Category Archives: 2022 Passion Week – Easter Story
Follow along with the Easter story all this week, on our social media platforms and on our website. Take a closer look at what exactly Jesus experienced during Passion Week and the profound impact it has on our lives. Share these powerful moments with your loved ones.
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Sabbath ended at 6pm – 12 hours ago. The women are able to gather what they need to complete the burial rites. Jesus’ disciples are still in hiding, so the women will do it alone.
Jesus has now been in the tomb 3 days (part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday).
When the women arrive at the tomb, the Roman guard is gone and the tomb is open. The women enter the tomb, but the body of Jesus is gone!
Instead, they encounter an angel who tells them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Jesus is not here, he has risen just as he said.”
The women hurry back to tell the disciples – “afraid, yet filled with joy”.
He is Risen – proof that his sacrifice was found acceptable to the Father.
see a map indicating the location of the tomb on the EasterNow app
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
The disciples return to their homes, but Mary Magdalene stands outside the tomb crying. Jesus appears to her in a precious exchange, ultimately telling her: “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Through the course of this day and the days following, Jesus appears to his disciples and hundreds of others.
Through his death and resurrection, all things are made new.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – money is being paid, stories created. Remarkably, it seems the Jewish leaders believed the soldiers.
The disciples, in contrast, did not believe the women who reported that the tomb was empty and that angels had spoken to them.
Peter and John run to the tomb…. it is open – the body is gone!
It is now the Feast of First Fruits – celebrating the miracle of the seed: planted in the earth to die, so that it might grow and yield a bountiful crop.
see a map indicating the location of the tomb in the EasterNow app
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
Good Friday is over and Sabbath begins. Jesus is in the tomb, which is sealed by a stone and guarded by Roman soldiers. Jesus predicted, “Like Jonah was in the belly of a fish three days, the Son of Man will be in the earth for three days.”
The disciples are in hiding – probably wanted men.
This day begins the feast that follows Passover: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, an agrarian celebration commemorating the ‘good seed’ that must go into the ground and die to yield a crop. Our ‘good seed’ is in the ground.
The next feast, the Feast of First Fruits, begins Sunday, acknowledging God’s faithfulness to ‘bring in the crop’.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
By now Jesus’ body is off the cross. The Jewish leaders learn that the body of Jesus has been given to Joseph of Arimathea. They appeal to Pilate to seal the tomb and post a guard, and Pilate gives the order.
Though Jesus’ disciples have long fled, the women have not. They cursorily wrap the body, lacking the customary oils and spices to complete the job before Sabbath restrictions apply. Sabbath restrictions – created by God – require that the women must return to finish the job on Sunday – after the Sabbath.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
Now the Jewish leaders have a problem – the bodies of all three crucified men must come down off the crosses before sundown – Friday at 6:00pm – the beginning of one of the year’s most important Sabbaths.
If a Jew touches a dead body on Sabbath, he or she is ‘unclean’ for the Sabbath.
As well, an unusual Mosaic regulation found in Deut 21:22-23 instructs that a body hung on a tree must come down before sundown. To speed up death, the legs of the crucified men are broken. Jesus, however, is already dead. Roman soldiers confirm this with a spear to Jesus’ side, and blood and water pour out.
Joseph of Arimathea hurries to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body, and –surprisingly – is given permission.
Deut 21:22-23
22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
“At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,” when Jesus dies at 3pm. Read Amos 8:9-10 and marvel! As in Egypt at the time of Moses and Pharaoh, the plague of darkness will precede the final plague: death of the firstborn son. This time, however, it is God’s son. This death occurs on the anniversary of the very plague that gave the children of Israel the feast of Passover: the blood of the lamb brings deliverance!
Amos 8:9-10
“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
The people hurl insults and mock him. Little do they know that David predicted their behavior and very words a thousand years earlier.
Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me…”
The Psalmist describes the piercing of Jesus’ hands and feet, the casting of lots for his clothing and the insults hurled at him by those observing his pain and agony. Yet the Psalm concludes in victory, glory to God, and salvation to the nations.
see a map showing where Golgotha was on the EasterNow App
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows. The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him— may your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!
By now, the Roman guards are meeting with Jewish leaders about their incredible experience with the angel who moved the stone – … Continue reading What about the body→
This wonderful content is put together in an app called EasterNow . Visit their website to download the app to your phone and experience this great story along with others.
