resurrection of Jesus

Surrender, Crucifixion, and Resurrection

Thoughts on Surrender, Crucifixion, and Resurrection

As Easter comes around, I find that my meditations turn to thoughts on the resurrection.

To consider the life of Jesus separate from the resurrection seems to miss the importance of what the final three acts of His story can teach.

That final step, resurrection, may seem so far above and beyond what you can ever accomplish in your own Spiritual life that you dismiss it as a life lesson.

When I look at the life of Jesus, I don’t think anything is accidental. Every act, every miracle, every parable was His way of teaching. He taught by doing and demonstrating through His own life what it meant to be both the Son of God and the Son of Man.

What Jesus Taught by Example

This teaching by example, through the activities and events of His own life, are never more significant than in understanding the last three acts of His life. The fact that these acts were so amazing and so far beyond what the average human being feels they could do I believe has resulted in His followers sometimes dismissing the deeper message that is embedded within them.

Jesus came into human existence to demonstrate what a human being can be and can do. Not only does He demonstrate His human nature, but He also demonstrated His Divine nature. That was the message, not an accident.

Jesus, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, was demonstrating the full potential of what it means to be a dual being, a blending of being both fully human and fully Divine. It is this mystery that I believe empowers the deepest meaning of these last three steps in His life adventure, Surrender, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.

It is easy to dismiss the life of Jesus as a story of a God and miss that is also a story of a Man. It is easy to see the sacrifice of the crucifixion and forget the pain of the surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It may also be easy to focus on the life of Jesus and think that because he was also Divine His example and demonstration does not relate to your life and isn’t an example you are being called to follow.

That would be a mistake, for Jesus told His followers, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12-14 (New Revised Standard Bible Version.)

Jesus was not holding Himself out as an example of a miracle worker who was beyond human ability. He was telling His followers, His disciples, what they can do and can be. He was telling you what your ultimate purpose is as a material human being who is also endowed by the Father (Creator) with the spark of Divine Light that is the gift to every human being to become the dual being of a Man-God.

If you ignore the significance and the suffering of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane you may have missed the crux of the story. It is reported that “Jesus wept.” John 11:35. Jesus was more than a Divine being playing out a drama on the stage of life. He was a living, breathing, real human being who decided to sacrifice himself out of Love for Humanity.

Everything that happened in the next three days, the crucifixion and the resurrection were the result of that human choice, made in prayer and distress as He said, “Not my Will but Thine be done.”

The man Jesus, chose to surrender His will to Divine Will. Jesus chose to sacrifice His human life as an act of Love.
– Genevieve Gerard

That choice and that sacrifice allowed a miracle to happen. That miracle was mystical and the fulfillment of Divine purpose, as in that moment of total obedience and willing sacrifice the energy of Divine Love was able to be anchored on Earth. That was such a powerful and profound shift in energy that the veil in the temple was rent. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:45–46)

The mystery is that is what marked the moment that humanity began to have true Divine Love available.

It is significant to note that Jesus committed His Spirit to the Father as his material body breathed His last. It is noteworthy that the resurrection happened three days later, on Easter morning. Jesus, in the final act of His surrender, was totally aligned with the Father (Creator) and totally aligned with bringing the force of Divine Love to earth. This was His act of Love and His act of service for all of humanity.

In that final act, not only was Love anchored on earth, but the human part of man that was Jesus completed His union with the Christ which had been over-lighting and guiding His message and His activities throughout His teaching and preaching. It was this connection of the man Jesus, with the Divine aspect of the Christ, that explains the dual life of Jesus, how He could be both God and man.

The fusing of the personality of Jesus, (the man) with the energy of the Christ (the Divine) is the most profound part of the story of the life of Jesus. It provides the best example of what you are directed to do as a human being, to bring through your Soul into your personal life, thoughts, words, and deeds through the Divine energy of the Christ.

It is this fulfillment of the example of the life of Jesus that creates the fulfillment of His words of “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12-14 (New Revised Standard Bible Version)

Jesus going to the Father was more than hyperbole. It was a mystical act of joining His human nature with His Divine nature. And the Christ is the One who serves humanity as the conduit from human existence to the Father (Divine Creator essence).

When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (Contemporary English Bible Version) He was speaking not a truth of separative requirement that limits people to Christian belief, but rather an energetic truth that the path to the Father is so vast and charged that the Christ serves as an energetic portal for reaching that exalted transcendent energy.

By Jesus embodying the Christ, He demonstrated how you as a human being and a Soul could go to the Father. Going to the Father is what empowered the life of Jesus. It is what gave Him the ability to perform miracles, especially those miracles that seem to defy the laws of matter and the laws of nature as we understand them to be.

This aspect of going to the Father is also what makes resurrection, not simply the last act in the drama of Jesus’s life but the confirmation that resurrection is the final example that Jesus demonstrated as what you and I are instructed to do eventually.

Each Easter, as we celebrate the joy of resurrection with the words shouted across the world “He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed” are offered as the comfort and reassurance of our eternal life through the miracle of resurrection.

Resurrection is a miracle and a mystery, but it is also a promise for the Son of Man who like Jesus is the Son of God.

Ponder on this and celebrate this Easter season in remembrance of the one who sacrificed His life to show us the way.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Divine Love on all that you do!

Easter Ponderings on Resurrection

Be One with the Body of Christ

Holy Week Reflections

Empower Me To Bring Love & Light To The World Today:
– A Light-Workers Prayer, A Light-Bearers Invocation

Recommended Meditation

The Gift of Love Meditation: Open Yourself to the Love of Your Soul

Surrender, Crucifixion, and Resurrection Read More »

Easter Ponderings on Resurrection

Genevieve Gerard

Easter Ponderings on Resurrection

On Easter, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.

There is perhaps no more miraculous event in the story of the life of Jesus than the resurrection. There is perhaps no part of Jesus’s story that fills the human heart with hope and promises more than the resurrection.

The very possibility of resurrection defies the laws of matter as we understand them. Resurrection is the ultimate victory over death. Resurrection is the triumph of spirit over matter. It is a mystery that is beyond our comprehension, and it is a mystery that is not explained in either the Bible or church teachings in any century or denomination. In spite of the inability to understand the miracle of resurrection, the very possibility and promise of it fill the human heart with joy.

During this time while churches across the planet celebrate with the powerful words “He is risen,” “He is risen indeed” it may be valuable to ponder upon what the resurrection says about the life of Jesus and what it says about our spiritual journey and spiritual responsibility. It is all too easy for you to dismiss the lessons of the life of Jesus as unrelated to your life. After all, He was the Son of God. He had an edge that you do not have.

From my very early forays into theology, it has been clear that what Jesus demonstrated in His life, His example and His mission was more than historical stories and miracle stories. These stories were an example and teaching that had relevance for how we were instructed to live our lives, to find our way in the spiritual journey.

There is no greater mystery in the life of Jesus than the miracle of resurrection. Even those of deep and unwavering faith can affirm that the resurrection was real and is real without understanding how it was possible.

I believe even Jesus’s most beloved disciples and the women who went to his tomb on Easter morning, may not have fully understood the resurrection at the time. Thomas, whose very name became associated with doubt, refused to believe in the resurrection unless he placed his hands into the wounds made by the crucifixion. Even though the story tells us, that Jesus was walking and teaching His disciples after his passion.

To understand both the miracle of the Resurrection and what was being demonstrated about the nature of life, we need to expand our understanding of the nature of life itself; and, more importantly, the nature of matter, the nature of consciousness and most importantly, the nature of the Soul.
– Genevieve Gerard

In some ways, the event of Resurrection is entirely miraculous, testing and at times transcending our ability to believe. In some ways, the Resurrection is no more miraculous than the event of life itself. I believe to glimpse what Resurrection promises we must expand our understanding of the nature of life to way beyond our usual comprehensions. We must open our awareness to the eternal nature of our Soul, to the great potentiality of consciousness, and stop limiting our thinking to the dense matter of our physical vehicle.

If you are a Christian, think of the Christ, who came not to be served by others but to serve them in joy, in peace, and in generosity. For these things, these are not mere words, but acts, which go all the way, right up to their last breath. Even their death is a gift, and resurrection is born from this kind of death.
– Jean-Yves Leloup

Much that is miraculous, much that is mysterious, becomes possible and more understandable when we assert the fact that although we have a body; we are as a consciousness much more than a body. For the Soul to manipulate the atoms of matter to create a physical body once the material body has deteriorated is a repetition of the events that the Soul engages in to bring into life and substance every child that is born. The principle is the same. It is the consciousness, or particularly the continuity of the consciousness that Christ brought to his resurrected body.

The miracle of life itself and the miracle of the resurrection is entirely under the direction of the Soul. What is to me the most important part of the Passion of Jesus is what it teaches us as spiritual beings about the relationship with our Soul. What Jesus demonstrated that we can use as an example for our own lives was complete obedience to not only the direction of His Soul but perfect obedience to Divine Will.

It is evident in the stories of His suffering in Gesthenemeny that He was coming from two very different perspectives. He was demonstrating both his personal life and His Soul life. Certainly he did not want to be arrested, scourged and crucified from his human perspective. Whether He as a personality knew or fully understood the importance of the next few days of His life is something that theologians will probably be discussing and arguing about for the next 2 thousand years.

What is important and significant is not if he had pre-knowledge of the significance of His sacrifice and all of the magical and mystical ramifications of it. What it seems is important is the obedience to His Soul and God that he demonstrated. That is a lesson that we can strive to achieve in our own lives and our own journey.

What is certainly clear if we examine the life of Jesus is that he was in touch with the direction and promptings of His Soul and through that relationship in an ever growing relationship with God who He came to regard not only as the Source of Love in his life but as His Heavenly Father. He taught us not only that “God is Love,” but also oneness with the Divine as He taught “I and the Father are One.” These are an understanding and awareness that only comes from the Soul. This is an understanding and awareness that is achievable by developing a relationship with your Soul.

It is a magnificent miracle of the human experience that we exist in a dual relationship with our material human body, with our emotions and our thoughts, while we have a Soul which is eternal. These different parts of our nature are revealed and direct our life in different ways. Indeed, learning to identify the prompting of your Soul from the desires of your personality is a big part of the spiritual journey. Learning to call upon and utilize the power of your Soul or the power of the Soul of another in healing is a lesson taught time and time again in the spiritual life, especially when your life is dedicated to others.

It is through surrender to the Soul that the body, emotions, mind, and integrating efforts of the personality can come into awareness of the eternal essence of your being.
– Genevieve Gerard

In my Easter morning ponderings on the resurrection, I find it inescapable to realize that the miracle of resurrection is the secondary result of the surrender to the Soul. It is through surrender to the Soul that the body, emotions, mind, and integrating efforts of the personality can come into awareness of the eternal essence of your being.

Through a relationship with your Soul, especially in the decision to “let the Soul control” is a new awareness of how miracles are created. It is through the time you live and demonstrate the dual life of a disciple that the life and example of Jesus become most edifying and significant. It is through the expanded awareness that life and consciousness are not limited to your physical body that the whole concept of resurrection becomes a real possibility.

While what was demonstrated in the Resurrection remains beyond the strength and determination of most of us at the time of our death, stories are told throughout time of a loved one appearing to communicate after physical death, usually a message of love and reassurance to those they have left behind. If we consider the Resurrection of Jesus one more demonstration, one more instruction about the unlimited possibility and potentiality of life, and we open our hearts and minds actually to consider what all of this means, we are reassured that death has no victory, and the life of the Soul is eternal.

It is by pondering what the Resurrection demonstrated about the truth of life, the nature of life and the eternal nature of life that we are freed from the fears that our limited comprehension fosters.

The possibility and promise that Easter gives, even if we fail to understand it fully, is the joy and assurance that consciousness is eternal. We, as the children of God and the carriers of the spark of the Divine enjoy that eternity as a part of our birthright. In the Resurrection, the life of Jesus once more demonstrated to us, as he did throughout his life, what we truly are. So we celebrate with joy the life and the teachings of this master of enlightenment, pondering what his resurrection teaches us about our life, our own Soul and the awesome potential of our own consciousness. Let there be light!

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

P.S. QUICK FACT: This post has been viewed 17,147 times. Please share it with friends and then check out our other related posts below and in the “Hot Topics” sidebar.

Hand-Picked Posts You Might Also Like

Be One With the Body of Christ
Holy Week Reflections
Thoughts on Surrender, Crucifixion, and Resurrection
Recommended Meditation

Experience Unity Through the Christ
A Live Heart-Focused Guided Meditation by Genevieve Gerard and J.D. McTague
available on my website or Amazon, or iTunes.

If you have benefited from or enjoyed this post, you can help by doing any of these actions.
       1) Share this with your friends or community.
       2)Make a donation to enable me to continue teaching, writing,
          and support spiritual growth and awareness in the world.

Last updated 4-7-2023

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”