Scientist ponders Jesus’ resurrection in cosmic context

As a Christian and a scientist, I have always been challenged to reconcile some of the tenants of Christianity and the principles of science. Ideas like the virgin birth, miracles and the resurrection have sometimes been problematic for me.

I finally realized that the problem arises because of the very limited understanding I often had of the nature of God and Christ.. If we place Jesus in a cosmic context many of the problems went away.

In my poem, “Easter Poem”, I attempt to think of Jesus as a cosmic phenomenon. He comes from the fertile chaos of nature and returns to it at a fundamental level — just as we do. There is a sacred dimension in nature. The fact that life exists and is so far as we know very rare in the universe makes it sacred.

Nature, as the poet Rilke stated, is both beautiful and terrifying. What happened to Jesus is an example of this.

There is something profoundly beautiful to know that a rich consciousness has come to be in the order of things and that it arises from cycles of death and rebirth — from crucifixion and resurrection.

“Easter Poem”

In the crucibles of stars

Your elements

Entangled with ours

Flung out to a crusty earth

Wrapped in gravity.

From the soil roots and

Waters of Galilee

An earthly mother formed

You to speak to crowds on hills

And Lilies and sparrows.

We could not feel

Your soul within us

Leaving your mother to cry

On a hilltop beneath a

Wood cross.

Regenerated by a quantum

Shower of light

You walked among us again.

Yet you have always been

Whispering within us

If only we will listen.

This story was originally published April 18, 2019 at 6:58 PM.