The Teacher

The Teacher: Part I Crossing Over, Chapter 16

Chapter 16

WHAT HAD I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO! All I really wanted was to have Antonio fall in love with me, and that might indeed have happened if he agreed to go, but the other goals of the mission would take on such a vastly greater significance. Why me, and could I pull it off without messing everything up? Even Jesus had a hard time fending off temptations in the Judean desert after a long fast, not to mention becoming panicked and terribly depressed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His crucifixion. I knew I'd be tested as well.

"Antonio, what are you saying? How could I possibly end up being nailed to a cross and my sacrifice make any difference to anyone?" I snapped, now on the verge of taking a pass on the whole idea of going on what I thought would be a romantic adventure to a new world, in favor of the much safer alternative of just staying put.

"I can see I haven't explained myself. The only Savior crucified on a cross, at any time, anywhere in the universe, was Jesus on Earth a few thousand years ago as the days are reckoned on Earth. That unique human blood sacrifice followed as a step in spiritual evolution from the Jewish practice of sacrificing animals to the Creator in the Temple. Jesus was crucified, nailed to a wooden cross, because that was the normal method of execution as carried out by the Roman government ruling Israel at the time. On other worlds, at other times, for other civilizations, a different alternative was presented to the intelligent beings given souls, again depending on the unique civil, political, and religious circumstances."

"Well, that's a relief...I guess, but I still have no idea what will all be involved. How can I decide until I know more?" I reasoned, while still looking for a way out of this predicament that would help me save face while not putting me back in spiritual kindergarten.

"You're so right, and if you accept we'll begin designing the Plan of Salvation for the world you'll be sent to."

Antonio paused to receive another message.

"...and I've just been informed that we can finish the process of working out the Plan and then you can decide one way or the other whether you want to commit to the role you've been chosen for. How does that sound?"

Antonio could not have been more reasonable or accommodating, but my heart strings were still tugging on my biological clock. How was I going to bring up wanting him to go along and play the role of husband and father to my child? During an increasingly long awkward pause I was considering my next move. We were engaged in a psychological chess match. We'd been through the opening salvo of strategic moves and were entering the critical middle game where the pieces are set up for the final assault. While my mind was spinning its thought wheels, the check-mate move popped into my head.

"You know that I'm looking forward to also experiencing life as a wife and mother during this next incarnation. Will that be possible if I also accept the feminine Savior role you've proposed? It was a common belief that Jesus was never married and didn't have children. If this isn't too indelicate, many also believe that Jesus never knew what it was to make love to a woman. Will being celibate be a requirement for this mission?" I asked, serious about the question, but hiding my true ulterior motive.

"This does come up again and again with those of you who went through the Judeo-Christian religious traditions on Earth. To set the record straight, Jesus was a man in every respect and that means he knew what it was to know a woman, he married according to the strict Jewish traditions expected of all men at the time, and he had children. His mother, Mary, also had other children, so Jesus had a bloodline that descended from His DNA, but of course it was His spiritual descendants that changed the world of Earth and established principles that are applied to this day in other worlds where the Creator has seen fit to plant the seeds of Faith."