Taking Good Friday Within

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This was written for Good Friday, April 22, 2011.

Last week I wrote about Palm Sunday and how we could understand some of the story of Jesus as metaphors for our relationship with Life. I suggested we could receive the Palm Sunday story as a metaphor for the Christ Consciousness (force of life) within us, and we could use it to ask ourselves, "How am I receiving and using the power of Life within me? Am I at war with my world, using my power to try to change and control the outside world to my liking? Or am I using Life to bring myself into harmony and loving acceptance with What Is?"

The story continues: This Friday before Easter is called Good Friday. In the story, it marks the day Jesus was "betrayed" by Judas in the garden and Jesus was condemned and crucified.

We should first note that the "Good" doesn't mean anyone thought it was good to crucify someone. Sometimes the day is called "Black Friday," or "Holy Friday." The word "Good" is a translation from a word that means "pious" or "holy." The day is celebrated in most Christian churches with solemn ceremonies of prayer and meditation.

Jesus was betrayed by Judas. Or, maybe not. There is good evidence that Judas was the closest to Jesus. He was the treasurer of the disciples, and had been with Jesus for his entire ministry. I believe that Jesus offered the task of fulfilling the prophesies to his most beloved apprentice, both of them knowing that Judas would be sacrificing himself among his peers and throughout history.

Inside many of us there are parts like Jesus and Judas. The Christ Consciousness (Life, Love, Perfection, Divinity) is "in this world but not of it." The Judas part must deny and betray that truth of our nature in order for us to fulfill our destiny as humans here. That consciousness must go to sleep and dream it's a human body/mind organism searching for connection with its own Divinity.

Jesus was charged with "crimes" he did not commit. Recognize that in your inner world? Or from your childhood? Our outer and inner judges keep making us wrong for who we are, what we do as who we are, and for not changing who we are to create different behaviors and outcomes. Strange, but true. Jesus didn't answer the charges, because he had deliberately created the entire scenario, knew where it was going, and needed all the players just as they were.

And then Jesus was crucified. The ultimate punishment. And from that place of human pain, humiliation, and physical suffering, he said what I believe is the most powerful teaching of the entire story:

"Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

What an amazing teaching! For me it says, "I know the world is unfolding exactly as it is. I am a part of this play, this drama, on this stage, and I accept my part and the parts of others. I am not a victim and these are not my perpetrators. We are all together here, and nobody is to blame." Wow. The Christ Consciousness within us knows this same truth. How can we embrace our own inner betrayers of our truth and honor this kind of forgiveness within...?

Can you see that you and everyone in your life is doing their best being them, and so forgive yourself and them because there is nothing to forgive? What a powerful teaching!

We can see the symbol of the Crucifixion as an initiation into a higher state of consciousness. We are invited to release our limited identification with our body/mind -- a sort of spiritual annihilation of self into the realization of our true nature. As the denser material of a candle yields to the purifying flame... we are reborn into our own divinity-- right here on planet earth!

It's a pretty good story. And we all can live it.

IN love.