Was It a Morning Like This?

Happy Resurrection Day!

Since Passover was this Saturday, and Jesus died on Passover, he would have lain in the grave three days and three nights and rose again sometime after sundown (see previous posts). That sundown was last night, and today is the actual anniversary (on the Hebrew Calendar) of the resurrection.

Of course, Firstfruits was Sunday; and April 29 is the actual resurrection date on our modern calendar, but today is the day!

Early in the morning, on the First Day of the Week before the sun had risen, certain women who had followed Jesus walked down from Jerusalem with spices they had prepared to anoint his body, but they wondered among themselves who would roll back the stone for them. What a surprise they had waiting for them in the burial garden, for about then an earthquake shook Jerusalem and a great angel appeared at the tomb. He pushed back the stone and was waiting there for the women when they arrived.

"Do not be afraid," the angel said, "For I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you."

Alarmed, the women ducked into the tomb and found a young man sitting there to the right of where Jesus' body had been. Some scholars believe this is a record of Mark himself, and he had apparently arrived at the tomb before the women and was therefore the first to witness the empty tomb. As the women enter, he looks up and gives them this message: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as he said to you.”

Then to clarify the situation even further to the bewildered women, two other men dressed in shining white garments appeared, one at the head and the other at the foot of the low shelf where Jesus had lain, and they declared, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” These were apparently two of the righteous dead who had come out of their tombs and would later ascend with Christ into heaven.

With those three exhortations, the women ran from the tomb, separating in different directions to report what they had seen to various of the disciples.

Mary Magdalene reached her destination first, rousing Peter and John from their slumber and racing with them back to the tomb. These two apostles saw the empty tomb and the abandoned grave cloths but departed in uncertainty. While Mary lingered in the garden, the Lord made his first appearance after his resurrection.

The other women must have had further to go, perhaps to Emmaus, as they were still running to tell the disciples when Jesus appeared to them on the road.

That afternoon, two disciples were walking to their home in Emmaus when Christ joined them on the road and joined in the discussion of the momentous weekend events. At dinner he broke the bread and as they recognized him, he disappeared.

At some point that day, he also appeared to Simon Peter to personally restore the fallen apostle.

That night, ten of the disciples were gathered together in the upper room and he appeared in their midst there.

Eight days later, he appeared to all eleven disciples and commanded them to go to Galilee.

And somewhere during the forty days between resurrection and ascension, he appeared to his brother James, and to a crowd of five hundred people at once.

These all bore witness that remains irrefutable to this day that Christ the Lord is risen from the dead!

HALLELUJAH!

Exercises in Futility

Did you hear that the communist government of the People's Republic of China has declared it illegal for the Dalai Lama to reincarnate without their express permission? Not that I believe in reincarnation; I don't, not one iota. But imagine the government of antichrist passing alien immigration laws to prevent the Second Coming of Christ. Is a law in the natural going to stop a promise of supernatural proportions?

The High Priest of Israel and his cronies thought so when they went to Pilate on Thursday and asked for a guard at the tomb of Jesus. Even they knew about his promises.

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.

As Jonah was three days and three nights

in the belly of the whale,

so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights

in the heart of the earth.

They're going to kill me, but after three days I will rise again.

"This deceiver," they reported, "Said that he would come back to life after three days. Now we know this won't happen, but we need to place a guard at the tomb so that his disciples won't be able to steal his body and then falsely claim that he rose from the dead." Pilate assented to their request, but I wonder if he was growing tired of these people who continued to resist a dead man. The priests had the tomb sealed with the governor's imprint, and guards were placed there. No one was getting through to steal this body.

Remember what I've written before: Jesus rose from the dead sometime after sundown on Saturday evening, so it is likely that the soldiers stood watch all night over an empty tomb. Then at dawn, the great angel appeared in heavenly glory and rolled back the stone. And earthquake shook the locale, all the graves burst open, and Pilate's brave men fell down as dead at the sight of the angel. But the only reason he was rolling back the stone was to reveal the emptiness and futility of what they were doing. When the Son of God rises from the dead, there's nothing you can do to keep him in the grave!

Afterward, the priests paid the soldiers to say they had been overwhelmed by the disciples, who broke into the tomb and stole the body...a story repeated for decades following the event. But here are some observations.

The disciples were basically cowards. If they had indeed stolen Christ's body and hidden it away, I don't believe for a moment that they would have died as martyrs proclaiming that He had risen from the dead.

The Priests and Pharisees were basically opportunists. If they had taken the body, they would certainly have presented it to prove that Christ had not risen from the dead.

The Romans were basically indifferent. But if they had been attacked by a band of Jews in the night, hundreds of Jews would have been punished as a result. This was the reputation of Pontius Pilate anyway, and yet there was no retaliation.

Instead, the eye-witness accounts preserved in Scripture testify to one unrefuted fact: On the morning after the third day, by sunrise on the First Day of the Week, the tomb was empty, and the burial clothes had been left behind. To this day, no evidence of fleshly decay of any kind has ever been found in the garden tomb. No body has ever been produced. Even the recent expose produced by James Cameron on the Jesus Family Tomb failed to provide any shred of evidence that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

But we know that Christ is risen from the dead, for He was seen...

A Borrowed Tomb

Gently they lowered the battered, bloodied and broken body of Jesus from the cross into the drape of a linen sheet, and in loving arms they carried him together down the road toward a nearby burial garden. There a new tomb had recently been carved into the Jerusalem hillside, and in the antechamber, the two men and their servants began their preparations.

Joseph of Arimathea was said to have been either the uncle or brother of Mary the Mother of Christ. He was a member of the High Council of Israel, a righteous man seeking the kingdom of God, and a secret follower of Jesus Christ. There are traditions concerning his lifelong attachment to Jesus, a relationship not detailed in the Gospels. But he was the one who asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and by taking the body into his own tomb, he was acknowledging Jesus as a member of his family. Nicodemus was a cousin of some degree to Joseph of Arimathea, also a councilor, and also a disciple of Christ. He had come to the tomb with one hundred pounds of embalming spices, and together these two undertook the task of burying their slain Lord.

Too many traditions have clouded the reality of that day. But it was still mid-afternoon on Wednesday. Though preparations were underway for the Passover meal that night, it was also late spring and several hours of daylight remained. This was not a hurried and sloppy job. This was a carefully executed and sacred rite. Tenderly they washed the blood, the grime and the gore from the body of Christ. They took from his head the cruel crown of thorns. Then tearing the linen sheet into strips, they packed the body in a layer of spice and began to bind it with its burial cloths. From his feet to his throat, Jesus was tightly wrapped in layers of linen and burial spices, and then a napkin was fixed around his face as a shroud. Then they lifted the properly prepared body from the floor of the antechamber and carried him deeper into the tomb where burial benches had been prepared for its anticipated arrivals.

With the body of Jesus laid to rest, Joseph and Nicodemus exited the tomb, and a large stone was rolled into place over the entrance. From a distance, the women who had followed them from the cross witnessed everything, and then they all hurried away to their respective homes and places of lodging to celebrate a feast that now had lesser meaning to them. Their Passover lamb was not the one sacrificed for their ancestors in Egypt fourteen centuries earlier, nor offered that day as a memorial of their Exodus. They had a new Passover Lamb, and while his body rested in hope in a borrowed tomb, Christ Himself was harrowing hell, taking captivity captive, and liberating the souls of the righteous dead with whom He would shortly be resurrected in triumph from death, hell and the grave!

Thank God that the stone didn't seal the story!

On This Day...

It was on this day, in fact at this very hour, that Jesus died.

One Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy Seven years ago, on the 14th day of Nisan, in the Jewish year 3791, which corresponded to April 25th, 31 AD, Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross for me. It was a Wednesday afternoon in late spring, and the high desert climate was probably pretty warm by 9 AM in the morning as they led him from Pilate's judgment hall.

He'd been tried through the night, first by Annas the patriarch of the priests, and then by Caiaphas the High Priest. He was slapped around, blindfolded, and punched. His beard was pulled out by the fistfuls. He was mocked, ridiculed and spat upon. One of his closest disciples took an oath and swore in front of witnesses that he did not know Jesus. Another who had betrayed him into the hands of the priests went out and hung himself. Once the whole council was convened, they condemned Jesus on his own admission that he was indeed the Son of God and their promised Messiah.

Taken before the governor Pontius Pilate, then King Herod, and then Pilate again, Jesus was mocked and scorned. Herod dressed him in a royal robe. Pilate had him severely scourged. The Roman soldiers pressed a crown of thorns into his head, beat him with a rod, and bowed down to him in jest as to a king. But still it was not enough; the cry of the bloodthirsty mob was for death and Pilate was bent to please them. He ordered Jesus to death by crucifixion with two thieves.

They led him by way of the Via Dolorosa, one of the steepest thoroughfares in Jerusalem, from the Praetorium to Calvary, but when he was unable to carry his own cross, they conscripted an bystander to bear it and marched Jesus on ahead. At the place of the skull, they ripped Jesus' clothes from him, stretched his badly beaten body out on the rough hewn cross pieces, and nailed him there by his hands and his feet. At last they pulled the apparatus upright, putting Jesus on display for all to see. Hanging there in the torture of his condition and position, Jesus spent the next six hours dying under a sign that read, "King of the Jews."

His enemies passed by wagging their tongues and shaking their heads, calling out sarcastically for him to save himself. His executioners gambled for his clothes at the foot of his cross while dogs licked at his blood. His family and friends stood nearby, unable to do anything as they watched him die a horrible death. And in his final hours, he thought mostly about them. His final words ring through the ages:

To those who crucified him he said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

To the penitent thief he said, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise."

To his grieving mother and his beloved disciple he said, "Mother, this is your son. And this is your mother."

In his agony he cried honestly, "I thirst!"

In his horror he cried in desperation, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

In his pain he cried with finality, "It is finished!"

With his last breath he whispered, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

And then he died for me...and for you.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him,

and by his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

yet God laid on him the iniquity of us all.

What a Man!

He was surrounded by his friends, but in that moment he was all alone. He knew what was coming, the horror of the approaching hours, the pain, the torture, the ridicule and rejection, yet he did not run away. At any moment, he could have called it all off, summoned legions to his defense, or destroyed his detractors with a word. He could have refused to bear the burden of the world being placed upon his shoulders.

But he didn't.

To me, the greatest thing Jesus did was not necessarily in his sacrificial death, but rather in his choice to do so. I marvel at the heart and mind and will of the Son of God who travailed so hard in prayer that his sweat was like blood, who begged to be released from his sole duty with the cyr, "Father, please, let this cup pass from me. If there's anyone else, let this cup pass from me. If there is any other way, let this cup pass from me!" And even as he finished saying those words, he superceded them with the greater prayer.

"Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." What a man!

An Illustrated Sermon

It was the last night the Twelve Disciples would ever spend together with Jesus Christ, and it was the night before the Passover. They gathered together in an upper room to share a meal, a practice common among the leading rabbis of the day, a celebratory graduation dinner on the night before the great holiday of their people. Jesus broke bread with them, gave them sweet wine to drink, and informed them that the hand of his betrayer was with him on the table.

Talk of a traitor sparked a spirited discussion among his disciples, with each one in turn trying to one-up the others in his declarations of loyalty to the master and prospects of position in the kingdom. Jesus interrupted their talk with a rebuke: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over each other. If you want to be great, be humble. If you want to govern, learn to serve." And when they faced him with blank stares, he arose from the table and took off his outer garments. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he took a basin of water and began to wash the disciples' feet.

It was the duty of a servant to wash the feet of the master's guests. Now Jesus took the duty upon himself, and they fell into uncomfortable silence. Perhaps he washed the feet of John first, a tender young man of seventeen and the youngest of the disciples. Next was Judas Iscariot, who had already betrayed him. Around the table he moved, washing one pair of feet after the other. And then he came to Simon Peter, the gregarious fisherman and one of his most vocal disciples. Peter drew his feet away from the hands of Jesus and protested, "You're not going to wash my feet!"

"Peter," Jesus replied, "You don't yet understand what I'm doing, but you will. But if you won't let me wash your feet, then you have no place at my table."

Sticking his big feet out to Jesus, Peter exclaimed, "Oh, Lord. Wash me feet! And my hands and head too!"

"Peter, if you bathed, then you're already clean. Only your feet need washing." Then glancing around at the spectating disciples, Jesus added, "But not all of you are clean." Perhaps his eyes even flickered over the guarded countenance of Judas as he said it.

And when he had finished with Peter's feet, he put on his garments and took his place again. Looking around at his suddenly silent followers, Jesus said, "I'm your teacher, and the greatest among you, but look what I have done. If I have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other's feet. This is my example to you, for none of you is greater than me."

Remember, Jesus never called anyone to lead. He called us to serve, just as he served and gave his life as a ransom for many.

Proof Enough?

But although he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.

John 12:37

They always wanted a sign, but they never paid attention to the burden of proof being offered them that Jesus really was the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

He turned water into wine, walked on water, calmed the wind and waves, fed five thousand folks with five loaves and two fish, four thousand more with seven loaves and a few small fish. When Peter repeatedly fished all night without catching anything, Jesus repeatedly told him where he could cast his nets for a sure haul. He healed countless blind, deaf, mute and lame. He cleansed lepers with a touch and healed the dying with a word from afar. He raised the son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, and poor Lazarus from the dead. There was nothing he could not do, yet still they did not believe.

And in spite of all the wonderful things He continues to do, still there are those who do not believe.

The proof is overwhelming that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, that he ascended to heaven, and that he is coming back. Hopefully it won't be his return that convinces you...by then it will be too late to believe.

Spring Cleaning

As the afternoon waned toward twilight, Jesus took a quick look around the temple mount, taking in the money changers, sheep salesmen, dove dealers and pigeon purveyors as they packed up their wares for the night and formulating his plans for the morrow. With the jubilant crowd that had accompanied him now dispersing across the city, Jesus returned to Bethany with his closest disciples and then went off alone into the mountainside to pray and prepare himself for the next day.

The temple was burgeoning with activity on the following morning as thousands of Passover worshipers gathered for Sabbath prayers. Sacrifices were still being offered, and the money changers and salesmen were facilitating the Sabbath worship with their sanctified supply of lambs and other assorted animals. In the midst of all this, Jesus entered the temple.

Famished from a night of fasting and frustrated from not having found any figs on a roadside tree, Jesus was in no mood for the antics of the temple hawkers and their tables of trade goods. There was the overcharging for substandard sacrificial stuff. There were the slightly altered weights and measures used for changing funds from across the empire into temple monies. They were making merchandise of God's people, not to mention doing it all on the Sabbath.

A coil of rope lay on the corner of a nearby table. Jesus grabbed it up and flipped the table into the air. A surprised vendor fell off his stool, collapsing a small barrier holding sheep back, and an instant later, the flock was stampeding. Tables turned, coins showered the pavement, birds began to fly, and people began to shout. At the heart of it all, Jesus was driving the money changers from the temple.

When everything was in an uproar, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves!" I guess there was no doubt how Jesus felt about all the tricks and trade going on in the temple. Just think about how He must feel about the garbage we have in our own temples--the temple of our heart.

Prophecy and Praise

Since I've inadvertently fallen behind in my daily posting, this is the first of two or three short postings today, and perhaps more short postings tomorrow. Hope you're enjoying the Passion Journey with me...we are in the REAL anniversary week now, you know, and Saturday is really Crucifixion Day.

Amidst a jubilant, shouting, singing throng, Jesus rode his little colt toward Jerusalem, but not everybody in the crowd appreciated what was being proclaimed about him. Some Pharisees--teachers and religious hypocrites--stood together by the side of the road, and when Jesus passed by, they called out to him, "Teacher! Rebuke your disciples!" To them, the songs of Messiah were blasphemy, for they were certain Jesus could not possibly be the long awaited savior of Israel. But had they known the Scriptures...

More than 500 years before this day, Daniel the Prophet had a vision in Babylon. In that vision, God revealed to the prophet that He had set aside a period of time, 490 years in length, to fulfill His dealings with the nation of Israel. 483 of those years would transpire between two events--from the decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem to the arrival and cutting off of Messiah.

Here's the cool thing about that particular prophecy--it was exact, down to the day. The Biblical year, what some scholars have called the Prophetic year, was 360 days in length, twelve months of thirty days each. 360 days multiplied by 483 years is 173,880 days. The decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was given in by the Persian King Artaxerxes in 446 BC, on or about April 1. 173,880 days later was April 20, 31 AD--the date of the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ. Those students of the Scriptures, who had studied it from early childhood and picked it apart through their adulthood, should have known to the day when to expect Messiah. I suspect some of them may have understood the timing of Christ's arrival. But on that fateful day, they did exactly what Daniel saw they would do. Those highly placed people, who could have led an entire nation in embracing their destiny, rejected their only hope of salvation because He didn't fit their expectations of what a king should be.

From the moment of their rejection, the countdown on God's prophesied clock stopped and allowed for an unspecified period of time in which those who were not of His Chosen People could become His Chosen People. For nearly 2000 years, the Gospel has gone out to the nations of the world, saving the Gentiles while the Jews as a nation and people continue in their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. But God still has seven years left in which to deal with Israel, and the Bible has promised that before the end, all of Israel will be saved.

And in response to the demands of the Pharisees, that He rebuke his disciples for their worship, Jesus replied, "If these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Sometimes rocks are brighter than the supposed people of God, for all creation has been designed to recognize and praise its Creator! Sometimes I may have a stony heart and rocks for brains, sometimes I may show that I'm still a little rough around the edges, but I'm in God's polisher, and today I want to praise Him!

Triumphant

In the yard, a crowd had gathered. Travelers coming down the road had stopped to investigate the scene. Word had spread ahead of them into town. Excitement was mounting. Two men leading a female donkey and her male colt stopped in the road and removed their cloaks, spreading them over the back of the colt. Other men stepped forward and followed suit, each removing their outer garments and placing them like saddle blankets on the colt. To the colt's credit, he remained docile though close to his mother's flank. His ears twitched, and he rolled his eyes toward the gate and the man emerging from the house.

He was not a tall man, nor outstandingly handsome. If he was anything at all, he was average in height and build and features. He stood a few inches over five feet, dark hair and beard around a sun-darkened olive-skinned complexion. His eyes were dark but bright, full of both strength and compassion, and he acknowledged the crowd of individuals with a glance that took them all in. He smiled warmly, especially at the crowd of men immediately around the colt and its mother, at the cluster of women that stood together nearby. Then stepping into the clasped hands of one of his friends, he swung his other leg over the back of the colt and sat comfortably astride his untried mount.

The enthusiasm of the crowd had reached a boiling point, and when they saw him mounted on his colt, they erupted in shouts of acclamation. Someone grabbed a palm branch and stripped it from its tree, waving it jubilantly in the air. Others did the same, and soon there were hundreds of palm branches shimmering in the early afternoon sun. One of his disciples took the reins of the mother donkey and began to lead her down the road, the colt tethered to her walked amiably along. The other eleven disciples formed a proud and protective circle, other close friends and relatives before and behind. The cheers and cries of the multitude were deafening.

Suddenly, a man stepped into their path and pulled his cloak from his shoulders, throwing it across the master's path. Without prompting, other cloaks were thrown down, so that the colt walked on a precious carpet of cloth instead of the dust of the road to Jerusalem, and in front of him and behind, and all around, a song went up from the throats and hearts of that happy throng!

Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the Kingdom of our father David

that comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna to the son of David!

The King of Israel!

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Imagine the thunderous adulation and praise of a few thousand pilgrims as they heralded the coming of their king! The noise was such that the crowds in Jerusalem, already taxing the limits of the city, burst from the gates and joined in the celebration. A two-mile parade led the way into Jerusalem, over the crest of the Mount of Olives and down its descent, and behind them came thousands more, circling around the mountain and across the Kidron Valley, through the glorious Eastern gate and right into the outside courts of the great Temple, and all of them lifting up the songs of highest praise for the one called Jesus the Messiah!

It kinda puts our worship services to shame.

The Master Has Need

Bethany and Bethphage are suburb villages to Jerusalem, located about two miles away on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives. Jesus had arrived in Bethany on Thursday, and word quickly spread that Jesus was staying in the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. A multitude of travelers was converging on Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival, and many who came by way of Bethany stopped to see Jesus and Lazarus for themselves.

On Friday, Jesus began his short walk into Jerusalem, surrounded by the crowds of pilgrims. as they neared Bethphage, he dispatched two of his disciples--we might picture them as Peter and John, who were so often paired together for special tasks--to a home in the village where they would find a donkey tied to a post, and her colt with her which had never been ridden. It wasn't so much the donkey that he wanted as it was the unridden colt, but Matthew records that both were brought to Jesus. Knowing the reputation of donkeys, it's easy to imagine that the colt might not have come without its mother's leading.

Now a few questions come to my mind about that colt.

How did Jesus know it would be there? Of course, I know that as the Son of God Jesus had insight into things such as peoples thoughts and hearts. He always knew where Peter should fish, even with an unbaited hook to catch the one fish in the sea that had two coins in its mouth for taxes. He knew all sorts of things, so maybe that's the easier question to answer. Or maybe he saw it while mingling with the crowds around Bethany and Bethphage before he started his trip to Jerusalem. Either way, Jesus knew exactly where to look for what he needed.

When Jesus sent his disciples to get the colt, he told them that if anyone asked what they were doing, they were to answer, "The Lord has need of it." Well of course someone--like the owner--was bound to ask, "Hey, what are you doing with my donkey?" And when the disciples answered, "The Lord has need of it," that was the end of the discussion. The owner let them go. Now, did Jesus know the owner? Did the owner know Jesus? Did the owner believe that if Jesus needed to borrow it, he would also bring it back? No matter what reasoning was involved in the release of the colt into the hands of the disciples, Jesus knew that acquiring what he needed was not going to be a problem.

Finally, if that colt had never been ridden, what kept it from bucking Jesus off and running away from this noisy throng? I'm satisfied to think that if Jesus knew where to find the colt, and knew that borrowing the colt would not be objectionable, then certainly he knew other things about the colt that we do not. Jesus knew that the colt would submit to his use.

We, you and I, are creatures made for the pleasure of God. We were made to worship and to serve at His will, but because of humanity's fall, not everyone does so. Instead, God finds and chooses vessels of service by His own will and power and takes them to Himself. God knew where to find you and I when He had need of us; God knew acquiring us would not be a problem; and God knew that we would submit to Him at the perfectly ordained time.

That colt at the crossroads was no mistake. Neither are you. God knows what He's doing, and "The Master has need of you."

Because of Lazarus

"Now a great many of the Jews knew that Jesus was at Bethany; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead." John 12:9
Do you know the story of Lazarus? He was a young man dwelling in Bethany, with two young sisters, perhaps the son of Simon the Leper of that town. At some point, Simon the Leper had been healed by Jesus, and his entire household came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. They also became his friends.

One day, Jesus received a message from Martha and Mary, the sisters of his friend Lazarus. Lazarus was sick unto death, but they knew that if Jesus showed up in time, he could heal Lazarus of this sickness. Jesus waited around a few days, and then decided to go to Bethany. Excited about the prospect of seeing another healing, the disciples began to exclaim, "Now Lazarus will get better!" Jesus replied, "No, Lazarus sleeps." "Well," they reasoned, "If he sleeps he will get better." "No," Jesus explained to them, "Lazarus is dead."

No sense in going now.

Except that Jesus went anyway, and arriving at Bethany four days after the burial, Jesus is met by the grieving sisters. "If only you had been here, Lord," they cried, "Our brother would not have died."

"But I am here," Jesus must have said. "Only believe, and you will see Lazarus again."

Of course, Lord. In the resurrection!

"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever dies believing in me will live. And those who believe in me will never die!" And when Jesus was taken to the tomb of Lazarus, he wept, he prayed, and then said, "Roll back the stone. Lazarus!" he called, his voice breaking through the world of the living into the holding placed of the dead. "Lazarus, come forth!" And Lazarus did, alive and well!

It was because of this miracle that many believed in Jesus, even though it wasn't the first resurrection at which Jesus officiated. And as devout Jews traveled to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration, multitudes routed themselves through Nazareth to get a look at the man who raised people from the dead! And they also wanted to see the one who had been raised from the dead after four days. Lazarus was a living testament to the power and grace of Jesus Christ, and on account of him many believed.

Now the question for us is this: Do our lives bear such witness to the power and grace of Jesus Christ that people believe on account of us?

Passion Week

I spent the week of "Easter" studying the last days of Christ on earth, and have compiled the following chronology, which I would like to share as a foundation for my blogs over the next couple of weeks. If you find a different timeline in the Gospels, please feel free to share your thoughts with me.

THURSDAY, 8 Nisan, six days before the Passover

• Jesus arrives in Bethany, and many Jews come to see Him, and also to see Lazarus who was raised from the dead; the gospel of John places the supper at which Jesus was anointed by Mary at this point, but I don't think he was trying to be exactly chronological in its placement

FRIDAY, 9 Nisan, five days before Passover

• Jesus sends two disciples to get the colt of a donkey for him to ride
• Jesus rides into Jerusalem amid great fanfare, called "The Triumphal Entry."
• Jesus weeps over the city
• Jesus enters the temple and looks around

SATURDAY, The Sabbath, 10 Nisan, four days before Passover

• Jesus curses the fig tree on his way into town
• Jesus cleanses the temple of the money changers
• The Priests and Jewish leaders decide to kill Jesus

SUNDAY, 11 Nisan, three days before Passover

• The disciples witness the withered fig tree
• Jesus teaches in the temple
• The Parable of the Two Sons
• The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers
• The Parable of the Wedding Feast
• discussion about taxes with the Pharisees
• Discussion about the resurrection with the Sadducees
• Discussion about the greatest commandment with a lawyer
• Discussion about the identity of the Messiah
• Jesus passes judgment on the Pharisees & Sadducees
• The Greek proselytes approach Philip about seeing Jesus
• Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple
• The Olivet Discourse

MONDAY, 12 Nisan, two days before Passover

• Jesus predicts his death
• The Chief Priests plot Jesus' death
• Supper at the house of Simon the Leper
• Mary anoints Jesus "for burial"
• Judas decides to betray Jesus

TUESDAY, 13 Nisan, the Day of Preparation, one day before Passover

• Jesus sends Peter & John into Jerusalem to find the room for their celebration

after sunset, so still on Tuesday, but actually 14 Nisan, the day of Passover, but still considered the Day of Preparation.

• The Last Supper
• Jesus washes their feet
• The Upper Room Discourse

WEDNESDAY, 14 Nisan, Passover

• Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane
• Betrayal, Arrest, Various Trials and Beatings
• Peter denies Jesus 8 times
• Jesus condemned and crucified at 9 AM
• Darkness covers the land at 12 Noon
• Jesus dies at 3 PM (as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered)
• Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus bury Jesus
• Passover meals eaten in Jerusalem after sunset

THURSDAY, 15 Nisan, First Day of Unleavened Bread, a High Sabbath

• The High Priest places a guard at the tomb of Jesus

FRIDAY, 16 Nisan

• The women buy spices and prepare them for the body of Jesus

SATURDAY, The Sabbath, 17 Nisan

• Everybody rests

SUNDAY, 18 Nisan, the First Day of the Week, also the celebration of First Fruits

• Jesus raised from the dead
• Earthquake and an Angel rolls back the stone
• Angel appears to the women
• A young man speaks to the women at the tomb
• Two men in shining garments (resurrected OT saints) appear to the women
• Mary Magdalene runs to find Peter & John, the other women run to find someone else
• Peter and John come to the tomb and find it empty
• Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene in the garden
• Jesus appears to the other women
• The guards report the resurreciton of Jesus and are paid to lie
• Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus
• Jesus appears to Peter
• Jesus appears to Ten Disciples

MONDAY, 26 Nisan, 8 days after the resurrection

• Jesus appears to the eleven and tells them to go to Galilee

Sometime later...

• Jesus appears to the seven on the shores of Galilee while they fish

THURSDAY, 27 Iyar, 40 days after the resurrection

• The Great Commission
• The Ascension

SUNDAY, 8 Sivan, 50 days after the resurrection

• Pentecost, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Types and Shadows

The Apostle Paul says that the festivals, new moons, holy days, and Sabbaths were shadows of the reality to come, symbols of the unfolding eternal plan of God. Sometimes I think we lose sight of the fact that there is a higher meaning to days we celebrate. We get so wrapped up in the trappings that we forget about the realities. It wasn't much different 2000 years ago in Israel.

From its inception, Passover was intended by God to be a celebration of His deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage and slavery. On the 10th day of the month of Nisan, each family was to take a spotless lamb and tie it to the doorpost of their house so that they would come into contact with it upon every entrance to and egress from their home. For four days, it was like a special pet to the family, hand fed and coddled, hugged by the children, patted by the adults. And then on the 14th day of the month, the father was to kill the lamb, catching it's blood in a bowl. While the lamb was being roasted for dinner that night, the blood was brushed down the doorposts and over the lintel of the household. In this way, the angel of death would identify the houses of the righteous and "pass over" them while ministering judgment to the houses of the unrighteous. Ever after, on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, lambs were to be sacrificed, roasted and consumed as a memorial to that day of deliverance. So it had been for 1500 years.

On the 10th of Nisan, April 21, 31 AD, Jesus entered the temple on the Sabbath and threw the money changers and their ways out, exclaiming, "This is a house of prayer, and you've turned it into a den of thieves!" This was the day after his triumphal entry, and also the day on which he was marked for death by the Jewish leaders. Over the course of the next three days, Jesus was on their doorstep, teaching and preaching the kingdom of God, and they became very familiar with his message, but on the fourth day they arrested him in the Garden of Gethsemane, tried him before all the legal courts of the land, and condemned him to death. At 3 PM on 14th Nisan, April 25, as the spotless lambs were being brought to the temple mount for the Passover slaughter, Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross. He was our Passover lamb.

The 14th of Nisan was also the Day of Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which would be celebrated for eight days. Many traditions had sprung up around this festival, but the heart of it went all the way back to the first Passover in Egypt. The Jewish house was to be cleansed from all leaven (or yeast), and the bread eaten during the festival was to be unleavened bread. Leaven was a symbol of sin and guilt, the reason for judgment, and it was to be purged from the household to represent the purging of sin under the blood of the Passover lamb and a reminder of the bondage and slavery out of which God brought His people. It became the custom for families to make a final sweep of their home at midday on the 14th of Nisan, and at midday on that particular day 2000 years ago, the sky was darkened over Jerusalem as all the sin of the world was placed upon the person of Jesus Christ.

The 15th of Nisan began at sunset, and the Passover meal was eaten by all the families in Jerusalem. One ritual practice of the meal was to take one of three pieces of unleavened bread from a special bread pouch and break it in half. One half was placed back with the other pieces of bread, the other was wrapped in a napkin and hidden. Late in the meal, the children of the household would search for the hidden half, called afikomen, and it was eaten as a "dessert" morsel. Consider Christ, having cleansed the world of sin through His sacrifice and Himself being delivered from the leaven of sin through His death, being wrapped in linen and hidden away in the borrowed tomb. While the Jews celebrated the festival of Unleavened Bread, the true unleavened bread lay resting, awaiting the next great day of Firstfruits.

First Fruits was a celebration of harvest celebrated on the First Day of the Week following Passover. Sheaves of newly reaped barley were brought to the temple and presented as a wave offering before the Lord. It was on the First Day of the Week, Sunday, April 29th, 31 AD, the 18th day of Nisan, that Jesus rose from the dead and emptied the holding place of righteous departed. In this and so many other ways, Jesus was the First Fruits!

1. Jesus is the firstborn of Mary (Matthew 1:23-25)
2. Jesus is the first-begotten of God the Father (Hebrews 1:6)
3. Jesus is the firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15)
4. Jesus is the first-begotten from the dead (Revelation 1:5)
5. Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29)
6. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrected ones (1 Corinthians 15:20,23)
7. Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God (Revelation 3:14)
8. Jesus is the preeminent One (Colossians 1:18)

the above list was taken from http://bibleprophesy.org/feasts4.htm
So Jesus Christ Himself was the reality and fulfillment of those three Spring harvest festivals--Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits--which were types and shadows of the things to come!

Three Days, Three Nights

They asked for a sign. After all the miracles they had seen--the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk, the dumb could talk, lepers were cleansed, the demonized were delivered, and even the dead had come back to life--the religious leaders of Jesus' day wanted proof that he was who he claimed to be. They wanted him to give them a sign that he was the Son of God.

"A sign?" Jesus asked. "A sign. Only a faithless and twisted generation asks for a sign. But if you want a sign, I'll give you one. I'll give you the sign of Jonah."

The sign of Jonah? they may have wondered. What's a sign of Jonah?

"As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." That was the sign. Over and over again, Jesus made references like that. One time, he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." There was great significance in the three days.

But tradition has told us that Jesus died on Good Friday, was in the grave for the Sabbath on Saturday, and rose from the dead on Sunday, the First Day of the week. And to reconcile this tradition with Jesus' statement, an explanation has been invented. Since he was in the ground for parts of three different days--Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning--that counts as three days. I'm sorry. 36 hours does not three days and three nights make.

The misconception comes from the fact that the High Priests and leaders of the Jews didn't want the bodies of the crucified to remain on the cross for the Sabbath. Since Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, that means the crucifixion took place on Friday. Right? But there are problems with a Friday-Saturday-Sunday order of events. If Jesus died on the afternoon before the Sabbath, and rose from the dead on the morning after the Sabbath, then on what day did the women buy spices for his body (Mark 16:1) after the Sabbath, but prepared them and afterward rested on the Sabbath (Luke 23:56)? No matter how you look at it, there aren't enough days in the traditional Friday-Saturday-Sunday scenario for those things to take place.

Is there a reasonable explanation that fits both the chronology of events and Jesus' promise to be in the grave 72 hours?

Consider this: Jesus took the Last Supper with his disciples on Tuesday night, the Day of Preparation for the Passover. He was arrested around Midnight and tried through the night by the Priests and Pharisees. On Wednesday morning, he was taken before both Pilate and Herod and found innocent, but condemned at the insistence of the Jewish leaders. He was crucified at 9 AM on Wednesday morning, hung on the cross for 6 hours, and died at 3 PM as the Passover lambs were being sacrificed. Joseph of Arimathea quickly recieved permission to take the body down, and before sunset he placed the body of Jesus Christ in his own tomb.

Jesus' body lies in the tomb on Wednesday night and all day Thursday. That's one night and one day.

Jesus' body lies in the tomb on Thursday night and all day Friday. That's two nights and two days.

Jesus' body lies in the tomb on Friday night and all day Saturday. That's three nights and three days.

And after sunset on Saturday, when the Sabbath ended and the First Day of the Week began, Jesus was resurrected and translated from the tomb. The guards placed their by the High Priest stood watch over an empty grave for nearly twelve hours before the angel appeared and rolled back the stone!

Wait, wait, wait, you might say. If the Sabbath is on Saturday, how can Wednesday be the day before the Sabbath? I'm so glad you asked.

During the holy week of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the day after Passover is the First Day of Unleavened Bread, a High Holy Day and observed as a Sabbath. If Jesus died on Wednesday; Thursday was a Sabbath, Saturday was a Sabbath, and Friday was the day between the Sabbaths on which the women went to the market to buy spices, spent the day preparing them, and then rested on the Weekly Sabbath before going to the tomb on the First Day of the week.

And did Passover ever fall on a Wednesday during the years considered by scholars to mark the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ? Only once, in 31 AD. On our calendar, Jesus died on Passover, April 25th, and rose from the dead on Firstfrutis, April 29th. More about Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits later!

The Paganization of Christianity

In the early 4th Century, Christians were enduring the Great Persecution. Churches were burned, treasures were stolen, believers were imprisoned, tortured and martyred for their faith. Then something happened that changed everything. The Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.

As a pagan emperor, Constantine held the title Pontifex Maximus, serving as high priest of the pagan religion of Rome. As a Christian emperor, Constantine retained the title, believing that the emperor was responsible for the spiritual health of his subjects. He exercised his authority to maintain orthodoxy of doctrine and practice throughout the church universal to ensure that God was properly worshiped in the world. He also summoned the First Council of Nicea.

Declaring Christianity to be the state religion, Constantine oversaw the incorporation of many pagan elements into the new state religion. Rather than destroying the pagan idols of Roman society, he simply renamed them. Pagan gods were transformed into Christian patriarchs and saints. One of the oldest pagan symbols is the madonna and child, going all the way back ancient Babylon and the myth that when Nimrod was killed, his wife Semiramis miraculously conceived their son Tammuz, who was really believed to be Nimrod reincarnated. The madonna and child became one of the most recognizable Christian icons in the empire. What's most interesting in Christian iconography is that Jesus is almost always portrayed as the babe on Mary's lap or the crucified corpse. Hardly ever is he seen as the resurrected, glorified and all powerful Christ.

In a further attempt to make pagans feel welcome in Christendom, pagan holidays were matched up with Christian observances, giving birth to several new holidays. The two most prominent were Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ, and Easter to celebrate the resurrection.

During the first hundred years of the church, the majority of Christian believers were Jewish by birth and heritage. The apostles continued to observe the Jewish Sabbath and the festivals such as Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Those in Jerusalem continued to worship daily in the temple. Even their writings preserved in the New Testament have a distinctly Hebraic flavor. But as the decades passed, animosity began to grow between the Jewish and Gentile branches of the church. The Jews began to isolate themselves against the influence of Christianity, and the Gentile believes became hostile toward the Jewish community. What was begun by a Jewish Messiah and his Jewish students in the Jewish homeland slowly became a Gentile religion, and the Gentiles began to distance themselves from the Jewishness of Christianity.

December 25 was a pagan holiday celebrating the the annual rebirth of the sun and various pagan gods and goddesses. With the standardization of Christianity instituted by Constantine, it became the day to celebrate the birth of the Son of God. Easter is a word right out of pagan worship which is tied, in Western Europe, to the spring equinox. It became the celebration of Christ's resurrection. And slowly, all connections to Judaism and the church's Hebrew roots were severed.

And now, even in Christian churches, we see the overwhelming effects of paganism on our Christian holidays. At Christmas time our sanctuaries are draped in lights and tinsel, decked with evergreen boughs and holly and mistletoe. Christmas trees are stood at the altar, and the gifts we give are for each other and not for the Christ. At Easter, we welcome the Easter bunny and his Ishtar eggs, and the holiday is more about candy and ham than about the risen Lord. And I can already hear the outcry of sincere Christians who will protest that Easter really is about the resurrection!

So why did we celebrate the Resurrection in 2008 a full month before the anniversary of Christ's death? Because we have bound the date to the pagan worship of the sun rather than the original worship of the Son.

False Facts

During the recent "Easter" season, I received an an email numerous times purporting to present various fun facts about Easter. Here they are:

Easter is always the First Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Spring Equinox.

Easter was unusually early this year (March 23), but it occurs on rare occasions one day earlier.

The last time it was this early was 1913. The next time it falls on March 23 will be 2228.

It fell on March 22 in 1818, and will fall again on March 22 in 2285.

The dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar used by the Hebrews to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

That last statement is completely false.

Passover, the most ancient of the Hebrew celebrations, dates back to Moses and the Exodus 3500 years ago. On a particular night, God sent an angel to destroy all the firstborn sons of Egypt, but He provided the Hebrews with a means of deliverance from the plague. They were to sacrifice a young lamb, paint the doorposts of their house with its blood, and roast the meat for dinner. When the angel saw the blood on the doorposts, he would pass over the houses of the Hebrews...thus it is called Passover.

Passover was to be celebrated annually among the Hebrews as a memorial of what God had done for them, and it was always celebrated on the 14th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. The lamb is butchered on the afternoon, but since the Hebrew day is measured from sunset to sunset, they actually eat the Passover meal as the 15th day of Nisan is beginning.

The Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle, which is 354 days in length. In cultures that practice a purely lunar calendar, the year does not follow the seasons becuase it deviates from the standard calendar by about 11 days each year, aligning with the seasons about once every 34 years. Our calendar is based on the solar cycle, which is 365 days in length, and the ancient Biblical calendar was actually 360 days long. In order to keep their lunar calendar in line with the solar cycle, the Jews added an extra month seven times in nineteen years.

Each Hebrew month begins with the new moon, so the 14th day of every month falls on the full moon. Passover really is celebrated on a full moon, but not necessarily on the first full moon after the Spring Eqinox. Take 2008, for instance. The Spring Equinox was March 19, which is the day on which the sun is exactly positioned over the earth's equator. The first full moon was March 21. Therefore the first Sunday after the first full moon was March 23. However, Passover 2008, 14 Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, is not until April 19, which is the SECOND full moon after the Spring Equinox.

Most of Christendom celebrated Easter--the supposed memorial of Jesus' resurrection--a full month before the anniversary of His death. And why did we do this? More about it tomorrow.

Does It Matter?

A vast amount of scholarship has been done by a plethora of people concerning the pertinent dates of Jesus' birth, life, ministry and death. Certainly not all of them agree on the when, and some can't even agree on the who. But yesterday's post shows the dates that I accept, at least currently, for a variety of reasons, which I will continue to explain as this month progresses. And what's so special about April? Even though we celebrated Easter on March 23, it was not the actual anniversary of the resurrection, nor was it a legitimate day on which to commemorate that event. This year, April 27th is the only legitimate Sunday on which we could celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Did you know that the stars and planets aligned themselves in a particular way to signal the birth of Jesus and to guide the magi from Babylon to Bethlehem, fulfilling nine specific requirements detailed in the gospel according to Matthew?

Did you know that the Seven Feasts of Israel must find their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ? Did you know that at least six--Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), Atonement (Yom Kippur), Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost--have already been fulfilled at least once by his first coming, and that the remaining seventh will be fulfilled with his second coming and earthly reign, celebrated annually perpetually forever? Did you know that Jesus even fulfilled a non-biblical feast when he was conceived in Mary's womb? The Light of the World was conceived at Hanukkah, the festival of lights!

Did you know that both Christmas and Easter are pagan holidays incoporated into Christian practice by the Emperor Constantine when he made Christianity the state religion, and neither has anything to do with the birth or resurrection of Jesus?

Did you know that the gospel accounts, when taken together, show that the Last Supper was not a Passover meal and that Jesus did not die on Good Friday? Did you know that Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night do not, and cannot, fulfill Jesus' promise to be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights? Did you know that the gospel accounts show he died on Wednesday and was raised from the dead shortly after sunset on Saturday night?

Did you know that when Jesus rose from the dead, he brought the Old Testament saints out of their graves and out of hell with him, and that when he ascended he took them to heaven?

And does it matter? On the face of eternity, in regards to our salvation, probably not. But the exactness of the fulfillments of the feasts are just one glorious proof of the wonderful workings of the universe which God created in eternity past and put us in to see his handiwork!

Just the Facts

Jesus Christ, the Son of God

born to Mary, daughter of Joaquim & Hannah, of the tribe of Levi

and Joseph, legally the son of Heli the son of Matthat,

but biologically the son of Jacob the son of Matthan,

all of the tribe of Judah and the house of David.

Conceived by the Holy Spirit on or about

25 Kislev 3758 in Nazareth of Galilee
(which corresponds to 14 December 4 BC)

Significance: Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights

Born 1 Tishri 3759 in Bethlehem of Judea

(which corresponds to 11 September 3 BC)

Significance: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and anniversary of the creation of Adam,

among other things.

Circumcised 10 Tishri 3759 in Bethlehem of Judea

Significance: the Day of Atonement

Visited by the Wisemen on or about 25 December 2 BC in Bethlehem of Judea.

Bar-Mitzvahed 1 Tishri 3772 in Nazareth of Galilee, age 13

Baptized on or about 1 Tishri 3788 in the Jordan River at Bethabara of Judea, age 29

Crucified 14 Nisan 3791, a Wednesday, in Jerusalem of Judea, age 32 1/2.

(which corresponds to 25 April 31 AD)

He died at 3 PM

Significance: Passover

Buried for 3 nights (Wed, Thur, & Fri) & 3 days (Thur, Fri, & Sat)

in a borrowed tomb in Jerusalem

Significance: Unleavened Bread

Resurrected 18 Nisan 3791 in Jerusalem

29 April 31 AD

He rose after sunset on Saturday, by Jewish reckoning the First Day of the Week

Signficance: Firstfruits

Ascension 27 Ayar 3791 from the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem

07 June 31 AD

Sent the Holy Spirit to the Church 08 Sivan 3791

17 June 31 AD

Significance: Pentecost