At a time when Christian Nationalism is rampant, we may ask ourselves if Christianity has any resources to counteract it. Indeed it does. It is, for example, the tradition of the Empty Tomb.
Many years ago, in his book A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox lamented that Christianity historically placed too much emphasis on the cross of Jesus and not enough on his empty tomb. Even though we might be surprised at the support for Trump’s cruelty by some Christian leaders, let us not forget that the roots of such unconscionable behavior might lie in a distorted vision of Christ that held sway for centuries.
The understanding of the cross as “salvific”—whatever might have meant originally- turned out to mean in the unconscious mind of so many people that torture and painful death are, after all, “good things.” It’s hard not to see that within Christianity has been operative a kind of fetishization of the cross and the sadism of the empire that the cross represents.
Moreover, as a symbol, or an archetype, the Empty Tomb has been repressed in the Christian consciousness of the West for a very long time. The Empty Tomb as a symbol is very rich. The tomb of Jesus was carved in the rock, thus it was a cave. His resurrection does not mean that he stood up in such a cave, but that he exited it, leaving death and its shrouds behind.
His tomb being empty and having been emptied, it is not a closed circle but an open circle. This obviously means that the Empty Tomb is primarily a symbol of creativity and liberation in the face of the absurdity and malignancy of evil, such as the evil that Jesus endured during his torture, and so many before and after him. More than that, it is not a closed womb or tomb as in a narcissistic return to womb-like security and fetishness with self. Instead, because it is open and because someone has actually exited from it, it is a tomb in motion, a circle in motion. Thus, a spiral.
Meditating upon the image of a tridimensional spiral might help us resist oppressive power and reframe our belief in progress. If we look at it bidimensionally, it seems to circle back always to the same place. In reality, it goes back but is also goes up, always hitting a different plane.
Why is such a symbol so important in our times? Because the Jewish and Christian revelation is that the human history, while spiral, has a direction. The direction is the increase of love-justice in the world. The spiral represents a true revolution (from the world “to revolve”), for it is a turning around, a turning from, a turning toward and a turning on. It is rebirth, Resurrection.
All quotes are from Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
See also: Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
See also Matthew Fox, “Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ and Fascism’s Piety of Pain.“
Banner Image: Spiralling from darkness to light. Photo by Lanju Fotografie on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
If you are a Christian, have you ever considered placing the Empty Tomb as the center of your spiritual practices and meditation?
If you are not a Christian, can this understanding of the Empty Tomb of Jesus be of some value to you?
Recommended Reading
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
8 thoughts on “Retrieving the Empty Tomb”
When we meditate on the ‘Empty Tomb’ we must forget all prior beliefs, hard stands, sure rocks that have crumbled beneath our feet time and time again.
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“And reality speaks the truth to us every day does it not, either consciously or unconsciously? What do we believe our trials and tribulations to be other than truth speaking to ourselves every moment, every day in both subtle and overt ways. What better day is it than when we fall off ‘the mountain’ that we have built in isolation from ‘the Truth’?
Many have ‘eyes to see’ and don’t see. Many have ‘ears to hear’ and don’t hear. That is why many do not see Jesus today in their presence, in His presence, and miss His loving embrace. When we choose to sit at the foot of the Lord to learn, it is then we must forget all prior beliefs, hard stands, sure rocks that have crumbled beneath our feet time and time again, and just be still and listen. It is only then that we will know our ‘what we should do or be doing part’. – BB 04 21/22 2025.
The empty tomb for me has always represented the womb, emptied of the fetus, in the creation of a NEW life… a symbol of hope, recreation, regeneration of the Holy Spirit of the risen Christ…
Thank you for this meditation. It helped me open to a new way of seeing things. I will continue to learn The EmptyTomb.
Yes. Recently I’ve become aware that spiritual awareness of the “in~pause~out” of our sacred natural breath is like a prayer/meditation/symbol of the ongoing Divine Flow of SACRED LIVING LOVING PRESENCE, Eternal Moment, of Birth~Death~Rebirth of LOVE~LIGHT~LIFE in our daily lives/Souls of Compassionate Diverse ONENESS… COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Thank you, Gianluigi. I had not considered your idea that in the unconscious mind of many people the cross, an instrument of torture and painful death are, are kind of “good things” — necessary things for “salvation.” Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death as a martyr, it would be like wearing a gun around our necks.
I am grateful and impressed by all these comments.
(Hi Michele!)
From a Mystical point of view, the tomb and the spiral both have rich potential.
The Mystical Path is an ongoing journey of many transformations, continuously learning the lessons of mystical insights and incorporating them, while trying to let go of the “small self’s” ego demands. It challenges the ideas that trap one in old “bodies” of thought.
Every moment is within an unbounded Mystical potentiality, but we rarely step outside our safety zones. Sometimes, by God’s Supreme Grace, an unexpected, astonishing moment of our first-Path (our initial, cautious edging toward Christ-Living) becomes the quintessential moment of “letting go,” the Mystical Revelation, but only after the absolutely essential relaxing into the unknown and opening oneself to whatever will be. No expectations, no thoughts, no effort, no fears. The moment opens up into What Will Be — just as in the Beginning, in Creation, in Soul-birth. The potential — eternally present as the Image of God in our ensouled bodies – is always unfolding into the unknown.
But that Revelation itself — the God/Christ/Logos — is never an end. It’s an invitation and a challenge — to move into another (endless) next-level, always striving to incorporate it within each moment, to act from it and grow continuously into its Fullness. The Christ Template is one of eternally learning, growing, and loving.
Thank you for this very illuminating explanation of the meaning of the empty tomb. It is rich in meaning and new to me. I agree that there has been a kind of glorification of violence and suffering and sadism in focusing on the cross in some varieties of Christianity. In my Congregational/UCC tradition, the empty cross is displayed with the idea that Christ is always with us and that we are to follow Jesus, and the suffering of all is a call to work for justice, which is love in action.