Bridging the Gap Between Resurrection Sunday and Passover

Mind the Gap by Sideways Sarah
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“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

Growing up Christian, I rarely understood Judaism and its significance to my faith until my friend, Laurie, invited me to her bas-mitzvah (a Jewish confirmation ceremony). Listening to her read from the Torah, it finally clicked…Jesus was Jewish.

                    

The rich, Old Testament history my mother and Sunday school teachers had taught me came alive that day. And, truth be told, I secretly wished I’d been born Jewish; not because I wanted to trade-in my Christian faith, but rather, because Judaism added depth and significance to my faith in Christ.

While Resurrection Sunday comes early this year (March 27th) almost a month prior to Passover (April 22-30th), Passover still provides us rich opportunities to bridge God’s Old Testament plan of salvation with God’s New Testament plan of salvation for our children. 

(Pssst...I'm sharing over at Christian Children's Authors blog today. Click here for links to the kids activities).

Where is Heaven?

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Matthew 11:25

“Where is heaven, Grams?” she asked. 

I nearly fell, head first into my car trunk as I neatly packed the grocery sacks, fumbling for just the right words. Her question wasn’t formed from a five-year-olds natural curiosity, but rather her heart’s longing to know Mammie’s new address.

It had been six months since Mammie’s unexpected passing and I’d been expecting this question, but hearing her vocalize it made answering it exceptionally daunting.  I knew my words would matter, because they would influence her hope and faith. I feared getting it all wrong and wondered how to explain what I couldn’t fully grasp myself. What simple, truthful answer could I offer her to this question that stumps even the greatest theologians?
 
I slammed the trunk shut, the question still hung between us. I swung the empty carriage around and lifted her into the car as I searched for just the right words. I breathed a desperate prayer heavenward, wherever that was, “Lord, I need your words…NOW!”

(Fill your favorite Christmas mug and join me over at the Christian Children's Authors blog for the rest of the story...)

All That and a Bag O' Chips

 

 

"God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT

I never understood the place comfort food played during loss until last week. All I wanted was a bottle of diet Coke, but somehow I walked out of our neighborhood grocery store with all that AND a bag of chips; like somehow my body craved more and more comfort food after an entire week of binging.

Within hours of my father-in-laws passing, neighbors dropped off chicken cutlets and salad. Friends delivered a basket of gooey pastries piled a mile high. Fed Ex dropped a Honey Baked Ham on the front stoop and gourmet chocolate baskets poured in from my husband's sympathetic clients. 

In a brief moment I thought, "There's a Seinfeld episode here somewhere!" What a funny way to share condolences, right? Not so much.

As waves of extended family and close friends arrived and we poured over Dad's photographs and favorite hymns, the last thing we thought of was food preparation or trudging out to a public restaurant. Exhausted at the end of every day all we craved was food - comfort food - that ooey, gooey, chocolaty, sweet and salty, delectable that satisfied our sorrowful emptiness with some familiar, short-term happiness.

But all that AND the bag o' chips I bought a week later? It wasn't lasting comfort. I knew that.  Lasting comfort comes in knowing the Source of all comfort  - God our merciful Father - and being reassured that Dad knew Him, too. Sounds cliche, I know, but when you realize the finality of death - when you know that today IS the last day you'll set eyes on  your beloved this side of eternity - there is no lasting comfort aside from knowing God and knowing death is NOT the end.

God, in all his mercy, sent his Son, Jesus to live among us (Emmanuel) to show us who He was and to bridge the chasm that sin drove between us. Through Jesus' death and resurrection lies all hope and comfort that even in death, those who place their faith and trust in Him, will be resurrected, given a heavenly body and spend eternity in a place prepared just for us.

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands." 1 Corinthians 5:1 NLT

Now, that is everlasting comfort food and it is with that same comfort, Paul says, that we are to comfort one another.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for your mercy and enveloping us with your everlasting comfort in the midst of loss and sorrow. How reassuring to know that in this temporary world, You have prepared a place just for us; that in the end,  you will make us anew and eternal in Your presence.

Hope Restored: He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!

"You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him." Mark 18:6

The silence of Saturday is broken at the dawn of a new Sabbath, God's kingdom restored and death overcome by the resurrection of Jesus!

This...this is our hope. He has risen, just like he said. All Scripture fulfilled. All hope restored.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

May you enjoy the celebration of forgiveness and hope through Jesus, today.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Dawn

Anchored

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."Hebrews 6:19

It's either the gray hair, my recent birthday or it's all part of the human condition, but lately, I need Post-It notes to remind me of everything, even why my alarm is ringing.

And I've found my soul forgets, too. It forgets whose daughter I am, who holds my future and who anchors my boat. Lately, it needs reminding more often.

Maybe it's a girl thing?

The women closest to Jesus suffered forgetfulness, too. They thought all hope was gone that first Resurrection morning when they found Jesus' tombstone rolled away and his body missing! You can imagine their panic, "This can't be happening?! Who would steal our Lord's body? Where have they taken him? What will we tell the others?"

And at that moment, in the midst of their amnesia, God sent a reminder. Two angels appeared saying, "He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words" (Luke 24:6-8) and headed back to tell the disciples.

But, who would believe these women? Surely, the disciples would think them mad, overcome with grief? Maybe God knew that, too.

Matthew tells us, "Suddenly Jesus met them. 'Greetings,' he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.'"

God reminded these women not only of Jesus' own words of hope for the third-day resurrection, but God provided them a Jesus encounter; physical proof of this resurrection. Their resurrection hope met the reality of God's promise fulfilled. At that point their hope was fully anchored. Firm. Secure. Immovable.

And we need these reminders and Jesus-encounters, too.

Scripture serves as our reminder of this same hope - first Resurrection Sunday hope -  and anchors our souls firm and secure and immovable in God's promises. And community, meeting together with fellow believers in Christ, encouraging one another in faith, serves as our Jesus encounters - proof that He's alive through the power of his Holy Spirit in them and us.

There's certain people God placed in my life this weekend who served as encouragers of His hope and helped re-anchor my soul. They offered encouraging words, a prayer, a hug, a phone call and an email, turned my eyes back to God's word for my remembrance. To them, I'm forever grateful how God uses you in such a powerful way in my life and always at just the right time. 

Who has God placed in your life to help anchor you? Is there someone God's placed on your heart to speak encouraging words into their heart? Don't hesitate. Their soul needs help remembering and anchoring.  

Take It

 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42

I offer my cup, hold it out, offer it up for others to take and sip. But it remains mine to drink. And why should I expect anything different?

Jesus begged the same question that night in Gethsemane, "Take this cup."

Facing cross-shaped pain and death, Jesus offered up his cup. If obedience came in any other form, if any other payment could be offered, Jesus wanted a trade. But the cup remained his to drink.

My lips rest on cup's rim before I tip. The strong aroma of blood-red wine overwhelms me and I hesitate, asking one more time, "May I trade this cup for a sweeter white?" And when my cup remains, no trades allowed, I have a choice: refuse the blood-red cup and walk away or accept it and drink.

Before Jesus tipped his cup he surrendered all - his will for the Father's perfect redemptive plan. And when I first read this, I think of course he did, he was God's son. But the white spaces between the cup and his obedience reveal his torment.

"An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."

Luke 22:43-44

He didn't want to drink this blood-red wine. Dismayed, Jesus begged and pleaded for a sweeter white until his humanity perspired, weakened and slumped. Could Jesus, fully-God, fully-man not see resurrection joy ahead? I don't know.

"The discipline of dismay," says Oswald Chambers, "is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong. But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure it until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy" (My Utmost for His Highest, Discovery House, 1992).

Knowing the hour, God sent Jesus his strength-ministering angel so that He might endure the drink until the full cup of blood-red wine emptied at Calvary. And Calvary held no joy. No, for that was the saddest day when Jesus fully surrendered his will, endured the cross and took on sin. That death-consuming day the earth grew dark and shook at the weight of all He bore.

Joy came after the dying.

And still does.

Lips pressed against my communion cup, I drink. I do so in remembrance of Jesus' obedient sacrifice - his laying down and dying - for me, for us all. And I empty myself right there, in the memory of the cross, knowing that whatever transformation takes place after the laying down, I'm assured joy follows. For part of remembrance is the empty tomb - the joy of transformed resurrected life.

Has God Gone Deaf?

His dream died at twilight in the early autumn forest. The gift he knew was meant for him--the blessing he thought God promised him--bled out at the hands of another. His heart betrayed, not by his friend, but by his God. He wept hard tears for all the years of promise, expectation and now deep loss. Between sobs he screamed, Why do you give me stones and snakes when I ask for bread and fish, God? Why did you give my gift to another? Do you love me? Do you ever love me?

And he heard nothing--like God gone deaf.

What do we do when we feel betrayed by God? Where do we go when God is silent to our desperate call? How do we keep the faith? Can we be reassured that God still loves us? And what about the dream? Was it just our imagination or was it real?

On the night Jesus was betrayed, the Bible tells us, he broke bread and gave thanks.
(1 Corinthians 11:23-24a NIV). In the midst of his betrayal Jesus stopped to give thanks for his daily bread. 


Then, "He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you;'” (1 Corinthians 11:24b NIV). Jesus' willingly accepted his brokenness so that we might know wholeness through it.

And he ended, "'...do this in remembrance of me.'" We ought always remember Jesus' suffering for us--remember His broken body and His blood poured out for us.

The next day he spread out his arms--layed down his life, his ministry, his hope--on the cross. And before he died he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 NIV). In His betrayal, Jesus cried out to God.

In the two days that followed, God fell silent but He was not absent. He was working out His promised redemption through the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. From what was dead, God brought new life. Not the same life with breath but a new life with all of God's hope, promise and eternity set within Jesus. Through his death Jesus offers us  new life. By his resurrection we receive the gift of eternal life.

Sometimes it is so difficult to think beyond our reality of brokenness and betrayal. God seems distant, unloving, even silent. In these times He calls us to offer up a sacrifice of praise--a difficult word of thanksgiving. He asks us to let our dreams die at His feet and trust His silence so that He might offer us greater gifts with eternal significance.

"For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name." (Hebrews 12:14-15 NIV).

Lord, it is never easy to watch our dreams die or tarry. We sometimes feel betrayed by you, wondering when you will offer us bread and fish instead of stones and snakes. In our crying out Lord, help us to willingly lay our dreams at your feet and offer our hard, sacrifice of praise. In your silence, some how reassure us that you will resurrect our dreams to new life with lasting worth. Amen.