EASTER: THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF GOD
Ozodi Osuji
In the past several years, every Easter I wrote something on the meaning of Easter. I thought that I was done with that subject and did not think about it anymore.
This morning I talked to a lady to set up a time to meet with her to talk about some business proposition and she said that this Sunday is Easter and that we could meet after church service, I said OKAY and expressed surprise that this Sunday is Easter.
I immediately put the idea of Easter out of my mind. At 6 PM I decided to take my regular every other day two hours walk. On my way coming home on 15th Avenue and Cordova Street, Anchorage, Alaska, I passed a Lutheran Church and saw this huge Cross atop the Church’s building. I began thinking about the meaning of that humongous cross. So, what exactly does the cross mean? I got home and decided to do my thinking on paper and share it with the world.
The Christian Cross is the symbol of the crucifixion of the son of God (God has only one son, you, me, all of us add up to the one son of God).
The cross means that to be on earth, to live in ego separated self in body is to be crucified. We, on earth, are crucified; we live in pain and eventually die and thereafter resurrect.
Good Friday is symbolically the day the son of God, represented by Jesus, was crucified, nailed on the cross and died; Easter Sunday is symbolically the day the son of God, represented by Jesus Christ, resurrected from death (did you notice that I said Jesus and then transitioned to Jesus Christ?).
To live on earth means that we symbolically separated from our father and our real self, the son of God.
God the father and God the son is one shared self.
God the son, us, metaphorically left our father and real self, as the prodigal son, and went on a journey to a faraway country (to the universe of space, time and matter, earth). Now, we live on earth, in body, in space, time and matter and have forgotten our real selves as the formless, unified son of God.
The prodigal son went on a journey and tried to adapt to his new home, to his new alien, separated self in body; initially, he did well but was destined to fail because he could not forget his real self forever and ever.
He fell and that was symbolized by poverty, him eating with pigs, swine; been reduced to that level of gutter existence he recognized that he made a mistake in leaving his real self, in denying his real self, the son of God, who is one with his father.
He acknowledged the mistake of living as if he is no longer the son of God, part of the whole spirit and decided to return to living from his real self, the son of God who is one with God.
Thus, he reawakened to his real self, the son of God and simultaneously awakened to the knowledge that the son and the father share oneself and one mind.
In regaining awareness of his real self, he also regained awareness of who his father is; he returned home to his father and to his real self.
Where is that real self, his home, is it in a faraway place called heaven? No, it is where he is. It is where you are, now; if you now recognize that you are the prodigal son who had left your real home, your father and real self, son of God and have been living as a false, ego separated self, and decide to give up the ego and regain awareness of your real self, the son of God, since he is in you, you do not have to go anywhere, you simply awaken to the awareness of your real self, the son of God and your real home in God, heaven.
God, heaven, the son of God is in you, is where you are, and you deny them and identify with the false, ego separated self in body in space and time. Thus, salvation requires you to stay where you are and simply regain awareness of your real self and know your identity.
In Christological terms, you let the ego self in you metaphorically die and the Christ self, the son of God who is as his father created him, one with his father and all his brothers, awaken in your awareness.
Henceforth, you are the Christ self; that is, the unified self and no longer see you as the separated self. You experience yourself as an eternal part of the formless, unified spirit self that folks call God.
You are always in God and cannot separate from him; you merely seem to sleep, that is, forget your real self, and dream that you are Thomas or whatever your name is, and that you are in a body and walk around in a city called Anchorage, Alaska, USA. While you so dream you are always in unified spirit self, aka God, heaven.
CONCLUSION
You were crucified on the day you were born on earth, the day you began living in body, space and time; the day you separated from your real self, the son of God.
To be on earth is to be crucified, to be metaphorically dead (the son of God is immortal, so you did not die, you are merely sleeping and dreaming and like Lazarus Christ will wake you up from death; that is, help you to remember your real self as the Christ, the resurrected son of God, the loving self).
You resurrect from this metaphorical death when you recognize that you cannot be an ego in body. God could not create you in body that will die, decay and smell like feces. God is too powerful to create what will die.
God created you as an immortal spirit, as part of his immortal spirit. You are the one who closed your eyes and projected yourself into body, in space, time and now seem to be living on earth.
You left your real self, your homeland, heaven, unified spirit self; you must be the one who makes the decision to return to your real home.
Each of us left his real self and as the prodigal son went on a journey away from his real self; that is, each of us crucified himself.
Each of us must undo what he did by becoming reborn in his Christ spirit self. Each person will do it when he wants to; no one else can do it for him; you cannot do it for me, and I cannot do it for you.
We all can talk about it, as I am doing here, and, thus, give each other information on what we need to do to become resurrected to our real self, son of God, part of the eternal unified spirit self.
The day you remember and embrace your son of God status and jettison the ego separated self is your Easter day.
- I got home from my walk at exactly 8PM; it took me 30 minutes to type this essay. The essay is written from a Christian Gnostic perspective (which is the same as Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism).
Ozodi Osuji
April 15, 2022