Jesus said, “Whoever has become acquainted with the world has found the body, and the world is not worthy of the one who has found the body.”
It’s important to remember what Jesus says in Saying 56 about the world being likened to a corpse to unlock the meaning of this saying. If we keep in mind that the world is a metaphor for the fading, vanishing, temporal illusion of division and separation, then the meaning becomes clear to us: The one who understands the emptiness of the world is like one who has found a dead body.
In this context, the world and the body are the same. They are metaphors that point us to the pervasive illusion of Us vs Them mentalities. The concept of the body is a microcosm of the world, and both the body and the world signify division between us and other people. Becoming “acquainted with the world,” then, signifies the awakening of our consciousness to the hidden truth: there is no separation between us and other people, and there is no division between us and the Divine.
Once we awaken to this truth, our eyes are opened, and we have “found the body” which lies lifeless and unmoving at our feet. Life, then, is not in the body, or in the world around us. True life is found in the reality of our seamless connection with the All in All.
As Jesus says, once this happens, “the world is not worthy” of us and, therefore, it has no hold on us any longer. We are set free from the grand delusion which has enchanted the world into believing that we must strive for acceptance, fight for freedom, work for fulfillment and seek for truth. Instead, we now realize that acceptance, freedom, fulfillment and truth are already present realities within every single one of us. None of these are external to us. They are – and always have been – alive and accessible within each and every one of us by means of our connection with the Divine presence of Christ.
The question is: Have we found the body? Do we see and accept the truth that the world around us is a dead animal? Are we repulsed by this rotting flesh of separation? Are we ready to abandon the lifeless body of division from one another? If so, then we have truly seen reality for what it is. If not, we remain fixated on the deceptive lie which is found on the lips of this dead world.
Awakening to this reality is one thing, but remaining awake is yet another.
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Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
His latest book, SOLA DEUS: What If God Is All Of Us? is available now on Amazon in Paperback and Kindle HERE>
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