Master Jesus Christ

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

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 cannot enter Heaven. But I can take you there any time that 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 can not stay without illusion and the last one to be overcome is death. This is the message of the crucifixion; There is no order of difficulties 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 but 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.

Jesus Christ
From the Original Text
of A Course In Miracles
and Absence from Felicity

In the darkest night of your soul... In the dim desolation of your Gethsemane. When all of your disciples still sleep. When your God is deaf to your cry to remove the cup. When your final desperate demand to know "why God has forsaken you" echoes across an empty Universe -- Then the time of your awakening is at hand. You are constructing in your individual passion the drama of resurrection. Ah! But now with a difference. This time you’re the central character. This time at last you play the leading part. Fulfilling the law as you go, marking each milestone with your healing grace, you walk the seven miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem and are met at the place of the skull. You know the script well for you‘ve rehearsed every character. You’ve been the soldier that rolled the dice and the one with the spear that pierced. In one scene you’ve shouted "Hosanna, Hosanna" and called "Barabbas, save Barabbas" in the next. You’ve denied with Peter, connived as Judas, and doubted as Thomas. As a blind man you’ve seen, as a cripple you’ve walked. As a leper your sores have been healed. You’ve puzzled as Nicodemus, pretended as Pilate and as Lazarus come forth at His call. And now getting closer, you’ve played the dear virgin and pondered His birth in your heart. At last are you shorn of -- in one terrible moment -- the last vestige of armor from Truth. Now call out to God, now call out at last, the victorious shout of surrender... Father, into Thy Hands I command my whole self. It is finished. It is finished forever. Up up you arise from the tomb that is earth, impregnant with light of fulfillment. Now the veil of your temple is rent and the dazzling beauty of your sonship is revealed in full array. And now the most exciting glorious stupendous surprise there could ever be in all of time: You’re still you. All that has happened is that you have awakened from your fearful dream of destruction and death. The earth is over, gone and never was. You’re home in the heaven you never left. And every loving thought you ever had while dreaming is with you still along with all your other eternal creations. -Master Teacher from The Spiritual Teachers Notebook