Lesson 17 - Looking for Jesus - His Life and Times

Abracadabra, Jesus and Kabbalah

What is it that draws you to this robed figure of the first century named Yeshua ben Joseph, or better known to us as Jesus? Do the tales of his humble birth twang the old heart strings? Do you resonate to his simple parables about the common man? Does the vision of his muscular attack on the tables of the moneylenders in the Temple stir up your inner juices? Or, like me, are you drawn to something unknown and perhaps even unnamed – something I can only explain as his mystical other worldliness? Where could he have gained this glow, this radiance? Was he born with it? Did he study it? Was it given to him? Or was it all of the above? 

          You may already believe in one of the choices. For me, however, I am donning   my traveling gear to see how much I can discover in the actual history of the times. What I uncover I will add to and enrich my own inner experiences of Jesus. Want to come along? O.K. then, here we go.   

Every religion has its mystical branch, secretly horded and miserly shared with just a very special chosen few. In the first century we go archeological hunting for the signs of Jewish mysticism, eventually known as Kabbalah. And yes, there it is. For hundreds and hundreds of years the mystical tradition in Judaism has grown expanding the concept of one God Whose Great Sacred Presence unfolds into the world from something that’ isn’t this and isn’t that’.

To help understand this profound experience and process, an elaborate schematic of circles connected by lines became formalized into the ‘Tree of Life’. Circles and lines were given Hebrew letters and numbers, which is where the phrase ‘abracacabra’ originated. By meditating for years on this Tree, contemplating the aspects of life (circles) and observing the pathways from each aspect to another (lines) you can learn the secret map everyone will need to travel to reach the Great Unknown, the greatest mystery, God.

          During the first century Jesus surely knew of these teachings. He clearly had deep mystical experiences that probably started even in childhood. He was gifted and noticed by the elders when he was eleven. He might very well have been chosen to study the sacred and secret as a young man. The only way we may be able to guess at his possible mystical studies is to go back in time once more and delve into his message and his deeds. So, let’s follow the crowds, sit on the hillside and share a torn piece of bread and cooked fish, so we can bring home a few snapshots of him actually teaching and healing. And if we are respectful, we may even kneel with him as he prays and goes into his deep and sacred meditations.

I am rubbing my hands in anticipation. We will soon be following Jesus himself.

Questions to Contemplate and Discuss

1.     What mystical studies are you familiar with?

2.     How does your background with these studies color your view of Jesus and who he was during his life as a child and then as an adult?

3. Do you think Jesus needed these mystical studies or not?

Note: if you would like this whole course in book format for yourself or perhaps to share in a discussion group with friends, you can find it in the left column.