the student is ready the Master appears.” “Be still and know that I AM GOD” is more than a statement. It is not something to be talked about– it is something to experience. “Then went in the other disciple.” You are standing on the threshold of the glorious experience of self-resurrection. You are at the point of receiving the revelation. 

“Hitherto have ye asked for nothing in My name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” 

How can your joy be anything else but full when you begin to see– through the thick undergrowth of human reasoning– the Garden of Eden to which you are returning? It is enough to make you thrill with joy, for all the fond imaginations that have strayed over your soul without expression are now understood. The single ear, the single eye, the single voice. You have come away from the tower of Babel, that great galaxy of people who are all shouting in their own tongue that they have the only way to reach Heaven, and that you must follow them or be lost, who have finally succeeded in building up nothing but a tower of jealousy, strife, and hatred.  All talking different tongues– confusion. Come away from it all. Seek the Inner Lord, and listen to the glorious revelation that is made to you now. 

“And as we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” 

When the self-resurrection takes place, you shall transform the fleshly body to one of Spirit. “The Lord shall become flesh and dwell among you.” The body shall take on new properties, and you shall then be no more under the laws of the dense matter which has caused you so much grief. “If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the Law.” You are then under Grace. Glorious freedom and cancellation from the mistaken evils of the flesh. Why not, since you functioned under the law, “When I would do good I do evil?”  Who could blame you for doing evil if you did it in spite of the fact that you wanted to do good? Not any just God. You are beginning to understand why it is that repentance makes a full cancellation for the evil that functioned in your life, and how you are under Grace when you are in the Spirit. The “other disciple” who goes in experiences the new birth, and to him are revealed the hidden mysteries. 

“The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from Heaven.” Where is Heaven?  According to Jesus, it is a state of consciousness. It is within you, and descending out of this heavenly consciousness will come the Lord– the risen Lord. As the shell of a seed gives way, life appears. As the muddy vesture of human thought that has enclosed you falls away, the Christ (the Christing or Anointing) comes into manifestation; is unwrapped from his grave-clothes and set free. Do not be disheartened; it is stated in the Law that “it is sow in a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”  When you are willing to let go of the human beliefs that you have massed together by judging from appearances, then you will raise the spiritual body. That is, you will see the Spirit become flesh and dwell among you. It is wonderful. 

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.” 

We understand that the laws of the flesh which are constantly changing and bringing in harmony to the individual cannot inherit the Kingdom. The flesh-and-blood man has not the capacity to accept so much good. He has functioned in such uncertain capacities that he hardly knows what is right and what is wrong. 

“Why seek ye the living among the dead?” Why look for that which is living in the midst of that which is dead?  Why do you seek in the dead letter for the Spirit which in reality dwells eternally within you? 

“Then went the other disciple in.” Be still– “I shall come as a thief in the night.” You are the other disciple. Why don”t you go “in” and discover your permanent identity, and begin now to live in the Kingdom?

 

Walter C. Lanyon