In Jesus you can see Jeremias. Jeremias himself was a very dangerous man. You missed Jeremias; then you were seeing Moses in him. Now Jesus comes. By the time Jeremias is dead, he has become a statue, a fossil. Now his words don’t carry any meaning to you; you have listened to them so much, they have lost significance. Now you want to see that fossil in Jesus.
Why can’t you see the truth that is facing you? Why do you go on avoiding? Why do you look sideways? Why can’t you be immediate? Why can’t you see that which is? Why are you obsessed with the past and why do you go on translating the present into the past?
If I say something, immediately your mind starts translating it into the past. You don’t listen to me; you listen to your translations. I say something – the Hindu immediately translates it and he says, “Yes, this is what Krishna says in the Gita.” The Mohammedan translates it immediately: “Yes, this is what Mohammed says in the Koran.” Why can’t you listen to me? What is the need of bringing the Koran and the Gita in?
No, this is some trick of the mind. If you bring the Gita in, you can avoid me. Then the Gita becomes the barrier. Then you are protected behind a dead Gita; then you need not listen to the song that is happening this moment. Then your ears are filled with the past, your eyes filled with dust. Your being, afraid, is defending itself. This is your armor – the Gita, the Koran, the Vedas, the Talmud this is your armor. You look behind the scriptures. That is a way of not looking. If you want to look really, drop all scriptures, because truth is always fresh and virgin. It has nothing to do with the past.
“Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.”
There are two types of people who are against. One will say, “You are nothing; just a pretender, a deception, a deceiver.” The other – who does not seem against it – will say, “You represent, you are an incarnation of Krishna, Buddha, Jeremias, Moses.” Both are avoiding you – one by denying, one by accepting but not looking at you. Not only are enemies against, sometimes even followers are against. Not only are enemies trying to escape, even friends. Maybe the friend is more cunning – because the enemy simply says no. The friend says yes, but says it in such a way that it ultimately means no. The friend is more cunning.
There is only one way to see Jesus, and that is to see him as he is; directly. No scriptures are needed to interpret him. He has to be seen untranslated. He has to be seen directly – he has to be faced and encountered, eye to eye, heart to heart. Dangerous it is, I know, and risky, because you will never be the-same again once you encounter the reality, that which is, the truth.
He saith unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?”