The Name of Jesus Was The Name of One Who Was a Man But Saw Easter
Excert from "A Course in Miracles"
The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his separate identity apart from his identity in God. All illusions maintain this separation. He came to save us by teaching us to recognize illusions. Jesus remains a savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. He bore the Christ to us to save us from our illusions.
Jesus became what all of us must also be. He led the way for us to follow him. He leads us back to God because he saw the road before him and he followed it. He made a clear distinction, still obscure to us, between the false and the true. He offered to us a final demonstration that it is impossible to kill God’s Son. He remains with us to lead us from the hells we make to God. And when we join our will with his, our sight will be his vision, for the eyes of Christ are shared. He offers to us this message:
There is no death because the Son of God (we, the created ones) are like our Father. Nothing we can do can change Eternal Love. We must forget our dreams of sin and guilt, and come with Christ to share in our own resurrection. And we bring with us those whom God has sent to us to care for as he cared for us.
Simply stated, the resurrection is the overcoming or surmounting of death. It is a reawakening or a rebirth, a change of mind about the meaning of the world. It is the acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the world’s purpose; the acceptance of the Atonement for oneself. It is the end of dreams of misery, and the glad awareness of the Holy Spirit’s final dream. It is the dream in which the body functions perfectly, having no function except communication. It is the lesson in which learning ends, for it is consummated and surpassed with this. It is the invitation to God to take His final step. It is the relinquishment of all other purposes, all other interests, all other wishes and all other concerns. It is the single desire of your heart for the Father.
The resurrection is the denial of death, being the assertion of life. Thus is all thinking of the world reversed entirely. Life is now recognized as salvation, and pain and misery of any kind perceived as hell. Love is no longer feared, but gladly welcomed. Idols have disappeared, and the remembrance of God shines unimpeded across the world. Christ’s face is seen in every living thing, and nothing is held in darkness or apart from the light of forgiveness. There is no sorrow still upon the earth. The joy of Heaven has come upon it.
Palm Sunday was the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth. Let us brood no longer on the crucifixion of God’s son, but be happy in the celebration of his release. For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. A slain Christ has no meaning. But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of our forgiveness of ourselves; the sign that we look upon ourselves as healed and whole.
This week began with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign that we are innocent. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of God’s children, not their sins. Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the so-called “gift” of fear. You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. This Easter, we may give to Jesus the gift of our forgiveness given to others as he has given it to us. We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. Nor can the resurrection be complete until our forgiveness rests on Christ.
A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God has undertaken. He started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection, already given him. Let us not wander into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay him there. Help him to go in peace beyond it, with light of his own innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. Hold him not back with thorns and nails when his redemption is so near. But let the whiteness of your shining gift of lilies speed him on his way to resurrection.
All living hearts are tranquil with a stir of deep anticipation, for the time of everlasting things is now at hand. There is no death. We are free. In our freedom is the end of fear. No hidden places now remain on earth to shelter sick illusions, dreams of fear and misperceptions of the universe. All things are seen in light and in the light their purpose is transformed and understood. And we, God’s children, rise up from the dust and look upon our perfect sinlessness. The song of Heaven sounds around the world, as it is lifted up and brought to truth.
Now there are no distinctions. Differences have disappeared and Love looks upon Itself. What further sight is needed? What remains that vision could accomplish? We have seen the face of Christ, His sinlessness, His Love behind all forms, beyond all purposes. Holy are we because His Holiness has set us free indeed! And we accept his Holiness as ours; as it is. As God created us so will we be forever and forever, and we wish for nothing but His Will to be our own. Illusions of another will are lost, for unity of purpose has been found.
We are redeemed, for we have heard God’s Word and understood its meaning. We are free because we let God’s Voice proclaim the truth. And all we sought before to crucify are resurrected with us, by our side, as we prepare with them to meet our God.
Would you not have your holy brother, the one you would have crucified, lead you to Heaven? His innocence will light your way, offering you its guiding light as sure protection, and shining from the holy altar within him where you laid the lilies of forgiveness. This is the way to Heaven and the peace of Easter, in which we join in glad awareness that as children of God, we have risen from the past and awakened to the present. Our gift of lilies has saved us from the thorns and nails. We walk with our brother now rejoicing, for the savior from illusions has come to greet us and lead us home. The lamp is lit for you and your brother.
Now we are sure we do not walk alone. For God is here, and with Him all our brothers. The song begins again which had been stopped only an instant thought it seems to be unsung forever. What is here begun will grow in life and strength and hope, until the world is still an instant and forgets all that the dream of sin had made it. We are still, and in the quiet God has given us we enter our home and are at peace at last.
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