7rcTIX1xP

The Eighth Lesson: The End of the Life Work.1041
earth; with frightful stenches of sulphur and gas. And the very foundations
of Jerusalem quaked and shivered. The rocks before the tombs flew off, and
the dead bodies were exposed to view. In the Temple, the veil before the
Holy of Holies was rent in twain.
The cries of the people as they rushed to and fro in mortal terror took
the attention of all from the cross. Then the Roman officer in charge of the
execution, glancing upward, saw that all was over, and, falling before the
cross, he cried out, “Verily, this man was a god!”
Jesus the Master had passed out from the body which had served as His
tenement for thirty-three years. His body was borne away for burial, in a
secret place. Embalmed by loving friends, it was carried to a place of last
earthly rest.
* * *
And now we come to a portion of the narrative in which the occult
traditions and teachings diverge from the account stated in the Gospels. We
should have said apparently diverge, for the two accounts vary only because
of the varying points of view and different degrees of understanding of the
teachers.
We allude to the events of the Resurrection.
It must be remembered that Jesus had informed His disciples that in three
days He would “rise from the dead” and appear once more among them. To
the ordinary understanding these events seem to indicate that the Master
would once more occupy His physical body, and that His reappearance was
to be so understood. And the Gospel narrative certainly seems to verify
this idea, and was undoubtedly so stated that it might be more readily
understood by the popular mind.
But the occult traditions hold otherwise. They hold that Jesus really
appeared to His disciples three days after His death, and abode with them
for a time teaching and instructing them in the deeper mysteries and secret
doctrines. But the mystics have always held and taught that His reappearance
was in the Astral Body, and not in the discarded physical form.