A new look at the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in light of recently
discovered ancient papyrus documents
The Gospel of Judas and A
Course In Miracles
by Ray Comeau
Just before Palm Sunday this
year (2006), the New York Times reported the release of a
remarkable document, the Gospel of Judas. This early Christian
manuscript surfaced after 1700 years, discovered in the desert of
Egypt. The script was written on 13 sheets of papyrus, both front
and back. The manuscript was a mess of more than 1,000 brittle
fragments. Beginning in 2001, four scholars undertook the Herculean
task of assembling and arranging the papyrus fragments. A consensus
English translation appears in the book, The Gospel of Judas
(National Geographic, 2006).
I found that reading the
Gospel is demanding and rewarding. It is demanding because words,
lines, and portions of the text are missing. In the 26 pages of the
text, there are 150 footnotes. Jesus speaks to his disciples using
metaphors grounded in Gnosticism and ancient Jewish wisdom
unfamiliar to me.
And yet, reading it is
rewarding because listening to Jesus speak in the script, I can hear
the same tender, loving voice that I hear every day while reading
his unworldly masterpiece, A Course In Miracles. Although in
time, it appears that the two manuscripts are separated by almost
2000 years, in truth Jesus' voice is eternal.
As I listened to his voice
in the Gospel, I simply allowed the words to wash over me, and I
found that I connected in three places in particular.
The first time Jesus appears
before his disciples, he "laughed." Now that got my attention.
One day he was with his
disciples in Judea, and he found them gathered together and seated
in pious observance. When he approached his disciples, gathered
together and seated and offering a prayer of thanksgiving over the
bread, he laughed. (Gospel, pp. 20-21)
Jesus knew that they were
following their will, not God's, although they piously, or
dutifully, appeared to be doing God's will. In the Introduction to
the book, an editor, Marvin Meyer, comments.
In the Gospel of Judas,
unlike the New Testament gospels, Jesus laughs a great deal. He
laughs at the foibles of the disciples and the absurdities in human
life. (p. 4)
The second connection occurs
while Jesus talking to Judas laughs and says to him, "You thirteenth
spirit." (p.31)
By this Jesus means that
Judas was excluded from the circle of the twelve because his true
identity is spiritual. Judas' will and God's will are one. Not mine
but Thine.
Finally, Jesus says to
Judas, "But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the
man that clothes me." (p.43) Judas is instructed by Jesus to help
him by sacrificing the fleshly body, "the man" that bears the true
spiritual self of Jesus. The editor comments:
Judas finally betrays Jesus
in the Gospel of Judas, but he does so knowingly, and at the sincere
request of Jesus. Jesus is a savior not because of the mortal flesh
that he wears but because he can reveal the soul or spiritual person
who is within, and the true home of Jesus is not this imperfect
world below but the divine world of light and life. For Jesus in the
Gospel of Judas, death is not tragedy, nor is it a necessary evil to
bring about the forgiveness of sins. Death, as the exit from this
absurd physical existence, is not to be feared or dreaded. Far from
being an occasion of sadness, death is the means by which Jesus is
liberated from the flesh in order that he might return to his
heavenly home, and by betraying Jesus, Judas helps his friend
discard his body and free his inner self, the divine self. (pp. 4-5)
And from His heavenly home,
Jesus now speaks to us today. Or better, listen to Jesus in Lesson
70 of His Course in Miracles.
If it helps you, think of me
holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no
idle fantasy. (paragraph 9, 3-4)
In Absence from Felicity:
The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles
(1991), Kenneth Wapnick reports that on October 2, 1976, Helen asked
Jesus this question, "Was there a physical resurrection?"
This is His answer.
My body disappeared because
I had no illusion about it. The last one had gone. It was laid in
the tomb, but there was nothing left to bury. It did not
disintegrate because the unreal cannot die. It merely became what it
always was. And that is what "rolling the stone away" means. The
body disappears, and no longer hides what lies beyond. It merely
ceases to interfere with vision. To roll the stone away is to see
beyond the tomb, beyond death, and to understand the body's
nothingness. What is understood as nothing must disappear.
I did assume a human form
with human attributes afterwards, to speak to those who were to
prove the body's worthlessness to the world. This has been much
misunderstood. I came to tell them that death is illusion, and the
mind that made the body can make another since form itself is an
illusion. They did not understand. But now I talk to you and give
you the same message. The death of an illusion means nothing. It
disappears when you awaken and decide to dream no more. And you
still do have the power to make this decision as I did.
God holds out His hand to
His Son to help him rise and return to Him. I can help because the
world is illusion, and I have overcome the world. Look past the
tomb, the body, the illusion. Have faith in nothing but the spirit
and the guidance God gives you. He could not have created the body
because it is a limit. He must have created the spirit because it is
immortal. Can those who are created like Him be limited? The body is
the symbol of the world. Leave it behind. It cannot enter Heaven.
But I can take you there any time you choose. Together we can watch
the world disappear and its symbol vanish as it does so. And then
and then--I cannot speak of that.
A body cannot stay without
illusion, and the last one to be overcome is death. This is the
message of the crucifixion. There is no order of difficulty in
miracles. This is the message of the resurrection. Illusions are
illusions. Truth is true. Illusions vanish. Only truth remains.
These lessons needed to be
taught but once, for when the stone of death is rolled away, what
can be seen except an empty tomb? And that is what you see who
follow me into the sunlight and away from death, past all illusions,
on to Heaven's gate, where God will come Himself to take you home.
(Absence from Felicity, pp. 398-399)
He is risen. He is risen,
indeed. Happy Easter.
Ray Comeau, after
completing his formal education at Kalamazoo College (English), and
the University of Chicago (English-Education), began a career of
teaching in colleges and universities and at the secondary level.
But his real education began when discovered the masterpiece of
A
Course In Miracles.
The Miracle Times.
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