I have to share with you that we’re coming to the time of year I love the most. Better than Christmas. Better than Thanksgiving. Better than the Fourth of July.
Yes, it’s Resurrection Day!
Of course that comes on the heels of the passion of the Christ and the crucifixion.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Apostle Paul…
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But Christ has been raised, so we get the whole enchilada! (that’s a theological term)
So I love the Resurrection. I don’t like to talk about “Easter” – that’s a holiday term steeped in plenty of paganism. I just call it Resurrection Day.
And that wraps up the betrayal, the arrest, the fake trial and the beatings, the judgment, the crucifixion and the (ultimately) resurrection.
I love it. My sins paid for (and yours too). The account settled, declared righteous, paid in full. Finished.
Yes, I love the resurrection.
My wife and I have a unique way of celebrating. We actually start the whole process by celebrating the Passover. I know your first question will be “are you Jewish” The easy answer is “not even a little”.
We like to join with Jesus in this last calm moment of His life. A quite time with His disciples.
But the truth is there was a lot more going on in that Passover celebration than meets the eye.
And it leads to a tremendously emotional realization of what Jesus was dealing with, even in this “calm” moment. Reading your Bible, you’d blast over it and not even know it’s there.
So we are hosting a couple Passover celebrations at our church with 125 of our closest friends. Or church-goers. So all in 250 participants will go through the Passover with us.
We’ve been doing this for 25 years now. We celebrate the Passover and teach everyone there who attends about what Jesus was thinking and feeling in the upper room.
There is a lot to learn from the Passover. Yes, it’s an Old Testament celebration. But it has a lot to offer us today – yes, even us Gentiles.
So Tuesday the 4th of April and Thursday the 6th, we’ll be treading the old path and celebrating the lamb that passed over the angel of death.
I’ll try to share some of the major lessons of the Passover to whet your learning for this Resurrection season. They are deeply connected after all.
If you’re curious and want to know more, I’ve written a book about it. As Often As You Do It. It’s a book about the Christian ceremony of Communion. It draws out of the Passover celebration. But even more than understanding Communion, the Passover offers a vision of what was on Jesus mind the night He was betrayed.
I’ll share more with you about this in the next few emails. But you can get a jump on it by reading ahead.
https://books2read.com/u/m0OEB…
This link goes to all the places where you can find the book. I promise it will surprise you with some information that you didn’t know before.
Until next time and the next info dump, Shalom!
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha’olamBarukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha’olam
He is Risen!
Dennis
