Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 81
Crucifixion 81 public? He should have appeared to the Jews and the representa- tives of the Roman Empire and said: ‘Here I am, with an eternal life, try and kill me again if you may, you will never be able to. ’ But he preferred to remain hidden. Not that the idea of appearing in public was not suggested to him, on the contrary, it was specifi- cally suggested to him to reveal himself to the world, but he refused and continued to distance himself from Judea so that no one could follow him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" (John 14:22) So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. " So he went in to stay with them. (Luke 24:28–29) This very strongly presents the case of a mortal who is not be- yond the reach of death or injury to his person. It only signifies that Jesus as had not died in the sense that he was delivered of the human element in him but he remained exactly the same in his nature, whatever it was, and there was no death separating his old self from the new. This is what we call continuity of life in human experience. A spirit or a ghost belonging to another world cer- tainly does not behave like Jesus as behaved during his secret meetings under the cover of night with his close friends and followers. None other than Jesus as himself emphatically rules out the ques- tion of Jesus as being a ghost When he appeared to some of his