The Life and Death of Christ (Blog)

Today I received, for the 10,000th time, an email asking me if I believe in Jesus Christ...with all of the rest of the usual "trappings" (a good word for such questions, by the way). Here is my response:

There is only one way, and one way only that any of us will ever know the real meaning of Christ's life, and that is…to share in his death – this means we must give up what he gave up if we would know, from ourselves, what was gained through his deliberate sacrifice. So, if we want to know the truth behind the seemingly incomparable act, then we must stop thinking about it…and get down to the business of actually doing it ourselves. Spending one's time wondering why this man willingly agreed to lay down his life for the sake of the Truth he embodied… is like hoping to be healed by a medicine that you give someone else to take for you.

It doesn't matter what you say you believe in – what you say is true or not amounts to nothing. To paraphrase and enhance a timeless idea: faith without acts is not only fruitless but, along with being the dangerous root of fanaticism, it is one of the dark seeds from out of which grows the evil of religious intolerance. Comparing the value of our ideals to those of others is not what it means to act truly, any more than the act of judging someone proves the worthiness of the judge.

Just because we have the ability to judge others because they don't believe in what we do does not mean that what we believe in is true – in fact quite the opposite holds true: feeling compelled to act as the judge and jury of another for failing to exhibit some desirable characteristic or quality, proves the absence of that quality in ourselves.

Nowhere in Scripture will you find where Jesus Christ says, "I want you to hate or condemn those who fail to live up to your imagined ideals about what it means to love the Light which I reveal to you."

What he did say, however, goes something like this: "I want you to understand -- from yourself -- the real purpose of this life and your place in it – consent to see what is true…in spite of what it seems to cost you. See what lies hidden -- in yourself, in others, and in the world around you -- and for this awakening, by its light, not only will you realize the need to die to yourself, but you will also find the Divine will that alone can help you to make it so."

The life and death of Jesus Christ did not happen 2000 years ago, anymore than the rising and setting of the sun belongs to a particular place and time. The meaning of his life is either one and the same as my own -- meant to be found within my own -- or there is no meaning to his sacrifice. Seen, or not, the life of Christ is now…as is his loving sacrifice for the sake of creation and its continuing perfection.