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Mar.21.05: Light for the Day - "Easter
- the Resurrection of Jesus"
-- John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
-- Mark 16:5, 6, 14
5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white
robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 "Don’t be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid
Him."
......
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had
seen
Him after He had risen.
-- Luke 24:6,7
6 He isn’t here! He has risen from the dead! Don’t you remember what he told you back in Galilee,
7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that
He would rise again the third day?"
-- Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our Faith, who
for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God.
-- 1 Corinthians 15:14,17
14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is
your Faith.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your Faith is useless, and you
are still under condemnation for your sins.
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***
Easter
The celebration of the resurrection of’ Jesus occurs every Sunday (which Christians came to call
“the Lord’s Day”), and it was about a century before anyone began observing the annual event
that came to be called Easter. It was first called Pascha, the Greek word for
Passover, which was natural since Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred near the Jewish Feast of Passover. The
apostle Paul referred to Jesus as “our Passover lamb”
(1 Cor.
5:7). Jesus, called the “lamb of God” several times in the New Testament, was regarded as the perfect and final sacrifice for man’s sins.
In the year 325 the Council of Nicaea decreed that Easter would be celebrated each year on the
Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (March
21).
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*** The Resurrection of Jesus
This is the key event in the New Testament, as important for the Christians as the deliverance
from Egypt was for the Jews. All four Gospels report that the body of Jesus, crucified on a Friday
and placed in a tomb, was not in the tomb on the following Sunday. The Gospels do not explain
how the event occurred, only that it did, and that many people saw the risen Jesus. When Mary
Magdalene and another woman went to the tomb on the Sunday morning, an angel at the empty
tomb told them, “He is not here, but is risen!” Jesus’ body was somehow changed—He was like
Himself enough to be recognized, yet changed enough that two of His disciples did not
immediately know Him (Luke 24:13–27). Some of the disciples thought He was only a phantom,
but clearly He had a body of flesh: He told them, “Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have
flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). He also ate some food to show He was truly
alive, not just a ghost. After some days He blessed His disciples and ascended into heaven (see
Ascension).
The New Testament never tires of speaking of the risen Jesus. While Jesus was admired as a
teacher, healer, and miracle worker, the key event was that after dying a horrible death on the
cross, God raised Him from the dead. Had the disciples not sincerely believed that their dead
Master had been raised up by God, Christianity would not have spread across the globe.
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*** Ascension
All four Gospels report that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples. Only Luke
reports what became of Him afterward: “Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He
was parted from them and carried up into heaven” (Luke
24:51). In Acts 1:10–11, he adds more
detail to this account: “While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two
men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up
into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like
manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’ ” This is known as the Ascension, and it is mentioned
several times in the New Testament. The early Christians believed that, just as Jesus had left the
earth to ascend to heaven, He would soon return from heaven and take His followers home.
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*** Lent
Some churches observe the forty days before Easter as Lent, a time of soul-searching and penitence. The practice dates from around a.d. 300 and was based on Jesus’ forty days of fasting during the time He was tempted by Satan
(Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2). In earlier times, Christians did fast during Lent, but later the idea developed of some form of self-denial—“giving up something for Lent,” as many people phrase it.
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*** Palm Sunday
The Sunday before Easter commemorates Jesus’ welcome by crowds carrying palm branches as He made his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting,
“Hosanna!” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
(John 12:13). This is known as His “Triumphal
Entry.” By the following Friday He was crucified. Some churches still stage processions using palm branches.
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*** Holy Week
This is the week from Palm Sunday to the following Sunday, Easter, and includes the days known as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
In some ways it was the most important week in Jesus’ life, with such critical events as
His cleansing the temple, the Last Supper, His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, and, on Easter, His resurrection from the dead.
Because the New Testament connects these key events with mankind’s salvation, Christians made their celebration a significant part of worship.
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*** Maundy Thursday
The Thursday before Easter commemorates the night before Jesus’ crucifixion. It was an eventful night: Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples, the agony in Gethsemane, the arrest. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “commandment.” In John’s account of the evening, Jesus told His disciples,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another”
(John 13:34).
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*** Good Friday
In a way it is an odd name for a sad day—the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. It came to be called
“good” because Jesus’ death on the cross was regarded as the perfect sacrifice that canceled Out human sin and allowed man to be reconciled to God.
The following day, when Jesus was in the tomb, is sometimes called Holy Saturday.
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--- J.S.Lang
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-- Romans 5:8
But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
-- 1 John 4:9, 10
9 God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.
10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
-- 2 Corinthians 5:19-21
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message He has given us to tell others.
20 We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ
Himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!"
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
-- 1 Timothy 1:15, 16 (Paul's letter)
15 This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I was the worst of them all.
16 But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of
His great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life.
-- John 11:25-27
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in
Me will live, even though he dies;
26 and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"
27 "Yes, Lord," she told Him, "I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
-- John 5:21
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
-- John 6:40
"For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in
Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
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