Omaha World Herald, From the Pulpit Rev(Dr) Cynthia Ramirez Lindenmeyer July 25, 2020
The Walgreens black jelly bean display metaphorically symbolizes religion in America. Either one loves the taste or has no desire to be near the licorice flavor jellies. Possibly some of your friends are observing Lent, the Christian forty-day countdown to Easter when various rituals take place, from fish fries to abstinence from some random addiction, like Starbucks or TikTok. All in preparation for the Super Bowl of the Christian calendar, Easter.
Easter commemorates one of the most famous mysterious cold cases, The Resurrection. Jesus dies in plain view of onlookers, and three days later, his body disappears, yet he reappears in astral form. And then began various explanations to explain the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s birth, death, and rebirth–was he a great magician or a Divine incarnation to atone for the sins of humanity?
The metaphysical concept of the physical disappearance of Jesus is quite intriguing, creating a new perspective to understanding the historical Jesus. Our Earthly existence is seemingly limited to our three-dimensional experience based on our five senses (eyesight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch). Yet spiritually, we are intuitively aware of expanded states of consciousnesses in which more dimensional planes exist. In that conceptualization, then the Resurrection explains the physical disappearance of Jesus as his entrance into the spiritual plane of his consciousness. He left the physical plane and invites us to join him in the ethereal plane. In the here and now, we strive to attain the individualized stream of God consciousness Jesus epitomized. Lent prepares us to enlarge the boundaries of our spiritual vision, expand the barriers of our senses and view one another from a higher spiritualized consciousness. From this loving viewpoint, we accept others for who they are, even if they consume black licorice jellybeans. We are Risen (in consciousness), indeed!