Easter Week 2

Psalm: Psalm 16  

Acts: Acts 2:14a, 22-32  
Gospel: John 20:19-31  
Epistle: 1 Peter 1:3-9

This week we explore some of Jesus’ post Resurrection appearances, which is appropriate for the week following Easter. In John, the first appearance of Jesus after his Resurrection interestingly was to Mary Magdalene, a woman, and not one of the 12 Apostles.  In fact, Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved, most people assume this to be the author of the Gospel of John himself, are present at the tomb and Jesus choose not appear to them, but rather wait until Mary was alone. I don’t have an answer as to why Jesus did this, but it is interesting nonetheless. So Jesus tells Mary Magdalene that he has risen from the dead, but not yet ascended to the Father. Jesus tells her to go tell the disciples this message. Mary then becomes the first proclaimer of Jesus death and resurrection, which is quite a distinct honor. But notice that Jesus didn’t tell Mary that he would later visit the disciples and that they are to gather together and wait like the accounts in Matthew and Mark.

Easter

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Jeremiah 31:1-6
John 20:1-18
Acts 10:34-43

He is risen…He is risen indeed! Happy Easter! I was reviewing what I wrote I about Easter before and came across this quote from N.T. Wright in Surprised by Hope, “Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity... This is our greatest day. (Surprised by Hope)

Of course we need Christmas and the birth of Jesus to also have Easter and his Resurrection. But the Point Wright is making is that only because of Easter, only because of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, do we have Christianity at all. Paul makes this point succinctly in 1 Corinthians 15, particularly in verses 17-19, “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

Good Friday/ Holy Saturday

Good Friday has now passed and Holy Saturday is almost at an end too, but I wanted to draw our attention to a passage I think which reflect the events from Yesterday, Good Friday, and point us towards the resurrection we celebrate tomorrow.  The passage comes from outside the traditional Gospel story we typically read this weekend and instead comes for Philippians 2:5-11.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11 
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Today is Palm Sunday which I am sure comes as no surprise to anyone.  We celebrate an important and interesting episode in the life of Jesus. The account this year comes from the Gospel of Matthew, however all four Gospels give an account of this episode. Each Gospel presents the story a bit differently and Matthew has some specifically unique elements to his story. To begin with, we are all familiar with the image of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt. However, Matthew says that Jesus rides in on a colt and a donkey. Somehow the disciples spread their coats on both animals and Jesus was able to sit on both.  Matthew makes this point because he finds fulfillment in Jesus’ Triumphal Entry in Zechariah 9:9. When you read Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament, there are often two lines where the second one repeats the first but either modifies, intensifies, or somehow explain the first line.  This is what is happening in Zechariah 9:9.  The second line is intensifying the first to say not only a donkey, but even a colt, the foal of a donkey. (which, you will notice, defines the word colt that doesn’t really need a definition.) We understand that this is poetry.  I don’t want to misread Matthew or discount his telling.  Matthew says Jesus rode colt and a donkey because he wants it to be clear that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy as the true Messiah.  This is something that Matthew is continually pointing out in his Gospel; Jesus fulfills the prophecy of who the Messiah is and what the Messiah will do.

Lent Week 5

Psalm: Psalm 130 

Old Testament: Ezekiel 37:1-14 
Gospel: John 11:1-45 
Epistle: Romans 8:6-11

This Sunday is the fifth Sunday in Lent and our passages find us in the midst of despair and death. Each passage explores the depth of humanity’s, and even God’s people, sin and fragility. In Ezekiel, we read the famous passage of Ezekiel being told to prophesy to a valley of dry bones. I know I have said this before on this blog, but sometime the prophets are told to do some crazy things by the Lord.  Ezekiel is told to walk to a valley, a traditional place for battle, and prophesy to dead corpses to rise again. Even Ezekiel seems to think the Lord is asking too much. Verse 3 says, “The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered,

‘O Lord God, You know.’” Ezekiel doesn’t see a way for these bones to come to life.