Resurrection: Seeing Extraordinary in theordinary
The belief in the physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a Central tenet and the foundation of Christian belief.
I would like to propose that the concept of Resurrection has many layers including the physical Resurrection, but Christianity should not make the physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ its foundation.
The foundation of Christian belief should be the Kingdom of God which Jesus experienced, proclaimed and invited others to seek and discover. Jesus said, ‘First of all seek you the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all things will be added unto you’.
The discovery of the kingdom of God is the experience of Resurrection.
The Six Brothers
The term ‘Resurrection’ during the time of Jesus meant life after death. The Jews at that time did not have any definite belief in life after death. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were divided on this issue.
The Pharisees believed in the spirits, angels and life after death. The Sadducees did not believe in all of them. The Sadducees’ party put a tricky question to Jesus on this point of resurrection-life after death- quoting woman who had married seven husbands and died without a child.
According to the Law of Moses, if a man died without leaving a child, his brother had to marry the widow and bring forth children for his brother. The man in the story had six brothers. The widow married one after the other, as each one died without a child, and finally she also died.
Their question was: on the day of resurrection (in the next life) whose wife she would be since she had married seven of them. Probably their conception of life after death was a kind of continuity of the earthly existence. What they wanted to tell was that if there was life after death it would create an embarrassing situation for the woman if she would meet all her seven husbands.
Probably the incident never happened and the story was their own fabrication, to create a difficulty for those who believed in the next life, life after death.
But Jesus took their question seriously and responded to them. He said that there was life after death but it would not be the continuity of earthly existence. It would be a state ofconsciousness where one could transcend the gender differences and be like angels.
Jesus Appears
When Jesus died on the cross his disciples were completely demoralized.
They felt that Jesus had failed in his mission and their belief in him had been illusions. They decided to go back to their earlier occupation of fishing.
When Jesus appeared to these disciples it transformed their lives.
Now they were convinced that Jesus, who had been dead, was now alive. They knew that there was life after death. They began to proclaim that Jesus had risen from the dead. It meant that there was life after death. For them it was no longer simply a belief but a fact.
Three Types of Bodies – The Indian Perspective
From the perspective of Indian theological thinking, the appearance of someone after death does not constitute an important spiritual phenomenon.
The Indian mind had proposed three types of bodies apart from God: gross body, subtle body, causal body and finally the divine.
The gross body is the physical body conditioned by the physical laws. The subtle body is the body of energy which is not conditioned by time and space and physical laws. It can appear and disappear wherever it wants. The causal body is the storehouse of all forms, a kind of energy field, like the morphogenetic field proposed by Rupert Sheldrake; and finally the spiritual realm, which is divine and the source of all the other three bodies.
Therefore from this perspective we can say that the physical body of Jesus was completely transformed. He appeared to his disciples in his subtle body and on the day of his ascension into heaven he left his subtle body entered into the causal body, and finally his consciousness merged into the divine body.
Interesting Examples
On the 30th January 1874 in India, a holy man named Sri Ramalingaswamigal locked himself in a room and told his disciples not to enter. He said even if they did enter they would find nothing.
His seclusion spurred many rumours until the Government finally forced the door open in May of that same year. The room was empty, with no clues as to what had happened to Sri Ramalingaswamigal. This strange incident was recorded in Government records.
In Tibetan Buddhism it is also claimed that when highly evolved masters die, a rainbow appears and the body of the master disappears into radiating light, often releasing a beautiful fragrance and sometimes accompanied by entrancing celestial music. This is called the rainbow body. These masters are considered to be an embodiment of love and compassion.
The Subtle Body of Jesus
Is it possible that the body of Jesus was completely transformed, and in such a way that his physical body had disappeared? Did He then appear to his disciples in his subtle body, a subtle body that was not conditioned by time and space and could in fact appear and disappear.
The appearance of Jesus to his disciples was very important because the Jewish tradition did not have a definite belief in life after death. The appearances of Jesus confirmed the existence of life after death. Otherwise Christianity would have been buried with the burial of Jesus.
Though the physical resurrection of Jesus was necessary and very important at that time for the spread of Christ’s message, Christianity should not continue to make it a central belief.
The central belief of Christianity should be the kingdom of God. We can say that the Resurrection is the experience of the kingdom of God. The phenomenon of Resurrection has many layers and the physical Resurrection is only one among them. There is Resurrection before death and there is also Resurrection after death.
Resurrection before Death
Resurrection is awakening to the eternal self within us. It happened to Jesus at the moment of his baptism. The baptismal experience of Jesus is a kind of resurrection. It is coming out of the womb of time and entering into eternity. It is also coming out of the womb of his spiritual tradition and entering into the universal and eternal presence of God.
Resurrection is being transformed by the divine light. Jesus had this experience at the moment of his transfiguration. His whole physical being radiated the divine light.
Resurrection is entering into the heart of God and realizing oneness with God. Jesus said, ‘the Father and I are one’. Resurrection is seeing the creation as the manifestation of God
Resurrection is the inner transformation through which a person sees the truth of the kingdom in day to day life events. When a man found a treasure in the field Jesus saw it as the symbol of the kingdom of God. When a merchant found a pearl of great value Jesus saw the experience of the kingdom there. When a shepherd rejoiced after finding the lost sheep Jesus saw the joy of God when a person returns to God. Resurrection is seeing everything with new eyes.
Resurrection is transforming our ordinary life into extraordinary life. It is to transform our life into thelife of God and our actions into actions of God. Jesus said: ‘the actions that I do are not my own but the Father who dwells in me does his works’. Resurrection is seeing everything with the eyes of God. It is seeing the whole of creation as the manifestation of God.
Resurrection after Death
The resurrection of Jesus and his ascension into heavenin his subtle bodyare the culmination of the process of resurrection thatalready began at the moment of Jesus’s baptism.
Even in his physical body Jesus alreadyascended into heaven (God) and realized that he and God, his Father, were one. Jesus said, ‘no one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who descended from heaven’.
Christianity, by focusing only on the physical Resurrection of Jesus after his death, has neglected Resurrection before death. Christians look to the future when their bodies will be resurrected like Jesus’ body and forget to have theexperience of resurrection during their earthly life.
I suggest that today it is very important for Christianity to invite its followers to have the experience of Resurrection in this life, without denying the appearanceof Jesusto his disciples. If we have the experience of Resurrection in this life, then we also understand the significance of Resurrection after physical death.
If we emphasize only belief in the physical Resurrection of Jesus, then it will not make sense to many people. They may find it difficult to believe, as is the case today in our time.
Even if people do believein it,it will remain an empty belief without any significance to daily life. Hence we need to have the experience of Resurrection before our death, and leave the Resurrection after our death in God’s Hands.
1