Mystery XVI: Mystery of Resurrection

Don: What died in the Garden of Eden was a spiritual death—separation from god, the destruction of Oneness with god. Scripture often describes physical death merely as “sleep”; it marks the end of our separation from god, the return to Oneness with him, and thus physical death is the end of spiritual death.

The mystery is fully revealed in the resounding words of 1 Corinthians 15:50-57:

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This concept is elaborated upon in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:17/24/32):

But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!’

When the Prodigal returned, his father said:

‘…for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

When the Prodigal’s brother complained about the lavish reception, their father said he had no choice:

“But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

“Death” in this passage was separation from the father. “Life” is associated with re-uniting with the father. It is talking about spiritual life and death, not physical life and death. When he came to his senses, the Prodigal recognized that he was starving to death. So the return to Oneness with god requires a recognition that we are separated and need his grace. This is a righteous self-awareness, in contrast to fear-driven and ego-driven self-awareness associated with ritual confession and with Adam and Eve as they hid from god after dis-uniting with him by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

The concept of the death of death, the resurrection and return to unity with god in his kingdom, is also mentioned in Revelation 21:3-5:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

The consequences of the Fall and the loss of Oneness included the introduction of pain into the world. Without access to omniscience and omnipotence, without the context of knowing god’s plan from start to finish, our prerogative to distinguish between good and evil—in other words, to pass judgment—is extremely limited. What we do know for sure is pain and its proximate causes; we can reliably distinguish pain from joy. But it is much harder for us to determine whether a pain is evil. In historical retrospect, we can see instances of great goodness arising from events judged by the men and women of the time as evil.

The notion that what I sense as pain is evil, is wrong. This is illustrated in the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, in John 11:1-44:

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”

Jesus evidently did not regard the sickness with the same degree of gravity as Martha and Mary…

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.

…and yet, he showed unusual concern in delaying his journey.

Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”

The last time Jesus was in Judaea, it seems he ran into trouble and was stoned by some people, so the disciples were understandably nervous:

The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” This He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.” The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”

The disciples were still not convinced that the delay was necessary or wise.

Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.

This is one of the many places where scripture talks of “death” as meaning “sleep.”

So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

This is the man later known as Doubting Thomas. Evidently, he already had doubts that Jesus would survive the visit to Lazarus’ tomb, but was willing to sacrifice himself alongside Jesus.

So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

Notice that Martha was passing judgment on Jesus. She was blaming him for the pain of Lazarus’ death, and implied that allowing it was evil.

Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

This is the reversal of death. of the separation from Oneness with god. The contrast between Jesus’s responses to Martha and Mary is the contrast between the divinity of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus. To Martha, Jesus has just proclaimed his divinity, which Martha acknowledges:

She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

But now the story turns to Mary:

When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.

Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Notice again the human judgment, the human interpretation of life’s events. Something bad has happened, so it must be god’s fault. But instead of proclaiming his divinity, as he had with Martha, Jesus now showed his humanity:

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

Again, they blame god—they blame Jesus. But now Jesus proclaims both his divinity and his humanity:

So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

This “unbinding” is a metaphor for the release from, and the reversal of, death. It is a call to all mankind.

David: The Daoist in me would say that Jesus should have stuck to his divinity and not intervened with Lazarus. The Way is to Do Nothing—god/the way will take care of matters in their own way. But Jesus could not deny his own humanity. As a human being with the power to help other human beings, he was obligated to do so. But why then show favoritism on Lazarus? There must have been many mothers grieving over dead or dying children all around him—why did he not bring them back from the dead?

The story seems to pit divinity against humanity.

Kiran: It marks a critical and ominous moment. Jesus’s enemies were incensed by the raising of Lazarus and used it as the basis for their indictment and his eventual crucifixion.

Jay: Jesus seems to have carefully scripted this story, or at any rate his part in it. On the face of it, it seems that Jesus wanted
if the story was carefully scripted (as I think it was) then it seems to have great purpose. The question is: What is the purpose, what is the lesson?

Kiran: People at that time thought that the soul of a dead person departed the body after three days, so by waiting four days, Jesus was leaving no doubt about his power to resurrect.

David: But if death is resurrection, then to be brought back from death is to be un-resurrected! People who have been through “near-death experiences” seem generally to say that they did not want to be brought back; that they were in or approaching a state of bliss. But this is what humanity seeks to do, and this story (to me, inexplicably) focuses on Jesus’s humanity, with just an aside about his divinity. Having both divinity and humanity seems to be a contradiction tantamount to having one’s cake and eating it, yet that is what this story seems to suggest.

Kiran: The Message Bible paraphrases the story and makes it seem quite different. For example, it paraphrases verses 33/4 and 38 as:

When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him. He said, “Where did you put him?”

…

Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”

Don: Who was Jesus angry with? Himself?

David: As a human, perhaps he was stung by being blamed.

Don: Perhaps this gets to the heart of Jay’s point—the purpose, the message, of the story. In the world of good and evil, we are quick to pass judgment on what is good and what is evil. Here, people are passing judgment on Jesus as being responsible for the death of Lazarus. Perhaps Jesus was making the point that they did not know the full context. Maybe this is the best humanity can hope for. Here was undeniable pain and sorrow and loss. But as was the case in the Garden, without knowing all things—without omniscience—we cannot judge whether the knowledge of pain and suffering and loss in the case of Lazarus, or any other given instance, was or is good or bad.

Jay: Perhaps that point would have been more strongly made if Jesus had just let things be; had he not raised Lazarus.

David: What were Jesus’s options when Mary accused him? He could have assured them that Lazarus was in fact alive in the kingdom of heaven and therefore not only well but better than he had ever been. But instead, he took the easy way out; in his divinity he was omnipotent and therefore had the power to raise the dead. Jesus knew that to humanity, seeing is believing, so he succumbed to the temptation to give them something easy to believe. No wonder he was angry with himself!

Kiran: Martha at least knew—she proclaimed it in the scripture quoted—that Lazarus was only sleeping and would be resurrected at the end of time.

Jay: Jesus was emphasizing the point that believing in him would lead to resurrection. The miracle that Jesus performed on Lazarus was much more deliberate and considered than all his other miracles, which appear to be spontaneous. One difference is that in this story he was dealing with very close friends, rather than with strangers. Their pain would have affected the human in him more than the pain felt by the strangers for whom he performed impromptu miracles. Even knowing, in his divinity, that Lazarus did not need to be raised, his humanity got the better of him, so to speak! 😉

The serious points he was trying to make were that he could conquer death for those who believed in him, and that we need to be careful how we judge situations that seem to us, but not necessarily to god, to be evil.

Don: Most of the other miracles of Jesus were indeed spontaneous, but this one was indeed so deliberate as to be, in my view, unmistakably intended as a lesson.

Ada: It is terrible that Jesus felt the same way we do at the loss of a loved one. We may accept spiritually that our loved one has passed to a better place, but that doesn’t assuage our pain and grief at the time. In time, we may even eventually celebrate the passing of a loved one, but we certainly don’t celebrate it at the time.

David: I still cannot see that Jesus deliberately planned the way the Lazarus story would unfold. He was “troubled”—perhaps that means angry—enough to react spontaneously. His emotional reaction was clearly spontaneous, though admittedly his behavioral reaction (the raising of Lazarus) seems considered and deliberate. I think his trouble and anger were the result of his deciding to react with humanity rather than divinity just to favor a friend. Personally, I find this endearing.

Kiran: Jesus was also accused of failing to prevent Lazarus’ death in the first place. Perhaps this contributed to his anger.

David: Even Mary did not lack faith—she acknowledged her faith when she said she believed that Jesus could have prevented the death.

David M: Martha said essentially the same. I agree that Jesus had time to work things out, and that what he did was part of the plan.

Jay: In another part of scripture, when someone came to Jesus begging him to cure a sick person at home, Jesus simply effected the cure on the spot, at a distance, for a complete stranger. It was in principle no different from the case of Lazarus, yet in Lazarus case, he did not effect a cure. He knew the situation yet he opted not to intervene for a dear friend. I don’t understand the different responses to these cases.

Kiran: We just have to accept that we cannot understand god’s ways.

David: Is there a difference in principle between Jesus and doctors? What if Don and David M, instead of trying to cure their patients, said to them: “Don’t worry, you are in god’s hands, and he will take good care of you.” The Daoist would say either way is fine—just go with the flow!

Kiran: If Lazarus was only sleeping, as seems to be the general understanding, then bringing him back was neither here nor there; but had he already begun a new life in the kingdom, then of course to have brought him back would have been awful.

David: Fay told us, as she lay dying, that she was already in bliss in anticipation of the next life, in which she had faith, and that we therefore need not grieve for her. She wrote:*

My beloved brothers and sisters, in spite of what is happening in my body, I assure you I am not suffering. I want you to know and believe that all is well with my soul. God’s mercy is so abundant and overflowing. He has blessed me with such fierce grace. I am in complete acceptance and surrender to His will. And I am very comfortable in my solitude. I am in complete peace, and unafraid. I have everything I want and need. I do not want or need pity or help; please do not feel sorry for me, or like I am a lost soul or whatever, because it is simply not true. I am in bliss. My soul is ripe for the harvest. I am ready. This is not a tragedy to me at all, it is like my wedding day! I am fully in the Here and Now, in the Zone. All is well. I do not want to be mourned, I want to be understood, and celebrated.

It makes me wonder what words came out of Lazarus’ mouth when they took the binding off. We may never know, but I think Fay points us in the direction of the answer.

Don: Yes, it is interesting that Lazarus did not have the last word.

Kiran: I can only believe that Jesus had to demonstrate that he was the resurrection.

David M: He wanted to show his divinity to people, especially his doubters, who took him to be human.

Chris: Jesus knew who he was, but throughout this story he is being doubted—by Martha and Mary, by the Jews, and others. In this story, he is declaring who he is. He drew a line in the sand, between those who accepted who he was, and those who did not. He felt two emotions, one spiritual, and one described as “within”. Perhaps they were emotions of love and frustration or anger. His emotion at the tomb, as he prays to god, is more one of irritation: These people don’t know who I am, so let’s show them!

Jay: Accepting that is accepting that god allows bad things to happen to further his plan. To put it another way, god uses evil to further his plan.

David: But that says we understand god and his plan. Isaiah was unambiguous in telling us we don’t and can’t. What we can see and understand in Jesus, and therefore in god, is only that which is human. That includes Jesus the healer. We are healers—we invented doctors. Perhaps god as a separated entity—disunited from Oneness with us—is not!

* * *

* Fay’s emails are reprinted verbatim in a book based upon our discussion of Evil and centered around the supposed evil of Fay’s cancer. The book is titled Fayth and is available at https://www.createspace.com/4766543.