Easter Nonduality

Easter is a proclamation of Christian nonduality. This is seen in two of the most famous Easter stories, which are found in the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John. One is the familiar story of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning. The other is the equally famous story of Doubting Thomas. John’s presentation of the giving of the Holy Spirit – John’s Pentecost – is also examined as part of the Easter Sunday. It is placed on Easter to communicate the truth that the risen Christ shares his spirit, his essential nature with us. This empowerment is called Holy Spirit. It can also be called Self-Realization or Christ Consciousness. 

Transcript

Nondual Easter

Easter is a proclamation of Christian nonduality. Two of the most famous Easter stories are in the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John. One is the familiar story of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning and finding the tomb already open and empty. She immediately tells two apostles who come and confirm what she had discovered. Then there is the wonderful account of Magdalene lingering at the tomb, talking to angels and conversing with the groundskeeper, who turns out to be the risen Lord. 

In this chapter we also have the equally famous story of Doubting Thomas. On Easter evening the risen Christ appears to the apostles within a locked room, but Thomas was not there. When he hear about the visit, he refuses to believe that Jesus had risen. Eight days later, Jesus appears to the apostles again in the same room; this time Thomas is present. After being invited by the risen Christ to examine the wounds on his body, Thomas believes, declaring Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” These resurrection stories – as well as those in the other three gospels – can be seen as a proclamation of nonduality.

First let’s look at the empty tomb, which is the only common element found in all four gospels. The empty tomb is thought by scholars to be the earliest form of the Easter tradition. For example, in the original ending of the Gospel of Mark, which is widely accepted as the earliest of the four gospels, there is only the empty tomb. There are no appearances of the risen Christ.  Historically speaking it is widely accepted by biblical scholars that the earliest Easter message was an empty tomb. Only later did the stories of resurrection appearances begin to circulate.  

What is the explanation for the empty tomb? We have suggestions embedded in the Easter stories. The most logical idea is that someone took the body. That is what we would think today if we came upon an empty tomb, within which we knew someone had been interred earlier. This idea is voiced by Magdalene. She tells the disciples in verse 2 “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have put Him.” She repeats that idea again to two angels she sees at the tomb and also to the groundskeeper, for a total of three times. 

There is no reason to doubt the historical fact that the tomb of Jesus was empty on Easter morning. But what does this mean? This is where we start talking in spiritual terms. The empty tomb is a symbol. It testifies that the true nature of Jesus was not his physical form. His true nature was not subject to death or decay, any more than our essential nature is. 

Physical bodies are transitory, impermant, and therefore not real in an ultimate sense. Only that which does not change is ultimately real. In time our bodies dissolve into the elements from which they were made. Billions of graves are empty today. Billions of people have died in the history of humankind, and their bodies have returned to the elements from which they were formed. As God says to the first man Adam in Genesis, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” Our graves will be empty also one day. For those of us who plan to be cremated and our ashes scattered, that day will be sooner after death than others. 

The empty tomb communicates our true nature. Emptiness is a symbol of nonduality. In Buddhism it is called the void or Sunyata. The empty tomb stories proclaim that Jesus returned to the Emptiness which is his true nature. He became after death what he was before birth. So do we. What we really are is the emptiness. In the Tao Te Ching the Tao, Ultimate Reality, is described as empty space. It is represented by a symbol of a circle that looks like the mouth of an empty tomb. 

In the Old Testament God is said to occupy the empty space between the wings of the cherubim above the cover of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. God is emptiness. To say that God is Spirit is to say the same thing – that God is empty of form. Spirit is non material, nonphysical, literally no thing. This is the true nature of Christ and our nature. 

How about the resurrection appearances? They also teach us about the nature of Christ. First there is the appearance of Jesus to Magdalene at the Garden Tomb. The first element that comes through in this story is how Mary did not recognize Christ. She thought he was the gardener. All sorts of reasons for this mistaken identity are offered by preachers. The simplest explanation is that Jesus did not look like himself. 

This is a theme in nearly all of the resurrection stories. The disciples regularly did not recognize the risen Christ. They are always wondering who this guy is. We see this in the next chapter when some disciples had breakfast with Jesus on the beach. We see it in the much loved Emmaus Road story? Two disciples walked for miles with Jesus on the Emmaus Road without recognizing him. 

The message is clear. Christ appears in disguise. It reminds me of the verse that says that people entertain angels unaware. It reminds me of the parable where Jesus says he comes in the form of the poor and hungry and thirsty and homeless and imprisoned; and people do not recognize him. People will say, “When did we see you hungry or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, Jesus says, “As you have done to the least of these my brothers, you have done to me.”

The Risen Christ is every man and women. Evangelicals are expecting the Second Coming of Christ any day now. The truth is that he is here now, but he is not recognized. There is no room in the inn – again. He comes in form of the immigrant at our borders. He comes in the gay youth who is bullied. He comes in the unarmed black youth shot in the street. Easter is about recognizing the risen Christ in those whom we would not think of as Christ. Christ is with us always, just as he promised, if we have eyes to see.

Another important element of John’s resurrection stories is the physicality of the appearances. The risen Christ is described as not a ghost or a spirit, but flesh and blood. Magdalene is told by Jesus not to hold onto him. Thomas is invited to examine the wounds of the risen Christ. The risen Christ eats food with the disciples. John’s risen Christ has physical form, but it is not a normal physical form. He is able to magically appear within locked rooms, for example, but it is physical nonetheless. 

Why this emphasis on the physicality of the risen Christ? It is so that we see the risen Christ in the physical form of the people around us. This is a call to serve Christ by meeting people’s physical needs. Equally important is the idea that a physical body is no barrier to spiritual realization. We don’t have to die physically to enter the Kingdom of God. We can know nondual reality now before death.

The physicality of the resurrection is no problem in nonduality because there is no distinction between the physical and the spiritual. They are one. When people ask if the resurrection of Jesus was physical or spiritual, I respond “Yes.” Reality is nondual. Physical and spiritual are one. There is a parallel to this in physics, which tells us there is no essential difference between matter and energy. I am no Einstein, but as I understand it, matter is energy in a different form. Matter (as mass) and energy can be converted into each other according to that famous equation E=mc2. Mass can be converted to energy and energy to mass. I watch that happen every time I put a log in my woodstove. Wood turns to energy and heats my home. It is a living example of nonduality. Physical is spiritual and vice versa. The two are one.

In the resurrection the physical Christ is the spiritual Christ. There is no essential difference between the two. That is the truth communicated in these Easter stories. Furthermore this reality is what Christianity calls the Holy Spirit, who is said to dwell within us. In the Gospel of John the giving of the Holy Spirit happens as part of the Easter story. On the evening of Easter day the risen Christ suddenly appears within locked doors to his disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit.

“Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The Gospel of Luke and Acts has this happening weeks later at Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, but in John it is part of the resurrection story of Easter Sunday. It is placed here to communicate the truth that the risen Christ shares his spirit, his essential nature with us. This empowerment is called Holy Spirit. It can also be called Self-Realization or Christ Consciousness. 

It is the risen Christ in us, “Christ in us the hope of glory.” I know Christ is risen because I am aware of this reality in everyday life. I see Christ in everything – in every person and every creature and in every part of God’s creation. As Paul says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” The risen Christ is in me. That is the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.