Reviving the Easter Passion
Christians throughout the world, worshipping on Easter Sunday, proclaim, that God has come in Jesus to offer us a fresh start
It’s Easter again, and Christians throughout the world are reliving the story of the passion of the Christ!
Some enter into this experience more passionately than others
This Passion story has its origins in the Old Testament.
It is the story of the Exodus. God’s chosen, the Israelites find themselves in exile, because they chose to disobey God.
· The price of disobedience is separation from God
· Disobedience makes us all victims of hatred and separation
· In disobeying God, these chosen people of God became estranged from the God who called Moses through the burning bush as a sign of his presence and determination to set his people free.
· Their years of slavery in Egypt
· God’s intervention and their light from Egypt
· The the 40 years in the desert, the crossing of crossing of the red sea and the Jordan.
These all events that were and are pointers to the Passion and Passover Story.
The sufferings of Christ.
Easter is about history repeating itself over and over again.
Humanities persistent disobedience of God led to another exile, this time a more spiritual exile and imprisonment to the works of Satan.
This time, a Moses like deliverer and deliverance would not work!
So God sent His Son Jesus.
The story of Easter is about God, coming into all our Spiritual Egypt’s (places of defeat) in the Person of His Son Jesus.
To deliver us from the self imposed separation from God brought about by our disobedience and sin.
Tomorrow (Maundy Thursday), we re-enact the last Supper, and through symbolic acts remind ourselves of the bitter pain and agony of the Passion.
Good Friday (black Friday) serves as a reminder, that it took the life of the innocent Son of God on a Cross to buy us back and bridge the gulf that separates us from God.
This story culminates on Easter Sunday, when we are reminded that Good Friday did not mark the end of the story.
Christians throughout the world, worshipping on Easter Sunday, proclaim, that God has come in Jesus to offer us a fresh start. (John 3:16).
The bitter herbs shared in the passover meal, the symbol of the Cross on Good Friday, are all reminders of God’s victory over separation, hatred, sin – inviting us all to freedom and victory.
May all our Good Fridays turn into Easters – victory over defeat and a fresh start.
Have a blessed Easter
