The Ressurection
Regardless of what you want to call the holiday - Easter, Resurrection Sunday, etc. - the important thing to remember is why we celebrate it at all. God had a plan all along, and it included the death and resurrection of Jesus as the final sacrifice that opened the way. He knew what would happen, but still He created man in His image.
Adam and Eve had it all, other than one tree’s fruit. They had daily time with God, a garden full of many glorious creations God let Adam name, and nothing to worry about. Not until the serpent convinced Eve that God was holding out on them and didn’t want them to be like God by eating the fruit. A total deception because remember, God made man in His image, so man was already like God. Man didn’t need to know everything in order to follow God and relate to Him in the garden.
Eve was duped and Adam went along with her on eating the fruit. Everything changed and we have the first blood sacrifice when God killed animals to clothe Adam and Eve. The entire world changed, but God still allowed man to have dominion over the Earth though we lost the access to the Garden.
There is a thread through the entire Old Testament that tells us about Jesus. It tells of how He would be born, what He would do here, and how He would die. He is considered the sacrificial lamb and righteous sufferer. His sacrifice on the cross and then His rise from the dead bridged the gap that separated man from God in the garden. Therefore, Jesus could say he was the way, the truth and the life. He is the only way to reconnect to God.
Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12 is about the sin bearing servant.
He would be rejected by the world and despised. He’s so despised that His name is the only name used as a curse word. (Isaiah 53:3-4)
He would be brutally beaten that one could barely tell He was human. Even before He was crucified, He endured a flailing by the guards. (Isaiah 52:14) All of this wounding by men would be to pay the price for our sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6)
Pilate marveled at the silence of Jesus in Matthew 27:12-14, but this was to fulfill Isaiah 53:7. This verse in Isaiah states He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. According to the prophets, the Messiah would also be the Passover lamb. Exodus 12:1-51 talks of the lamb that they had to sacrifice in order to be spared the last plague, the death of all firstborns, that would come over Egypt. It could not have any blemish and in the process of killing it, they could not break any of its bones. Jesus was pierced by the Roman guard to verify his death rather than having his knees broken. The breaking of the legs in any way quickened death and was used often by the Romans.
Isaiah 53:9 states He would die with criminals but be placed in the tomb of a rich man. This is fulfilled when Joseph of Arimathea, who was a rich man, asks Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate lets him have the body, which he placed in his new tomb and rolled the rock in front of it. You can read this in Matthew 27:57-60. He also had a criminal on either side of Him and one of them understood who Jesus was, so he got to step into eternity while the other did not.
Psalm 22 gives a great detail of what would happen to Jesus on the cross and all of it can be seen in the accounts in the Gospels about His death on the cross.
Psalm 16:8-11 talks about God’s anointed one would not be left in Sheol or allowed to see corruption. Jesus defeated death and was seen by over 500 people after His death before He rose into heaven.
There are more verses in the Old Testament that are fulfilled by Jesus, as told in the New Testament. The above are not all the verses directly associated with His death and resurrection.
Despite all the fulfilled prophecies from birth to death to resurrection, even the Jewish leaders did not accept Him as their Messiah. The Old Testament states His own would not accept Him when He came. Many who praised Him at His triumphal entry on a donkey into Jerusalem screamed for His crucifixion mere days later because He did not come as the king they wanted to save them from Roman rule. He is still despised to this day by those who do not want to accept Him as the only way to reconcile with God and have everlasting life.
I know I shied from Christianity because it didn’t make sense. I also knew Christians that did not make me want to know about it. However, when nothing in the world was solving my internal problem, I sat down and read the Bible when it was suggested. It finally made sense, and not because of my intellect or the world’s logic. I just knew that I knew I had to walk with Jesus and let the Holy Spirit be my guide, no matter how much it turned my life on its head. I’m still learning things about who I should be in Christ. It hasn’t been easy, and it was never promised to be easy. However, the more I walk with Him the more exciting and rewarding my life has been.
There is far too much evidence, even by secular historians back in the time of Jesus and the early church, that confirms all that happened while Jesus walked the earth. Why not try reaching out to Him and finding the life, the way and the truth that will set you free in this life? There is no need to walk on in the oppression of sin. There is no need to be perfect before you go to Him, because none of us is perfect.
I stepped into a relationship with Jesus and life has never been the same since. I have an abundant life because of Him rather than what the world totes as the dream life. Come join me on this walk with Jesus. I’ll have more to share about this next week.