An Archetypal Perspective on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Christ with Mocking Solider, Carl Bloch (Danish, 1834-1890)
The story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of, if not the most significant story in all of Christianity.
It tells of how the Romans convicted Jesus of heresy and sentenced him to death for spreading the word of God. They marked Jesus as a public enemy because of his radical beliefs that threatened the religious norm and publically crucified him — a punishment reserved for the most heinous criminals. They left him bleeding and humiliated for all to see, making a clear example of him.
Jesus suffered a miserable death on that cross, sacrificing himself for the sins of all of humanity. A sacrifice that his followers will never forget, because, as prophesied, Jesus rose from the dead.
Three days after his crucifixion, Mary Magdelene and a few of Jesus’s most devout followers ventured to the burial tomb. As they approached, they felt the earth tremble, heard a heavenly sound, and watched an angel descend from heaven above. The angel spoke news of Jesus’s resurrection. He opened the burial tomb, and to everyone's astonishment, there was no body, only Jesus’s burial clothes, folded neatly.
Throughout the weeks and months that followed his death, Jesus would appear to his devout followers and disciples, proving once and for all that he was the messiah, the promised savior. In his many appearances, even his closest followers didn’t recognize him.
Something about him had changed: he had become divine.
Digging for the Truth
The Virgin praying, Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato (Italian, 1609 – 1685)
Christians use this story as proof of Jesus’s divinity to show that he was indeed the Son of God who sacrificed himself for our sins.
It’s a beautiful and heart-wrenching story… but how much of it is actually true?
That is the question I found myself asking when I began to really question my Christian upbringing. A man coming back from death, ascending into heaven, then later being seen by only his most devout followers… It all sounds a bit too fantastical.
Despite what we choose to believe about the reality of this story, what I’ve learned over the years is that by looking at religious stories and mythologies from an archetypal perspective, we can understand the symbolic value they carry.
I may not believe that Jesus was the messiah, the son of God, or that he actually came back from the dead.
What I believe is that the story he left behind was an inspiring one. A valuable tale of pursuing destiny in the face of persecution, of sacrificing your life for what you believe in, and of striving for god-hood.
We cannot deny that the story of Jesus’s resurrection has inspired billions of people in the past few millennia. If we look at this story archetypally, however, we see that it shows a quest for individuation. Psychological and spiritual wholeness. Inner Divinity.
Establishing the Facts
There has been much debate whether the resurrection of Jesus ever happened. Every detail of the story, from his crucifixion to his resurrection, and everything in between, has been the subject of controversy ever since Jesus’s death.
Seriously, you can spend hours on google reading the opinions of various bible scholars, theologists, anthropologists, and scientists.
No one has come to a satisfactory conclusion about what did or did not happen.
However, we can establish the facts that are almost universally agreed upon as thus:
Jesus was a Palestinian preacher who spread the word of God around 25-27 CE
Jesus was crucified outside of Jerusalem around 30-33 CE
Mary Magdelene discovered that the tomb that Jesus should have been buried in was empty.
Jesus appeared to his disciples in the weeks that followed his crucifixion, but they did not recognize his physical appearance.
Regardless of what actually may have happened to Jesus after his crucifixion, there is insufficient evidence to say anything definitively. However, in my opinion, we can be pretty certain that he didn’t literally come back to life, or ascend into the heavens.
It makes much more sense that the ambiguity surrounding his death, paired with the fact that he was supposed to be the Messiah, and was prophesied to die and to raise from the dead, led to early Christians inventing details about the stories to give Jesus credibility as the true son of God. To give their faith and their belief in Jesus as the son of God some validity.
Mystery allowed room for myth to enter. A myth that was needed both to confirm Jesus as the Messiah, and to spread the word of God.
Creating a story about a man literally rising from the dead, and returning to heaven as proof of Jesus as the son of God was necessary to spread a highly spiritual message to a relatively uneducated populace. The stories needed to be treated as concrete fact so they could be understood.
But why did the story of Jesus resonate with so many? What about it inspired billions of people even centuries after his death?
When we view the resurrection symbolically, there are three motifs that we can draw upon to discern the deeper archetypal meaning behind the story.
Jesus as the Hero With
a Thousand Faces
Madonna with Child (1570–75), Carlo Dolci (Italian, 1616-1687)
Jesus, as the Son of God, left his heavenly home and made the choice to descend to earth, knowing of all the sin and pain he would inevitably have to bare. He left the sanctuary of heaven because he knew that the reward was worth the effort. Jesus knew that he must experience a mundane life, share the wisdom of God, and save humanity from their sins. Leaving his home to follow this calling, no matter the sacrifice makes Jesus the monomythic hero.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell conceptualized the monomyth, or the Hero’s Journey, after noticing how many similarities existed between the myths of different cultures. It’s a story that is hard-wired into our psyches, a story that has been told and retold since time immemorial.
The Hero leaves his home, beckoned by some higher calling he knows he must fulfill. Along the way, he faces learns, faces challenges, and meets mentors and allies to aid him on his mission. The hero must withstand each challenge and each temptation he faces, staying true to his goal.
The ordeal is his ultimate challenge. A seemingly insurmountable obstacle that the hero must face. For Jesus, this was the crucifixion. But as the monomyth goes, when the hero overcomes the ordeal, they are transformed into something, or someone new.
It’s easy to recognize this mythic pattern. The Hero’s Journey is all over if we look for it. It pervades our stories, fairytales, and myths. It inspires us to accept the call to action. To. accept that we can be greater than we believe ourselves to be. That the struggle is worth the payoff.
The Hero’s Journey calls us to give up our idea of who we are, and to follow the call of our destiny, and to transform the pain and strife we will inevitably face into self-awareness, and self transcendence. This is one of the core ideas of Jung’s individuation: That the process of ‘becoming’ is often a painful one, but by God, it is worth it.
“He is no hero who never met the dragon, or who, if he once saw it, declared afterwards that he saw nothing. Equally, only one who has risked the fight with the dragon and is not overcome by it wins the hoard, the “treasure hard to attain.”
Jesus as the Enlightened Teacher
The Temptation of Christ (c. 1516-25), Titian (Italian, c. 1488-1576)
Jesus the Messiah, foretold by prophecy as the savior, was one of a select few in human history to achieve enlightenment.
The message he preached was one of profound compassion and forgiveness. He instilled his followers with a sense of unconditional empathy that only someone who had achieved self transcendence could see.
It is why his message resonates with so many people. He spoke truths that no one would dare say. He uplifted people, showed them a more moral way to be. Showed them they are part of something greater.
Above all, he taught the very same enlightenment he had achieved. He made virtuous living not some unattainable far off concept, but something very real, very applicable, and very achievable.
Though religion has long since perverted the heart of Jesus’s message, the ideals he taught were those of love. To love thyself, and thy neighbor as thyself.
Self-love, as simple as may sound, is a radical concept.
It means accepting ourselves, all of ourselves. Accepting our capacity for goodness, virtue, and morality, but also our capability for evil, sin, and amorality. By holding the tension of these two polarities, and preaching a message of forgiveness, Jesus was an “Individutor.”
He strived to attain wholeness, self acceptance, and self actualization through fulfilling his role as the son of God. He died knowing that he was fulfilling a purpose well beyond himself. He know that the impact of his actions would live on for millenia.
Enlightenment, self transcendence, and Individuation are all at the core of the resurrection story, to quote Jung…
“The whole point of Jesus’s life was not that we should become exactly like him, but that we should become ourselves in the same way he became himself. Jesus was not the great exception but the great example.”
Jesus as The Hanged Man
The Crucifixion (1647 – 1650), Govert Flinck (Dutch, 1615-1660)
The final motif I want to discuss is that of Jesus as the Martyr:
Jesus as the man who had such faith and conviction in what he believed in that he could accept the gruesome and humiliating process of crucifixion as his fate.
Just as Odin hung himself from the world tree, impaling himself with his own spear, knowing that it would gain him a wisdom he could not find otherwise; Just as the Hanged Man in the Tarot smiles as he is suspended upside down, as if he put himself there willingly, so too did Jesus accept his fate on the cross, knowing the greater purpose it would serve.
Jesus on the Cross is a symbol of self sacrifice, of such a profound sense of duty, purpose and resolution that not even the threat of death could dissuade him. Ultimately, it was Jesus’s self sacrifice that deified him, and allowed for his resurrection and return to heaven. Symbolically, it is our self sacrifice that will transform us; forcing us into new, more empowered ways of being.
The road to individuation is fraught with much pain and hardship, but embracing the painful steps is necessary on our journey of becoming.
Jesus on the cross illustrates this concept. His story reminds us we must be willing to make sacrifices, even when that means sacrificing ourselves. We must learn to undergo whatever hardship comes our way with the faith that we will be made, and remade, each time stronger.
“No one on the road the wholeness can escape that characteristic suspension, which is the meaning of Crucifixion”
Conclusion
Jesus Ministered to by Angels (1886-1894), James Tissot (French, 1836-1902)
What the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, as so many similar myths and stories tell us, is that our goal is to pursue a life of wholeness; that our spiritual task is Individuation.
Individuation is enlightenment, transcendence, and our calling to find our inner god-hood.
Jesus exemplified this.
Though we may not know exactly what happened after the death of Jesus, we do know that the Christ story wasn’t borrowed or stolen. Many would be quick to point out any number of commonalities between the stories of Jesus, Odin, Dionysus, Mithras, or Osiris.
Instead of believing that Christianity stole these myths from other cultures to form their own, I present an alternative perspective:
Each of these stories are reflections of a greater underlying archetype; one that we can never see directly, but can only know of through the variety of its manifestations throughout culture, myth, and religion.
The archetype lying at the heart of these stories is one of wholeness, of striving to uncover the deity within. What the story of Jesus (and that of Odin, Dionysus, Mithras and Osiris) point us toward is our psychospiritual goal of individuation.
We are fortunate, in our modern age, to be able to look back on these stories with a newfound appreciation. This is the value of an archetypal perspective — of blending religion and myth with depth psychology.
Whether you believe in the story of Jesus or not. Whether you are a Christian, or not, we cannot deny the profoundly symbolic meaning of the resurrection, and how it has inspired billions of people.
This is why the story of Jesus has found such an extensive purchase in our modern psyche. It speaks to a goal that has always existed within us, and that has never been forgotten. A goal of wholeness and transcendence that we must now take up in earnest as our modern spiritual task.
