(Inspired by Marcus Borg’s vision of the pre-Easter Jesus)
Marcus Borg describes the pre-Easter Jesus as “a spirit-filled person, a charismatic healer, sage, prophet, and renewal-movement founder.” This image reminds us that before creeds and doctrines defined him, Jesus lived as one who was deeply alive in God—a person through whom Spirit flowed freely, touching the world with compassion and awakening others to the sacred that pulses in all things.
For spiritual seekers today, Borg’s portrait invites us to rediscover the world as Jesus did: charged with divine presence. The “world of Spirit” is not confined to moments of retreat or ritual. It breathes through the ordinary—through a conversation that opens our hearts, through beauty that stops us in our tracks, through tears that heal, through acts of justice that bring life.
To say that Jesus was “spirit-filled” is to recognize that he lived from a consciousness of union with the Divine. He saw creation as radiant with God. He reached beyond boundaries of purity, gender, class, and religion because he saw the same Spirit moving in everyone. His healings were not demonstrations of power but expressions of wholeness—reminders that the life of God is within and among us. When Jesus touched the outcast, healed the sick, blessed bread, and welcomed the forgotten, he embodied the flowing love of God present in all creation.
For us, to walk in the way of the Spirit is to cultivate that same awareness as Jesus and his early followers : to see the mystical in our everyday lives; to allow Spirit to heal what is broken within and around us;and to join in the renewal movement of love- that Jesus taught in the Beatitudes- that is still unfolding wherever people act with compassion and courage.
Each day becomes an opportunity to live “spirit-filled,” to awaken to the sacred heartbeat within our bodies and within all creation. When we breathe consciously, bless our food, tend to the earth, or speak truth with love, we participate in the same Spirit that animated Jesus. Every sunrise, every act of kindness, every breath of gratitude reveals the sacred pulse of life.
For spiritual seekers today, this is our invitation:
to awaken to the world of Spirit that shimmers in the depths of our hearts and beneath the surface of our daily lives; to discover that the mystical is not separate from the material but woven into it; to trust that healing and wholeness are possible here and now in our every touch and action.
When we allow the Spirit to move through us, as through Jesus,
our ordinary lives become sacred ground,
our conversations become prayer,
our compassion becomes healing,
our communities become renewal movements of loving service to those in need.
In this sense, the mystical life is not an escape from the world but a deeper immersion in it. It is life-giving, practical, embodied—a daily communion with the Spirit who, as Jesus showed, is always near, always embracing us, always renewing the world from the inside out in acts of kindness and witness to justice.
Prayer:
Spirit of the Living God,
You breathe in us as you breathed in Jesus.
Awaken our hearts to your presence in the ordinary.
Heal what is wounded in us and in our world.
Let there be new birthings of your Spirit in our hearts and world today
that our lives may reveal your tenderness, our actions your justice, and our hearts your peace. Amen.
Source: Pieter Craffert, "Marcus Borg's Jesus as Spirit-Filled Person " (The Fourth R, Westar Institute- Nov.-
Dec. 2025, pp. 9-14)
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