Gospel Study - Gospel of Luke

reported by John-Peter Gernaat

The path of Right Living – the fifth path – can be viewed as being about the right way to constitute oneself. In reading the parable of the master and servants, one gains a very different perspective when one realises that these are not different people, but rather the various parts that constitute a human being. The master is the I-constitution. The servants are the parts that make up our soul. The parable is about the astral body being subservient to the I-constitution. Without the proper integration of the self we will feel ourselves to be torn apart, for example when we crave for something that we know in our conscience we should avoid and yet give in to the craving. The power of the incarnating I-constitution will result in people who are closely related coming to an inner moral position and no longer being able to agree with their siblings or parents. The incarnating I-constitution, which is the gift of Christ, will divide people until all of humanity can operate from the position of the Christ-in-me.
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The next path is the path of Right Effort. This is most clearly explained in the parable of the Lost Son (the Prodigal Son). The son “comes to himself”. This is what each of us is expected to achieve in an earthly incarnation. There are many themes that can be read into this parable. The son asks for his portion of the substance that belongs to him. We hear in our Trinity Epistle that our substance is the Father God’s substance. The human being is gifted the substance of the Father God and we travel a far distance into another country of materialism. When the son returns to the father, the correct translation is that the father places the priestly stole upon his son. The “coming to himself” has changed his whole being. There is also the story of the twinning of Adam. There is an apocryphal story that when Adam was sent from the garden, his twin remained in the spiritual world and did not undergo earthly incarnations. This is the older son who expresses jealousy when the Father recognises to wonder of the return of the younger son. The preceding parables of the 1 lost sheep and the 1 lost coin presents the picture that there is no completion – 10 represents completion, as does 10 times 10 – until the one that is lost has been found. The human being is only complete when the part that undergoes earthly incarnations is again united with the part that remains in the spiritual world. Right effort is an inner process of coming to stand in one’s own understanding of what is right without requiring an external measure, such as the law.