The Beginning of the End

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take it; this is my body.' Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,' he said to them." Mark 14:22-24 (NIV)

Tonight is the night. That fateful night of the first day of Passover. Jesus was sitting with his disciples having dinner. He seems so calm to me in all the scriptural accounts. I am certain that if I knew what was about to happen that I would have been a nervous wreck and unable to even sit, let alone eat. But he took the opportunity to share one final meal with his chosen few. And thank goodness that he did. For it is the meal that we commemorate with our brothers and sisters in Christ to remember the new covenant that has been established for us. Jesus became the blood and body sacrifice that we needed to fulfill eternal grace. As we think upon this ritual that we celebrate, may we remember why we do it. May we also remember the circumstances under which Jesus offered this sacrifice. He was about to give up his life so that we may have life eternal. In a few short hours he would be sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane preparing himself for the ultimate denial, trial, torture, death, and burial. But to every one's surprise, he would return again. So stay tuned with anxious anticipation as Jesus gets a brand new body and we get a brand new life through his sacrifice. It will only take three days...

Fascinating Foreshadowing

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord-a lasting ordinance." Exodus 12:14 (NIV)

The Bible fascinates me. It is so cohesive from beginning to end and all the parts relate and support one another. Some relationships are dramatic and others are more obscure, but when God reveals them to you it is such an exciting and holy revelation! Of course, I rarely, if ever, receive a revelation that hasn't been given to some Bible scholar in the past. But it always excites me to go and study it after I recognize it and have my new knowledge confirmed by someone who has made Bible study their life's work. It helps me to realize that I am learning to listen to God and recognize His clues rather than relying on the wisdom of someone else to teach me about my God. For I want to learn from the One who WROTE IT!

I have been studying the Passover this week since we are nearing Easter which is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish festival. As I began to read and study the original Passover in Exodus, so many interesting things just jumped off the pages. The Passover was originally announced by God as a way to save the children of Israel during their exile in Egypt, right before He told Moses to lead them out and He parted the Red Sea for them to escape. The Israelites were to get a young male lamb, one year old and without defect, and slaughter it. They were to put the blood on the door posts so that God would "passover" them when He came to claim the firstborn of every household in Egypt. Every home had someone dead when the night was done, except for the homes with the blood on them. Exodus 12:6 says "all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight." This foreshadows Israels rejection of Christ and their eagerness to have Him put to death. It was the Israelites, and no one else, who would slaughter the Passover Lamb. Luke 23 says "it was now about the sixth hour, and the darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining." (44-45) God made twilight to come upon the land while His ultimate Passover Lamb, who was "without defect" was sacrificed. Exodus 12:46 reports God's command "do not break any of the bones" and Numbers 9:12 says "they must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones." This is the foreshadowing of Christ's crucifixion. John chapter 19 says "but when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs" (33) and "these thing happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "not one of his bones will be broken..." (36) And Jesus was removed from the cross before night so that He would not be hanging during the Sabbath that was the following day. I Corinthians says "For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth." (7-8) "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry..." (John 6:35)

Let us take time this Easter to truly begin to understand God's will for humanity and how His plan has come to fulfillment throughout the ages. Knowing why we believe what we believe is the amazing fulfillment of our faith in Christ. Knowing these things makes me so excited for the final days when Christ returns because He loves me, for I know He will because the "Bible tells me so" as the sweet children's song goes.

Ours is a Living God

"As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people'." 2 Corinthians 6:16b (NIV)

As we approach this Easter season we tend to focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He laid down his life for us that we may have eternal life if we believe in Him. (John 3:16) But as we focus on the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, let us not forget that He did not simply come to die. He came to LIVE for us so that we may understand His ways better. He began a short 3 year ministry at the age of 30 and taught the world more in those 3 years than all of the prophets, ministers, and believers have been able to do in thousands of years! The impact of that one life and the 3 years of knowledge He bestowed astounds me! The only way that His life could have had such lasting impact was because He truly is the Messiah, the only begotten son of God. So as we thank God for our eternal salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we should also thank Him for giving us all the information that we will ever need to live a life acceptable to Him while we are still on this earth. We are no longer bound to the stringent rules of the Old Testament saints, for we have grace. But let us not take this grace for granted. For Jesus said "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40) This is what Christ spent those years on the earth trying to tell us. Of course, He always had plans to be the ultimate sacrifice and carry the burden of the world's sins on His back up the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha. But as we celebrate his sacrifice, let us remember our God is a Living God who came to live to show us the way before He could die to save us.