Passover to Resurrection


Hosea 6:2      After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up that we may live in His sight.

 Isaiah 53: 4-10     Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.  He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation?  For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.  And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.  Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put HIM to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see HIS seed, He shall prolong HIS days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.  By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.                        ( I took the liberty of underlining or showcasing many of the words in this text.  It is so awesome, but Isaiah prophesized all that would happen to the Messiah for us, and our stubborn, sinful ways.)

John 6:40     “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Matthew 16:21     From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

Romans 6:4-8     Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the lines of His resurrection, knowing this , that our old man was crucified with HIM, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  For he who has died has been free from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.

 

With ALL these scriptures, who can NOT believe?

I was raised in a Christian church, although it never felt as though we learned biblical truths; there felt more like pomp and circumstance and ceremony, and sternness.  It was a pretty church, large and a little imposing, red brick on the outside, and on the inside, the ceiling was high and you looked upwards and would see Jesus smiling and reaching out a hand amidst the clouds, and an angel or two were nearby.  I loved looking at the serene invitation of Jesus.  But that was the only peace I felt there.

Every year, Lent came and we had to give up something; might be playing with a favorite doll, candy, cake, but something.  And for the next several weeks, you would hear how Jesus rode into town on a donkey and all the people loved him and praised him.  Yet four days later, He ate the last meal, served his disciples by washing their feet, reminding them of his love, and then they went out to pray in his favorite garden.  Roman guards came and seized him when Judas betrayed him, and his “court” performed. 

The Jewish hierarchy could manipulate the Roman governors, but they could not order a death, a murder.  So Jesus was beaten, brought to Pontius Pilate, sent off to Herod, returned to Pontius Pilate, who felt there was no need to kill Jesus, and urged the crowd (many who had cheered and praised him four days earlier) who now demanded his execution.  

How did that happen?  I never understood it as a kid, and now I don’t understand it much better except this was God’s will to free us sinners with the final sacrificial Passover Lamb.   In a matter of days, those who adored him were part of the crowd who condemned him.  What could possibly turn people so fast? I can’t remember a time I like and cared for someone and they made me angry, but that I wanted harm, true harm to happen to them.  The fact these folks turned their praise into chants of murder was not understandable to me.   It made me shiver in revulsion–still does, but now I am also thankful.   This wonderful, loving gift set us free from death and sin.

We were told (in the church I was raised in) that He was on the cross for three hours, which makes more sense to my nursing and analytical mind.  Jesus had been beaten, whipped/scourged, (no record that He ate—He handed bread to Judas).  I cannot imagine I would be able to swallow a thing knowing what I was facing in the next 22-24 hours, so my nursing mind believes He was very weakened, and believe with the back and forth all over Jerusalem, that He went on the cross about noon and died about 3, and then they would have to hustle to get him into the tomb as Passover was about to start.

I cannot imagine any of His followers celebrated the Passover meal.  I’m sure there were tears, grief, disbelief, horror, and lots of fear.  The hopelessness, helplessness, and for Peter the overwhelming guilt, must have been agony.  What would they do without Him?  How could they go on?  They’d thought He was the Messiah.

But He rose early Sunday morning and presented Himself to the women who followed Him and told them He was going to His Father and to tell the apostles He would meet them in Galilee.  “YES, my LORD, I AM ON THE WAY TO TELL THEM, TO SHARE THIS WONDERFUL NEWS!” 

The fact Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and LIVES so we can be freed from sin and also LIVE is the basis for our religion, our beliefs, and faith that we will see Him one day face to face. 

There are too many truths in the bible that prophesy his birth, death, how he would be tried and ‘led like a lamb’ and how his ‘stripes would heal’ and He said He would rise.  He appeared to many, many people within a short time after His crucifixion and death.  How can one not believe when you read the accounts of the numbers who saw Him, the frequency, the ability to touch His scarred hands.  And then they watched Him ascend.  So, yes, absolutely, no doubt or question for me, I believe Jesus is God’s Son, part of the trinity with His Father and the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, suffered for us, crucified, died, buried and rose again.  I believe He is alive and sits at His Father’s right hand.  And I believe He will come again to form a new Kingdom. 

Jesus, I can never give You enough of the praise and reverence which You deserve from me and ‘mybellaviews.’

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