Appearance or reality?
For the Lesson titled "Unreality" from September 30 - October 6, 2013
Despite enemies determined to kill him, Jesus boldly comes to the Jerusalem temple to teach at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, the fall harvest festival. As he speaks, some ask how he can preach so powerfully without rabbinical training. Others complain that he’s violated Jewish ritual law by healing a paralyzed man on the Sabbath day. The Master’s response forms the Golden Text for this week’s Lesson titled, “Unreality”: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24 ). Or as J.B. Phillips puts it, “You must not judge by the appearance of things but by the reality!” (The New Testament in Modern English).
What is “righteous judgment”? The first verse in the Responsive Reading answers that question with the words of Job’s young friend Elihu, who passionately argues that despite all the tragic losses Job has suffered, he and his friends shouldn’t lose faith in God’s righteousness. “Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good,” he urges in a declaration that’s repeated in Section 1 (Job 34:4 , Responsive Reading and citation 2).
The rest of the Responsive Reading, drawn from the lengthy meditation on divine statutes in Psalm 119, defines true judgment as God’s totally good law. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments,” the final verse (137 ) in the Responsive Reading asserts, a statement that’s repeated in Section 2 (cit. 6). This law has nothing to do with legalism or ritual. Instead, it’s what helps a person find “one’s best self formed by God” (Harper’s Bible Commentary, p. 487).
The main body of the Lesson explores the reality of God’s law of goodness and love versus the unreality of mortal laws of sin, sickness, and death. Section 2, for instance, features Jesus’ parable about a man who’s been robbed, beaten, and left to die on the treacherous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Two Jewish officials, a priest and a Levite, avoid the injured man and continue homeward, probably afraid of violating ceremonial law by touching a corpse. Finally, a kindly Samaritan (considered a heretical foreigner) rescues the victim, tenderly cleanses his wounds, and pays an innkeeper to care for him. Praising the Samaritan’s Christly selflessness, Jesus instructs each of us, “Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37 , cit. 8).
In Sections 2 through 5, the citations from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy parallel Jesus’ parable with “an allegory illustrative of the law of divine Mind and of the supposed laws of matter and hygiene …” (p. 430 , cit. 9). A victim of liver disease is brought to trial for violating material health laws and condemned to death by Judge Medicine. But divine law intervenes, and the sufferer is fully restored to well-being by Christian Science, by “Christ, Truth, the spirit of Life and the friend of Mortal Man” (p. 433 , cit. 14).
The healing, saving law of God is, right now, liberating you and me from false laws of every sort—proving their unreality. And God’s verdict is always in our favor!
