Easter Sunday

Happy Easter everyone.

One of the topics I am thinking about writing a post or series about is why it is important to go to church on a weekly basis. It seems like especially my generation has come to view church or organized religion as something optional. But I know my generation is not the only one that believes this, as shown by the amount of "Christmas and Easter Christians" our churches had today. Why is it that churches are the fullest on Easter Sunday?  

In thinking about this question and wondering why do we go to church, I have to come to an initial thought. We go to church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and no other Sunday is this celebrated more than on the annual Sunday we believe Jesus actually rose from the dead.  We feel and think that we must be at church on Easter Sunday because this is the holiest day of the year and how can we celebrate it alone?  This question is exactly right, how can this be celebrated alone!? The single most important event in history cannot be celebrated in any everyday ordinary type of way.  It deserves more than a moment's pause before breakfast, or a meditative walk, or even a solitary time of prayer.  

Words 6 and 7: Double Feature

John 19:30 “It is Finished.”

Luke 23:46 “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Today we are going to attempt to tie up many of the themes we have dealt with over the last few weeks.  We also have to deal with two words to finish up before Easter.  These last two words are both the final ones in their Gospel account and, although these words are from different authors, they are related and can be taken together.

Word 5: I thirst!

John 19:28 “I thirst!”

Theme: fully God, fully man

This week we are going to explore the theme of the Incarnation, or God becoming human in the person of Jesus Christ.  These ideas are complex and deep, both theologically and historically.  There are also names and ideas not much thrown around outside the walls of a seminary classroom.  But the fact remains that these ideas are central to who the Church is and what we believe.  There is a story told about one of our “heretics” today, Arius.  It is said that at one point in his debate over church doctrine he had half the city of Alexandria singing a popular tune with the lyrics “there was a time when the Son was not.”  This story is interesting because it reveals two facts.  First, there was indeed a time when the issue of who Jesus Christ is wasn’t fully settled in the Church.  The Church had to wrestle with issues such as its continuity or discontinuity with Judaism, the Trinity, the humanness of Jesus and then his divinity, salvation through Jesus, and many others.  Ideas we now mostly take for granted had to be fought over in the Church.  Secondly, these ideas used to be discussed and wrestled with by your average Christian.  Arius had half the city singing his song and we might assume that the other half opposed him.  People in the streets were actually discussing theology.  Before Christianity became the established religion in Europe, it must have been mightily important that one understood just what they believed if they might die for it.  One early Church leader even advocated 3 full years of training and learning before a person could fully join the Church!  So these ideas were in the air, if you will, in this time.  So, although this lesson might seem deep, I think we can handle it.

Let us first look at the temptation of Jesus

Word 4: My God, my God, why have you forskae me?

Matt 27:46 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Theme: Humble Servanthood

These words spoken by Jesus from the cross are the opening lines of Psalm 22.  This saying is unique because it is the only one mentioned in more than one Gospel and it is also the only one recorded in Aramaic.  Because these words are recorded in Aramaic and not Greek, we can assume that these were the actual words of Christ in his mother-tongue.  These words also draw us back into the Aramaic/Jewish context of Jesus, particularly Psalm 22.

Before we look more closely at an episode of Jesus’ life, it is important that we understand Psalm 22 and also take the time to read it.  Psalm 22 is both a cry of despair and a Psalm of praise for all God has done.  There is almost an inner dialogue the writer has between his anguish and his realization that God is in control.  Jesus quotes verse one, but by verse three the Psalm reads, “Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.”  The Psalmist begins to remind himself, and all those who would later these words, all that God has done for Israel.  The author admits that his only hope is in the God of Israel.  Verse 24 is key to the whole prayer, “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.”