The Story of Easter – Day #8
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

Unwittingly, the Jewish leaders, Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and the secret followers of Jesus all play a role in fulfilling several ancient prophesies about how Jesus’ death and burial were to happen. Then, by sealing the tomb and posting a guard, they help to set the stage for the greatest upset victory of all time.

“Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.”

“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”      (John 19:31-42)
“The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. The last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard, Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard.”    (Matthew 27:62-66)

We are first introduced to the Pharisee Nicodemus when he sneaks to meet with Jesus under cover of darkness. Their fascinating conversation, which includes one of the most well-loved verses in the Bible, is recorded in John 3:1-21. Many of Jesus’ words from that night are probably coming back to haunt Nicodemus now. Read that passage.

There is no way around it, Jesus is polarizing. Even while He hangs on the cross, people react to Him in completely opposite ways. This is seen most clearly in the responses of the two thieves on either side of Him.

“The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.”

“One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
                                (Luke 23:35-43)

It’s impossible for a criminal who is stuck to a cross and on the verge of death to do any work to earn himself a place in heaven. Read all we have to do to gain eternal life in John 1:12.

The Story of Easter – Day #7
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

 Roman crucifixion is a cruel punishment. Nailed to a wooden cross by wrists and feet, it is an excruciating, slow, and very public way to die. The victim’s groaning and screaming becomes a morning’s entertainment for onlookers. Yet, the loud insults and caustic jeers and mocking taunts do not drown out the astounding request Jesus makes on their behalf.

 “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!’

    “In the same way, the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
                                (Mark 15:29-32a)

    “Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals — one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”        (Luke 23:32-34a)

Read Matthew 6:38-48 from the Sermon on the Mount to discover Jesus’ own words about how to treat enemies.

For those made to suffer crucifixion, death itself was the only resolution. So Jesus waits for death to overcome Him. Before that, however, a deeper pain is coming, a pain that goes far beyond the nails in His feet and wrists or the thorns puncturing His brow. God pours out humanity’s rightful punishment for sin upon His Son. Even nature physically reacts. The sun is prematurely shuttered at the height of its midday arc. The earth convulses with cataclysmic effect, releasing the dead and destroying the partition between God and man.

 “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.”
                                (Luke 23:44-45)

    “About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, Lesa sabachthani?’ (Which means “My God, my God, what have you forsaken me?”) When some of those standing there heard this, they said, ‘He’s calling Elijah.’

    “Immediately, one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, ‘Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.’ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

    “At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared too many people.”

    “When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!”
                            (Matthew 27:46-54)

Jesus’ moment of greatest agony is the moment when God turns His back on Him. Read the rest of the psalm that Jesus started to quote, Psalm 22, looking for the many striking predictions that were fulfilled on this terrible day.

The Story of Easter – Day #6
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

Peter, to his credit, follows Jesus when almost all His other followers scatter. But, we are told he follows Him at a distance, and then he warms himself at the fires of His enemies.

 “And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked at him closely and said, ‘This man was with him.’ But he denied it. ‘Woman, I don’t know him,’ he said.

    “A little later, someone else saw him and said. ‘You are also one of them.’ Peter replied, ‘Man, I am not!’ About an hour later, another asserted, ‘Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.’ Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!’

    “Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.”
    (Luke 22:55-62)

Jesus could have been anticipating this moment years earlier. Read Mark 8:34-38.

The interchanges between Pilate and Jesus are fascinating interludes in this nightmarish night. Pilate, Rome’s political envoy to Jerusalem, is perplexed by the amount of fervor this apparently innocent man has stirred up. As he digs deeper and discovers more, he moves from confusion to alarm to frustration. When Pilate mistakenly asserts that he is the one in the room with authority and power, Jesus sets him straight

“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.

    “Once more, Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’

    “As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’ But Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.’ The Jewish leaders insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.’

    “When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. He asked Jesus, ‘Where do you come from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate said, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realize I have the power to either free you or to crucify you?’

    “Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
                            (John 19:1-11)

The actual answer to Pilate’s question, “Where do you come from?”
Is found in John 1:1-5. Read that passage (the term “Word” refers to Jesus.)

The Easter Story – Day #5
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)
The Trial and Crucifixion

The evening spent around the Passover table is one the disciples will cherish forever; a time of hushed reverence overlaid with the warmth of their Lord’s love. But the rest of the night unfolds in jarring contrast. One event tumbles angrily into the next; an explosive and violent crashing of world systems and ancient traditions and religious hierarchy and political intrigue. In dismay, we watch . . .

    * Illegal midnight trials rigged with faked evidence.

    * Angry maneuverings of vindictive power-hungry leaders.

    * Three cowardly denials from the most impulsive disciple.

    * The spineless cave-in of a political envoy.

    * The polarizing effect of the King of the Jews, even while pinned to a torturous tree.

These events are cloaked in the darkness of the night and the darkness of closed minds. The sun is suffocated by a mid-day eclipse, and all creation violently shudders in horror at His death. Prophecies are fulfilled as He is sealed inside the utter darkness of a stone tomb.

For the religious leaders, it takes several trials, outright manipulation, and the breaking of a number of laws to get the final result they want.

 “Those who had arrested Jesus, took him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally, two came forward and declared, ‘This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’ ”

    “Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?’ But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Jesus replied, ‘You have said so, but I say to all of you, From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

    “Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’

    “He is worthy of death, they answered.”     (Matthew 25:57-66)
Jesus is painfully aware of everything He is about to endure. Read the Scriptural predictions He knew by heart in Isaiah 53.

The Story of Easter – Day #4
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

“Father, the hour has come.” Can’t you just imagine Jesus getting choked up at that moment? Poised between life and death, His only desire is that the world would know His Father’s tremendous love for them.

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”    (John 17:1-5)

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
(John 17:24-26)

“When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”
(Matthew 26:30)

Read Psalm 136, known as the Great Hallel (song of praise), which is traditionally sung at the close of the Passover celebration.

Jesus’ last moments before His arrest are spent in a familiar and comforting place: in the arms of His Father. Going away alone to pray was His established pattern throughout His life, but never before have we gotten to listen in as He pours out His private prayers.

“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?’ He asked Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ He went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”        (Matthew 26:36-42)

“An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”    (Luke 22:43-44)

“When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
(Matthew 26:43-46)

Read the words of Psalm 23 that have been breathed as a desperate prayer by so many who are going through their darkest hours.

The Story of Easter – Day #3
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

Lingering at the table after the meal, Jesus begins sharing with His disciples all that is on His heart. He knows He has already made them uneasy with talk of His broken body and poured out blood, so He starts by giving them an idea of what’s in store for them.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”    (John 14:1-7)

Jesus’ declaration that He is the one and only way to God was shocking then, and it remains shocking to people today. Read Acts 4:4-12, to see how Peter draws the same bold conclusion just a few months later when he’s speaking to the most prestigious religious leaders of his time.

Jesus knows He is about to die, so what He says in these last moments with His disciples amounts to nothing less than His life’s legacy. His heartfelt thoughts are some of the most important things He would ever say to them, and to us today.

“Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”            (John 14:8-17)

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet, I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”     (John 16:12-13, 32-33)

Read more of Jesus’ final message of hope and encouragement to His disciples in John 15.

The Story of Easter – Day #2
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

This Passover is unlike any other these disciples have experienced. First, Jesus interrupts the meal by getting up and taking care of an evident need, one that the lowliest person in the room would typically attend to.

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’ Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.”
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ He asked them. ‘You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”    (John 13:3-17)

This was not the only time Jesus set aside his robes of authority to take on the role of a servant. Read the account of the first time Jesus stepped down from His kingly identity for our sakes in Philippians 2:5-11.

After Jesus interrupts the Passover meal to demonstrate how His disciples should love each other, the meal is interrupted again, but this time for a very different reason.

“Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’ His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘ Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, ‘What you are about to do, do quickly.’ As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.”    (John 13:21-30)

Once Judas leaves, Jesus changes the last part of the Passover meal by adding new meanings to the traditional elements of the meal. He uses the final piece of unleavened bread to foreshadow the fact that he is going to be “broken.” He uses the third cup of wine to signify that he is going to be “poured out.” He adds new instructions that change everything, for he is about to take humanity’s punishment for sin upon himself.

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”        (Matthew 26:26-29)

This is the moment that birthed a treasured and enduring Christian sacrament, explained in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Read this passage.

The Story of Easter

(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

It all begins in a candle-lit upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. Jesus and His disciples are celebrating Passover, the night when their ancestors, the Israelites, centuries before, escaped death and slavery by smearing lambs’ blood on their doorposts. On this particular night, however, Jesus is painfully aware that the story of the Passover lamb is about to become His story.
When the candles are snuffed out at the end of the meal, the most evil forces of cruelty, hatred, fear and guilt are unleashed upon the only innocent man who ever lived. Jesus, the perfect One, literally becomes every sin ever committed by all of mankind, and God has to turn his back on Him. More than the torture of the cross, this is the greatest of agonies — for both of them.
As Easter morning dawns, an empty grave reveals a dazzling triumph. Jesus is not there! The end of the story is rewritten! The blood of the final Passover lamb has done its work. Death is defeated, and the slave shackles of sin are broken.
Did you know that the story of Easter can rewrite your story? You might recognize your own life in the slaves in Egypt or the confused disciples or a guilty thief or the disillusioned mourners. But you’ll discover something about the stories in these devotionals: the endings always change when lives intersect with Jesus. Your story, too, can be rewritten by the story of Easter.

Passover
It is a momentous convergence of events. Jesus’ life on earth is about to reach its climax on this holy night when the Jews are celebrating the Passover. He is to be the final Passover lamb.
Imagine the golden glow of flickering candlelight softening the faces of a band of men who are unaware that everything is about to end. Later, they will look back on poignant moments from this night and only then understand the significance: Jesus, reading the Passover story, knowing it was soon to be His story; Jesus’ unexpected demonstration on blended knee; Jesus altering an ancient tradition to begin a new sacrament.
Jesus knows how the story of this terrible night will end. So He lingers with His closest friends and opens his heart to them. He confronts His enemy, comforters the sad and confused, conveys hope, and confers His blessing. He then goes out alone to bury Himself in the comforting arms of His Father one last time, as has been the pattern all through His life.
The disciples were celebrating Passover with Jesus. Unbeknownst to them, events were about to unfold that would reveal the long-intended symbolism of the first Passover lamb. Imagine Rabbi Jesus reading aloud these original instructions from God to Moses, knowing that He was about to become the final lamb whose blood would free humanity from slavery to sin.

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.”

“The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.”

“This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.”

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will; be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.”

It’s hard to imagine anything more dramatic than the events of that first Passover night. Read the whole story of the night the Israelites were set free from Egyptian slavery in Exodus 12.