Paragraph 145

It is also recorded in the Gospel according to St. Luke, that on a certain day Jesus passed by a Jew who was sick of the palsy, and lay upon a couch. When the Jew saw Him, he recognized Him, and cried out for His help. Jesus said unto him: “Arise from thy bed; thy sins are forgiven thee.” Certain of the Jews, standing by, protested saying: “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” And immediately He perceived their thoughts, Jesus answering said unto them: “Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, arise, and take up thy bed, and walk; or to say, thy sins are forgiven thee? that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” This is the real sovereignty, and such is the power of God’s chosen Ones! All these things which We have repeatedly mentioned, and the details which We have cited from divers sources, have no other purpose but to enable thee to grasp the meaning of the allusions in the utterances of the chosen Ones of God, lest certain of these utterances cause thy feet to falter and thy heart to be dismayed.

In many ways, this is the last substantial paragraph regarding "sovereignty", the next paragraph being the summation of this whole section. And isn't it interesting that He has looked to Jesus for these last two examples to explain what is truly meant by that word?

The uncle of the Bab, no doubt, would have recognized the sovereign nature of Jesus, and probably known these stories. He was, after all, fairly well-read in religion.

In the previous paragraph, the question was asked about His claim, and Jesus basically said, "Can't you see Me? Sitting on the right hand of power and might?" The uncle would obviously have understood this, even though at that point in His story, Jesus is a prisoner, and about to suffer crucifixion. He appears to all to be a lowly prisoner, and yet He claims to have this great seat.

In this paragraph, He goes to heal someone, and further extends this to the forgiveness of his sins. How can this be? The Jews wonder. And His reply is to the effect of "What's more difficult? Healing someone of these ills? Or forgiving their sins?" To many of us, we would say the former, for we don't understand how that miraculous healing can occur. Yet, to one who is wise, the latter would be. To the common person, merely saying these words, forgiving their sins, is easy, for there is no proof of it, but to one who understands Jesus' station, they know that the latter is infinitely more difficult.

As Baha'u'llah says, "This is the real sovereignty..."

To go on a bit of a tangent, we just want to look at the concept of Jesus' healing for a moment. Baha'u'llah, in Gleanings, writes, "Through Him the leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and ignorance. Through Him, the unchaste and wayward were healed. Through His power, born of Almighty God, the eyes of the blind were opened, and the soul of the sinner sanctified." He continues by pointing out, "Leprosy may be interpreted as any veil that interveneth between man and the recognition of the Lord, his God."

To look at this again, we realize that any doctor can basically heal the body. And while we know that healing is also dependent upon God, this physical healing is something that more and more people can accomplish today. But here, Baha'u'llah links these stories of healing by Jesus to the education of humanity.

Today, we see various social ills running rampant. Racism, for example, is on the rise. And we know that racism is based on ignorance, and is considered a disease. So when we think about healing humanity from this illness, racism, we can see how the education given through the holy Writings can be a great source for healing us, and our society, from this horrendous disease.

In this paragraph, Baha'u'llah quotes Jesus pointing out that it is the spiritual that is far more important. Sure, healing the body is wonderful and all, but healing the soul, forgiving the sins, is of far greater import.

Hasn't this been His message throughout regarding sovereignty? Earthly sovereignty pales in comparison to that divine sovereignty.

And here, we can see that it is Their ability to heal these dreadful ills of both the individual and society that are, again, far more important than anything else.

There is also an allusion to the importance of recognizing the Messenger. Baha'u'llah says that the Jew "recognized Him", and perhaps that is why Jesus was able to forgive his sins. By placing this point here in the text, perhaps Baha'u'llah is adding the reminder to the uncle that he needs to recognize his Nephew if he also wants his sins forgiven.

Now that He has finished His explanation of true sovereignty, it seems timely that He introduce the importance of recognizing. And don't forget, part 1 was centered around this whole issue of being detached from one's own beliefs and understandings so that recognition was possible. Here, we seem to be coming back to that theme again.

Paragraph 144

Similarly, call thou to mind the day when the Jews, who had surrounded Jesus, Son of Mary, were pressing Him to confess His claim of being the Messiah and Prophet of God, so that they might declare Him an infidel and sentence Him to death. Then, they led Him away, He Who was the Day-star of the heaven of divine Revelation, unto Pilate and Caiaphas, who was the leading divine of that age. The chief priests were all assembled in the palace, also a multitude of people who had gathered to witness His sufferings, to deride and injure Him. Though they repeatedly questioned Him, hoping that He would confess His claim, yet Jesus held His peace and spake not. Finally, an accursed of God arose and, approaching Jesus, adjured Him saying: “Didst thou not claim to be the Divine Messiah? Didst thou not say, ‘I am the King of Kings, My word is the Word of God, and I am the breaker of the Sabbath day?’” Thereupon Jesus lifted up His head and said: “Beholdest thou not the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and might?” These were His words, and yet consider how to outward seeming He was devoid of all power except that inner power which was of God and which had encompassed all that is in heaven and on earth. How can I relate all that befell Him after He spoke these words? How shall I describe their heinous behaviour towards Him? They at last heaped on His blessed Person such woes that He took His flight unto the fourth Heaven.

"Similarly"? Similar to what?

In the previous number of paragraphs we have seen how the wealth and sovereignty wielded by the Manifestations are not the wealth and sovereignty that most people think of when they consider these terms. And so similarly Jesus was sitting at the "right hand of power and might", although to those around Him He seemed devoid of those things.

Again and again Baha'u'llah is showing us how those standards by which we judge those around us fail when considering the Messengers and the Holy Ones.

This is another example of how we often fail to look at the spiritual reality, dwelling instead on the material.

But let's look at this from the perspective of the uncle of the Bab. How would he have seen this example?

To start, he was probably not all that familiar with Christian apologetics, so we won't go into that. But we know that he recognized Jesus as a Manifestation of God, and he would have agreed with what Jesus was saying. He also would have likely made a connection between this story from the Bible and the stories of Muhammad being asked to prove His Station, too. When asked to demonstrate a miracle, Muhammad pointed out that the Qur'an itself was a miracle. Was Muhammad a ruler over men, in the material sense? Of course not. Was He a sovereign? Again, not in the material sense.

Over and over Baha'u'llah is showing these, and similar stories, reminding us that we should not judge the Bab by these deficient standards. It is as Baha'u'llah says, way back in the first couple paragraphs of this book: that no one "shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding" until we cease "to regard the words and deeds of mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets".

Interestingly enough, we were looking at this and wondering where we had seen this notion of a deficient standard. We knew that there was a quote we had read about it that sort of nailed it, but could not remember where it was. And then, after a quick search, we discovered, to our vast amusement, that it was in the first two paragraphs of this book. Even now, so far into it, Baha'u'llah is still bringing us back to the very beginning of this same volume.

Now, as for how this applies to us, it is nothing short of a stark reminder that we, too, need to keep the standard of God firmly in our sight. It is so easy to be distracted by the arguments of those who would deny this Faith, claiming that it does not fulfill the various prophecies or promises in the way that they would demand. Here, Baha'u'llah is alluding to that quote from Gleanings, number 42, "Follow thou the footsteps of thy Lord, and remember His servants even as He doth remember thee, undeterred by either the clamor of the heedless ones or the sword of the enemy.... Spread abroad the sweet savors of thy Lord, and hesitate not, though it be for less than a moment, in the service of His Cause."