Joseph the Lessor

[Geoff]

Dear friends,

I have had forwarded to me these messages. I am sharing them, because I think they are lovely. I can't say at this stage anything more than I have received these three messages. I have no doubt RL is totally sincere. We may just be about to get some really interesting stuff. I sure hope so.

April 2004
Georgia.
Received by RL.


Because you grew up in Greece in the old ways of life, you are in a good position to understand what life was like in the time of Jesus. Even for those without wealth, the world was a beautiful place and life was good.

Because the climate was not severe, a simple room to live in was fine. You know this from Greece--a one-room stone hut is a fine place to live. The air was clean. The water was clean. We could not imagine the way life is today, so noisy and dirty. We could not imagine the air and water ever becoming like it is today. The world now is full of sharp edges--loud noises, strong smells, bright lights, bold sugar tastes, sharp angles--every sense is affected. Back then, we could step out into the world with a sense of well-being, whether rich or poor.

There was not such a contrast between rich and poor then, and there was not a dependence on needing money for all the necessities of life. It was more of a continuum between those who lived simply, and those who had much. What we had was derived from the earth and from our labor. The wealthy mainly had the benefits of more people's labor. They had what the simple people had, but more of it, or a more refined version that took longer to make. We all wore the same robes, but the wealthy person's robe took longer to make so it could be a finer weave of cloth. But if a poor person really wanted a finely woven robe, a woman could make one by setting aside the time to take longer on it herself. So nothing was really out of reach for anyone. The only things perhaps were refined oils and perfumes that the wealthy had.

This continuum was in contrast to today, where there are things that a poor person cannot have no matter what they do. For example, a rich person can buy an expensive car but in many parts of the world, a poor person cannot get enough money to buy a car.

We did not rely on money. What we needed we grew from the earth, like bread and wine, food, animals. Silver money was used for large purchases, like land or a flock. For other things, we exchanged and bartered. Even silver could be smelted from the earth, if a man knew how. Even an old and palsied man could refine silver, if he had the knowledge of how to do it. So nothing was really out of reach. Today people rely on money even for their food and a place to live, and this is hard for people. It is harder for people to know that the Lord provides for you, and they feel a lot of anxiety about striving to have enough money to provide the basics of life.

In terms of health and medicine, people either healed or they didn't. If someone was slightly or moderately injured, they would recover, and if they were terribly injured, they died. People were not able to go to such extraordinary lengths as today to keep someone alive even if he or she can't really recover. In a way it was better not to have people stuck in compromised states in which they can't die but they can't function either.

R: Who are you?

Answer: I am Joses.

R. Josephus?

Answer: No, Joseph. Not the father of Jesus. I am Joseph the Younger.

[Geoff]

May 9, 2004
Georgia.
Received by RL.

It would be good to write down what I told you before. How people loved the earth and it provided for them. Write about bread and wine. People grew food, and the ones they could preserve were bread and wine. So bread and wine were always available. There were also oils, olives. The other foods were basically "catch as catch can." The other foods came and went from the diet.

Q: What about the eucharist, the sharing of bread and wine?

Answer: This was after my time. But I can tell you that the short answer is that some churches now use it and some don't, and either way is OK. To understand how it started, you have to understand the Judaic tradition, what was going on at the time. There were rituals, feasts, sacrifices offered at the temple. It was centralized and only certain people could go, only certain people could perform the rites.

Early on, Christians would get together in a circle, just five or six at a time sometimes, and hand around some bread and wine to say they were sharing the body and blood of Christ. This was to affirm their connection, to commune, and to remember him. In this way they had their own simple ritual that they could do anytime and anywhere using ordinary food they already had close at hand. So it was decentralized and they did not have to depend on anyone outside themselves.

The other thing about this early eucharist was that even if it was against the law to be Christian, even if they were trying to be unobtrusive, they could quickly gather anywhere, quietly share bread and wine, and there would be no evidence, no traces of the simple rite. They had simply shared a meal.

It wasn't that they were being blood thirsty or had a morbid fascination with Christ's death. In the context of how they were raised as Jews, it made sense to have a simple feast of remembrance. And then this was easy to share with non-Jews who didn't know about all the other elaborate rules and rituals. Now that there are churches where people can gather openly, there is not the same need for it.

Even though you have a very busy life, it would do you good to write this message down. It would do you good to receive messages sometimes, because you have a contemplative nature, you have a prayerful nature. Not having time for contemplation and prayer makes you unhappy.

[Geoff]

Georgia.
Received by RL.

I asked Joseph more about his identity. He said:

I was born of the clan of David, of the village of Bethlehem. In those days, we kept track of our lineage through the patriarchal line. Do you want to know my whole life history? (laughing). I was conceived and born of a woman, just as you were. I was an infant and then a young child. We lived communally, enjoying the land, as you know from Greece. When I was young I attended religion school and we learned to recite texts. Yes, Jesus was my older brother. He was much older, more like an uncle to me. When I was about 3, he was about 18.

He was always kind. He was quiet and serious, reverent, and peaceful. He was always inward, as if he was listening inward very intently. Yet he was quick to smile, and he was very handsome. Then came the days when I was older, when he was away traveling around and we heard amazing stories about events that had happened and what he had done. We were not sure what had come over him, what had become of him, and whether it was the same Jesus we knew. Then came the terrifying days in which he was killed. We were afraid. He tried to tell everyone about God, and because he was not from the rich and powerful group at the temple, because he was from a simple village way of life, they killed him. He gave his life to tell people about God. And after he died, then we felt a strong light, the light of blessings, coming down upon us. Only then did we fully realized the power and truth of what he had been teaching and who he was. That was how we experienced it.

[Then I was interrupted by my daughter. He promised more later.]