Healing Trauma Is Our Resurrection Opportunity
Chronic abuse and toxic stress imprison us in darkness. To protect ourselves, we build walls around our hearts, fearing to let anyone get close enough to beat us, humiliate us, or betray us. We’ve learned that people will trample on our souls if we let them. The story of the death and resurrection of Jesus provides us with an opportunity to choose whether we will continue to live as if we were dead, never experiencing life for fear that we will be hurt again, or choose to learn how to let go of our fears, resolve our past and live life as we were intended to - free.
You don’t have to be religious to acknowledge and see the similarities in how Jesus and his followers were treated and how people continue to treat others today. Maybe that’s why he taught us to treat others as we would have them treat us.
Why was Jesus tortured and killed? What were his crimes?
He empowered people by teaching them how to think for themselves.
He healed the sick – both those with physical and mental health ailments.
He taught people not to discriminate against others because of archaic beliefs passed down by weak men who were either intentionally trying to dominate others or whose own guilt had caused them to misunderstand teachings from the prophets and project those beliefs to others.
Jesus was a rebel, and rebels are a threat to bullies and tyrants. But to the people who were tired of being slaves to the bullies and tyrants and who were ready and willing to learn how to free themselves from the chains of their own fears, Jesus was, and still is, a savior.
Jesus was a master of natural law. He wasn’t born knowing how to be a master; he learned how and then set out to teach others. He didn’t consider himself a savior or a king. People assigned those labels to him, and those labels dredged up jealousy in the hearts of the Jewish Priests, who plotted to have him arrested.
In other words, the powerful, for fear that they would lose their control over others, plotted to have the person/obstacle removed so that they could retain their power. The blindly obedient, who hadn’t yet heard Jesus teach, didn’t know they didn’t have to remain slaves to the powerful. They willingly and eagerly lined the streets to watch this man be tortured and paraded through town, mocking, spitting, and throwing things at him.
Jesus knew he would be betrayed by several of his disciples. He knew that Judas would sell him out for money and that the guilt of doing so would be a burden too heavy to bear. He also knew that there was nothing he could say or do to change that outcome because he understood the human condition.
Jesus also knew that Peter, to save his own life, would deny knowing him even though he claimed that he was devoted to him and would die alongside his teacher. Shortly before his arrest, Jesus invited Peter and two other disciples to pray with him. They went with him to pray, but they all fell asleep. Jesus said to Peter, “So you could not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus understood that Peter wanted to be devoted but that he wasn’t nearly as devoted as he thought he was.
Look around you and ask yourself, how is the behavior of people any different today?
Jesus said to Martha, Lazurus's wife, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
We can choose to stay entombed behind a wall of safety, carrying a cross of heavy burdens with us everywhere we go, or we can choose to be resurrected through the teachings of Jesus and other masters.
Easter reminds us of hope and renewal. What will you choose?