Jesus In India — Page 55
J e s u s i n I n d i a 55 made to live again and assume a spiritual body, that he met the disciples and went to Galilee and thence went to heaven, he was nevertheless afraid of the Jews over quite trivial things and, in spite of his glorious body, he fled secretly from the country, lest the Jews should discover him; he made a journey of 70 koses to Galilee in order to save his life and time and again asked the people not to mention this to others. Are these the signs and ways of a glorious body? No, the truth is that his body was neither new nor glorious, it was the same body with wounds on it, which had been saved from death; and as there was still the fear of the Jews, Jesus took all the necessary precautions and left the country. Anything to the contrary would be senseless and absurd, as that the Jews had bribed the soldiers to make them say that the disciples had stolen the corpse while they (the soldiers) were asleep. If the soldiers were asleep, they could very well have been asked how on earth they came to know in their sleep that the corpse of Jesus had been stolen away. From the mere fact of Jesus not being in the sepulchre, can a sensible person conclude that he had gone up to heaven? May there not be other causes as a result of which tombs might be found empty? At the time of going up to heaven, it was up to Jesus to meet a few hundred Jews, and also Pilate. Who was he afraid of in his glorious body? He did not care to furnish his opponents with the slightest proof. On the contrary, he took fright and fled to Galilee. That is why we positively believe that though it is true that he left the sepulchre, which was a chamber with an opening, and though it is true that he secretly met the disciples, yet it is not true that he was given any new and glorious body. It was the same body, and the same wounds, and there was