I’m arming for the War on Easter

Just one day left to take part in the War on Easter. Got to armor up. Fire the weapons I’ve got available. Can’t disappoint Fox News, WorldNetDaily, and the other paranoid Christian conservative mouthpieces.

They’re quick to take affront and slow to recognize their own unfounded assertions, just like their revered leader, George Bush. Bill O’Reilly, though, broke from the ranks and admitted that there is no attack on Easter.

Well, there should be. And there has been. Back in April 2004 I wrote “‘He is risen!’ No, almost certainly not.” This was an attack on the almost certainly mistaken belief that Jesus rose from the dead. There are countless reasons to doubt this; blind faith is the only way the resurrection can be believed.

I’ll cast my lot with doubt, thank you. Tomorrow I won’t do anything different. Except, I won’t be able to go exercise on Sunday at the Courthouse Athletic Club like I usually do, because it will be closed all day. Stupid Easter. Why should non-Christians have to suffer tomorrow?

However, this week I did think more about Christianity than I usually do. All the publicity surrounding the Gospel of Judas stimulated me to contemplate the divinity of heresy. I’ve been basking in the warm glow of my churchlessness even more than usual.

I watched the two-hour National Geographic program about the Gospel of Judas. It featured realistic-looking reenactments of episodes from the Bible and the Gospel of Judas (though Judas’ hairstyle and short beard looked disturbingly metrosexual).

This was one of my favorite parts. We see the disciples sitting around a table. The narration goes:

The Gospel of Judas uses familiar scenes to convey unfamiliar ideas.

One day, he was with his disciples in Judea. And he found them gathered together, seated in pious observance. When he approached his disciples, offering a prayer of thanksgiving over the bread, he laughed.

Jesus comes upon the group of disciples, and they are celebrating together what looks to be a sacred meal, maybe it is kind of like the Eucharist. And they’re offering a prayer of thanksgiving over the bread, and Jesus laughs. In fact, in the Gospel of Judas, Jesus laughs a great deal.

He’s laughing because they think they’re worshipping the true God, but in fact they have it wrong. They’re worshipping the God who created this world, not the true God. The only one who understands is Judas.

To the Gnostics, the God who created Earth wasn’t worthy of worship. Only the true God, a being beyond comprehension, was sacred. Jesus laughs at what he sees as false piety. But the apostles don’t understand and grow angry at him.

Jesus: “Why have you been provoked to anger? Let any one of you who is strong enough stand and reveal to me the true spiritual person within.”

Their spirits did not dare to stand before him. Except for Judas Escariot.

Judas: “I know who you are and where you came from. I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you.”

Jesus: “Step away from the others. And I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is a great and boundless realm which no eye of an angel has ever seen, no thought of the heart has ever comprehended, and it was never called by name.”

Jesus issues a challenge to the disciples. He says, let the perfect person inside of you step forward and face me. And that perfect person within is the inner person, the spiritual person, that truly knows, the person that ought to have a knowledge of God and a knowledge of oneself.

And the disciples say, well we can do that. But they couldn’t do it. And so Judas steps forward. And he was able to stand before Jesus.

Great story. This should be the Easter message, not an absurd fantasy about a body coming back to life. We don’t know what Jesus really taught, or even if he existed at all. But if Jesus was real, the Gospel of Judas is likely much closer to the truth than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

For if Jesus were to pop in on an Easter service tomorrow, I bet he’d laugh as heartily as he did at the disciples’ prayers.

“What the hell are you doing?” he’d chortle. “Two thousand years of Bible study and this is all you’ve learned! What a joke. The truth is within, not without. God isn’t a person, nor any other entity that you can wrap your mind around. God is in you. You are a spark of the divine, just as I am. Don’t worship me. Worship yourself. Your true self. All this genuflecting before altars, eating bits of bread, and taking sips of wine is laughable.”

I love it. The Gospel of Judas teaches that Jesus himself would lead the charge in the War on Easter. Heretics, it turns out, are the holiest. Churchless of the world, stand straighter tomorrow. You are the chosen ones.

(For another take along these lines on the Gospel of Judas, check out Mark Morford’s “The Bible’s All Wrong, Again.”)

Comments

[Scott Young]

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are unanimous in their declaration that Jesus came to lay down his life for His sheep and to be raised again for their salvation. These gospels have stood the test of archaeology and historical critisism, and have more historical validity than any secular works from the ancient world. I understand you're a proponant of anything that might reduce the credibility of Christianity, but really, the gospel of Judas is as historically suspect as any of the other gnostic gospels to date.
I beg of you to listen to the true Gospel message. Repent and beleive in Jesus as your Savior so that your sins may be wiped away and that you may have the hope of eternal life.

[Bob]

Scott,

I know you mean well but Brian may be further along in his spiritual journey than you or I could ever imagine.

Regarding scripture, I'd be hesistant to discount the so-called Gnostic texts. If anything, they shed enormous light on the complexity of the early Christian movement.

Bob

[Scott Young]

Bob,
I found this post by surfing some blogs, so I'll admit that I don't know much about Brian or what he has studied or been through, but I figured I should add a bit of counter balance to the post.
Regarding the other gospels, they just don't seem to have the credibility as the four accepted gospels. The main issue is that they were written so much later. I would agree with you that they shouldn't be blindly discounted, but some of these gospels have been floating around for a long time and it seems most scholars(outside of the Jesus Seminar) find them of lower credibility value than the accepted four gospels.

[Bob]

Scott:

Regarding the four gospels, they may be more credible historically than the gnostic texts simply because they were written as "stories" as opposed to "sayings" such as in the Gospel of Thomas.

Nonetheless, the Gnostic texts do provide enormous insight into early branches (Gentile) of Christianity. And, if we want the whole picture regarding Christian roots, we need to acknowledge their relationship or way of relating to the Christ event. You never know, they may have something valueable to teach us.

Bob

[tao]

To Scott:

I disagree with you regarding your assertion that the four established gospels have more validity than the recently discovered gnostic version about Judas. The four gospels only seem more valid because the Church has established that impression for centuries.

I also take some offense at your statement: "Repent and beleive in Jesus as your Savior so that your sins may be wiped away and that you may have the hope of eternal life", even though you wrote it to Brian. It is not any of your business to be telling anyone to "repent", or asserting that someone should accept the historical Jesus as a present-day "savior".

This is what really sucks about some Christians. You go around telling other people what they should believe, that they should "repent", that they have "sins", and that they will only have "eternal life" if they do as you assert.

It is none of your damn business what other people do or don't believe. As a Christian, it is only your business is to follow whatever authentic teachings of Jesus that are available. Jesus did not teach followers to go around and judge others, or to manipulate or condemn others. Therefore, in my view, you are not the true Christian that you think you are, and that you would have others believe that you are.

This is not a criticism of the Way of Christ, but rather a criticism of supposed Christians who go around foisting their dogma and condemnation upon others without any solicitation. It is just such false Christians who give Christianity a bad name.

[Edward]

Oy, you should bury me already, with the nit-picking that is killing me over here!

Let's assume that all powerful means all powerful, (x = x), and that when the universe needs to have a spiritual adjustment, we get Brian, Bob or Scott. How is that different from the story of the Christians walking along who run into someone that seems to be holy and, zowee, that was the risen lord and they didn't recognize him! Just how does one get resurrected anyway? Does it have to be a function of time?

I have a mustard-seed sized point of view, but after all, if one sutra is holy, then what the rocks and stones may write is also holy. My guesses about the universe and what it wants are much more portable than my necessary spirit.

I will accept what I hear with all due scepticism because closed-minded orneriness is dull and lonely. What universal spirit wants to celebrate dull and lonely?

[helen]

I once had a teacher who had trained as a priest and was going to become one when he quit and became a teacher instead. One of the reasons why he quit was that he didn't like the way religion was organised: the Bible isn't a collection of all the religious texts that have been found, just those selected by the church. To be honest i much preferred his approach to Christianity - being spiritual and philosophical and loving others - to the dogmatic type. I haven't read the gospel of Judas, apart from the excerpt above, but if it all has a positive message like that excerpt, then i don't see why it shouldn't be made part of the Bible. Of course the church probably won't let it in as it contradicts the rest of the story, but i don't care, if it can be used as a way of getting a positive message out to people then it can only be a good thing.