AS EASTER COMES AND GOES EACH YEAR, thoughts about the resurrection always stay with me. Now, as in at least the first few centuries after Jesus' triumph over death, people hold verying views of it. What does it mean today—for Christians and others? What continues to persuade many that it actually happened?
We know of the resurrection only from the Bible. The earliest writings about Jesus, the authentic letters of Saint Paul, don't give many details about it. But the four Gospels, usually thought to be written a few decades later than Paul's letters, do. Those Gospels all agree: Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the Roman army some 70 generations ago in Palestine. To all appearances he died on the cross. But as he had predicted, he resuscitated, left the guarded tomb in which he had been enclosed, and talked to his students in a form no different than the one he bore before the crucifixion.
The Gospels show that the initial reaction of Jesus' disciples varied—from bewilderment to awe to utter, beside-themselves joy. But once they had begun to come to grips with this event, it transformed them. For example, the most prominent disciple, Peter, in a short time went from publicly declaring that he didn't know Jesus to healing a man who had been crippled from birth.
The Scriptures show that another follower, Saul of Tarsus, changed even more. A persecutor of the early followers of Jesus, he experienced a remarkable conversion, as the Bible narrates in several places. Because he hadn't known Jesus personally, Paul, as he later called himself, became a prototype for all believers who were to come.
According to the Bible, Paul was different from the other apostles. Like you and me, he hadn't seen Jesus commend the Roman centurion for his remarkable faith. He hadn't seen Jesus calm the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He hadn't seen him heal a crowd of people at a single sitting or raise Lazarus from the dead. And yet in his writings, Paul burns with the resurrection, constantly reminding, cajoling—almost browbeating—his readers and listeners, striving to help them see that the resurrection is the whole basis of their belief.
It would be surprising if Paul hadn't grilled James, the brother of Jesus, and the other Jerusalem followers of Jesus about every detail of their teacher's life. Yet Paul doesn't give us biography. Rather, he sees something that at once embraces and transcends the historical Jesus. He sees the eternal Christ, present in every human heart. He writes: "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." II Cor. 4:6.
That "knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" was something that Mary Baker Eddy also saw clearly. For her it was the Christ, the divine nature or idea of God exemplified by Jesus, that enabled him both to heal and to literally resurrect himself. But Mrs. Eddy thought that our own perfect, spiritual nature shines forth only as we show the same compassion and love that he did. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she wrote: "... Jesus spares us not one individual experience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed through divine Love." Science and Health, p. 26.
I find this view of Jesus—as the perfect example of the Christ that we can all show forth—to be both persuasive and inspiring. It affirms the uniqueness of the redeeming work of Jesus and, at the same time, the universal truth behind that work—that we are all expressions of Spirit, God. This, in turn, assigns us the obligation to see the divine in ourselves and in others. To do this is to uplift one's neighbor and oneself, and in some measure to actually experience one's own resurrection.
I had an experience that illustrated this for me. A few days before a major speaking engagement, I felt so awful with severe flulike symptoms that I could hardly move. But over the next two days I prayed consistently with the idea of God's perfection and my own exemption from disease as the reflection of God. My wife was also praying for me. On the morning of the engagement, I felt 100 percent. Going from feeling so poorly to feeling so free was like a wonderful resurrection.
For me, the physical healings through prayer that I've witnessed—such as the overnight healing of a cracked rib, of extreme pain, and of an external growth—have shown me that the effects of thought on the body can be substantial. Physical healing as an integral part of Christianity—Christ-healing—convinces me of the resurrection. And of the promise that it holds for everyone. 
