Headed to Easter - Saturday

Headed to Easter – Saturday

It's Saturday - the Sabbath for a proper Jew.  No working, no nothing.  But these are desperate times, and some loose ends needed tying. 

A request was sent to Pilate for an audience on this Saturday after the horrible Friday. 

The chief priests and scribes all gathered in mass in Pilate’s waiting room anxious to lay their request before him.

He finally appeared.  They presented the request.

“Sir, we remember that the man Jesus said that ‘after three days I will rise again.’

“We humbly and strongly request that his burial tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise, his disciples may go and take his body and then say, “He has risen, like he said he would.”

Pilate was done with this.  “You have your own contingent of soldiers.  Go and make it as secure as you can.”

And they went and sealed the stone.

Meanwhile …

His disciples were nowhere to be seen.  Their leader was dead.  They saw for themselves, at a distance of course.  And now what?

Rumor has it that some are hiding in a cave on the outskirts of town.  Others disappeared into some of the smaller villages nearby. 

All we know for sure, they weren’t anywhere to be found on this Saturday.

Their hopes were dashed.  Their leader was dead.  Their crusade had crumbled before it even got off the ground.

And that is how this Saturday played out.

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Headed to Easter - Good Friday

Headed to Easter – Good Friday

The characters in the Easter story offer a mixed bag of fickled, evil, corrupt and regretful.

Jesus’ disciples seem largely clueless.  They heard the words, but the whole truth had not fully sunk in.  They still didn’t get it.

The leaders of the Jewish inner circle – evil, evil, evil.  Their system was being threatened, their integrity challenged, and they were not going to stand for that.  No, not at all.

Judas showed regret.  He tried to return the 30-pieces of silver.  It didn’t work.  He couldn’t back out now.  So, he backed out the only way he knew how.  He hanged himself.

Pilate was the weak one.  He was a poor excuse for a governor.  He would do anything to please the masses.  And he tried.  He also tried to give Jesus a chance for a rebuttal.  Christ never spoke in his own defense, and Pilate was stuck. 

He finally struck a bargain and offered Barabbas in exchange for Jesus.  The crowd was pleased and Pilate was off the hook, in time to avoid a riot from the out-of-control crowd.

He had Jesus flogged, then turned him over to be crucified.

The mob, including a good contingent or soldiers, stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.  They put a crown of thorns on his head, mocked him, spat upon him, and just had a sporting good time at his expense for a while.

Finally, after tiring of this, they put his own clothes on him and led him away to be crucified. 

He was forced to carry his own cross, the instrument of execution, but because of the beating and lack of food, Christ was physically weak and exhausted.  After stumbling under the weight of the cross, a man named Simon from Cyrene was pulled in to carry the cross for him. 

They led him to Golgotha – the Place of the Skull. 

As he hung there, on this ‘Good Friday’, the soldiers gambled for his robe.  And finally, they settled down and watched this man of sorrows die an agonizing death. 

The sign over the head of The Christ added an ironic twist to this saga.  It read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

And his cross was juxtaposed between two criminals. 

A steady parade of people came by to say their parting words to him as he hung there.  They were not pleasant words, for they spat, and cursed, mocked and ridiculed this righteous man.

Around noon, darkness came upon the land till about three in the afternoon. 

And he cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?  The interpretation means: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And after a few minutes, he uttered his last

words – IT IS FINISHED!

You should have seen what happened next.

The curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple area was torn in two – top to bottom. 

The earth shook with a terrific quake, rocks were split, tombs opened, and many bodies of the saints who had already died were raised up.  (See Matthew 27:52-53)

One of the soldiers, a Centurion, who was terrified at all that was happening, said, “Surely, this man was God’s Son.!”

Now remember this was Friday.  The Jewish Sabbath was the next day.

Joseph from Arimathea, came and took the body of Christ and laid him in his own freshly hewn tomb.  He wrapped the body in a clean linen cloth, and rolled a giant stone over the entrance. 

And this ends Friday – Good Friday, as we have come to call it in the Christian Faith.

And this is not the end.  Hope is on the horizon. 

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Headed to Easter - Thursday

Headed to Easter – Thursday

It was already a muggy morning.  The three disciples were now standing in front of and knocking on a strange door.  The man opened, cautiously.

“Yes, gentlemen?  And how can I help you?”

They were taken aback.  And then they got their bearings and pressed on.

“The Teacher said to tell you, ‘His time is near; He will keep the Passover at your house with all of us disciples.’  Thirteen in all.”

And that was that.  Just like the donkey that was offered on Sunday, the room was available on Thursday.  And the disciples set about preparing the room.  They had to set the table, light the fireplace, fetch water and all of the foods, and especially the wine, that would be prepared and consumed later that night, for this evening was to be His Last Supper.

We don’t know what happened between securing the room and preparing the Passover meal.  Perhaps it was a day of rest for The Christ.

We do know about the Last Supper.  We celebrate it often in our churches.  It is the partaking of the body of Christ as represented in the bread (His body) and the wine (His blood).

The significant phrase, I think, is “Drink from it, all of you; for this represents my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” 

And afterwards, they headed to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Judas is anxious.  His time to earn his keep, so to speak, is at hand.  They head up the path to a small camping area and Jesus instructs all of them to sit and stay behind.  He took Peter and two others on a little farther.  After a short hike, he leaves Peter and the other two behind and walks a bit further.

It had been a long and tiring day and night.  They had worked hard on the Passover meal and they were beat.  He wanted them to watch and pray.  They were willing, but their heavy eyelids had a mind of their own.

After pouring out his heart to God, Jesus came back and found Peter and his friends fast asleep.  This happened three times, and after the third trip back, he roused them from their sleep. 

“You’re still asleep I see.  Look at the hour.  The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise up, it is time to go and meet my betrayer.”

As he spoke these words, Judas met them on the trail and a mob was with him.  They were carrying swords and clubs.

The crowd froze.  They didn’t know what to do. 

Judas froze.  He knew, but had a moment of regret.

As the jingle of silver sounded from his moneybag, he knew what had to come next.  And he played his part.

He tried to make his words sound friendly, off-handed in some way. 

“Rabbi.  Greetings.”

And Judas reached for Jesus and kissed him.

And they led Christ away and put him in prison. 

Before prison, they mocked, beat him, spit on him, and just generally made sport of him for a while, until they tired of it all. And with the slam of the prison door, Thursday ends.

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