Thoughts are often confused with reality. Those who cling to the bible, or Jesus, are not demonstrating true faith, for faith is the opposite of clinging, it is letting go.
How can you define reality using the past? You do this (we all do this) because it is convenient. The reality we have in front of us is full of the unknown.
We feel like we are all alone, helpless and fearful (just like the disciples), yet we have the feeling that our roots and our past is unfathomable.
It would be convenient to lock it all up within a book, within a belief system. The past is known (or at least we THINK we now the past).
You tell me about events pertaining to the witnessing of apparitions, of jesus' resurrection. All history is in flux, and the accounts of credulous individuals represent the hopes of millions who seek connection to the Source of being.
Jesus persists because his message was true: Money doesn't matter; you are all children of God (the original greek says "I am a son of God'); Turn the other cheek (resist with flexibility/strength); Love one another; I and the father are one (and so are you and you and you); and so on. These are the teachings which first appeared in northern India and gave rise to Buddism as well. His teachings persist because he confronted a pyramid society that suffocates by its own design.
It is not a resurrection, but a continuity in time. The slayer doesn't end a life when he slays; neither the slain nor the slayer should believe so" (Upanishads).
There were many challenges to jewish law and authority, and many messiahs. People felt pain and anguish, and they seek relief, a saviour. There are people who feel they can do a service to people by offering them hope, by offering them "salvation" by living and thinking a different way. that's what Jesus did.
My words are harsh to a believer. to a person of faith, they are a mere challenge perhaps. A believer clings to his bible and is full of fear he will even kill those who appear to be a threat to his beliefs.
Jesus' message is timeless.
The countless systems built up around Jesus are offering hope to those who desire to see it enclosed within a system of rituals, words, and recollections (history). It cannot be made so, and still remain authentic.
The fact or circumstance of Jesus coming back to life after supposedly bleeding to death are in this light completely irrelevant. There is no end. I can only try to explain away the witnesses in the bible as make-believe, as much as the virgin birth, and these fabrications were meant to tie in to the Jewish bible, in order to bring a new consciousness to an inflexible and tired religion.
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