Holy Week

Only when one follows the casket of a loved one to an open grave does one really realize the significance of Easter. This is Holy Week, the most religious week of the year. Yesterday was the beginning of the Jewish Passover. Passover was the time in Jewish and Christian Biblical history when the Jews, after 430 years of slavery in Egypt, were finally delivered by God from their bondage. The Pharaoh of Egypt wanted to keep his slaves; those of us who have seen the great edifices at Abu Simbel, the pyramids and burial places at the Valley of the Kings can understand his addiction to their hard work. The plagues had not affected him, it was only the Passover deaths that brought him---at least for a while—to his senses.

The Jews were instructed to kill a lamb, put the blood of the lamb on their doorpost, prepare to leave with their shoes on, staffs in hand, having eaten the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread. The Passover death angel went across Egypt killing the first born of every human and animal, with the exception of those with the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. The Bible tells us that they left healed, with not a sickly one among them. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. (Deuteronomy 33:25) Their shoes never wore out. They did not wear sandals or flip-flops, or even combat boots. Instructed to plan one day at a time.Although infiltrators (mixed multitude) were among them, complaining and dissatisfied, they saw the power of God. A great wind parted the Red Sea, and they passed over these many miles on dry land, waters piled up on each side. Again they saw the power of God, when, of course, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued them with his horses and chariots. Then, as the spiritual says, “O Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn; Pharaoh's army got drowned.” Much later, King Solomon put pillars to mark the place of their exit; Much later still, archeologists have retrieved chariot axles.

The message of Easter, the Passover, the Red Sea: the worst things are not the last things. Your personal circumstances may not be changed, you still may have cancer, you still may lose your job, but there is life after death, none of our human circumstances are the end of the road.

We worship a God of tomorrow; when we get there, He is already there. In the council chambers of eternity, He designed everything, even your individual life, your fingerprints, the iridial flex in your eyes, your voice. Of the billions of people who have lived on this earth, there never has been—and never will be---another like you. Like every individual snowflake, you are one of a kind, personally designed by the omnipotent hand of God. (Psalm 139)

Yesterday's challenge is a piece of cake, today. Most spend too much time worrying about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. (Matthew 6:34) You are standing in the reviewing stand of history...you know about the parade that has gone by; God knows the end of the parade. Faith is a verb; action based on belief sustained by confidence. The scripture describes faith as like the security found in the cleft of a rock or that found by a small bird under the mother bird's wing. Wonderful is the human being who has the security of knowing he is living the eternal life...already. The promises of Jesus Christ are only effective if the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ lives within you...good luck to the rest of you!

Many times we think we have hit bottom today, but the problems of tomorrow will knock the bottom out of that bottom. In these days of deceit and deception, promiscuity and permissiveness, playing church, perjury from every international voice. When you are standing on the edge of the abyss, and the ground is crumbling under your feet, celebrate Holy Week, the promises of Easter. Remember, everlasting arms are below you.

The first religious act of man: constructing leaf aprons for himself to face the Creator of the universe, Who was already protecting him by immortal flames. We are told that robots have entered the destroyed nuclear plants in Japan, robots do not fear radiation, contamination. Arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Ephesians 5:14) We have risen with Him from death, alive in Him forever.

I have walked down the streets of ancient Ephesus. As I recently told my son, a Ph.D professor at the world's largest seminary, in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, in Damascus, and certainly in Ephesus, I was filled with the knowledge of the “Magna Carta” of Christianity. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Many Gospels are being preached today, the Gospel of prosperity, universalism, the “purpose-driven life”, “love is all you need”, Sinatra's “I did it my way”, or—God help us!---Oprah's New Age Gospel. There is only one Gospel, sin's ruin and Christ's redemption, the message of Easter-Holy Week.