IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON March 16, 2009 Issue

AN EMPIRE WITHOUT LIMITS

CHRISTA KREUTZ

THIS WEEK'S Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Matter" shows Christ Jesus acting with God-given authority to break through matter's claim to authority or ultimate reality. In Jesus' demonstrations—his healings of disease and his acts of dominion over physical forces and limitations—he overcome the conception that material forces control our lives.

What exactly is this stuff called matter? This Lesson illustrates that it's anything that separates someone from life under the spiritual laws of God, or that tries to assert an authority other than God's—through fear, disease, or want. The Lesson's first passage inScience and Health bluntly states the case for spiritual reality: "Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal" (p. 468, citation 1).

The question of who or what has control over life is just as pertinent today as it was in Jesus' time. In his day the Roman Empire held control over the lives of all who lived within its borders. The burden of heavy taxation and concern about losing property to the state were common occurrences for those in Jesus' Jewish audiences. It's no wonder, then, that when he spoke about an empire (or kingdom), he was using a term they could relate to all too well. While he employed a politically charged term, Jesus was speaking about a different kind of empire, namely, the Empire of God. The term empire, basileia in Greek, is usually translated kingdom in English versions (see, for example, Matt. 4:17, cit. 5).