Easter - The Gospel of Judas

[Guest guest]

http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

 

 

 

……………

 

The first time Jesus appears before his disciples, he " laughed. " Now

that got my attention.

 

One day he was with his disciples in Judea, and he found them

gathered together and seated in pious observance. When he approached

his disciples, gathered together and seated and offering a prayer of

thanksgiving over the bread, he laughed. (Gospel, pp. 20-21)

 

Jesus knew that they were following their will, not God's, although

they piously, or dutifully, appeared to be doing God's will. In the

Introduction to the book, an editor, Marvin Meyer, comments.

 

In the Gospel of Judas, unlike the New Testament gospels, Jesus

laughs a great deal. He laughs at the foibles of the disciples and

the absurdities in human life. (p. 4)

 

The second connection occurs while Jesus talking to Judas laughs and

says to him, " You thirteenth spirit. " (p.31)

 

By this Jesus means that Judas was excluded from the circle of the

twelve because his true identity is spiritual. Judas' will and God's

will are one. Not mine but Thine.

 

Finally, Jesus says to Judas, " But you will exceed all of them. For

you will sacrifice the man that clothes me. " (p.43) Judas is

instructed by Jesus to help him by sacrificing the fleshly body, " the

man " that bears the true spiritual self of Jesus. The editor comments:

 

Judas finally betrays Jesus in the Gospel of Judas, but he does so

knowingly, and at the sincere request of Jesus. Jesus is a savior not

because of the mortal flesh that he wears but because he can reveal

the soul or spiritual person who is within, and the true home of

Jesus is not this imperfect world below but the divine world of light

and life. For Jesus in the Gospel of Judas, death is not tragedy, nor

is it a necessary evil to bring about the forgiveness of sins. Death,

as the exit from this absurd physical existence, is not to be feared

or dreaded. Far from being an occasion of sadness, death is the means

by which Jesus is liberated from the flesh in order that he might

return to his heavenly home, and by betraying Jesus, Judas helps his

friend discard his body and free his inner self, the divine self.

(pp. 4-5)

 

And from His heavenly home, Jesus now speaks to us today.

 

I could not have said, " Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss? "

unless I believed in betrayal. The whole message of the crucifixion

was simply that I did not. The " punishment " I was said to have called

forth upon Judas was a similar mistake. Judas was my brother and a

Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself. Was it likely

that I would condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that

condemnation is impossible? T-6.1.15:5-9

 

Finally, In Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and

Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles (1991), Kenneth Wapnick reports

that on October 2, 1976, Helen asked Jesus this question, " Was there

a physical resurrection? "

 

This is His answer.

 

My body disappeared because I had no illusion about it. The last one

had gone. It was laid in the tomb, but there was nothing left to

bury. It did not disintegrate because the unreal cannot die. It

merely became what it always was. And that is what " rolling the stone

away " means. The body disappears, and no longer hides what lies

beyond. It merely ceases to interfere with vision. To roll the stone

away is to see beyond the tomb, beyond death, and to understand the

body's nothingness. What is understood as nothing must disappear.

 

I did assume a human form with human attributes afterwards, to speak

to those who were to prove the body's worthlessness to the world.

This has been much misunderstood. I came to tell them that death is

illusion, and the mind that made the body can make another since form

itself is an illusion. They did not understand. But now I talk to you

and give you the same message. The death of an illusion means

nothing. It disappears when you awaken and decide to dream no more.

And you still do have the power to make this decision as I did.

 

God holds out His hand to His Son to help him rise and return to Him.

I can help because the world is illusion, and I have overcome the

world. Look past the tomb, the body, the illusion. Have faith in

nothing but the spirit and the guidance God gives you. He could not

have created the body because it is a limit. He must have created the

spirit because it is immortal. Can those who are created like Him be

limited? The body is the symbol of the world. Leave it behind. It

canot enter Heaven. But I can take you there any time you choose.

Together we can watch the world disappear and its symbol vanish as it

does so. And then and then--I cannot speak of that.

 

A body cannot stay without illusion, and the last one to be overcome

is death. This is the message of the crucifixion. There is no order

of difficulty in miracles. This is the message of the resurrection.

Illusions are illusions. Truth is true. Illusions vanish. Only truth

remains.

 

These lessons needed to be taught but once, for when the stone of

death is rolled away, what can be seen except an empty tomb? And that

is what you see who follow me into the sunlight and away from death,

past all illusions, on to Heaven's gate, where God will come Himself

to take you home. (Absence from Felicity, pp. 398-399)

 

He is risen. He is risen, indeed.