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Jesus appeared in the world at a time when humanity had progressed and gained sufficient capacity that it was then prepared to receive a great thrust forward in its spiritual growth. His purpose was to provide the divine impetus for this growth, to shed the eternal light of God that would quicken the world of humanity. The people to whom He appeared were, at that time, in desperate need of such a grace, for they had fallen away from the teachings of God and were sinking into spiritual oblivion. Their faith was a hollow shell, emptied of life (145:3) They had been prepared for centuries for His Coming. They had been told in sometimes simple, sometimes mysterious language of a Holy One who was to appear. Their vision of Him, however, was crude. They had imagined that He would be an earthly ruler who would protect them from the armies of their enemies. They were hoping for a man of ultimate prowess who would vanquish the oppressor and vindicate themselves in the eyes of all the peoples of the earth (145:4) But what they found was a Man meek beyond comparison, preaching to the poor and the lowly. His message was a call to mercy, purity, and forgiveness. And this Man, who had nothing to offer in the way of earthly riches or dominion, had a strange power of attraction, incomprehensible and resented by some, but cherished by the people who followed wherever He went (145:5) The religious leaders, consumed in their jealousy and hypocrisy, brought to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. They had devised a plan by which to discredit Jesus (145:6) Their plan centered around what they considered to be the essence of the religion of God: law. "Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" they asked Jesus concerning the woman. They reasoned that if He sanctioned her stoning, He would be regarded as cruel and would lose the esteem in which the people held Him. And, likewise, if He sanctioned her release, He would be viewed as an infidel, one who rejected the law of Moses. According to the rules, their plan seemed foolproof. But what they didn't realize, couldn't realize, was that He Who makes the rules, was standing in their midst, and He was about to change them (145:7) When they put this question to Jesus, He chose to ignore them: "But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not." But they continued in their waywardness, following blindly their course of self-destruction. They asked of Him again: "tempting him, that they might have to accuse him"
(145:8)
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