Securing safety through a change of heart

Recent terrorist attacks around the world are particularly poignant reminders of the need to feel safe. Is the answer in an increased police presence, technologically advanced security measures, heightened surveillance of extremist groups? These may be necessary interim measures, but the way to protect ourselves as well as society at large from terrorist and criminal activity, and to reform such behavior, is through a profound change in the way each of us individually thinks about God and our fellowman. Ludicrous? Jesus didn't think so. He urged just such a change of thought, according to the thirteenth chapter of Luke.

Some people told Jesus about a horrific incident of brutality that had happened. Pilate had killed some men from Galilee and mingled their blood with that of the animals to be offered as a sacrifice to God. The theology of that time assumed that catastrophes befell people because they had broken one of God's laws—that suffering was God's penalty. Therefore, many presumed that these Galileans died because they had committed some moral offense. But Jesus denied this. He said: "Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (verses 2, 3).

Continuing, Jesus drew a parallel to another incident that had occurred in Jerusalem. Eighteen people were killed when the tower of Siloam fell over and crushed them. Driving home his lesson, he again raised the same theological issue: "Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (verses 4, 5). Rebuking the crude theological idea that catastrophes are God's means of punishment, Jesus emphatically stated that the men killed by Pilate and the men standing under the tower of Siloam were no better nor worse than most men.

Then, why did these things happen to them? Jesus answered that they needed repentance. And he further added that if we, too, do not repent, a similar fate will befall us. These words are not designed to scare but rather to awaken us. Ultimately, they immeasurably comfort us because they explain how we can protect ourselves from the ravages of fate, especially indiscriminate crime and untimely accidents.

The word repentance strikes a sour note in the modern ear. It's commonly associated with a "hellfire and damnation" approach to religion and is usually used with a heavy dose of condemnation and guilt.

But the Biblical word for repent is the Greek word metanoeo and means to rethink, reconsider, or to change one's mind. J. B. Phillips's translation renders the passages concerning the men killed by Pilate this way: "Are you thinking that these Galileans were worse sinners than any other men of Galilee because this happened to them? I assure you that is not so. You will all die just as miserable a death unless your hearts are changed!" And this is how it refers to the men under the tower of Siloam: "Are you imagining that they were worse offenders than any of the other people who lived in Jerusalem? I assure you they were not. You will all die as tragically unless your whole outlook is changed!" What Jesus meant by repentance, then, was the need for a change of heart, a complete change in one's mental outlook.

Most of us are probably in the same category as these men of Jerusalem and Galilee. We may not be perfect, but by and large evil is not running rampant in our minds and actions. We are not stealing, cheating, or murdering people. If so, then we're well on the way toward one element of repentance—working to overcome any evil operating in our own character so that we actually reflect the goodness of God's nature. But this is only the first of three important aspects of repentance.

What about the evil that seems to act through someone else's character? Wasn't that what destroyed the men of Galilee, evil acting through the hideous character of Pilate? Not being vulnerable to others is the second aspect of repentance that's needed. The third has to do with the belief that evil acts through circumstance or accident. Wasn't that what Jesus was referring to in the example of the tower of Siloam?

In its deepest sense, repentance has to do with a change in our concept of God. Specifically, it involves a deeper understanding of God's nature as good. It's this understanding of God's goodness that the Galileans and the men of Jerusalem needed to grasp. If they had, it would have spared their lives. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy says, "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony" (p. 390 ).

One key point in overcoming an ignorance of God is understanding that the divine Principle is absolute and entirely good. Absolute means reality considered as final and total fact. Starting from the basis that God is absolute, some Eastern religions determine that since bad things seem to happen, God must be an evil as well as a good cause. Western religions, on the other hand, emphasize God's goodness. But they deprive God of absoluteness because they see another power, a satanic influence, operating in opposition to God. Aren't these the theological beliefs from which we need to repent—about which we need to change our outlook?

If the prevailing perception is that God is either absolute but not wholly good, or that He is good but not absolute, and if we must change those concepts, then only one reasonable solution is possible: God must be wholly good and absolute. But if this is true, what does that say about evil? It must be illusory and powerless. That doesn't appear to be the case, yet it must be true.

God, good, is All; therefore evil must be powerless, nothing. We grow to understand this truth as we begin to see that the perception of the material senses prevents us from grasping the realities of God, Spirit. Yet, to spiritual sense, this unseen spiritual reality and power is absolute and, when understood, brings release from all the influences of evil.

Because God is divine Mind, His thoughts move and control the universe. Jeremiah speaks of them this way: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (29:11 ). Another translation renders it this way: "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (John R. Kohlenberger III, The Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament). It's comforting, isn't it, to think of God's thoughts executing a plan for our lives, a plan that includes no harm?

Another meaning of absolute is complete and perfect. The plans of God, then, are perfect and complete. They cannot be interrupted by any untimely intrusion of evil. To experience this in our lives, however, requires repentance—a wholesale change in the way we think and in how we respond to the world around us. We live and move in the very presence of God. In reality, we are under His guidance, control, and influence. A growing spiritual understanding of this fact destroys the fear of evil.

Evil begins as a supposition in the human mind that there is something besides God, good. It can be destroyed by understanding that there is only one Mind, God. In fact that's the only way to destroy it. "Mind is God. The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind —called devil or evil—is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality," Science and Health says. The next paragraph continues, "We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and has all-power, we still believe there is another power, named evil" (p. 469 ).

For many of us, this is where we are. We can accept intellectually that God is All-in-all, that God is good. But we still believe there is another power named evil which can victimize us at any moment. Even those who are good, morally upright people, who would never for a moment permit evil to be expressed in their own character, may still believe and fear that evil can operate through someone else or through circumstance. This is still the belief that there is another power opposite to God. The truth is that God is All and that He is saving and protecting us. He intelligently unfolds to us wisdom and understanding, which in turn change our mental outlook. At some point, we will comprehend that the power of His love and intelligence is unfolding to us the realization that we never have to fear evil in any form. Then we understand that because God is All-in-all, evil is powerless.

One further point, concerning Jesus' practice of this truth, is especially interesting. No man ever suffered a more horrendous crime committed against him than Jesus. He was crucified for healing the sick and raising the dead. During Jesus' trial he had to be judged by Pilate, the same man who had slain the Galileans. Yet in the Gospels of Matthew and John we see a striking change of behavior during his inquest of Jesus. On two occasions while consulting with Jesus' accusers, Pilate said to them, "I find in him no fault at all" (John 18:38 ). And when the chief priests and officers called for Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate said, "Why, what evil hath he done?" (Matt. 27:23 ). John tells us explicitly, in fact, that Pilate sought Jesus' release (see John 19:12). Then finally, when it became clear that Jesus' enemies could not be assuaged, Pilate washed his hands in front of them all and said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person" (Matt. 27:24 ).

This doesn't sound like the same man who mercilessly slaughtered the Galileans. What brought about such a striking change in behavior? Had Pilate repented? We don't really know. But Jesus did not believe that Pilate could be a channel for evil. He knew Pilate, as God created him, to be an expression of God's absolute goodness and power. Jesus lived his own teaching. He taught that repentance would have saved the men of Galilee from the murderous hands of Pilate. Then he proved it. Jesus' spiritual understanding touched Pilate's thought so that it changed his nature.

Can we be protected from acts of violence or accidents with perfect assurance? Yes, we can. The way is made clear in the example of our Master, who overcame both death and hatred.