That Veil Was A Really Big Deal

 

"Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded His Spirit. And, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks were split"(Matthew 27:50-51).

No small miracle occurred when that veil was split.

The temple veil was a significant feature of the temple. It was a thick curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

The priests could enter and serve in the Holy Place, but only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, but only once  a year on the annual Day of Atonement.

The Holy of Holies housed the sacred Arc of the Covenant, the abiding place of God's shekinah glory, which signified God's dwelling place among His people.

The veil was massive: about 60 feet in height and 30 feet wide. It was quite heavy, requiring 300 priests to move it when it needed cleaning. It was about 4 inches thick.

With the curtain torn and open, all the old ways of worship were transformed. 

The mercy seat covering the top of the Arc could now be seen by everyone with the glory of God gleaming above it. 

With the death of Jesus we now have an unhindered revelation and pathway to God. Direct access to God is now permitted and is the privilege of every believer in Christ. We may now come with confidence to the throne of God and receive His heavenly grace. And call Him "Father"!

      "Let us now come boldly to God's throne of grace so that we might           receive mercy and receive grace to help in our hour of need"                           (Hebrews 4:16).

And with His death, since He was the perfect and final sacrifice, all other sacrifices were finished forever.

"It is finished," He said. He paid the final price. Our owed invoice says, "Paid in full." We are free!

He wore the crown of thorns so we could receive His crown of life! He took our punishment so we wouldn't have to. He was treated as a criminal so we could be treated as Sons of God -- Princes and Princesses and heirs of God!

Look back at the cross -- every day -- and marvel with the soldiers, "Truly this was the Son of God"!

"He took our pain and bore our sufferings...He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Anticipating Easter - Everyday!

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

For what I received I passed on to you, as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according  to the Scriptures....1 Corinthians 15:1, 3



This is the gospel - What Paul received and what he passed on to the struggling church at Corinth: that Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, came in flesh, died for our sins to bring us back to God, and now lives.

This is the Easter story. A story we need to tell ourselves every day - every morning when we rise and throughout the day. It's the song we keep singing!

It's about being "saved."

Not only has God forgiven our sins, He has also credited to us the perfect righteousness of His Son.

This is sometimes called the "Great Exchange"-- He took away our sins and gave us righteousness --   God's own righteousness which comes to us by faith (Colossians 3:9)

God's eternal forgiveness includes all sins--past, present, and future.

All of what we think of as our own "righteousness" is like filthy rags--God removes those rags and dresses us in new, clean clothing of His righteousness. Just removal of our rags would not be enough.

But sin still remains with us, and in us, here on earth. Yes, sin still remains, but it does not reign! With the power of the Holy Spirit we can begin to control and conquer the power of the sin still in us.

"Saved" is not a word relegated to the past -- to that day we received God's free gift of grace and accepted it through faith in Jesus Christ.


"Saved" is a word we can use every day.


                                                       PAST                  
We have been saved (freed) from sin's guilt.  That happened once, in the past. (Has it happened for you?)

PRESENT           

We are being saved (freed) from sin's power. That happens continually, every day.

FUTURE             

Someday we will be saved (freed) from sin's very existence. That will be when we live in God's Presence.


"Saved" is a word we will use forever. That song will never end.


So if someone asks me, "Are  you saved?" I can say confidently: "Yes, I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved!"

We can preach the gospel to ourselves - EVERY DAY!

The result is a joyful, grateful heart, praising God for His never-ending goodness to us. A heart of peace.

The sun comes up.

It's new new day dawning.

It's time to sing Your song again.

Whatever may pass and

whatever lays before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes!

Anticipating Easter - Philip Yancey - Who was really in charge?

Normally we think of someone who dies a criminal death as a failure.

Yet the Apostle Paul would later reflect about Jesus, "Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

What could he mean?

On one level I think of the individuals who in our own time disarm power. The racists sheriffs who locked Martin Luther King, Jr., in jail cells, The Soviets who deported Solzhenitsyn, the Czechs who imprisoned Vaclav Havel, the South Africans who imprisoned Nelson Mandela--all these thought they were solving a problem, yet instead all ended up unmasking their own violence and injustice.

Moral power can have a disarming effect.

When Jesus died, even a gruff Roman soldiers was moved to exclaim, "Surely this was the Son of God!"

He saw the contrast all too clearly between his brutish colleagues and their victim, who forgave them in a dying gasp.

The pale figure nailed to a crossbeam revealed the ruling powers of the world as false gods who broke their own lofty promises of piety and justice.

Religion, not irreligion, accused Jesus; the law, not lawlessness, had him executed.

By their rigged trials, their scourging, their violent opposition to Jesus, the political and religious authorities of that day exposed themselves for what they were - upholders of the status quo, defenders of their own power only.

Each assault on Jesus laid bare their own illegitimacy.

    -- From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey


[But even at His final hours, Jesus, the Savior God, pursued His mission - "Today you shall be with Me in paradise," He told the dying thief, laying bare His own true legitimacy!]

Anticipating Easter - Clouds

Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?"

But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
   -- Mark 14:60-62


This was a direct answer from Jesus to the question if he is the Christ, or the Messiah.

He answers "Yes, I am."

At other times in the Gospel of Mark Jesus avoided inquiries about His origin and His identity (Mark 7:5-6, Mark 11:29).

This time He answers directly and fully.


By saying, "I am," Jesus claims to be the Messiah, the promised one, and that He is God Himself.

The "I am" (the sacred Tetragrammaton -- the four consonants of the ancient Hebrew name for God, usually translated Jehovah or Yahweh -- was the Name of God considered to be too sacred to be spoken aloud, and so the Hebrews uttered the titles Adonai or Elohim in its place in the texts) directly connected Jesus to the God who spoke to Moses:

     Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to  them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' then what shall I tell them?"

     God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
       -- Exodus 3:13-14


But that is not all. 

Not only does Jesus apply the "I AM"  Name for God to Himself, He also amplifies His claim by identifying Himself as the Son of Man and also the one who will sit at the right hand of God.

There are two scriptural references here in Jesus' answer.

"Son of Man" comes from Daniel 7:13-14:

     In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven....He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. 

"At his right hand" comes from Psalm 110:1: 

     The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."


In both of these pictures of the Messiah, He comes as a judge. 

Everyone hearing this exchange -- all the ruling council of the Sanhedrin -- knows who the Son of Man is.

In Daniel 7 the Son of Man comes from the throne of God to earth in clouds of heaven to judge the world.

The clouds of heaven are not the same as clouds of earth, which are water vapor. The clouds of heaven are the shekinah glory of God.

So Jesus is saying he will come to earth in the very glory of God and judge the entire world.

It's an astonishing statement. It's a claim to deity.

He could have said many other things to describe Himself and His mission, but he chose specifically to  say He is the final judge.

It forced the audience (and forces us) to see the paradox.

He, Jesus Christ, the supreme, eternal judge of the
entire world is standing there at that moment of history being judged by the world.

Everything is upside down. He should be the ruler and we should be in the dock, in chains, facing judgment and punishment.

With these words, Christ incites the leaders.

The high priest "tore his clothes."

"Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked.

"You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"

They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said "Prophesy!"

And the guards took Him and beat Him (Mark 14: 63-65).


What do you think? Was Jesus a crank, or delusional, or the supreme con artist?

Or was (is)  Jesus Christ exactly who He claimed (claims) to be? 

It's the most important question of our lives!

 

Anticipating Easter -- The Real Question

Thieves crucified on either side of Jesus showed two possible responses.

One mocked Jesus' powerlessness: A Messiah who can't even save himself?

The other recognized a different kind of power. Taking the risk of faith, he asked Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom."

No one else, except in mockery, had addressed Jesus as a King. The dying thief saw more clearly than anyone else the nature of Jesus' kingdom.

In a sense, the paired thieves present the choice that all history has had to decide about the cross.

Do we look at Jesus' powerlessness as an example of God's impotence or as proof of God's love?

The Romans, bred on power deities like Jupiter, could recognize little god-likeness in a crumpled corpse hanging on a tree.

Devout Jews, bred on stories of a powerful Jehovah, saw little to be admired in this god who died in weakness and in shame.

So which was it? Was that God-Man hanging on the cross of shame a proof of God's mission failure and impotence, or evidence of His successful rescue mission based on His eternal love?

We have the same choice to make.



[The Greek word for 'It is finished' uttered by Christ from His cross, also occurs in ancient manuscripts of Roman tax receipts from the time of Christ, and means "Paid in full."]

The Result of Easter- The Breath of Life

 "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said 'Peace be with you!' After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

  Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.' And with that He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit."

                                                                                -- John 20:19-22

Sometimes we just don't know what to expect next. Nothing seems to be working out as planned.

Doubts whisper and fears scream at us from every side.

That's where the disciples were that night. They had followed Jesus, sometimes faithfully, and sometimes fearfully, only to stand and watch Him die a horrific, brutal death. They had no future left.

They locked themselves in a room, afraid to be seen.

Then Jesus mysteriously appeared among them.

He didn't chastise them for hiding, or doubting, and for being fearful -- He greeted them with peace, precisely what they didn't expect!

After revealing His scars, proving His identity, He breathed on them. That breath was not just air - it was the breath of life. He gave them the Holy Spirit, empowering them to move from frightened followers to become courageous witnesses of His resurrection.

Jesus was not sending them out in their own strength; He was giving them His own presence,  guidance and power through His Spirit.

(What happened next? Read Acts, chapters 1 and 2.) 

Sometimes we feel we need to have it all figured out before taking the first, or next, step, but God equips us just in His perfect timing. Just as He breathed life into Adam, Jesus breathed new life into His disciples and now into us.

He is equipping us for what He is calling us to do, even when we feel unprepared and incompetent. Maybe you feel tired, uncertain, or afraid. Invite the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into you and step aside and see what God will do for and in you!

Start now! Breathe, inhaling, deeply!

Anticipating Easter - Timothy Keller - The Real Rest

The word Sabbath means a deep rest, a deep peace.

It's a near synonym for shalom -- a state of wholeness and flourishing in every dimension of life

When Jesus says, "I am the Lord of the Sabbath," He means that He is the Sabbath.

He is the Source of the deep rest we need.

He has come to completely change the way we rest. The one-day-a-week we take is just a taste of the deep divine rest we need, and Jesus is its Source.

When Jesus says, in effect, "As the Lord of the Sabbath, I can give you rest," what does that mean?

When Jesus calls you to rest, He is calling you to take time off -- physical and mental time off from work on a regular basis.

But there's another level of rest, a deeper level.

At the end of Genesis chapter 1, the account of God's creation of the world, God is said to have rested from his work.

What does that mean? Does God get tired? No, God
doesn't get tired. So how could He rest?

A different reason to rest is to be so satisfied with your work, so utterly satisfied, that you can leave it alone.

Only when you can say about your work, "I'm so happy with it, so satisfied -- it is finished!" can you walk away. When God finished creating the world, He said, "It is good." He rested.

The movie Chariots of Fire was based on the true story of two Olympians in the Paris competition of 1924.

One of them, Eric Liddell, was a Christian, and he refused to run on the Sabbath. As a result he lost the chance for a gold medal in a race he was favored to win.

At one level, taking a day off for rest is what the movie is about.

But the movie added another level and contrasted Harold Abrahams with Liddell.

Abrahams and Liddell were both trying very hard to win gold medals.

But Abrahams was doing it out of a need to prove himself. At one point, speaking of the sprint event in which he was competing, he said, "I've got ten seconds to justify my existence."

Liddell, on the other hand, simply wanted to please God who had already accepted him.

That's why he told his sister, "God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure."

Harold Abrahams was weary even when he rested, and Eric Liddell was rested even when he as exerting himself.

Why? Because there's a work underneath our work that we really need rest from. It's the work of self-justification.

Most of us work and work trying to prove ourselves, to convince God, others and ourselves that we are good people.

That work is never over unless we rest in the Gospel.

At the end of His great act of creation, the Lord said, "It is finished," and He could rest.

On the cross at the end of His great act of redemption, Jesus said, "It is finished!"

And now we can rest.

On the cross Jesus was saying of the work underneath your work -- the thing that makes you truly weary, this need to prove yourself because who you are and what you do are never good enough -- that it is finished!

He has lived the life you should have lived; He has died the death you should have died.

If you rely on Jesus' finished work, you know that God is satisfied with you.

You can be satisfied with life.

You can take all the vacations in the world, but if you don't have deep rest of the soul, resting in what Jesus did on the cross, you will not truly rest.

On the cross Jesus experienced the restlessness of separation from God so that we can have the deep rest of knowing that He loves us and our sins have been forgiven.

    -- From King's Cross, Chapter 4, by Timothy Keller

~~~~~

Come to me, all you who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 

He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done,

 but because of His mercy.

He saved us through the washing of the rebirth

and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

 whom He poured out on us generously

through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Titus 3:5-6

A Call to Worship from the World Around Us

A Special Treat for Today

Read Psalm 104. Focus on verse 24: "How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures."

Sounds like a call to worship! There are 5,000 known species of sponges on the ocean floor and over 300,000 species of beetles living among us; thousands of different flowers, trees, birds and animals. 

Some are breathtakingly beautiful and some are enchantingly odd.

Why? They reveal the wealth of God's creativity, His  love of beauty, and often His sense of humor! All designed by His divine wisdom.

This verse invites us to marvel at it all and also to study and explore His miracles.  We view them as artists and also as scientists.

Stop and gaze at the world around you today. Be awed in 'wonder, love and praise'! And listen carefully and you might hear their joyful song:

"In reason's ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice!

Forever singing as they shine,

'The Hand that made us in divine!'"

--Joseph Addison

Open our ears and eyes, Lord!

 '

Pilate and Joseph of Arimathea

"As evening approached, there came  rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean, linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting opposite the tomb." (Mathew 27:57-61).

Jesus was born in a borrowed manger ... now buried in a borrowed tomb..

A few years later the Christians at Philippi had a creed they chanted together (and probably sang) that included these words:

   "Who, being in nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used for His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and be found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death -- even death on a cross..."   That's our Savior! (Read the whole creed/hymn in Philippians 2) 

It's All About Easter - Yancey/M Scott Peck

Over time, it was the cross on the hill that changed the moral landscape of the world.

M. Scott Peck writes:

"I cannot be any more specific about the methodology of love than to quote these words of an old priest: "There are dozens of ways to deal with evil and several ways to conquer it. All of them are facets of the truth that the only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered in a willing, living human being. When it is absorbed there like blood in a sponge or a spear into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further.

The healing of evil -- scientifically or otherwise -- can be accomplished only by the love of individuals. A willing sacrifice is required...I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does...Whenever this happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world."



The balance of power shifted more than slightly that day at Calvary because of who it was that absorbed the evil.

"If Jesus of Nazareth had been one more innocent victim, like King, Mandela, Havel, and Solzhenitsyn, he would have made his mark in history and faded from the scene.

No religion would have sprung up around him.

What changed history was the disciples' dawning awareness (it took the Resurrection to convince them) that God Himself had chosen the way of weakness. The cross redefined God as One who was willing to relinquish power for the sake of love.

Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it.

In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced one for the sake of the other."

--From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey

As long as we are not alone.....

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death... you are with me. (Psalm 23)

Remembering the horrifying pictures of 9/11.

Hundreds, trapped high above ground, as the heat grew more intense, felt they had no choice but to jump to their deaths.

Remember those pictures? Many were holding hands.
Most cases, with complete strangers.

Why? Jumping to their deaths, they chose to attach themselves to another human being.

We are made for community. We were not meant to live this life alone.

In that sense we imitate the Holy Trinity. The Holy Community.

In Mark 3:13-14 we read:

     Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to
     him those he wanted, and they came to him.

     He appointed twelve--designating them apostles--
     that they might be with him....


He called those he wanted....that they might be with him.

Jesus at Gethsemane, just before his arrest, to his disciples: My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. (Matthew 26:38)

Jesus, the God-man.

Fully divine  -  Fully human.

He did not want to be alone.

"And surely I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20)

                 ....and so we are never alone!

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 begins Ash Wednesday. 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 - That Historic Morning

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

"Woman," he said, "who is it you are looking for?

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means 'Teacher').

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, "I am returned to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
                      -- John 20

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.

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

The Easter People

These are hard days.

But remember, we are the 'Easter People'!

We don't whine and complain. We never despair. We don't wonder where God is!

Our song is not 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen'...

Our theme song is the 'Hallelujah Chorus'!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We are not called to complain; we are called to reign!" From 

"For Such a Time as This" by Patsy Cameneti.


Our Lord Reigneth...and He shall reign forever and ever!
Hallelujah!

Approaching Easter - Resurrection

According to the Apostle Paul....

    For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brethren, most of what are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also....1  Corinthians 15:3-8


Christ's appearances in the 40 days following His Resurrection prior to His ascension...

1. Were to believers only
2. Were tailor-made to comfort and confront each individual (His visit to Thomas was different from His visit to Peter, etc)
3. Were flesh-and-blood, not ghostly, encounters


So what does it all mean?


More from Philip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew...


"Because you have seen Me, you have believed," said Jesus. (John 20:29)

These privileged ones could hardly disbelieve.

But what about the others?

Very soon, as Jesus well knew, His personal appearances would come to a halt, leaving only "those who have not seen."

The church would stand or fall based on how persuasive these eyewitnesses would be for all--including us today--who have not seen. Jesus had 6 weeks in which to establish his identity for all time.

That Jesus succeeded in changing a snuffling band of unreliable followers into fearless evangelists, that eleven men who had deserted Him at death now went to martyrs' graves avowing their faith in a resurrected Christ, that these few witnesses managed to set loose a force that would overcome violent opposition first in Jerusalem and then in Rome--this remarkable sequence of transformation offers the most convincing evidence for the Resurrection.

What else explains the whiplash change in men known for their cowardice and instability?

One need only read the Gospels' descriptions of disciples huddled behind locked doors and then proceed to the descriptions in Acts of the same men proclaiming Christ openly in the streets and in jail cells to perceive the seismic significance of what took place on Easter Sunday.

The Resurrection is the epicenter of belief. It is, says, C. H. Dodd, "not a belief that grew up within the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up..."

The crowd at Jesus' crucifixion challenged Him to prove Himself by climbing down from the cross, but not one person thought of what actually would happen: that He would die and then come back.

Once that scenario played out, though, to those who knew Jesus best it made perfect sense.

The style fit God's pattern and character.  God has always chosen the slow and difficult way, respecting human freedom regardless of cost. He did not stop His crucifixion. He rose from the dead. The hero bore all the consequences, yet somehow triumphed.

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

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 heartache over lost loved ones, all these will 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.

We Shall All Be Changed.....Richard Neuhaus

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)

From As I Lay Dying, by Richard John Neuhaus.....
   
             In the years before my sickness, I had written
about the passage in terms of "the transportation of the ego."

    That still seemed to me a good phrase.

         Christ had taken my life into His, and I had

taken His life into me.

         There was, as it were, an exchange of essential identities. But now it seemed to me much more than a good theological point. Now it was the absolute center of what was happening to me, and what was going to happen to me.

         It was the crux--the cross point. This is what Christians mean when they say that in Baptism we die and  rise again with Christ. This is what we mean when we say we have been crucified with Christ, that on the cross He offered up not only His life, but our lives as well.

         And thus it became luminously clear to me as I fitfully thought through these questions, lying there on the hospital bed: I had already died! My death is behind me!

         The question of what is to happen to me now is not a question about me, but a question about Christ.

         And that question has been answered. "Christ is raised from the dead never to die again, death has no more dominion over Him."
                       
         Therefore death has no more dominion over me. At some point "it" will happen. This body will be separated from this soul, and that is a great sadness. I was not expecting it so soon...but it didn't really matter that much.....

                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


        I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the  perishable inherit the imperishable.

        Lo, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable and we shall be changed.

        For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.

        Death is swallowed up in victory.

        Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

                                                            --1 Corinthians 15

It's All About Easter - George Herbert

I ran across this old, perhaps obscure, poem, written by George Herbert in the early 1600's.

I am so touched by its words.

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born poet, orator and priest.

His family were wealthy aristocrats, and he received the best education available, even attaining a position at Cambridge and being named a Member of Parliament.

He was drawn to theology and the gospel message, and devoted his later life to the Anglican clergy.

Read these beautiful words:

LOVE

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here."

Love said,  "You shall be he."

"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my Dear,

I cannot look on Thee."

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame

Go where it doth deserve."

"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"

"My Dear, then I will serve."

"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."

So I did sit and eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am so moved by these words. They picture what most of us feel each time we bow in prayer.

When we gaze upon Love (Christ), we see ourselves as unworthy, and realize that someone much grander, much more holy, should be in our place: A more worthy guest should receive Christ's invitation!

We shrink back for His hand, aware of our guilt and shame.

We are still invited in, even invited to eat.  Even more amazing, we are not the servant attending the table. 

He serves us. We sit and eat.

We are the guests.

That was His teaching that last night, the night He was betrayed, arrested and convicted. The night of the last supper with His disciples.  He served them the bread and wine that night.

Hear His words again:


The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them...But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who served...And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom....
                                                      -- Luke 22:25-30


And it wasn't just words. Look what He did:

Jesus knew the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love....so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
                                                     -- John 13:1-5

He was showing them the full extent of his love?

He said He was 'conferring on them a kingdom' -- were they confused?

In Jewish society washing the feet was too lowly a task even for Jewish servants - yet here this God-Man was washing their feet? Was this the kingdom they yearned for?