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Today is Easter Sunday. This is our celebration of the greatest gift that God has given us: The Risen Jesus
Traditionally Christians celebrate Easter as the sacrificial time of God's Son on the cross for our sins. As you might expect, A Course In Miracles has something to say about this time. It says:
"This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of truth. Let us not spend this Holy Week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son, but happily 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 the Son of God's forgiveness of himself, the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.
This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love, not the "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 I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to Me, and returned by Me to you. We cannot be united in crucifixion and death. Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with Mine.
A week is short, and yet the Holy Week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God (each of us) has undertaken. He (our brother) started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection , already given him . Let him (our brother) not wonder into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay him there. Help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. Hold him (your brother) 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.
Easter is not the celebration of the cost of sin, but of its end. If you see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the snow-white petals of the lilies you have received and given as your gift, you will behold your brother's face and recognize it. I was a stranger and you took me in, not knowing who I was. Yet for your gift of lilies you will know. In your forgiveness of this stranger, alien to you and yet your ancient Friend, lies his release and your redemption with him. The time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. Look on your risen Friend, and celebrate his holiness along with Mine.
This is the way to Heaven and to the peace of Easter, in which we join in glad awareness that the Son of God is arisen from the past, and has awakened to the present. Now is he (our brother) free, unlimited in his communication with all that is within him. Now are the lilies of his (our brother's) innocence untouched by guilt and perfectly protected from the cold chill of fear and withering blight of sin alike. Your gift has saved him (your brother) from the thorns and nails, and his (your brother's) strong arm is free to guide you safely through them and beyond. Walk with him (your brother) now rejoicing, for the savior from illusions (the Holy Spirit) has come to greet you, and lead you home with him (your brother).
Here is your savior and your friend (your brother), released from crucifixion through your vision and free to lead you now where he would be. He (your brother) will not leave you, nor forsake the savior in his pain. And gladly will you and your brother walk the way of innocence together, singing as you behold the open door of Heaven and recognize the home that called to you. Give joyously too your brother the freedom and the strength to lead you there. And come before his holy altar where the strength and freedom wait, to offer and receive the bright awareness that leads you home. The lamp is lit in you for your brother. And by the hands that gave it to him shall you be lead past fear to love."
Once again A Course in Miracles turns mainstream religious teaching on its head, taking 2000 years of pain and sacrifice away and letting us see the Easter event as our ultimate gift to our brother. Once again ACIM teaches that each of us is God's Son and only deserves God's pure love and not condemnation, guilt and pain.
Jesus died on the cross to teach us that death has no power over God's Son, whether it be Jesus or any one of us, His Creations.
Jesus' crucifixion was one of those "stumbling blocks" that I faced in attempting to come to terms with mainstream religion. I know that this has been a stumbling block for many of you, also. To be asked to accept that the God that Jesus taught and loved could ever need or want the sacrificial death of his Son in order to seek satisfaction for perceived sins of His creations was beyond my ability. However, to see Jesus' Easter trials and death as the ultimate lesson and His proof to us of triumph over death makes all the sense in the world to me.
If we can begin to see Easter in this light ourselves then the act of Jesus' death and resurrection can affect us as it did His disciples. At His death each of his disciples lost hope and faith, Peter himself even denying Jesus 3 times. But upon Jesus' resurrection and return their faith was solidified and each found the depth of belief that Jesus was teaching.
We need to celebrate the miracle of His return. This is what Easter represents.
Traditionally Christians celebrate Easter as the sacrificial time of God's Son on the cross for our sins. As you might expect, A Course In Miracles has something to say about this time. It says:
"This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of truth. Let us not spend this Holy Week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son, but happily 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 the Son of God's forgiveness of himself, the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.
This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love, not the "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 I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to Me, and returned by Me to you. We cannot be united in crucifixion and death. Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with Mine.
A week is short, and yet the Holy Week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God (each of us) has undertaken. He (our brother) started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection , already given him . Let him (our brother) not wonder into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay him there. Help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. Hold him (your brother) 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.
Easter is not the celebration of the cost of sin, but of its end. If you see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the snow-white petals of the lilies you have received and given as your gift, you will behold your brother's face and recognize it. I was a stranger and you took me in, not knowing who I was. Yet for your gift of lilies you will know. In your forgiveness of this stranger, alien to you and yet your ancient Friend, lies his release and your redemption with him. The time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. Look on your risen Friend, and celebrate his holiness along with Mine.
This is the way to Heaven and to the peace of Easter, in which we join in glad awareness that the Son of God is arisen from the past, and has awakened to the present. Now is he (our brother) free, unlimited in his communication with all that is within him. Now are the lilies of his (our brother's) innocence untouched by guilt and perfectly protected from the cold chill of fear and withering blight of sin alike. Your gift has saved him (your brother) from the thorns and nails, and his (your brother's) strong arm is free to guide you safely through them and beyond. Walk with him (your brother) now rejoicing, for the savior from illusions (the Holy Spirit) has come to greet you, and lead you home with him (your brother).
Here is your savior and your friend (your brother), released from crucifixion through your vision and free to lead you now where he would be. He (your brother) will not leave you, nor forsake the savior in his pain. And gladly will you and your brother walk the way of innocence together, singing as you behold the open door of Heaven and recognize the home that called to you. Give joyously too your brother the freedom and the strength to lead you there. And come before his holy altar where the strength and freedom wait, to offer and receive the bright awareness that leads you home. The lamp is lit in you for your brother. And by the hands that gave it to him shall you be lead past fear to love."
Once again A Course in Miracles turns mainstream religious teaching on its head, taking 2000 years of pain and sacrifice away and letting us see the Easter event as our ultimate gift to our brother. Once again ACIM teaches that each of us is God's Son and only deserves God's pure love and not condemnation, guilt and pain.
Jesus died on the cross to teach us that death has no power over God's Son, whether it be Jesus or any one of us, His Creations.
Jesus' crucifixion was one of those "stumbling blocks" that I faced in attempting to come to terms with mainstream religion. I know that this has been a stumbling block for many of you, also. To be asked to accept that the God that Jesus taught and loved could ever need or want the sacrificial death of his Son in order to seek satisfaction for perceived sins of His creations was beyond my ability. However, to see Jesus' Easter trials and death as the ultimate lesson and His proof to us of triumph over death makes all the sense in the world to me.
If we can begin to see Easter in this light ourselves then the act of Jesus' death and resurrection can affect us as it did His disciples. At His death each of his disciples lost hope and faith, Peter himself even denying Jesus 3 times. But upon Jesus' resurrection and return their faith was solidified and each found the depth of belief that Jesus was teaching.
We need to celebrate the miracle of His return. This is what Easter represents.