Last night we watched The Body, a 2001 movie with Antonio Banderas that raised the question that has haunted Christianity since its beginning: What if Jesus had died like a man and left a body? Wouldn’t that be the end of Christianity? I read the other day on the Internet that a documentary is being made in Canada about archeologists who had found what they say is the tomb of Jesus. Of course, there is no body in it. One can find the tomb, but not the body.
So, as is my bent, I ponder such questions and wonder why Christianity has built its church on this foundation, and stated unequivocally that one must believe that Jesus rose physically into heaven or spirit in order for him to be a portal into the after life, i.e., Jesus is God. But if the remains of the body of Jesus were found, then would that door slam shut? Would Jesus then be just like us, doomed for the worms instead of everlasting life?
The movie doesn’t answer the question one way or the other, but the hero priest does finds personal liberation by finding his truth balanced between these two opposite positions. Does it really matter? For me this movie should shake the house of cards anyone has built that depends on a historical fact for its floor. Spiritual truth cannot depend on material form for its validity, because spiritual means no form, not material.
So if one builds their spiritual foundation on a particular form, then what one has built is not truth but an illusion, and all illusions must be constantly defended against any suggestion that its foundations are subject to change. Is it logical to say that all forms change except one, or that all historical facts are subject to interpretation except one fact? History is the realm of relative truth; spiritual truth is the realm of absolute truth.
Can one build the latter on the former and not find them selves standing on a shaking ladder? If we fear when our truth is attacked, do we have truth? Fear is a sign that we have mistaken a relative truth for an absolute truth, and if this were true, then the form with which we have identified could die.
For me the Resurrection means what is possible every moment. When we suffer because of attachment to history, like relationships and even our body, we are on the Cross of ego. When we give up our attachments and release the Will of God, whether the surrender is large or small, we experience a Resurrection. What happened 2000 years ago is just a pointer to what is happening now—if we choose to experience it.
The body of Christ is this earth, this family of man, and each of us. This is the real body we are looking for, not the bones of Jesus. Each of us is a player in this eternal story of death and resurrection; but we miss the mark if we think it is in history, or if we think we know God if we just believe Him.
One can’t believe in Christ objectively to know Him; one has to subjectively do Jesus/Christ and realize that he or she truly is both human and God at the same time.
Posted under General Observations, reviews
This post was written by ed on February 24, 2007
