Why did Jesus leave no record of himself? He didn’t write anything down, didn’t establish any church organization, made no effort to nail down his legacy in the usual ways. He certainly could have. He was educated and wise and attracted quite a following. And so, due to his refusal to leave a tangible record of himself, there are those who suggest he never really existed!
Notice that Jesus often asked those he healed to keep quiet about it. When asked how he spoke and acted with such authority, he took no credit: “Of mine own self I can do nothing. The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” Furthermore, Jesus reassured his followers: “The works that I do, ye shall do also, and greater works than these shall ye do.” In other words, what I do is not a personal gift, but a universal principle available to all who would follow my example, not by profession, but by faithfulness to the Christ principle that I have taught and lived. This is supported by his claim: “Before Abraham was, I am.” He could not have been talking about his physical presence, his personality, but rather he was referring to the Christ principle which he embodied and which was as old as God!
Now back to our original question. Why did Jesus leave no record of himself?
We find a compelling answer in his response to Simon Peter’s correct identification of him “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus responded: “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Flesh and blood equates to the carnal mind, or material man, that which has no cognizance of Spirit, God, and certainly not of Christ. (Note that a blind belief in God does not constitute a cognizance of Him.)
Jesus deliberately left no record of himself for he was not catering to material man who demands empirical evidence for something to be true and real. Such a state of thought must be put off to make room for the Christ message. St Paul captured this understanding in the statement: “As in Adam all die; so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Adam, the material man, may accept a humanistic view of Jesus teaching, and side-step the more demanding requirements of his legacy, but only the spiritualized man, the one who relies not upon empirical evidence, but upon a heart and mind open to revelation and reason, can cognize Christ.
Take a moment to consider what an act of faith it was for Jesus to leave his legacy and the sacrifice that went with it to his disciples’ recollection for some future documentation:
“In no other one thing seemed Jesus of Nazareth more
divine than in his faith in the immortality of his words.
He said, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away;’ and they have not: they
still live; and are the basis of divine liberty,
the medium of Mind, the hope of the race.
“Only three years a personal Saviour! yet the
foundations he laid are as eternal as Truth,
the chief cornerstone.” (Misc. Wr., by Mary Baker Eddy)
With eternity before us, it remains now for mankind to shed its stereotyped religion - Jesus wanted none of it in the first place for it divides people into us vs them and encourages a baseless culture of entitlement. Rather let the universal laws of God, taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus be recognized as Science, applicable to all mankind, and operational by the individual with no institutional oversight. For man to try to enforce the laws of the universe, the universal laws of God, would be as absurd as the physicist trying to enforce the laws of physics - obey them, yes, but not enforce them! For example, the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” can be understood and lived, but who could enforce it upon others!
We recommend the textbook “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy as a tool for deciphering the Science behind Jesus’ life and works. The following excerpts set the tone:
“In order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor
of
hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter
into the
Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us;
and
this advance beyond matter must come
through
the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through
their sorrows and afflictions.
Like our Master, we must depart
from material sense
into the spiritual sense of being.”
“Rise in the true consciousness of Life that is Love — of all that is pure, bearing the fruits of Spirit.”