" What's so good about it?"
That may have come from a comedian - but the point is apt.
The guy lives a life of love, loving, being loved, spreading love - and the symbol we use in his honor is from the worst afternoon of his journey. 'Hi Jesus! Look, I'm wearing your cross!" "Um, that's not my cross, actually, those Roman fellows made that thing."
Allow me to be heretical for a moment.
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| Tiziano Vecellio |
To be clear, scholars agree he was on the cross for a day.
Perhaps an afternoon. Scourging aside - there is a sequence of events in his story that can be examined. He's put on a cross alongside two other fellas who'd been there longer. Perhaps all week long as was the custom.
He's given some gall - wine mixed with myrrh - by a soldier and a few moments later appears to give up the ghost. (Passes out or is knocked out, it's a debate.)
Meanwhile Joseph of Arimethea is in Pilate's office asking for the "living body of Jesus" off the cross. (According to the original Greek and Aramaic, the word "Soma" he used was for a living person.) Pilate reportedly replies, "you can take the corpse down. (Ptoma) " And then they do. Estimates could be three hours, perhaps longer out there in front of everyone.
Soldier reportedly stabs him in the side - and water and blood flow out. (See Livor Mortis) Well, that usually indicates someone who is alive - as blood generally doesn't flow from dead bodies, but be that as it may, the next piece of the story is that he's met at the cave by Nicodemus with 75 to 90 pounds of Aloe and Myrrh.
Interesting detail - myrrh being the same thing brought to Jesus at his birth - but it represents not an ointment for the dead (else why bring it to Mary after she's given birth?) but an ointment for the living. A restorative. As it still is. Same goes for aloe.
Since there's never been a Jewish tradition of anointing the dead (despite the good book's admonition and claim there was) with any oils or paste or goop. They bury their dead before sundown so they don't have to pack them in salt or goop or smelling salts. Never have. Never will.
So the only logical thing is that our pal Nicodemus has brought along a whole bunch of bags of restoratives to this cave. Not "anointed the dead" products. Who needs 75-90 pounds to do that? I mean, can we say "overkill?" ("Nico! Enough with the ointments already! You could have brought a pound - but 75 pounds?")
And then what happens?
According to the guards, who reported to the Sanhedrin, "his followers came and took him to another cave." According to the gospels, they claim this was a lie - and that the guards, who were working for the Sanhedrin were covering up for being "asleep on the job." (That's a quote, literally. They were lying because they slept on the job.)
‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ Matthew 28:11–15
But hang on. The next day - when a posse shows up to find him - where'd the 75 pounds of aloe and myrrh go?
Every report in the good book has an empty cave. Empty except for a cloth. (Reportedly the shroud.) A couple of accounts mention angels (one account has them standing, another has them sitting. Must get tiring flying around all the time. But I digress.)
Never mind that the shroud shows someone who is alive (the dead don't bleed, and whoever was in the shroud was bleeding) and then when his pals show up at the cave, it's rolled away and he's gone... or in the garden disguised as a gardener - but either way - no one mentions the 75 pounds of aloe and myrrh. Or the bags they were carried in. All used on one afternoon? Really?
Where'd they go? Vanished into thin air? Lugged out the back of the cave? No one mentions them.
That with the help of his pals, followers, some of the Roman legion, he was allowed to escape. He figured out a way and method to survive the ordeal. He used his incredible healing powers as well as conscious abilities to not get killed on the cross.
He didn't "escape" or leave the region immediately - people claim the aloe and myrrh was used to restore him prior to going to visit his apostles, which was at least 80 miles away from Jerusalem - so it's not like he left the cave on Sunday for supper with his pals. Reportedly, it took months for him to heal.
As reported, his followers were as astounded as anyone to see that he still existed.
Who else would stick his finger in someone's wound and say "Is this really you?" I mean, c'mon Thomas.
(Reportedly Jesus returned the favor to Thomas - in the "Acts of Thomas" from the Gnostic Gospels, Jesus tells Thomas to go to India to preach, Thomas refuses, so Jesus sells him to an Arab trader to work on his ship.
Thomas claims he was forced to go to India, where he landed in Kerala. The spot where he landed became an ancient church, a new one exists next door (despite the Catholic church claiming it didn't happen). Those Kerala Christians follow a form of Christianity closer to what Thomas preached.)
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| The St. Thomas Church near where he landed near the ruins of an ancient church built in his honor in Kerala. Lots of Christians not recognized by any Church (other than Thomas) |
That he had survived this ordeal, with the help of some pals, with the help of his ability to heal, with the help of his years traveling the silk road and learning esoteric yogas that allow for consciousness to be outside the body (see "the six yogas of Naropa" for examples) - they claim, I don't claim - they claim that he survived this ordeal.
So - the good news is - he reportedly survived.
But in retrospect it was a miracle that he did - survived a Roman crucifixion.
And to do it with style, grace and love for everyone involved (including his pal Judas, who in the Gospel of Judas claims that Jesus came to him and said in effect "You have to turn me in, in order for this ruse to work." "If you love me, you'll do as I have asked." Quoting Judas now.) The story has many levels of grace as shown.
(Never mind that the Qur'an reports he survived. He's called "Issa" or "Isa" in that book, as he was known throughout the Middle East. People in the reports about him have called him Esaiah, and even "Essie.") (See "Hacking the Afterlife" for those reports)
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| Hacking the Afterlife |
The reports continue that he traveled with his "wife" (Mary of Magda, reportedly wed in an Essene ceremony prior to his ordeals) and together with their family (at least one, later 5) found his way to Kashmir and lived out his days as a preacher who continued to speak about life everlasting, and how the flipside is a kingdom where everyone is welcomed. Again - not my story. I am reporting.
But that's another story.
This story for today is to say, when we think of "Good Friday" maybe it's good because we can challenge the narrative with this other story - how some pals figured out a way to save the life of their friend, and his unique ability to be a healer and someone who understood reality on a different level, he was able to live out the rest of his days in relative obscurity. Happy. Still preaching, albeit to a different flock.
During one of the sessions that I filmed of speaking with him, when asked "why are you allowing this alternate story to emerge of what happened to you?" he replied "It's not alternate if it's truth."
And then we have the people who claim he still exists - that he has come to them in dreams, visions, near death events - and given them new information. People who claim he's accessible to anyone - that he "never left" because no one "leaves" - we step outside this realm and into another one. That we can incarnate from, reincarnate from, and that he's done so since then.
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| Not gone. Just not here. |
It's not my belief, opinion or theory that people say these things consistently. I just film them doing so.
Here's an interview with him via Jamie Butler (from the Channeling Erik Website). I've filmed another interview with Jamie and him sometime later, have yet to post the transcripts of that interview. It's equally mind bending.
So when we think of Easter - perhaps think of the idea of resurrecting this fellow's life, becoming aware that he still may exist, that reportedly he's available to anyone who needs his help, that's he eager and willing to help anyone who reaches out for him.
It's an odd way of saying "Happy Easter" - because it includes the idea that we can all resurrect him by examining his story in closer detail.
That the "Second Coming" may be our awareness that he never left. Or that no one "leaves" - they return "home" to the "kingdom of home" where everyone reports a feeling of unconditional love.
But they actually use the word "home" instead of "heaven."
Again - I am just reporting.
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| Graphic from the shroud with filters |
When asked during an "interview" why it was that he had such a profound effect on people who have seen him since then (hard to breathe, tears, red faces) he said "I brought more of source with me to this lifetime. When people are near me, they feel that unconditional love." ("Hacking the Afterlife" Chapter 18: "People who claim to have met Jesus.")
To which I replied "Not so much with the Romans."
And the person who was accessing him in the interview (in "Hacking the Afterlife") said "He's laughing. He just laughed when you said that."
Which is a small Easter egg unto itself.
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