Pondering the meaning of Easter -- Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in the Western Christian calendar.

It is occurs 46 days before Easter Sunday, making it a moveable feast, and can occur as early as February 4 and as late as March 10. (Easter Sunday comes on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox). 

Christ spent 40 days in the wilderness, fasting, enduring the temptations of Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the observance of this time in Christ's life, and is marked by Christians with prayer and fasting.

Why is it called Ash Wednesday?

It gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of its adherents (in the shape of a cross) as a reminder and celebration of human mortality, and as a sign of mourning and repentance to God.

At most services, the Penitential Psalms are read, especially Psalm 51.

Traditionally, ashes used are gathered from the burning of the palms used in the celebration of Palm Sunday the year before.

Ashes were used in biblical times to express mourning, as we see often in the Bible, especially in regard to repentance for one's own sins. 

JOB - "...I...repent in dust and ashes.." (Job 42:6)

JEREMIAH - calls for repentance, "gird in sackcloth and roll in ashes" (Jeremiah 6:26)

DANIEL - "I turned to the LORD God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes"
(Daniel 9:3)

And there are many other examples.


When did the observance of Ash Wednesday begin?

We have clear evidence that it was celebrated around 960 AD. And by the 12th century we have evidence that people began burning the palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday for the ashes.

However you observe the day, it marks the period when we turn our hearts to the cross and the when we earnestly confess our sins and turn to Him for salvation, and receive the gift of freedom that God, in His grace, has offered us.

What is Lent?

Lent is the period this year from Ash Wednesday through Saturday night, March 26, during which Christians repent of their sins, pray and fast. They purposefully make changes in their lives.

The last week of Lent is called Holy Week, and we focus on those last days Christ was on earth before He was arrested and crucified.

The word Lent comes from an old Latin word meaning lengthen, referring to the longer hours of daylight indicating the coming of spring.

What about the days?

There are more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter and yet we refer to the 40 days of Lent ?-- here's the deal about that: We don't count Sundays, because each Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection, so in getting the total of 40 days, we count only Monday through Saturdays.

   Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your unfailing love;

   according to your great compassion

   blot out my transgressions...

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are proved right

when you speak

and justified when you judge...

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence...

Restore to me the joy of your salvation...

--Psalm 51

Approaching Easter - The Historic Symbol of The Cross - Philip Yancey

It took time for the church to come to terms with the ignominy of the cross.

Church fathers forbade its depiction in art until the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine (280? - 337 AD) who had seen a vision of the cross and who also banned it as a method of execution.

Thus not until the fourth century did the cross become a symbol of the faith.

(As C. S. Lewis points out, the crucifixion did not become common in art until all who had seen a real one died off.)

Now, though, the symbol is everywhere: artists beat gold into the shape of a Roman execution device, baseball players cross themselves before batting, and candy confectioners even make chocolate crosses for the faithful to eat during Holy Week.

Strange as it it may seem, Christianity has become a religion of the cross -- the gallows, the electric chair, the gas chamber, in modern terms.

This, the power of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Took the blame, bore the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross.

  -- Keith Getty

Preparing for Easter - Philip Yancey - Peter and Judas

From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey


I know of no more poignant contrast between two human destinies than that of Peter and Judas.

Both assumed leadership within the group of Jesus' disciples. Both saw and heard wondrous things. Both went through the same dithery cycle of hope, fear, and disillusionment.

As the stakes increased, both denied their Master.

There, the similarity breaks off.

Judas, remorseful but apparently unrepentant, accepted the logical consequences of his deed, took his own life, and went down as the greatest traitor in history.

He died unwilling to receive what Jesus had come to offer him.

Peter, humiliated but still open to Jesus' message of grace and forgiveness, went on to lead a revival in Jerusalem and did not stop until he had reached Rome.

~~~~~~~~

One refused the gift Christ came to offer. The other

received gladly the gift.

Which choice have I made?

Approaching Easter - The Women

As the cross approached, the role of women in the band of disciples became more prominent.

A woman anointed the Messiah as he approached the triumphal entry.

Women were faithful to the end at the cross.

They had the courage to follow Joseph of Arimathea
as he made his way to Pilate to request the body and on to the tomb.

Thereby the women knew where Jesus was buried.

On Saturday evening it was the women who ventured out to buy spices for the anointing of his body.

Sunday morning they made their way to the tomb, heard the glorious yet frightening word of the angels, overcame their fears and took the good news to the absent disciples

All week they displayed persistence and courage.

To them the church remains forever in debt.



 -- From Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, by
     Kenneth Bailey

~~~~~~~~~~~

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen, just as He said. Come and see where He lay and then go quickly and tell His disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.' There you will see Him. Now I have told you."   Matthew 28:1-7

Approaching Easter - His last Days - Philip Yancey

How Christ spent His last weeks on earth:

Holy Week - Crucifixion - Resurrection - 40 days - His ascension back to eternal glory


This excerpt is from Philip Yancey's message at the memorial service for victims of the Virginia Tech shootings -- April, 2007


We gather here as Christians, and as such aspire to follow One who came from God two thousand years ago.

Read through the Gospels and you'll find only one scene in which someone addresses Jesus directly as God: "My Lord and my God."

It was 'doubting Thomas,' the disciple stuck in sadness, the last holdout against believing the incredible news of the resurrection.

Jesus appeared to Thomas in His newly transformed body, obliterating Thomas' doubts.

What prompted that outburst of belief, however -- "My Lord and my God" -- was the presence of scars. Feel my hands, Jesus told him. Touch my side. Finger my scars.

In a flash of revelation Thomas saw the wonder of Almighty God, the Lord of the universe, stooping to take on our pain, to complete the union with humanity.

Not even God remained exempt from pain. God joined us and fully shared our human condition, including its distress. Thomas recognized in that pattern the most foundational truth of the universe: that God is love.

To love means to hurt, to grieve.

Pain manifests life.

It's All About Easter - Puritan Prayer

Resurrection

O God of my Exodus
Great was the joy of Israel's
   sons, when Egypt died upon the shore
Far greater the joy when the Redeemer's foe lay
   crushed in the dust.

Jesus rides forth as the victor, conqueror of death,
   hell, and all opposing might.

He bursts the bands of death, tramples the powers of
    darkness down, and lives forever.


Adorable Redeemer,
   thou who was lifted up upon a cross
   have ascended into heaven.

Thou, who as a man of sorrows, was crowned with
   thorns art now as Lord if life wreathed with glory.

Once, no shames more deep than thine,
   no agony more bitter, no death more cruel

Now, no exaltation more high, no life more glorious,
    no advocate more effective.
Thou art in the triumph car leading captive thine
    enemies behind thee

What more could be done than thou hast done!
    Thy death is my life, thy resurrection my peace
    thy ascension my hope, thy prayers my comfort

     From The Valley of Vision, a Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

It's All About Easter - What was in His cup?

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, that last night, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39).

Then He said to Peter, "Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"  (John 18:11).

The "cup" was heavy on His mind that night.

But what was in the cup?

Our first thought, is "the coming cross."

But there is more.

In both the Old and new Testaments, the cup of God refers to God's judgment.

In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs (Psalm 75:8).

...you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD, the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs...(Isaiah 51:17)

See also Jeremiah 25:15, Habakkuk 2:16 and others.

"If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath... (Revelation 14:9)

Through out Scripture, the cup is a picture of the judgment of God, poured out of His wrath on sinful nations and people.

We don't like to talk about the wrath of God. We don't like to think of the reality of the eternal consequences for people who reject Christ.

We like to ignore it and concentrate on other aspects of eternity.

Jerry Bridges, in The Gospel for Real Life, says this:

...how are we to understand the wrath of God? God's wrath arises from His intense, settled hatred of all sin and is the tangible expression of His inflexible, determination to punish it. We might say God's wrath is His justice in action, rendering to everyone his just due, which, because of our sin, is always judgment.

All sin, no matter how small it might seem, is a challenge, an assault, to the sovereign authority of God. It is rebellion against God's authority. 

It was the cup we should have drunk, but Jesus as our representative, drank the cup of God's wrath in our place. He drained it to the last drop.

And He did it for us.

When He cried out "It is finished!" (a Greek word for paid in full) it was not a cry of relief, but a cry of victory.

He had accomplished what He came to do, to save His people from the wrath of God.

He didn't just ask God to 'sweep it under the rug, to 'overlook it this time.' He consumed it Himself.

...we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:3-5)

More from Jerry Bridges:

Herein is the glory of the cross. Justice and mercy are reconciled; wrath and love are both given full expression--and all of this so that we might experience the unsearchable riches of Christ!

Quoteworthy....Chesterton on Thankfulness

Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world around me;
And with  tomorrow begins another
Why am I allowed two?
    --G. K. Chesterton


[Why am I allowed 2?  3? 
a whole string a days ....?
a week? a month?...even years..?]


Days of grace... Why were we allowed any at all?
with color? and joyful music? with friends and family? with God's eternal bounty?
It's all about gratitude....

Quotes to Ponder

Winston Churchill:

A lie makes it halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its shoes on in the morning.


Robert Jastrow, the founder and director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and author of God and the Astronomers, reaches this conclusion when considering modern scientific research:

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers



Samuel Adams, in a letter to his daughter, Hannah, in 1780:

If you carefully fulfill the various duties of life, from a principle of obedience to your heavenly Father, you shall enjoy that peace which the world cannot give nor take away...you cannot satisfy me so much as by seeking most earnestly the favor of Him who made and supports you--who will supply you with whatever His infinite wisdom sees best for you in the world, and above all, who has given us His Son to purchase for us the reward of eternal life.

Philip Yancey/C. S. Lewis

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Some religions had accounts of return from death.

The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's all this rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among the world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."

After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, and Muslim code of law--each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.

From What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey

It's also about the land

Deuteronomy 11:11-12. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.


God especially cares for the land He was giving to His people.


When imaging God's creative hand at work in the "beginning" it is easy to envision His mighty arm stretching out and casting rainbows of color and crystals of gems, scattering them in profusion across the watery landscape of the new earth.


Did He have a blueprint? Or did He just thrust out His arm and randomly scatter the vibrant shades  of mountains and flowers and animals as He determined at that moment? Did He "wing it?" Like an artist or interior designer, did He alter certain bits as He went along?


Did the angels sing and shout for joy at each thrust of His arm? Were they giving Him a standing ovation? Was that the "music of the spheres" and is it still echoing around this great universe?


Was His creation of nature general or specific?


It appears from the Old Testament that it was specific land He was creating to be the center of His Kingdom - and that He Himself is the Gardener - He cares for and watches over it.


Just glancing through the book of Deuteronomy the word land is used about 175 times - In Deuteronomy alone! and always  about how God is giving it to His people as a special gift!


What does tell me? The land matters! God loves this physical planet. He watches the land itself. We must care for it, too...not destroy its ability to renew itself - not exploit its treasures for our own greed. We must care for the land He has given us!

Grace Notes

A Glimpse of Grace
           .....from an unexpected place....

"Because of the love that was between this man and me, My Lord King Arthur and his noble knights now lie dead. Therefore, Sir Lancelot, I now repent; and I would enter the kingdom of heaven through the grace of the passion of our Lord Jesu: for many are now in heaven who were on earth as sinful as we."
(Words of Lady Guinevere)
                 
--from Le Morte D'Arthur [The Death of King Arthur], by Sir Mallory, written in 1485





From Jerry Bridges, written 2008. "Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace." We are never 'beyond the need' or 'beyond the reach.'




From Philip Yancy, written 2007. "There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. And there is nothing you can do to make Him love you less."

One Thing I Ask of the LORD

 

                                                One Thing I Ask of the LORD

Psalm 27 -- "One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD..."

David's supreme priority is to 'gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.'

'Gazing' is not a one-time glimpse, but a steady, sustained focus.

It is not a look or prayer of petition, but a time of praising, adoring, worshipping and enjoying God just for who He is.

David finds God Himself beautiful, not just a bestower of gifts.

'This only do I seek,' says David.

Father, I know there is only one thing I really need in life. And I choose to want You above all else, I want more than just believing in You, joyful as that is. I want to see and sense Your beauty and love You for Yourself alone. I may not even understand that right now, but I know I want David's prayer to be my prayer,  my gracious, kind Father.

Amen

God's Masterpiece

 

                                                        

                                                             God's Masterpiece

"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we could do the good things He planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:10)

During construction a house can look like a real messy and disorganized place. Hard to imagine it to ever be a real home.

But the architect had a plan and then one day -- there it is: finished, beautiful and a palace!

Father, thank You that You have a perfect plan for my life and You are at work right now, detailing me to accomplish the good things You have for me to do for Your glory.

You will not leave me incomplete --You will continue to shape and mold me for Your glory.

When Satan tells me I am a mess and no good, help me remind him that I am a work in progress -- You are not finished with me yet!

And I am anxiously awaiting that day when I will be like You -- that day I see You face to face! 

Amen

He wanted to go with Jesus

 

                                                      He Wanted to go with Jesus!

"The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 'Return home and tell how much God has done for you.' So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him." 

(Luke 8:38).

Think about it --! Simple, immediate joyful obedience from an overflowing grateful heart!

Isn't that what Jesus wants from us?

The Jesus I Never Knew - Philip Yancy

I am reading The Jesus I Never Knew -- I think Yancy's best yet. It is really beautifully written.

He writes frequently, in this book, about the sudden deaths of 3 very close friends and how these deaths challenged his faith.

In Chapter 11, Resurrection: A Morning Beyond Belief, he mentions the various visible historical evidences of Christ's resurrection.  We are all familiar with them. And about some of the non-believers, scientists and scholars, who set out to disprove the resurrection and then instead found themselves becoming convinced of the truth of Christ and His resurrection, and outspoken believers. 

But I was also touched by these words from Chapter 11, beginning on page 218.



     I believe in the resurrection primarily because I have gotten to know God. I know that God is love, and I also know we human beings want to keep alive those we love. I do not let my friends die; they live on in my memory and my heart long after I have stopped seeing them.

 For whatever reason-- human reason lies at the core, I imagine--God allows a planet where a man dies scuba diving in the prime of life and a woman dies in a fiery crash on her way to a church missions conference.

But I also believe this -- and if I did not believe this I would not believe in a loving God-- that God is not satisfied with such a blighted planet.

Divine love will find a way to overcome: "Death be not proud," wrote John Dunne: God will not let death win.

One detail in the Easter story has always intrigued me: why did Jesus keep the scars of His crucifixion? Presumably He could have had any resurrected body He wanted, and yet He chose one identifiable by its scars; scars that could be seen and touched.

I believe the story of Easter would be incomplete without those scars on the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus.  When human beings fantasize, we dream of pearly straight teeth and wrinkle-free skin and sexy ideal shapes. We dream of an unnatural state: the perfect body.

But for Jesus, being confined in a skeleton and human skin was the unnatural state. The scars are, to Him, an emblem of life on our planet, a permanent reminder of those days of confinement and suffering.

I take hope in Jesus' scars. From the perspective of heaven, they represent the most horrible event that has ever happened in the history of the universe.

Even that event, though--the crucifixion--Easter turned into a memory.  Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heart ache over our lost friends and loved ones, all these become memories, like Jesus' scars.Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created heaven and earth.

We will have a new start, an Easter start.

Wisdom From the Birds

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"  Matthew 6:26

Said the robin to the sparrow,"I would really like to know

Why those anxious human beings

rush around and worry so."

Said the sparrow to the robin,

"Friend, I think it must be

that they have no Heavenly Father

such as cares for you and me."

(Overheard in an Orchard, by Elizabeth Cheney)

Unintended Consequences

It's a trendy phrase these days - Unintended Consequences.

It seems to fit a lot of situations and it sounds sort of  sophisticated and worldly-wise.
So we like to use it!


It reminds me of a poem by Robert Frost that I read many years ago: The Exposed Nest.


 In this verse the poet finds his young daughter trying to save a group of baby birds after their nest was destroyed by a harvesting machine. She is trying to put the nest back together and  move it to a secure place and to construct a grassy screen to shade the tiny birds from the harsh glare of the sun.

The poet paints such a detailed picture for us:

'Twas a nest full of young birds on the ground...
And left defenseless to the heat and light..
You wanted to restore them to their right..

And the way the tiny birds responded..

.
The way the nest-full every time we stirred
Stood up to us as to a mother-bird
Whose coming home has been too long deferred


And the consequences of this random act of kindness...

Made me ask would the mother-bird return
And care for them in a such a change of scene
And might meddling make her more afraid...
We saw the risk we took in doing good,
But dared not spare to do the best we could
Though harm should come of it, so built the screen
You had begun, and gave them back their shade.
All this to prove we cared.

The poem ends on a sad note, though, as Frost explains that after restoring the nest to a safe place and shading it from the glare of the sun, they never came back to see if the mother did return and care for her little ones. Maybe they still perished.

The poem is a moving description of compassion for the baby birds in their hour of danger, but also raises questions about whether such kindness is always wise and whether it does any good.

But what about the lines....We saw the risk we took in doing good....but dared not spare to  do the best we could.....

Isn't that the way it really is? We can't just leave the baby birds. We have to do the best we can. I guess that is my prayer today. That if I encounter a problem, a need, a troubled person, a baby bird exposed to the hostile world, that I will just, with God's merciful eyes and gracious spirit, do the best I can, trusting God to complete the task.

If that is my prayer today, then it has to end with a prayer of thanksgiving that God Himself, knowing the consequences of sending His Son to this hostile world, to this stronghold of the enemy,  would still do what had to be done to rescue us.

Not unintended consequences, in His plan, but fully intended consequences.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow....praise Him all creatures here below....

Long ago, even before He made the world,

God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy

and without fault in His eyes.

His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into

His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.

And this gave Him great pleasure.

So we praise God for the wonderful kindness He has poured

out on us because we belong to His dearly loved Son.

He is so rich in kindness that He purchased our freedom

through the blood of His Son, and our sins are forgiven.

God's secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ,

Designed long ago according to His good pleasure.

And this is His plan:

At the right time He will being everything together

Under the authority of Christ--everything in heaven and on earth.

Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,

 for He chose us from the beginning,

And all things happen, just as He decided long ago.

Ephesians 1 , NLT

In the Presence of God - C S Lewis

Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good--above all, that we are better than someone else--I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.

The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether, or see yourself as a small, dirty object.

It is better to forget about yourself altogether.



C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity