Greetings,

We thought that we would write down the events of Easter week-end for those that are unclear of the order and the meaning of it all.

Because there is confusion for some of us, please know days are different because the Jewish calendar is or was different from ours.  The beginning of the week is a different day so these days are accurate plus or minus one day.

They, the Jews used a 360 day calendar as opposed to our 365 day calendar.

Arguing the days to seems unnecessary to us because the events happened in an order that began as early as Thursday, the last supper, and ended, so to speak on Sunday, Easter day.

The last supper was a good bye gathering when Jesus began telling his disciples that he would be leaving them in order to go and prepare a place for all of us. He gave them their walking papers complete with his expectations of them to go into the world and build his church at their earthly peril.  What we would call Thursday.

Sometime on Friday, he was crucified and died a cruel death and on Sunday, he rose from the dead as discovered by the important women in his life evidence by an empty tomb.  He appeared to them later several times, with scars on his hands and feet, a slash in his side and returned to his father in heaven.

Most of us know the story.  It is more than a story, it is the prophesy in the old testament that comes to pass or is fulfilled.  There are hints in the bible that tell us of this event in many books of the bible and is even found in Genesis. With his death, we move from old testament to the new.  The words written on the stones of Moses are now written in our hearts.

God had known all along the we could not keep the law of Moses, the ten commandments and Easter Sunday is the day that the law became secondary to God’s promise to us.  He allowed his son to be crucified to bear the sins of all mankind if we simply believed that statement.  The law was too harsh, beyond the capabilities of man to keep, so Jesus took up the slack for us that we might know everlasting life.  Because God’s eyes are too pure to look upon sin, Jesus felt that moment as he absorbed our sin, a separation from God.  “Father, why has thou forsaken me”!

This earthly existence is a trial by fire, where elements of Heaven and Hell co-exist side by side every day.  It is pretty evident to us as these things are seen vividly these days with technologies like TV, Computers and Phones.

His death and resurrection ends a religion found in the old testament and begins with a relationship with Jesus in Christianity.  The difference is the end of appeasing God daily with chores and accepting his mercy and grace offered us through Jesus.  Very different scenarios, one of daily chores done for God and the other is the acceptance of God’s life jacket thrown to us, received and kept with faith or trust of Jesus that has taken our sin from us.  Stated another way, the Jews practice a religion with God to this day and Christians practice a faith in Jesus, our liaison or intermediary to God.

Easter is a meaningful day for almost 2 billion Christians and it is much more than a church service, Easter eggs and communion.

It is the day that we come to understand that God is too perfect to interface with us so he sent his son, a part of himself, in human form so that we might know God and his wishes for us.  We are forgiven for being too frail to keep God’s law and accepted by God’s grace through Jesus Christ.

It is important to know the trinity — God, Jesus and the holy spirit.  God is too perfect to fool with us, Jesus is the intermediary for God to us, and the holy spirit is that piece of Jesus that God left within us when Jesus returned to his father’s dwelling place.  The holy spirit is that which guides us and speaks to us, perhaps otherwise known as a conscience but that word is weak,   It is a guiding light for us if we will just listen for it and respond.

Joy is that which we come to understand and experience when we learn how to listen to that holy spirit left to us and within us through Jesus from God’s good Grace.

It is the perfect plan for us to be understood by God.  Jesus was God in human form so he might really be able to convey to our omnipotent God the trials of a frail human kind that is constantly plagued by Satan.

This practice is not rocket science, it is not complicated, it is not a form of indentured servitude and it is not drudgery or sacrifice. If anything it is all too simple for us to grasp sometimes.  When we listen to the holy spirit and respond, our wants, needs and desires begin to track right beside the wishes that God has in place for us and but for the struggles of consistent faith kept, it is all about knowing pure freedom.

It is truly the emancipation of human kind that will free us here to know an after life in heaven, soon.

Amen

TPP