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Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
We have arrived… Easter weekend 2025. I wonder what Easter has meant in your unique, personal, life story, all the way back to your childhood? No matter where you live in the world, as you watch the people of your city this weekend, how many of them are living their lives significantly impacted by the events which took place during that Passover/Easter weekend in Jerusalem 2000 year ago, when Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and rose from the dead? And for how many people you and I will see this weekend, is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus simply a story or a myth which they ignore?
You see, my friends, the life of every human being is today and will, for all eternity future, be shaped by their PERSONAL response to those events which Jesus experienced that world-changing Passover/Easter weekend. Did you know that? Do you understand that powerful truth?
While movies have been made, books have been written, songs authored and sung, the only account of that weekend which really matters is the Biblical account, for the four Gospels are God inspired, eye-witness accounts. While they are similar each is uniquely distinct. Like you and me each of these four men was given by God a unique perspective on this world-changing weekend. Have you discovered and are you celebrating this weekend, some of those distinctive perspectives each author gives us? Have you thought about what YOUR unique perspective is on that Passover/Easter weekend which changed the world, and has it changed your life?
Matthew tells us Judas the betrayer was overwhelmed with guilt and shame after betraying Jesus. He attempted to redeem himself by returning the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests. Judas said: “I have sinned for I have betrayed innocent blood.” (Matt. 27:4) Their response was hard: “What is that to us? That is your responsibility?” Judas ran away from those priests and hanged himself in shame! (Matt. 27:5) Do we understand that Jesus died and rose from the dead to deliver us from the self-destructive power of SHAME? Are you living a shame-free life because of the resurrected Jesus?
Matthew also tells us there was darkness over the land as Jesus was on the cross, and Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:45,46) In His agony of experiencing the wrath of God the Father poured out upon God the Son who bore our sins on the cross, Jesus experienced separation from His Father as God’s justice was accomplished. (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 4:9,10) But Jesus’ separation from the Father has earned for us reconciliation to God with Jesus as our reconciler! (Col. 1:21,22) Are you and I living today RECONCILED with or Estranged from God the Father?
Matthew tells us the great veil, shielding the Most Holy Place in the Temple, was then torn top to bottom as Jesus died. (Matt. 27:51) That tearing symbolized the opening of God’s throne room to any person, at any time, seeking an audience with God through the atonement work of Jesus Christ, as described in Hebrews 10:19-23. Do you take frequent advantage of that wonderful opportunity of an audience with God, invited there by the resurrected Jesus Christ?
Luke was not one of the disciples, but a Greek physician who traveled with the apostle Paul and interviewed many of those who knew Jesus very well. (Luke 1:1-4) Luke tells us Jesus’ first words from the cross, as they drove the spikes into His hands: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Luke tells us one of the criminals crucified with Jesus declared that he deserved his punishment, but Jesus was innocent, and he asked Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. Jesus responded to that repentant criminal: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) Upon that one statement several key doctrines are built including the identification of the place where the soul/spirit of those who believe in Jesus goes when they die, paradise; and that our departure for and arrival in that paradise is immediate upon our death, guaranteed by Jesus. (John 6:37-40)
Luke tells that Jesus also said from the cross: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46) indicating Jesus’ confidence that while He bore the wrath of God for all the sin of humanity, the love of God the Father for God the Son was supreme and when His payment had fully been made God would assume responsibility for bringing Jesus’ spirit into God’s Presence at the moment of His death. Do you recognize that as the same promise God has given all believers in Jesus? (John 11:25,26)
Luke gives us the wonderful account of the two unnamed disciples traveling the road to Emmaus on resurrection Sunday as they were joined by a third Traveler, having no idea it was the resurrected Jesus until they sat to eat. As He prayed, the eyes of their hearts were opened to the revelation of God! Luke tells us they immediately returned to Jerusalem, joined the disciples who had gathered to discuss the rumor of Jesus’ resurrection, and these men gave their personal story! It causes us to ask if we, you and me, have a unique story which has convinced us of the resurrection of Jesus and have we told that story to anyone?
John, of course, became a very close friend of Jesus, five times referring to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ in his Gospel account of Jesus’ life. (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7; 21:20) John was the only disciple who did not abandon Jesus that weekend. John alone stood at the cross with some of the women including Mary, Jesus’ mother and Mary Magdalene. (John 19:25,26) John identifies the two Pharisees who braved being ostracized for the rest of their lives and requested Pilate’s permission to remove Jesus’ dead body from the cross and bury it in a nearby garden tomb owned by one of them. They were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the Pharisee with whom Jesus had the powerful discussion which includes the most famous verse in the Bible: John 3:16. (John 19:38-42)
John gives us the beautiful story of Mary Magdalene encountering the resurrected Jesus in the garden near the tomb, and thinking He was the gardener asking if they had moved the dead body of Jesus. Do you remember, it was the sound of Jesus speaking her name that convinced Mary the unthinkable, unimaginable was real and she was experiencing the risen Jesus! (John 20:11-18) And John tells us he outran Peter on their race to the tomb when they heard it was empty. John went in, saw and handled the grave clothes left behind by Jesus in His resurrection and without yet having seen the risen Jesus, John believed the impossible had really happened! Jesus was alive again!! (John 20:8)
So, on this resurrection weekend, if someone asked you to write your personal version of what you understand happened that historic, world-changing Passover/Easter weekend, what would you write? And more importantly, if you were to write YOUR story, of how you have met the RISEN Jesus Christ and HE has changed your life, what would you write? May I challenge you to consider doing just that… write your Easter story, my friends, and pass it on to your children and grandchildren. Do you know it may become for them a priceless treasure, especially when the day comes that your earthly journey ends.
Now let’s worship on this Easter weekend with this brand-new Easter song sung by two sisters… it’s their celebration, and what about you and me?
Today’s Scripture: John 19:38-42.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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