There are three main events surrounding Jesus life; his birth, Death and resurrection.
His birth, although heralded as a great event, is not what I am concerned with at this stage. It is his death and resurrection which I believe holds the most pertinent information about what he came to teach.
The bible is used as the ‘go-to’ on how to live like Jesus and his death, referred to as the crucifixion, is the most powerful event in his life that Christians use to support their belief in sin and the need to be absolved from it.
Jesus didn’t die a ‘normal’ death, as far as certain religions are concerned, he died to do the world a great service and remove our sin. The take-home Message of his death therefore is; we are sinners and Jesus saved us by sacrificing himself, as the son of god, allowing us to live without sin. The catch is, we are never allowed to forget that act of martyrdom.
But let us consider instead a non-emotionally-loaded message that can be taken from his death. It was an example of life and triumph.
He was killed according to a custom of the day, Roman crucifixion, amongst thieves and other considered low-lifes, and used because it was a particularly painful way to die. It was not an especially derived form of death for Jesus.
The example his death offers us is that the Body was tortured and died.
As an ego, he was humiliated and rejected. As an example of complete abandonment and abjection, his is among one of the best to observe. The ego was completely pummelled as the Romans sought their retribution via its public humiliation. A scenario few of us could withstand without complete identification with the process and its intent.
He took nothing with him, no shame or sin. To mythologise this point is to lose credibility. He came to earth, took a body and proved its fallibility. And his resurrection, again mythologised by religion, forms the crux of the message of his death.
Simply put, he proved spirit endures past the death of the body and regardless of what that body was put through. His death and ghostly return demonstrate the eternal life he attempted to teach of.
He took no sin, because it doesn’t exist. The word itself originated to convey the meaning of guilt. Guilt is a heavily relied upon tool in religion to keep people down and trapped.
Jesus does not advocate we feel guilty. His message is one of freedom. His death and resurrection illustrate the futility of the body and the endurance of Spirit instead. His was a message of life.
But it is not enough to write about it. It has to be lived.
Living with belief in the idea that we, as spirit, are enduring, and the body is the illusion we have used to wrap ourselves up and away from our original Source with.
Exemplifying the 'Christ' life, (which is what Jesus was, not who) requires continual, daily attempts reinforcing your commitment.
We do not need to live to a certain creed or doctrine. We only need to accept our eternal nature, and this takes time and practice.
The acceptance of our eternal Self gives us access to eternal types of thinking.
Eternal thinking sees past bodily problems and issues and allows us a softer vision.
We begin asking questions such as, ‘does this really matter? This tiny little five-minute issue? But also, we begin to see the suffering of the world stemming from a belief in the existence of the body as the only way we manifest.
If we dilute down our pre-occupation with enhancing the body's existence whilst we are here and place that thought-energy toward learning how to accept our eternal nature, then our suffering can be alleviated.
But why should we? Because we can.
Sitting in our safe westernised space we have been given the luxury of security. Let’s use it for the betterment of ourselves on a spiritual level, not a material one.
The message of Jesus' life was to show us the way out of this place.
