IT'S A TESTAMENT OF SOMETHING - Meaning as Myth

If the New Testaments power lies anywhere,  remarkably its not in the minutiae of Jesus's teachings, nor in the miracles. Its in truths caught within its mythology, like a fly in amber. In this sense it would not matter whether Jesus's ministry were actually true or not. It's more about how these stories chime with the archetype. Jesus exists in this imaginative, potentially transformative meaning as myth. Offering us a way to not be judged, to be forgiven our failings, to redeem oneself and be set free. Its a myth of a particular form of liberation. Now, in our guilt and shaming obsessed modern culture, who wouldn't want that? 

It's clear that whoever the writer of St John's Gospel was, totally understood this. That symbols and myths are more potent than literal facts alone, they inspire us to live differently. As you may have already noticed, I've mostly talked about the facts. Of who wrote the gospels, how the New Testament evolved, their history, structure and literary form, than what was said. This is largely due to my interest in history, that draws me towards this form of analysis. The rest was reluctance.

As a consequence I am factually better informed. Though I no more understood why it is this confoundng Christian story that has stuck, than when I started. The whole thing feels decidedly weird. Yet history is more than just the interpreted restatement of the facts, its also an appraisal, a re-forming of the myths we have lived by, and sometimes continue to live by. History, in and of itself, can create foundational myths that an entire country, culture or religion can cluster around. For better or worse. The Romans, The USA, The British Empire, The Nazi's, all operated on the basis of their foundational myths.

A central myth about the Buddha is that of The Four Sights. The Buddha is living a luxurious lifestyle. Contained within the Palace grounds, deliberately sheltered from the reality of the real world. He is bored and curious about what is outside the Palace boundary. He begins sneaking out on adventures. On his first venture he sees an old person for the first time. On the second, he sees a sick person for the first time. On the third, he sees a dead body for the first time. These three sights unsettle him greatly. Its not until the fourth venture, when he sees a religious holy man, that he understands that he needs to renounce his present life, and discover where a way of being that goes beyond old age, sickness and death, could be found.

Now this story is highly unlikely to have actually happened. It is a myth, but as a myth it encapsulates veins of truth within its morphology. Spiritual insights do inevitably require us to take action, to Go Forth from our present lifestyles and habitual perceptions of the world. Otherwise they cannot be considered true insights. The Four Sights as a story maps out the precursors for the emergence of a spiritual life. A mythic arche that is universally relatable and applicable.

Today we live lives that shelter us from fully feeling the truth of our mortality. Its only when we are prepared to step outside of our willful ignorance, then we perceive the truth of how things really are. How we subsequently deal with that is via the wisdom of the Sage's. The primary Buddhist myth here concerns Impermanence - the mortality of human life, of time, of space, of everything, how to learn to live with that, but ultimately how to transcend it too.

In the story of Jesus, he too encounters people who are old, who are sick, who are dying or are already dead. But his response is different. He directly heals whatever ailed them physically or mentally, he resurrects them from their death. Through him, as the Son of God, all things are healed and made right again. Our mortality ultimately is to be transcended by the arrival of the kingdom of God. The central myth of the life of Jesus, concerns Salvation - and through whom you find it for oneself. Rescued through that faith, to discover the Godly within and without ourselves. Jesus's pro active engagement with the sufferings of the world creates the Christian raison d'etre.

Salvation has to be prefaced by surrender. Through recognising the centrality of God to the way things really are, and giving up oneself voluntarily to that. Saved by surrendering up one's selfishness. The myth of salvation is present throughout the panoply of gospel stories. People willing to surrender themselves out of faith to Jesus, are healed. Peter finds he can walk on water, until doubt reasserts itself. Jesus saves him, scolding him for his lack of faith. 

Jesus surrenders to God's will, to being tried, to being crucified and resurrected. He saves people from themselves, from their suffering, from their lack of faith in the Godly dimension of being. Its not necessarily that Jesus is the instrument, medium or mode through which you are saved, but he provides a model, the inspirational image, the mythic framework to demonstrate how that looks, how that is done. And a clearly apprehending faith, so it seems, will be the key to unlocking that.