Happy Easter! Recently in Sunday posts, I have noted the collective energy of overlapping religious holidays this spring. All religions serve a larger dynamism in life, even as they fall short in our struggle for co-existence, peace, equality, and united solutions to global threat. There are seeds of Truth here that can be harvested from contemplation of ancient beliefs and spiritual stories, handed down through generations, that over time form the framework of religion. Contemplation is not superficial conclusions, or dismissals, or blind acceptance of someone else's opinions (including mine), but rather a meditative examination of the spiritual experiences of others and the stream of beliefs that have emerged with those experiences. This is a form of spiritual practice for those who are drawn to a personal, individual path in our modern age of accessible world literature.
So this week, I took a fresh look at the Easter story and what it might reveal to me with over 2,000 years of history. The Easter story doesn't really begin 2,000 years ago; it cross-references other stories, scripture and prophecy across an unknown number of years of the Old Testament. There are myths and legends from other ancient sects that have their own resurrection stories as well, weaving early concepts of life and death. The traditional understanding of Easter is summed up in the Bible (John, 3:16) as "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The crucifixion and agony of Jesus' death is seen as a Divine sacrifice that cancels out the sins of human beings, and grants them resurrection--the overcoming of death, interpreted as eternal life.
In the 21st century, the idea of purification through a sacrificial rite of physical suffering and killing is incomprehensible, although it is a part of human history. Surely there is deeper, timeless meaning here beyond the idea that God as the ultimate Causation has made "His Son" a human/divine object of sacrificial suffering and death to cleanse humanity. Jesus used the metaphor of God as a loving Father, not just of Jesus, but really of all Creation. In doing so he defined the relationship between humans and God in a form that was understandable, a God that cares and takes care of Its Creation. The element of universal love that includes a loving God, along with the call to "love one another", is a radical shift in the collective spiritual awareness of humanity. Here is the idea of a Creator in love with, and delighting in, Its Own Creation.
On Good Friday, I was in waiting in my car for someone, mindlessly looking at a concrete block wall with a massive covering of thick vines and sinewy branches that wound around corners and cracks like muscle on bone. I slowly brought the image in front of me into focus with an inner awareness of Jesus' words, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." (John 15:5) I saw that image as our branching individual consciousness, awareness--springing from the Vine--the Source of Consciousness, the Creative All. The Vine cannot be known in its entirety. It is too vast, but the death of Jesus initiated an opening, an expansion of creative potential within the individual that in turn, expands collective consciousness. That expansion is still unfolding in our understanding, as Love, not suffering. Love is the measure. The power of Consciousness both as God and as human being is revealed in everything that has been created, dissolved and created anew, all that has been lived up to this moment in 2023--a Cosmic Consciousness that remains present, living, in, with, and as all. Matthew 28-20: "...Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Susan Nettleton)
A short Rilke poem on Contemplation: https://onbeing.org/poetry/widening-circles/
For John Updike's call to plunge into the literal crucifixion and resurrection: https://thinktheology.co.uk/.../seven_stanzas_at_easter
And Mary Oliver's incisive description of Jesus: http://michaelppowers.com/wisdom/maybe.html