The Mystery of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection

The Bible is bursting with riddles just waiting to be solved. The greatest riddle of all is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or as I prefer to call him, Jesus the Christed one. Why was he treated so badly, mocked, nailed to a cross and even deserted by his closest disciples? How would we deal with such treatment if it happened to us? Can we even imagine what it would be like to have nails hammered through our hands and then have the weight of our hands pull on those wounds for hours!

How does the twenty-first century mind comprehend this and give it relevance? Obviously the church doesn’t explain it very well which is why church attendance dwindles. Science certainly cannot explain it, and even such an eminent scientist as Stephen Hawking has written a book about how science not God has created the universe. Isn’t this like the scientist ignoring his own role when conducting an experiment?

The crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Christ – which is exactly how it should be thought of – showed us in the most graphic way possible a process that will take place in human consciousness over time; no longer physically painful but now mentally painful. This happened in seven specific stages:
1. The Foot Washing
2. The Scourging
3. Crowning with Thorns
4. The Crucifixion
5. The Mystical Death
6. The Burial
7. The Resurrection

It is not a coincidence that these take place after the raising or resurrection of Lazarus. In fact the raising of Lazarus and the resurrection of Christ stand like two pillars at the gateway of a huge change in the development of human conscious awareness. In the ancient temples when initiations took place the candidate entered a state of unconsciousness for three days and when they were awakened by the initiator they have a different conscious awareness from the general population.

We see parallels in the story of Lazarus who was said to have died and remained in the cave for three days before Jesus called him out. The resurrection of Christ did not require an initiator; this is the story of changed conditions where a self-awakening could now take place. We are left to work out how this might happen in our own consciousness.

One answer is available to us if we deeply contemplate the seven events in St John’s Gospel listed above.
1. The Foot Washing
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. John 13:3-5
2. The Scourging
“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.” John 19:1
3. Crowning with Thorns
“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.” John 19:1-3
4. The Crucifixion
“So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol’gotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.” John 19:17-18
5. The Mystical Death
“After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:28-30
6. The Burial
“After this Joseph of Arimathe’a, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicode’mus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds’ weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” John 19:38-42
7. The Resurrection
“Mary Mag’dalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:18