Posts tagged: easter
This is last years Easter dance from OC Easter. I love my community. This years was amazing itself and when it’s available I’ll post it.
He is risen. So grateful.
Holy Saturday is the in-between. It’s the tension stuck in the middle of a gruesome, shocking death by hanging on a cross and the joyful, amazing, miracle of the rock being rolled away in front of the tomb and a resurrected Jesus walking out the front door. Holy Saturday is the day in which nothing is recorded in scripture. The day when the world stopped and all people had were questions - hard questions - about life, death, purpose, calling, repentance and what next?
There is a Hebrew word used frequently in the Psalms. The word is “selah”. In English it simply means “to pause or to wait”. Selah, often times was a demarcator in Hebrew worship music indicating a break and a pause in music. Selah, pause, waiting, is what I want to use to describe today - Saturday - or the day after Good Friday and the day before Easter, Resurrection Sunday - Holy Saturday.
We westerner’s are bad at pausing and waiting.
We don’t know how to do it.
We want immediate gratification.
In our society, we don’t have to wait - so why should we?
All we need to do is swipe our little plastic card and get it now. Log onto Amazon.com and get next day shipping. Go to our local anything and get whatever product, good or frivolous item we want. Waiting is not in our nature; waiting is the antithesis to being an American.
Yet, that is exactly where we are left today - the day in-between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. NT Wright describes the tension this way: “Jesus’ disciples knew what they had been hoping for, and it was all gone… Holy Saturday is the moment when everything stops and waits.”
Selah.
From the moment Jesus let out “It is finished” to the moment the women discover the tomb is empty, we are in a moment of selah.
Too often we Christians jump ahead from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday. We skip the process. We skip the tension. We decide the tension is not for us. We are really great at doing this mourning, grieving, emo thing (look at our 21st century cultue - it is hip to mope) and really good at celebrating life and happiness. But this middle ground, the hard point of not knowing where to be or what to do - we suck at - royally.
Why do we skip ahead? Why not practice what is uncomfortable? Because we know how the story ends. We know Sunday is coming and praise Jesus, Sunday is glorious. But I wonder if we are missing something by doing the electric slide past Holy Saturday. What if we were to participate in a moment of selah? Would Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday effect us differently?
Doubt is something so many of us who were born and raised in the church were told was not cool. It was not wise and maybe a sin - but where does the Bible actually say that? Unbelief - yes. Doubt? Nope. Thomas doubted. Abraham doubted. It’s what we do with our doubt which matters. Jacob wrestled with God and was changed forever. Why don’t we wrestle with God and let Him change us forever? Give God our doubts and let Him move in us. Let Him turn our doubts into growth.
On Good Friday, Jesus hung on the cross, taking our place, dying for our sins and ending his 3 years of earthly ministry precisely the way he intended to do it when He resisted Satan during the 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus refused to take shortcuts to usher in His Kingdom. On Resurrection Sunday, Jesus showed us He alone has power over death; He truly was fully God and perfect man, thus His death alone could satiate God’s payment for our sin, pulling us into His story and Kingdom.
Selah.
Yet, what do we do with Saturday? What did His followers do on Saturday? What did the Roman Centurion who uttered the words “Certainly this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47) do and feel like? Where was Peter, the denier, on Saturday? What was Pilate, the people pleaser, thinking? What were the the Jewish leaders like? How did Joseph from Arimathea and Nicodemus feel? What was Thomas, the doubter, doing? What was Mary, His mother, saying? What was John, the one whom Jesus loved, up to?
I don’t know what they did, but I can probably guarantee everyone was watching.
Not one of these people knew how the story was going to end. We do. Jesus followed through on His promise - Sunday would come - we see that fully now. They did not.
These are the thoughts I wonder as I selah.
As I selah, I realize, the gap between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is representative of the now and not yet. It’s a mirror into how we live here on earth. NT Wright says “Holy Saturday is therefore the sabbath rest after the completion of the work of redemption.” Yet, we all know that not everything has been fully redeemed yet.
See, the Kingdom is here but yet, it is not. Jesus has come and He is coming again. We live in the theological, Church history time of selah. And, how we live in this time matters because the world is watching. How we live out the message of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday until Jesus comes back matters - not just for the Church, but for the world around us.
We live in a different kind of Saturday. We look forward to a different kind of resurrection. We hope for restoration. We want to bring as many others into this story of redemption, hope and restoration as possible.
As disciples of Jesus we have a tendency to skip ahead to the end of the earthly story, like we do from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday. We have our ticket to heaven, we know it will be a better place, so we try and fast forward ourselves to heaven, instead of sitting in the now, in selah, and pulling others into the story.
Let us live out the Kingdom. Let us live in this time of selah, while using what waits ahead for us as a motivation to live well in this time.
Selah.
On Sunday, I get to celebrate resurrection.
(Breathe in deep.)
I have been a disciple of Jesus for a long while now. Every Easter, the Church (universal) gathers to celebrate in the most momentous day in human history - the day Jesus rolled away the stone, walked out of the grave, in a resurrected body and showed the world and His disciples what He had been talking about for years - the kingdom is here, but yet, it is not. Sin has been beaten, yet it is still here. Death has been conquered, yet death still comes. Jesus is God and this is their plan - the perfect man and fully divine, Jesus, would come to earth and usher in God’s plan for salvation.
Every promise the Bible speaks - was shown to be fully reliable and trustworthy on this day because the fully God and perfect man walked out of that grave, after dying on the cross three days previously and would ascend back to heaven taking His seat at His Father’s right hand, forty days later, to one day come again and fully usher in His Father’s Kingdom. As John puts it so beautifully:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
(Revelation 21:1-8 ESV)
(Honestly, I don’t like putting in the final sentence, but I want to be faithful to the text.)
On Easter this Sunday, I get to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I do, I get to walk in the reminders of what this resurrection means.
Cancer will be gone.
(Breathe in deep.)
My brother, Ramon, is healed. He is celebrating the resurrection, all the time, in heaven, with Jesus - presently. One day, when Jesus comes back or I pass on - I will get to see my brother again. It will be grand.
(Selah)
Sunday, I celebrate the resurrection because my soul needs to celebrate the reminder and actuality of the resurrection. Jesus died and rose again - for our sins, my sins, that if we believe we shall have eternal life with Him. My brother Ramon, walked with Jesus on earth - now he walks with Jesus in heaven.
Resurrection is real. Sunday, I celebrate the reality of this resurrection with a conviction I have never been forced to walk in before. Resurrection is real.
Amen?
Missiology is not a spectator sport. When one studies mission and culture, it invariably means one’s own hands will get extremely dirty - this is unavoidable. I can sit from the sidelines all I want and tell people what it means to engage culture and people, but at some point, me, as a pastor at my future church, will have to chose how we will interact with our city at large.
In order to do this, one needs to have a doctrine and theology firmly held in an open hand - things you and I can disagree on, but still work together with (predestination, gender, worship style, etc.). But, in order to hold certain things with an open hand - there must be a close handed theology and doctrine (Jesus, cross, resurrection, etc.). For me, personally, as I analyze my close handed theology, it all falls under one umbrella - Jesus and the Gospel. We can disagree on a lot of things - maybe even hell (maybe). We need to agree on the Gospel and Jesus. If you don’t - we can’t work together. If you don’t - you may not be a brother or sister. If you don’t - we will love you, but we may not be able partner together - like hold an Easter service in a mosque. If this offends, I’m sorry…
Jesus is fully God and perfect man. You must have that in your closed hand. He came and lived as a human, a perfect life, in the power of the Holy Spirit, sent by His Father, God, to preach a message of sacrifice and repentance. This must be in your closed hand. Then, to fulfill the calling of His earthly days - He was crucified on the cross for the sins of the world (you and I), which you and I have committed and thus cannot be in relationship with a perfect God, and He rose again 3 days later to conquer sin and death. This is closed handed. Now, He is resurrected. He is alive because He defeated death. His resurrection sealed our ability to come to be a disciple of Jesus - if He just died, it wouldn’t have been enough. Now, we have new life. Now, we are a part of Jesus’ family - not because we earned it but because He loved us first. Jesus came, lived, died and rose again - and we have a choice to be a disciple or not. His resurrection means we can one day, see the resurrected Jesus face to face - as He has bought us back from death and redeemed us into eternal life with Him. This is closed handed.
Closed handed. Open handed. It matters.
This is the bare essentials of my closed handed theology and doctrine. If you can’t even come to this place of core, foundational beliefs - we may not be able to work together. I’m not really sorry for that (but I love you).
Missiology means walking the line of culture and gospel faithfully. You hold on dearly and lovingly to what is close handed and discuss - lovingly - what is open handed. This article is an example in bad missiology. It breaks my heart.
“I know that I don’t believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus but I do believe his spirit ascended and his teachings are very valid and transformative,” the Rev. Michael Moran, senior minister of The Spiritual Life Center, told The Christian Post over the phone.
Sorry Reverend, but your closed hand needs to be more closed…
There is a Hebrew word that is used frequently in the Psalms. It is “selah”. To explain it simply in English, it simply means to pause or to wait. This word, used in Hebrew worship music, is what I want to use to describe today - Saturday - or the day after Good Friday and the day before Easter, Resurrection Sunday.
We westerner’s are bad at pausing and waiting. We want immediate gratification. Why should we pause and wait when we can just swipe our little plastic card and get it now? Yet, that is exactly where we are left today - the day in between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. It was in this moment as NT Wright says that “Jesus’ disciples knew what they had been hoping for, and it was all gone… Holy Saturday is the moment when everything stops and waits.”
Selah.
From the moment Jesus let out “It is finished” to the moment the women discover the tomb is empty, we are in a moment of selah.
Too often we as Christians jump ahead from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday. Why do we do that? It’s because we know how the story ends. We know that Sunday is coming. But I wonder if we are missing something by doing that. What if we were to participate in a moment of selah? Would Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday effect us differently?
On Good Friday, Jesus hung on the cross, took our place, died for our sins and ended his 3 years of earthly ministry precisely the way he intended to do it when He resisted Satan during the 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus refused to take shortcuts to usher in His Kingdom. On Resurrection Sunday, Jesus showed us that He alone has power over death showing us that He truly was fully God and man, thus His death alone could satiate what God required for our sin and now pull us into His story and Kingdom.
Yet, what do we do with Saturday? What did His followers do on Saturday? What did the Roman Centurion who uttered the words “Certainly this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47) do and feel like? Where was Peter on Saturday? What was Pilate like? What were the the Jewish leaders doing? How did Joseph from Arimathea and Nicodemus feel? What was Thomas doing?
I don’t know what they did, but I can probably guarantee that everyone was watching.
Not one of these people knew how the story was going to end. We do. Jesus followed through on His promise that Sunday would come - we see that fully now. They did not.
These are the thoughts I wonder as I selah.
As I selah, I realize, that the gap between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is the now and not yet. It is reflective of the time that we live here on earth. NT Wright says “Holy Saturday is therefore the sabbath rest after the completion of the work of redemption.” Yet, we all know that not everything has been fully redeemed yet.
See, the Kingdom is here but yet it is not. Jesus has come and He is coming again. We live in the theological, Church history time of selah. And, how we live in this time - matters - because the world is watching. How we live out the message of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday until Jesus comes back matters - not just for the Church, but for the world around us.
We live in a different kind of Saturday. We look forward to a different kind of resurrection. We hope for restoration. We want to bring as many others into this story of redemption, hope and restoration as possible.
As disciples of Jesus we have a tendency to skip ahead like we do from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday that we do with the world in which we live. We have our ticket to heaven, we know it will be a better place, so we try and fast forward ourselves to heaven, instead of sitting in the now, in selah, and pulling others into the story.
Let us live out the Kingdom. Let us live in this time of selah, while using what waits ahead for us as a motivation to live well in this time.
Selah.
Check this out. Invite people.
Francis Chan will be here…
