Article July 25, 1953 Issue

EXCHANGING THE HUMAN FOR THE DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS

EMMA SIMMONS RADCLIFFE

In the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke is recorded a phenomenal experience which has been a source of inspiration to many Bible students throughout the years. Two of Jesus' disciples were on their way to Emmaus, a village about threescore furlongs from Jerusalem. They were discussing the crucifixion of Jesus, which had taken place three days before, and commenting that the priests and rulers had condemned him to death.

No doubt the disciples were much concerned that Jesus was no longer with them, for they had thought it would be he who would redeem Israel and be declared their king. "And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him." Why did they not recognize their Master, whom they knew so well and had seen such a short time before? Was it not because their consciousness pictured him as no longer present in the flesh? They believed that they had seen him crucified and placed in a tomb. They thought that he had left them.

Jesus had the same body as before, walked on the same road, and talked to the same disciples, but they did not recognize him. That which one entertains in his consciousness constitutes his world and his sense of existence. That which one does not have in his consciousness is no part of his world. Had these two disciples been at the place in their understanding where they could have seen that they, as well as Jesus, in their real being, were included in the one infinite consciousness, they would have seen as did Paul that "we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (Rom. 12:5).

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