For teaching purposes, let us consider the crucifixion again. We have
not dwelt on it before, because of its fearful connotations. The only
emphasis we laid upon it was that it was NOT a form of punishment.
Nothing, however, can be really explained in negative terms only. There
is a positive interpretation of the crucifixion which is wholly devoid
of fear, and therefore wholly benign in what it teaches, if it is
properly understood. The crucifixion is nothing more than an extreme
example. Its value, like the value of any teaching device, lies solely
in the kind of learning it facilitates. It can be, and has been,
misunderstood. This is only because the fearful are apt to perceive
fearfully.

I have already told you that you can always call on me to share my
decision and thus MAKE IT STRONGER. I also told you that the crucifixion
was the last foolish journey that the Sonship need take, and that it
should mean RELEASE from fear to anyone who understands it. While we
emphasized only the resurrection before, the purpose of the crucifixion
and how it actually LED to the resurrection was not clarified at that
time. Nevertheless, it has a definite contribution to make to your own
lives, and if you will consider it WITHOUT fear, it will help you
understand your own role as teachers.

You have reacted for years AS IF you were being crucified. This is a
marked tendency of the separated ones, who always refuse to consider
what they have done TO THEMSELVES. Projection means anger, anger fosters
assault, and assault promotes fear. The real meaning of the crucifixion
lies in the APPARENT intensity of the assault of some of the Sons of God
upon another. This, of course, is impossible, and must be fully
understood AS an impossibility. In fact, unless it IS fully understood
as only that, I cannot serve as a real model for learning.

Assault can ultimately be made ONLY on the body. There is
little doubt that one BODY can assault another, and can even destroy it.
Yet if destruction ITSELF is impossible, then anything that is
destructible cannot be REAL. Therefore, its destruction does NOT justify
anger. To the extent to which you believe that it DOES, you must be
accepting false premises AND TEACHING THEM TO OTHERS. The message which
the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to
perceive ANY form of assault in persecution because you cannot BE
persecuted. If you respond with anger you must be equating yourself with
the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely.

I have made it perfectly clear that I am like you and you are like me,
but our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint
DECISION. You are free to perceive yourselves as persecuted if you
choose. You might remember, however, when you DO choose to react that
way, that I WAS persecuted as the world judges, and did NOT share this
evaluation for myself. And because I did not share it I did not
STRENGTHEN it. I therefore offered a DIFFERENT interpretation of attack,
and one which I DO want to share with you. If you will BELIEVE it, you
will help me to TEACH it.

We have said before,“As you teach so shall you learn.” If you react as
if you are persecuted, you are TEACHING persecution. This is not a lesson
which the Sons of God should WANT to teach if they are to realize their
own salvation. Rather teach your own perfect immunity, which IS the
truth in you, and KNOW that it cannot be assailed. Do not protect it
yourselves, or you have believed that it IS assailable. You are not asked
to BE crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. You are
merely asked to follow my example in the face of much LESS extreme
temptations to misperceive, and NOT to accept them falsely as
justifications for anger.

There can BE no justification for the unjustifiable. Do not believe
there is, and do not TEACH that there is. Remember always that what you
believe, you WILL teach. Believe with me, and we will become equal as
teachers. YOUR resurrection is your re-awakening. I am the model for
rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your minds of what
is already in them. God placed it there Himself, and so it is true
forever. I believed in it, and therefore made it forever true for me.
Help me to teach it to our brothers in the
name of the Kingdom of God, but first believe that it is true for YOU,
or you will teach amiss.

My brothers slept during the so-called “agony” in the garden, but I
could not be angry with them because I had learned I could not BE
abandoned. Peter swore he would never deny me, but he did so three
times. He did offer to defend me with the sword, which I naturally
refused, not being at all in need of bodily protection. I AM sorry when
my brothers do not share my decision to hear only one voice, because it
weakens them as teachers AND as learners. Yet I know that they cannot
really betray themselves OR me, and that it is still on them that I must
build my church.

There is no choice in this because only you can BE the foundation of
God’s church. A church is where an altar is, and the presence of the
altar is what MAKES it a church. Any church which does not inspire love
has a hidden altar which is not serving the purpose for which God
intended it. I must found His church on you because you who accept me as
a model are literally my disciples. Disciples are followers, but if the
model they follow has chosen to save them pain in all respects, they are
probably unwise NOT to follow him.

I elected, both for your sake AND mine, to demonstrate that the most
outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, did not matter. As the world
judges these things, but NOT as God KNOWS them, I was betrayed,
abandoned, beaten, torn, and finally killed. It was perfectly clear that
this was only because of the projection of others, because I had not
harmed anyone and had healed many. We are still equal as learners, even
though we need not have equal experiences. The Holy Spirit is glad when
you can learn enough from mine to be re-awakened by them. That was their
only purpose, and that is the only way in which I can be perceived as
the Way, the Truth and the Light.

When you hear only one voice you are NEVER called on to sacrifice. On
the contrary, by enabling yourselves to hear the Holy Spirit in others,
you can learn from their experiences, and gain from them WITHOUT
experiencing them yourselves. That is because the Holy Spirit is one,
and anyone who listens is inevitably led to demonstrate His way for all.
You are not persecuted, nor was I. You are not asked to REPEAT my
experiences because the Holy Spirit,
Whom we SHARE, makes this unnecessary. To USE my experiences
constructively, however, you must still follow my example in how to
perceive them.

My brothers and yours are constantly engaged in justifying the
unjustifiable. My one lesson, which I must teach as I learned, is that
no perception which is out of accord with the judgement of the Holy
Spirit CAN be justified. I undertook to show this was true in a very
extreme case merely because it would serve as a good teaching aid to
those whose temptations to give in to anger and assault would NOT be so
extreme. I will, with God, that none of His Sons should suffer.

Remember that the Holy Spirit is the communication link between God the
Father and His separated Sons. If you will listen to His Voice, you will
know that you cannot either hurt or BE hurt, and that many need your
blessing to help them hear this for themselves. When you perceive ONLY
this need in them, and do not respond to ANY other, you will have
learned of me, and will be as eager to share your learning as I am. The
crucifixion CANNOT be shared because it is the symbol of projection, but
the resurrection is the symbol of SHARING because the re-awakening of
every Son of God is necessary to enable the Sonship to know its
wholeness. Only this IS knowledge.

The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear:

“Teach ONLY love, for that is what you ARE.”

If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a
weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was
intended. The Apostles often misunderstood it, and always for the same
reason that makes anyone misunderstand anything. Their own imperfect
love made them vulnerable to projection, and out of their own fear they
spoke of the “wrath of God” as His retaliatory weapon. Nor could they
speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger because their own sense
of guilt had MADE them angry.

There are two glaring examples of upside-down thinking in the New
Testament, whose whole gospel is ONLY the message of love. These are not
like the several slips into impatience which I made. I had learned the
Atonement prayer, which I also came to teach, too well to engage in
upside-down thinking myself. If the Apostles had
not felt guilty they never could have quoted me as saying, “I come not
to bring peace but a sword.”This is clearly the exact opposite of
everything I taught.

Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did if they
had really understood me. They would have realized I COULD not have
said, “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” unless I BELIEVED in
betrayal. The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did NOT.
The “punishment” which I am said to have called forth upon Judas was a
similar reversal. Judas was my brother and a Son of God, as much a part
of the Sonship as myself. Was it likely that I would condemn him when I
was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?

I am very grateful to the Apostles for their teaching and fully aware of
the extent of their devotion to me. Nevertheless, as you read their
teachings, remember that I told them myself that there was much they
would understand later because they were NOT wholly ready to follow me
at the time. I emphasize this only because I do not want you to allow
ANY fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am guiding you.
I do NOT call for martyrs, but for TEACHERS. No-one is “punished” for
sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners.

ANY concept of “punishment” involves the projection of blame, and
RE-INFORCES the idea that blame is justified. The behavior that results
is a LESSON IN BLAME, just as all behavior teaches the beliefs which
motivate it. The crucifixion was a complex of behaviors arising out of
clearly opposed thought systems. As such, it was the perfect symbol of
conflict between the ego and the Son of God. The conflict is just as
real now, and its lessons, too, have equal reality WHEN THEY ARE
LEARNED. I do not need gratitude any more than I needed protection, but
YOU need to develop your weakened ability to BE grateful, or you cannot
appreciate God. HE does not need your appreciation, but YOU do.

You cannot love what you do not appreciate, and FEAR MAKES APPRECIATION
IMPOSSIBLE. Whenever you are afraid of what you are you do NOT
appreciate it, and will therefore reject it. As a result, you will TEACH
REJECTION. The power of the Sons of God is operating all the time because
they were created as creators. Their influence on EACH OTHER is without
limit, and MUST be used for
their joint salvation. Each one must learn to teach that all forms of
rejection are utterly meaningless. The separation IS the notion of
rejection. As long as you TEACH this, you still believe it. This is NOT
as God thinks, and you must think as He thinks if you are to know Him
again.