Happy Easter Everybody!!!

JerryL · Mar 22, 2008

Thought this would be a good time to post a little Easter article.

"The most precious drops in the world
by John Fischer

(Part I of a three-part series of historical fiction around the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.)

The wounds on his hands bled slowly. Pressure from the weight of his body held back the flow. If there had been no other sounds that afternoon, it probably would have sounded like the slow, steady drip off the eaves of a mountain cabin on a damp, foggy night.

But there were many sounds. Taunts from the soldiers, weeping and wailing from the women near the feet of Jesus, even careless laughter from children playing haphazardly around the perimeter of the crucifixion hill, oblivious to the significance of this particular execution. Small dark puddles would gather briefly under the top beam of the cross, only to be covered by the shuffle of a guard’s feet. And then it would start in again: drip … drip … drip – little droplets seen but not heard.

Mary saw them. She stared at the puddle through her bloodshot eyes while his life flashed before her, and it seemed to her that the earth swallowed his blood as if it had been created for this. As if it were drinking its fill and would thirst no more.

Then she slowly turned her eyes up to his face, and her breath failed her. He already had her in the grasp of his eyes. It was the first time he had looked at her from the cross, and suddenly it seemed as if she were falling into a bottomless abyss. She looked until she could bear it no more and turned her eyes away so she could catch her breath again. Once more her gaze went to the small puddle in the dirt, and it seemed now that she, and only she, could hear the droplets landing, loud enough to shut out all other sounds.

Then she heard his words spoken to her: “Dear woman, here is your son.” And to the disciple he loved, “Here is your mother.”

Soon after that, the dripping stopped, right after the earth shook and Jesus cried out with a voice that nearly shut down Mary’s heart for good. And all was still except for the sucking, sporadic breathing coming from the other two criminals.

“This one’s already dead,” said one of the guards. “Can you believe that?”

“No need to break his legs, I guess,” said another.

“Well, just to make sure …” One of them approached the dead body of Jesus with his spear, and before Mary could scream out, “No!” he thrust its tip up into the torso of the Son of God just under the ribs. Her scream and the sudden flow of blood and water came out at the same time.

Disgusted, the guard wiped a few drops from his face and walked away, oblivious to the fact that these were drops of blood that could set him free forever.

What Nicodemus saw
by John Fischer

(Part II of a three-part series of historical fiction around the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.)

Better late than never, Nicodemus thought as he waited for Joseph of Arimathea to return from his meeting with Pilate. The sky was black with night, and the torches around the crosses cast long flickering shadows over the hillside. Only the shadows danced. The bodies were still, none stiller than the one in the middle.

They had found each other, Joseph and Nicodemus: two wealthy Jews. Too well-connected to risk following Jesus in life, they had finally risen to the occasion now in his death and were prepared to ensure proper care and burial for the body.

Nicodemus had watched the crucifixion the way he followed Jesus for the last three years – from a distance. Now in the darkness, he ventured closer. Suddenly, a tear-stained face filled his vision as if out of nowhere.

“Aren’t you … ?”

“Nicodemus.” He finished it for the man. “I have followed from afar. I wanted to come closer, but I’ve been foolish and afraid. Now I am too late.”

“No, you aren’t. You are here,” said John, newly named son of Mary. “Come.”

John gently took Nicodemus’ arm and guided him closer to the women who were still huddled near the cross. They were in shock, out of touch with everything, even grief. Nicodemus had first resisted John, but once he was in the light and the company of the others, he broke into a thousand pieces inside and started to cry uncontrollably. Suddenly he was touched and held and surrounded by people he did not even know, and they all seemed thankful for a fresh supply of tears.

Nicodemus looked into the faces of people he would have judged hours earlier and wondered at what he saw in their eyes. These were unlearned peasants, but they seemed so much wiser than he.

Then he looked at the body of Jesus, and in the lifeless form on the cross he saw himself – a tired old self-righteous man, weary of justifications and the foolish arrogance that kept him from people. He saw the ugliness of his pride and the lies by which he tried to maintain his superiority. He saw it all and hated himself in that moment, and he wept bitterly, alternately abhorring and longing for the touch he was receiving from those around him.

“He spoke of you often,” said John with his arm on Nicodemus’ shoulder. “He said you were one of the few in your position who could see.”

“He did?” Nicodemus raised his wet eyes and wiped them with the sleeve of his robe. “I didn’t know myself ... until just now.”

Up until now, Nicodemus had been dealing with Jesus and the prophets and the nation of Israel and the Gentiles in his mind – each part fitting like clues to a mystery that drew him closer and closer to the cross as if he were following a long shadow toward its source. But now that he was there, right to it, standing right in front of God’s intervention in human history, with all his knowledge and the new revelations he had gained, all he could see was Nicodemus and the sin of Nicodemus. And all he could do was weep, but not the bitter tears of self-pity and remorse he was used to. This was a longed-for release – strangely sweet, cleansing tears, the first blush of forgiveness, in the process of being won by the man on the cross.

That first Easter morning
by John Fischer

(Part III of a three-part series of historical fiction around the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.)

The sun rose that first Easter morning on an entirely different world than the one that had existed hours earlier. For most people, to be sure, it was the same. Birds twittered as they usually did in their pre-dawn revelry. Lazy dogs barked at the sound of the first early risers. In his penthouse in downtown Jerusalem, Pilate rolled over in bed and moaned at the mockingbird making a racket on his veranda. He could feel his wife’s stiffness next to him. He didn’t even have to look to see her wide, sleepless eyes locked on a crack in the ceiling for fear of the dreams that might come back if she closed them.

In the nearby barracks, a soldier snored on in thick oblivion. Soon his comrades would wake up to wicked hangovers, a usual Sunday morning experience. Things were always quiet on the Jewish Sabbath, so Saturdays became party time for the Roman soldiers.

Out in the courtyard, roosters crowed, and Peter, curled up next to a stone wall, was sure he heard every last one of them. He hadn’t been sleeping, either. All those great plans and dreams for himself and his nation had vanished with three denials and two rooster crows. Roosters had been rattling and cackling in his brain for two nights. They wouldn’t let him sleep, and they wouldn’t let him forget that look on the Savior’s face that left him frozen in his betrayal.

On the edge of town, three women made their way quietly through abandoned narrow streets, clutching vials of sweet-smelling perfume. In the hazy light of early morning, they were headed for Joseph’s garden, where the remains of the man they pinned their hopes on as the Son of God laid without proper respect. There had been no time on Friday to anoint the funeral wrappings, and such activity was forbidden on the Sabbath. Nicodemus and Joseph had done a credible job with limited time and little preparation, but it fell to the women to complete the burial requirements – as much for their own sake as for the sake of the custom.

Just when they started to wonder who might help them move the huge stone over the face of the tomb, they found, lo and behold, that the stone had already been moved away. The soldiers guarding it shifted on the ground in a deep sleep; the wrappings that should have been around the body lay limply on the rocky shelf inside. And an angelic being, bright and glorious, asked a question that would change them and the world forever: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

May your Easter celebrations be filled with the same joy and wonder these women experienced on that first Easter morning!"
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Joe · Mar 23, 2008

Happy Easter Brother :1_grouphug:

billreber · Mar 23, 2008

Happy Resurrection Day, brothers and sisters!

Bill :godisgood:

Tom Butler · Mar 23, 2008

I found this in A Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine by Thomas Paul Simmons, 1935. Page 9.

PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

After hearing a conversation on a railroad train between two men who were discussing the possibility of being deceived about the resurrection of Jesus, W. E. Fendley, a lawyer from Mississippi wrote an article that was published in The Western Recorder of December 9, 1920.
He approached the matter as a lawyer, and he gave the three following reasons for denying the plausibility of the suggestion that the body was stolen:
(1) It was not a good time for stealing the body. The fact that three Jewish feasts came at the time of the crucifixion makes it certain that the streets of Jerusalem would be full of people. For that reason, Mr. Fendley says, it was not a good time for stealing the body.
(2) There were five penalties of death attached to the stealing of the body, and not one of those penalties was imposed or carried out. The penalties are given as being:
Allowing the seal of the tomb to be broken
Breaking the seal
Stealing the body
Allowing the body to be stolen
Going to sleep on duty.
(3) Premeditated and unpremeditated testimony. Mr. Fendley shows how the soldiers came from the sepulcher and said that an angel had driven them away from the tomb; and that when bribed by the Pharisees, they told that the body of Jesus was stolen while they slept.

Mr. Fendley goes on to give five things which people must believe in order to believe the report of the soldiers:
They must believe that 64 Roman soldiers, under the penalty of death, all slept at once.
They must accept the testimony of sleepers
They must believe that the disciples who were so afraid, all at once became tremendously bold.
Again, they must believe that the thieves took plenty of time to fold up the grave clothes and place them neatly to one side
They must also believe that those disciples would risk their lives for a dead imposter, when they would not for a living Saviour.

EdSutton · Mar 23, 2008

Tom Butler said:

I found this in A Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine by Thomas Paul Simmons, 1935. Page 9.

PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

After hearing a conversation on a railroad train between two men who were discussing the possibility of being deceived about the resurrection of Jesus, W. E. Fendley, a lawyer from Mississippi wrote an article that was published in The Western Recorder of December 9, 1920.
He approached the matter as a lawyer, and he gave the three following reasons for denying the plausibility of the suggestion that the body was stolen:
(1) It was not a good time for stealing the body. The fact that three Jewish feasts came at the time of the crucifixion makes it certain that the streets of Jerusalem would be full of people. For that reason, Mr. Fendley says, it was not a good time for stealing the body.
(2) There were five penalties of death attached to the stealing of the body, and not one of those penalties was imposed or carried out. The penalties are given as being:
Allowing the seal of the tomb to be broken
Breaking the seal
Stealing the body
Allowing the body to be stolen
Going to sleep on duty.
(3) Premeditated and unpremeditated testimony. Mr. Fendley shows how the soldiers came from the sepulcher and said that an angel had driven them away from the tomb; and that when bribed by the Pharisees, they told that the body of Jesus was stolen while they slept.

Mr. Fendley goes on to give five things which people must believe in order to believe the report of the soldiers:
They must believe that 64 Roman soldiers, under the penalty of death, all slept at once.
They must accept the testimony of sleepers
They must believe that the disciples who were so afraid, all at once became tremendously bold.
Again, they must believe that the thieves took plenty of time to fold up the grave clothes and place them neatly to one side
They must also believe that those disciples would risk their lives for a dead imposter, when they would not for a living Saviour.
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"Body! Body?
Who's got the body?"

A talk with this title, that I heard given by a secular college student 40 years ago, remains to this day, the best summary I ever heard on the resurrection, and I'm a graduate of a Bible College, have studied this, and heard countless messages on this, in the interrum.

Have a great day, everyone, as well.

Gotta' get to services. If not, there might be some folks I might miss seeing again until at least Christmas, and maybe not for another whole year.

Ed

Magnetic Poles · Mar 23, 2008

A Happy Easter to All!

Happy Easter Everybody!!!

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