Watchers
We have sky watchers, stock market watchers, and bird watchers. People watch ball games and ballet; they watch children mature. Is this what Christ Jesus meant when he said to some of his disciples," What I say unto you I say unto all , Watch"? n1
n1 Mark 13:37;
Obviously not. A study of the Gospel passage where the command appears makes clear that the watchers he sought were though watchers -- active ones. We are to watch, he said, as the gatekeeper watches for the coming of his master, ready to let him in. Jesus labeled people hypocrites who watched only surface things. He said at one time, referring to his listeners' pride in their ability to predict the weather, "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" n2
n2 Matthew 16:3;
Wasn't Jesus urging them to watch for the spiritual idea that characterizes true being, instead of merely observing facts of materialism? Getting the deeper view of reality enables us to take control of physical discords and prove that they are in fact manifestations of false mortal thought, opposed to the harmony of God's true creation. Getting this deeper view enables us to heal.
Mary Baker Eddy n3 makes an interesting comment on Jesus' mission and our job as his followers today: "Ye who can discern the face of the sky, -- the sign material, -- how much more should ye discern the sign mental, and compass the destruction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts which produce them, and by understanding the spiritual idea which corrects and destroys them." She concludes, "To reveal this truth was our Master's mission to all mankind, including the hearts which rejected him." n4
n3 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;
n4 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 233;
If someone is struggling with a difficulty ("the face of the sky"), only when he or she goes at it from the basis that God is right now expressing in man perfect harmony; that a physical trouble has in fact no real substance or power; that evil dissolves through the understanding of God, divine Mind; will he be able to solve the problem completely and permanently. Materiality is the culprit; materiality needs handling; only the Christ-power of the divine Mind, coming to human consciousness, can handle it.
The material mind and its apparent physicality can be proved powerless to harm or control because there is only one Mind, the divine Mind that is God, who leaves space for no other reality.
Since god is Spirit, Mind, good, that which is opposed to Him -- matter, mortal mind, evil -- has no divine support, no substance or truth. Man, the image of God (and this is the real nature of everyone) reflects only good thoughts, right ideas, that come from Mind; mortals (not our true nature, though they seem to be) listen to and hear wrong thoughts from a mythical mortal mind, which is tantamount to not listening at all -- keeping no watch. Thus to obey Jesus' command means to watch for the divine ideas that, when mentally entertained, wipe out the offending material thoughts our watch likewise uncovered, and thereby heal the discordant physical situation.
The divine Mind being the only Mind, it alone is capable of originating ideas. This guarantees that matter cannot create a real thought, and thus Jesus' words become a caveat for us to watch against being hoodwinked into believing fallacious beliefs. But Jesus issued infinitely more than a caveat.His call was and is a command to watch for good, for the right ideas uninterruptedly coming from divine Mind to man -- the ideas that operate without matter and that, when recongized and accepted, lead us to concord
Persons joining The First Church of Christ, Scientist, promise to maintain such a watch. In accepting the Church's religious tenets, they undertake to uphold this one: "And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure." n5
n5 ibid.,m p. 497.
This kind of watch can't be debilitating or pointless. On the contrary, it strengthens and heals. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Be ye . . . sober, and watch unto prayer. I Peter 4:7