Since that fateful day when Jesus died on the cross, people have interpreted this sacrifice in many different ways. Religions have defined his death as a way to allow sinners to be forgiven by God. The only thing you need to do is to ask for forgiveness and you will then be saved, and when you die you get the free pass into heaven. Can this be true? Is this the only thing that Jesus tried to impart upon us?
Throughout the ages, we have added fun traditions to celebrate this momentous day in history. We now have Easter bunnies, who bring beautifully decorated eggs representing rebirth and renewal. Now we can even visit an Easter bunny at your favorite mall and get your picture with the bunny.
Maybe we started these fun distractions for the kids so that they are not exposed to the difficult truth behind Jesus’ crucifixion — as the details could surely upset them. I believe everyone has the right to disagree with this historical event or even have whatever interpretation as to why this event happened. However, Jesus’ physical death continues to have a strong impact on human societies — both religious and secular.
Now I am not suggesting that we give up on the fun characters we have created that put a smile on the faces of our children. I love the celebration of Christmas with Santa Claus and everyone spreading the Christmas spirit in celebration of baby Jesus coming into this world. Hopefully as people gain good feelings during the Christmas season they’ll spread good cheer and do good works.
I would like to bring a more insightful look at Easter from a spiritual perspective.
If you believe that Jesus was the son of God and was innocent to earthly corruptions and was not born into sin because he was a high soul, then I speak to you to please open your heart and mind. God did not just send his only begotten son to the Earth to die for our sins, but to instead teach us some very important facts about who we really are and that we are also the sons and daughters of God.
One perspective of this event from my view point is that Jesus came here to show us that we are also God’s children. That we have the power to heal ourselves and others and to co-create miracles in the name of God through believing in the divine power within us — as Jesus tried to teach us. If you are from traditional beliefs of how mankind was given a soul and made in the image of God, you also know that corruption and disobedience put up a barrier between us and God. We became fearful and felt unworthy of God’s love and soon forgot who we really are or even how to make our way back.
Further, we moved into fearful and self-righteous thinking. The more we separated from knowing who we are, the more sinful we became. Religious beliefs alone are not the way back. We need to find our way back with our personal connection with God and to remember who we are to regain our inner power. When Jesus walked the Earth, he wanted us to know that we had the power within us to reach out to the universe and ask for wisdom, forgiveness, healing and love. Because we live in shame and fear, even Jesus could not seem to keep people from quickly forgetting all that he said or did to show us the way. Many people continued to live selfishly in negative thoughts and deeds.
Part of the reason Jesus had disciples was to share with them his teaching to heal and connect to God. He knew someday they would need to take over teaching people the way back to positive loving thoughts and deeds, and bring down the barrier between them and God. Once the barrier comes down and you are accepting of an open relationship with the universal mind of God, then you will no longer live in a fearful and negative space.
In part, Jesus taught us how to restore our connection to the universal mind of God. Through the teaching of Jesus, we learned how to come out of the darkness and into the light of God. Forgiveness of sin was not just about negative thoughts and deeds, but also that we separated from God.
This short article does not afford me the space to bring about the whole story of who we really are and how we got so lost, but on this holiday month of celebrating Easter, I wanted to give you some insights so you can be more open to your connection to the universal mind. This will open you to a better relationship with your faith as you embrace God’s gift of giving us a chance to learn and evolve our souls. When we open up our heart’s and trust in a connection with him, through Jesus’ teachings, we are able to be forgiven and will find our way back to God.
Okay, enough of the heavy talk about Easter; put your bunny ears back on, pop a jelly bean into your mouth, and start making egg salad sandwiches out of all those eggs the bunny brought you.
Happy Easter!
