Easter Sunday People, Good Friday World

Dear Friends
Happy Easter weekend to you!

In Western culture, we think of a day beginning when the sun comes up or when the alarm clock goes off, or when Starbucks opens. But the ancient rhythm of days is different. In the creation account, the order is always the same: “And there was evening and there was morning — the first day.” Each day in creation begins with the evening. In Jewish life, the Sabbath begins not at sunup but at sundown.

In part, the Christian celebration of Easter has its roots in a story from the Old Testament book of Exodus. The Israelites had been living in slavery for centuries. They wanted freedom.

So God gave Moses some very powerful tools to persuade Pharaoh to let God’s people go. These are known as the ten plagues. The last of plagues was the death of any firstborn in Egypt, celebrated in Jewish culture as Passover, which remembers the day the angel of death ‘passed over’ any house with a sacrificial lamb’s blood on the doorpost. In the same way, Christ's blood was shed on a wooden frame, He too became the sacrificial lamb setting us free from the bondage of sin.

This Easter as you contemplate the Cross and Resurrection, maybe as you go to sleep tonight, remember the darkest part of the night is just before dawn. No matter what challenges or suffering you are facing Jesus is with you through the night, He is always at work, in fact, He often does more behind our backs than in front of our faces. As Corrie Ten Boom said,“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 

Remember we are Easter Sunday people living in a Good Friday world.

Pastor Derek+