Jesus' Love by Rev. Teresa Stuefloten M.Div. 4/27/2025

Good morning! Today I am speaking about Christ Jesus’ appearances in the body after his death and resurrection. When someone we love dies, we long to be able to see them again, to touch them again, to hug them again, to feel them again, to talk to them again. I feel this about my husband, Rev Mark, who passed last October 1st after 52 years of life together in this physical realm. I long to be able to be with him again. I know he is still with me in Spirit, but being with him in a way that I could touch and feel him and have a conversation would be wonderful. Sometimes a person we love who has passed will appear to us in a dream. And sometimes people have actual visitations from the person they love in their light body. These visitations are so reassuring to those who have them, knowing that their loved one is doing well. But Christ Jesus’ spiritual realization was so high that the was able to resurrect and re-enter his actual physical body to visit his disciples, and they longed to see him.

When the tomb was opened, the tomb where Christ Jesus’ physical body was placed after his death, carefully wrapped by those who loved him, the physical body was gone. The immediate thought of those who came to the tomb was that the body had been stolen. In this physical realm, there are not many who could reanimate their own dead body. But Christ Jesus had the highest spiritual realization that allowed him to reenter and reanimate his physical body, so that those who saw him could see where the body had been wounded in his experience of the death of the physical body. They could see evidence of the nail holes in his hands and feet from his death on the cross. They could see the place in his side where the sword had pierced him after his physical body was dead, and blood and water had poured out. He knew they needed proof that it was the same body, and that it was really him. He didn’t want them to despair. He wanted them to truly know what was possible.

Jesus loved his disciples deeply and wanted to show his disciples the power of the highest spiritual realization. He wanted them to continue their spiritual practice so that they also could attain the highest spiritual realization. He told them “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me shall do the works which I do; and even greater than these things he shall do, because I am going to my Father.” John 14:12 Jesus had taught his disciples how to pray and meditate to raise their consciousness. As their spiritual teacher, he had imparted his spiritual wisdom to his disciples. He wanted them to believe that they could also attain the same Christ Consciousness that was in him by continuing the spiritual practices he had taught them. And one of Jesus’ main messages was love. Love is at the heart of Jesus teachings.

Matthew 22:35-40 says:

35 And one of them who knew the law, asked him, testing him,

36 Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said to him, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might and with all your mind.

38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.

39 And the second it like to it, Love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets.

The first person Christ Jesus appeared to was Mary of Magdala. Reading from the Aramaic Bible:

John 20:1-18

On the first day of the week, early in the morning, while it was yet dark, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb; and she saw that the stone was removed from the tomb.

2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and she said to them, They have taken our Lord out of that tomb, and I do not know where they have laid him.

3 So Simon and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

4 And they were both running together; but that disciple outran Simon and came first to the tomb.

5 And he looked in and saw the linen cloths lying; but he did not enter in.

6 Then Simon came after him and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there.

7 And the burial napkin which was bound around his head was not with the linen cloths, but was wrapped up and put in a place by itself.

8 Then the other disciple who had come first to the tomb also entered, and he saw and believed.

9 For they did yet not understand from the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

10 So the disciples went away again to their lodging place.

11 But Mary was standing near the tomb weeping; and as she wept, she looked into the tomb;

12 And she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

13 And they said to her, Woman, why do you weep? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.

14 She said this and turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus said to her, Woman, why do you weep? and whom do you want? She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, My lord, if you are the one who has taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will go and take him away.

16 Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned around and said to him, Rabbuli! Which means, My Teacher!

17 Jesus said to her, Do not come near me; for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.

18 Then Mary of Magdala came and brought glad tidings to the disciples, that she had seen our Lord and that he had told her these things.

Mary was so joyful to see that her beloved teacher, her Rabbuli, was alive! Christ Jesus had told his disciples that he would come to them in a short time after the three days of raising his body. But they did not believe. They thought he was gone. They were distraught.

Paramahansa Yoganada, in his 2 volume treatise, “The Second Coming of Christ, The Resurrection of the Christ Within You” explains why Christ Jesus told Mary of Magdala not to come near him.

Quoting from Yoganada’s book, “When Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, he had raised his body from the tomb, yet he said, ‘Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.’ That is, his soul had not finished working out all of the entangling interactions (of the physical life)… imprinted on his astral and causal bodies so that he could leave their limitations in oneness with Spirit. That accomplished, he would have the freedom and omnipotence of Spirit to remain merged in Infinite Consciousness, or to assume his immortalized familiar form, tangible to mortal senses but unsubject to incarnate circumscriptions. Until he was thus completely resurrected in Spirit, he did not want any physical vibration with its material grossness to have contact with his manifested form that was highly spiritualized with astral … vibrations. Such was the super physical nature of the body of Jesus that Mary did not at first even recognize the form as that of Jesus.”

Yogananda further explains the process of entering and exiting the physical body.

“The soul, encased in its informing astral and causal bodies, entered the physical body through the medulla oblongata ‘mouth of God,’… It is the soul’s causal-body instruments of consciousness and intelligence and its astral-body instruments of life force, mental perception, and action that enliven and sustain the fleshly form. The soul and its astral and causal bodies are knotted to the physical form in the seven subtle cerebral spinal centers. (the chakras) When the mortal karmic sentence determining one’s lifespan is over, the astral and causal-bodied soul is loosed from those knots in the seven centers that had it tied to that physical body.”

“When an ordinary person dies, his life and consciousness withdraw from the physical spine and exit the material body through the medulla oblongata - remaining in an astral body in the astral world until his karma ordains graduation to the higher causal world or reincarnation on the physical plane. But the (spiritually realized person) who has opened his spiritual eye perceives with it that hidden in the physical spine are four concentric tubes or tunnels … through which his soul has descended into the causal body, the astral body, and finally the material body. The (spiritually realized person) reverses this descension by taking his soul through these four tunnels and seven secret obstructing doors or centers, ascending to freedom beyond encasement in all three bodies.” …

“This transcendent freedom can be achieved by the …(one) who has not only opened his spiritual eye, but by further concentration has discovered its inner mechanism - when one is sufficiently advanced to leave the body through the blue Christ-sphere and the star door to Cosmic Consciousness in the spiritual eye. Otherwise one passes only through the outermost, golden ring of the spiritual eye and exits the material body through the astral center in the medulla oblongata at the base of the skull. But departure can also be through the top of the head, through the …portal …in the seventh astral center, the sahasrara or ‘thousand petaled lotus’ in the cerebrum. It is closed in the ordinary individual; but when one is highly advanced this… door opens. Through it one reaches …(God) directly; by exiting consciously through that opening in the thousand-petaled lotus center of Cosmic Consciousness one ascends directly to the God the Father region.”…

“Ascension to liberation is not a simple matter of a few affirmations, prayers, or desultory attempts at meditation. It can only be achieved by persistent practice of scientific methods of penetrating the spiritual eye. No soul, no saint, no Christ or Buddha has resurrected himself - at the time of death or in the highest samadhi states of meditation - without entering this inner door to transcendent consciousness. As soon as one frees the soul from the physical, astral, and idea bodies, he can merge with the Formless Absolute or experience oneness with the Great Light of the universe. That is the light of the Infinite Christ, the God-essence and sustenance of all creation.” (End of quote)

We are being told that we must make our spiritual practice primary in our life. It will not do to meditate here and there, say a few prayers occasionally, recite an affirmation once in a while, and think we will be liberated, spiritually enlightened. No, our spiritual practice must become our steady daily focus if we wish to be liberated in this physical lifetime.

Jesus next visited a group of his disciples who were in hiding in the days after his crucifixion.

John 20:19-31

19 When it was evening on that first day of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were staying for fear …, Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, Peace be with you.

20 He said this, and then he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw our Lord.

21 Then Jesus said to them again, peace be with you; just as my Father has sent me, so I send you.

22 And when he had said these things, he encouraged them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

23 If you forgive a man his sins, they shall be forgiven to him; and if you withhold forgiveness of a man’s sins, they are kept.

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came.

25 And the disciples said to him, We have seen our Lord. He said to them, Unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails, and put my fingers in them, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

26 Eight days later, the disciples were again indoors, and Thomas with them. Jesus came when the doors were locked, and stood in the midst, and said to them, Peace be with you.

27 Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and see my hands; and reach out your hand and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.

28 Thomas answered, saying to him, Oh my Lord and my God!

29 Jesus said to him, Now you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen me, and have believed.

30 Many other miracles Jesus did in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book;

31 Even these are written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and when you believe you shall have life everlasting in his name.

Jesus loved his disciples so much that he wanted them to see that death of his physical body was not the death of his soul. His true identity as the Christ, the highest consciousness, one with his Father God, was still there. He wanted them to know that this was true of them, also. The death of the physical body is only the death of the temporal ego and the temporary lodging of the soul. The ego exists only so long as the physical body exists. When the physical body dies, the ego dies along with it. The Soul is what remains, as the Soul is eternal. The ego is only necessary as a means of expression in the physical world. But the ego likes to declare itself king or queen, the most important one. It is a false king or queen.

The disciples were in hiding because Christ Jesus had been killed by those in power, for their false belief that he threatened their power in the physical world. Jesus tried to tell them that his kingdom was not of this world, but they lacked spiritual understanding, so it made no sense to them. All they could see was their so-called power in the physical realm and they were desperate to retain that power by eliminating anything that threatened their false power.

This is an age old story that we can see played out in our world even today. Immigrants are scapegoated as the cause of worldly ills. Those who disagree with those in power are deported and silenced. In some countries they are killed. Bombs wipe out those who are different in some way from those who are in power. Any lack that might be blamed on those in power is blamed on those without worldly power. Those who are easy to identify due to the color of their skin, or the accent when they speak, are easy targets. Threats are used to keep people in their place and prevent them from challenging those with worldly power. This is all false power.

The only true power is of God, spiritual power. And the only true power is love, Divine Love. This is what Christ Jesus taught. Love is Christ Jesus’ message. If everyone were to love God and love their neighbor as themselves, what a different world this would be. We would truly have Heaven on Earth as we would all live in harmony. Jesus frequently says in his meetings with his disciples after his resurrection, “Peace be with you.’ The peace that Christ Jesus brings is spiritual peace, the peace that passes all understanding. His peace is not of the physical world. We cannot look for our peace in the physical world. Our peace is to be found within.

Jesus also appeared to a group of his disciples who were out fishing on the sea.

John 21:1-17

After these things Jesus showed himself again to his disciples by the sea of Tiberias; and he appeared in this way:

2 They were all together, Simon Peter and Thomas who is called the Twin and Nathanael of Cana of Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples.

3 Simon Peter said to them, I am going to catch fish. They said to him, We also will come with you. So they went out and climbed into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

4 When the morning came Jesus stood by the seaside; and the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

5 So Jesus said to them, Boys, have you got anything to eat? They said to him, No.

6 He said to them, Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find fish. So they threw it, and they were not able to draw the net because of the many fish it had caught.

7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, That is our Lord. When Simon heard that it was our Lord, he took his cloak and girded it around his waist, because he was naked; and he jumped into the sea to come to Jesus.

8 But the other disciples came by boat; for they were not very far from land, but about a hundred yards, and they were dragging the net of fish.

9 When they landed, they saw burning coals set, and a fish laid on them, and bread.

10 Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.

11 So Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fishes, one hundred and fifty-three; and in spite of this weight, the net did not break.

12 Jesus said to them, Come break your fast. But not one of the disciples dared to ask him who he was, for they knew he was our Lord.

13 Then Jesus drew near, and took the bread and fish and gave to them.

Metaphysically, throwing their net on the left side of the boat means they were using the mental, analytical side of their minds, possibly to try to understand what was happening with Christ Jesus. We cannot understand spiritually using our analytical mind because we are trying to make sense of the spiritual, which is beyond mind, with the mental, which is confined to the physical. Throwing their nets on the right side, as Jesus told them to do, means they were turning their thoughts to the spiritual ideas that Jesus had taught them. The Greek term metanoia means to go beyond the mind. It “denotes a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of (our) vision of the world, and of (ourselves) and a new way of loving others and God.” (Wikipedia) Jesus had told them he would resurrect his temple in three days, which had to be understood spiritually, metaphysically, beyond the physical. They knew it was Christ Jesus when they understood spiritually and saw him with spiritual eyes.

Quoting Charles Fillmore, “The reason why Jesus so often used fish to illustrate His teaching was that He was a living demonstration of ideas, and all that he did was in the realm of ideas rather than the realm of effects. Fish represent ideas in which there is great possibility of increase; Jesus used these ideas to represent the inexhaustible, everywhere present abundance.

Like all Scripture, the passage that tells of Jesus’ eating fish should be read in the spirit and not in the letter. Jesus came to establish the reign of righteousness and to bring about the time when ‘they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my whole mountain.’ Therefore we must look back of the mere letter and find the spiritual significance of every act of His. There is evidence that the accounts in which Jesus figures as a party to fish eating are symbolical of the mental side of eating, which is the appropriation of ideas, fish representing ideas.” (End of quote.)

(Charles Fillmore, Metaphysical Bible Dictionary)

The number of fish, 153, is symbolic. The numbers 1, 5, and 3 add up to 9, which is a sacred number and represents the regenerated, evolved humanity of mind, body and soul. It is a number of service to others in brotherhood and compassion. It is the trinity three fold and represents completion.

Continuing, we have more of the symbolic number 3,

14 This is the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he rose up from the dead.

15 When they had broken their fast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these things? He said to him, Yes, my Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my lambs.

16 He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, my Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus to him, Feed my sheep.

17 He said to him again. The third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? It grieved Peter because he said to him the third time, Do you love me? So he said to him, My Lord, you understand well everything, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my ewes.

In understanding the metaphysical meaning of sheep,

“Sheep are the most harmless and innocent of animals. They represent the natural life that flows into …(our) consciousness from Spirit. It is pure, innocent, guileless, and when we open our mind to this realization of Spirit life, we open the gate by the sheep market.” John 5:2 (Charles Fillmore, Metaphysical Bible Dictionary)

Sheep will follow one who leads them. Christ Jesus tells Simon Peter to feed his lambs, his ewes and his sheep. He is to feed everyone, the children, men and women, young and old, with Spiritual Truth so that they will follow and be raised up in consciousness to the highest spiritual understanding, Christ Consciousness. Christ Jesus loves humanity so much that he wants every created being to be free, to find the only true freedom: spiritual freedom. Jesus, himself, is referred to as the lamb of God. His consciousness is pure and gentle, loving, kind and peaceful.

This section of the Bible ends in verse 25 with, “There are also a great many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, not even this world, I believe, could contain the books that would be written.” Jesus consciousness and his works so impressed his disciples and followers that he spoke endless, untold volumes in consciousness.

Much has been made of the literal meaning of the Bible and has been used to control and to manipulate people, making them feel that they are flawed human beings. In New Thought spirituality we know that the truth is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are perfect, whole and complete, in our oneness with God. But these are only words until we experience our oneness for ourselves.

When we go within daily in meditation and prayer, spiritual Truth will be revealed directly to us. We will be guided. Christ consciousness will evolve in us if we are committed and consistent. There is much in the physical world that can distract us from our spiritual practice if we are not committed and allow it to happen. Spiritual realization will evade us if we choose to follow the distractions of the physical world. Then we will be back here again in our next incarnation to try yet again. Why not choose to be spiritually free?

Christ Jesus is still present today, waiting and willing to assist anyone who asks him. In my morning meditation I call Christ Jesus forth. I tell him that I am touching the hem of his garment and that I know he is within me and all around me. I feel his energetic response as I call him to me. I ask him to help me in my spiritual quest. You can ask Christ Jesus, too, if you want him to be a significant spiritual presence for you.

If you are LGBTQ+, Jesus loves you, too. Jesus never said anything against you. Jesus loves all of us. It is only those who do not see with spiritual eyes who think otherwise. You are loved.

Rev Mark used to love to say that Divine Science is scientific because you can try the methods out for yourself in your own life and your own consciousness. You don’t have to take someone else’s word for it. So try it for yourself, going within in daily meditation and prayer, and see the results manifest in your own life.