As the trial unfolded, something felt wrong. The evidence I was listening to as a jury member didn’t ring true. Soon after, the judge abruptly halted proceedings. Under British law, there was “no case to answer.”
If only it were always so clear! Not only in courts, but in our lives. The Bible Lesson from the “Christian Science Quarterly” on the topic of “Are Sin, Disease, and Death Real?” (for April 7-13) begins, “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not” (Psalms 35:11).
This is part of a lament attributed to a leader whose allies had turned against him. But the words remain practical whatever issues we face. That includes health problems. From a Christian Science perspective, which recognizes our true identity as the spiritual expression of God, if our body’s telling us we’re sick, what it’s “[laying] to [our] charge” are false accusations.
The Science of Christ shines light on the fact that what appears to be the fleshly body is “a mental concept.” Mary Baker Eddy’s book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” says, in a passage that’s also included in the Lesson, “Because the so-called material body is a mental concept and governed by mortal mind, it manifests only what that so-called mind expresses” (p. 376).
So, mortal mind – all the thinking, seeing, and hearing, etc., that are opposite to what the divine Mind, God, knows – is the false witness behind what the body seems to convey. If we don’t want such uninspired thinking and sensual beliefs to determine our physical condition, we need to increasingly let in spiritual understanding. Doing this is a key component in demonstrating the health that’s inherently ours as children of God.
Christ Jesus was the master of living out from Mind’s spiritual standpoint, and he proved the healing impact of doing so. The Bible Lesson relates his healing of a man’s deformed hand. In this case, it wasn’t just the man’s concept of himself needing to be addressed. The thought surrounding him was sinful – religious leaders were seeking a reason to accuse Jesus of breaking religious law.
And it seemed they had a “gotcha” moment. Jewish law mandated specific rules for the weekly sabbath, and here was Jesus healing on the holy day of rest.
In doing so, though, he proved false the charges laid out by mortal mind against both health and true holiness. The man’s fully restored hand disproved not only the claim that discordant physical conditions can overpower spiritual reality, but also the claim that man-made laws have the power to overrule divine law. Jesus glorified God by proving that His harmony and health were truly what was present.
Such healing authority came from Christ, the spiritual idea of God as all-good and all-powerful that animated Jesus’ words and actions. This living Christ still speaks to us, revealing that God is infinitely more than a distant deity. God is the divine ever-presence, lovingly embracing everyone.
There’s value in listening for what Christ teaches us, not just in times of need, but continually. A statement in the Lesson points out, “It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition” (Science and Health, p. 297).
If instead we think we earn well-being by having good genes or through micromanaging material habits, that takes the glory from God and gives it to mortal mind, which opens us to the belief that we can lose health through adverse material developments. Seeing health as inherent in our spiritual identity proactively sustains health and prepares us to hear what God, Mind, is always telling us through Christ: We are the embodiment of Spirit’s harmony, health, holiness, and life.
This Bible Lesson topic, which is addressed twice yearly, consistently answers its stated question with an emphatic “No!” Anything unlike God, good, is the false evidence of the false witness, mortal mind.
When we stop listening to this erroneous witness and turn to Christ for the truth about ourselves and others, we hear God saying there’s “no case to answer,” and purity, health, and life are restored.
If you’re new to the weekly Bible Lessons from the “Christian Science Quarterly” and corresponding study materials, you can view a free sample of last week’s Bible Lesson here. Subscribers to the weekly Lesson can log in here.
