Reflections on Easter Week

Well, if you’re into religious holidays, this is certainly a red letter week. We had Palm Sunday last weekend. Tonight marks the beginning of Passover. Holy Thursday is tomorrow, followed by Good Friday and Easter. Religious holidays, while good reminders of the truth, can often cloud it as well. We are so easily distracted by the food, the fun, the ritual and social aspects of any holiday that it’s easy to leave God out of such a day - even a religious event. All celebrating, church services, egg dying and palm waving aside, I would like to redirect our focus to the person of Jesus Christ, whom we truly celebrate this week. This is the week that dozens of prophetic scriptures were fulfilled through His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), his eating of the Passover, His betrayal, His mock trial, His death on the cross, and finally His resurrection. We must remember, amidst all the other hoopla, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He actually lived, actually died for our sins, and actually rose from the dead. If any of those facts are untrue, then everything else we celebrate this week is pointless and we might as well sing our hymns to the Easter Bunny. If we do not accept Jesus as our Savior and Messiah, then we are all April Fools and that would be the only relevant holiday. Let us come back to the person of Jesus Christ. A lot of dramatic and public things happened during this, the last week of His life. However, I am most deeply moved by that quiet moment after the Last Supper, and just prior to His betrayal, when He knelt in the garden of Gethsemane and prayed. In that scene of anguish and compassion I most clearly see the Son of God choosing to suffer and die for me personally. Easter is a time to celebrate God’s victory over death, but the foundation of that victory is His great mercy and the sacrifice of His only Son on behalf of an undeserving world. If you have further interest, I have pasted below a partial list of prophesies fulfilled by Jesus during the final week of His life. Have a happy Easter and don’t be an April Fool.

Gethsemane
Jesus knew his time was drawing near
On the eve of that final day
With the weight of the world upon his heart
He came to the garden to pray
He alone knew His Father’s will
And understood His redemption plan
And though He was truly God incarnate
Still, He was fully a man
He knew that pain and suffering
And betrayal were moments away
As He pleaded with God and wept He knew
There simply was no other way
There, in the garden, that fateful night
With the lights of the city in view
Jesus, the Son of God, considered
All that He must go through
The tears of His sorrow freely flowed
That night in Gethsemane
For He understood his path must lead
To the cross at Calvary
He was Christ, the Lord, the King of Kings
Yet, He knelt upon human knees
And willingly chose that night to die
Because of His love for you and me.
By Frank Carpenter ©

Partial list of Prophesies Fulfilled During the Final Week of Jesus’ Life:
Triumphal entry in Jerusalem on a donkey
Zechariah 9:9, Mark 11:7–8, John 12:13–15

Betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9, Mark 14:10, 43–45

Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver
Zechariah 11:12, Matthew 26:15

Betrayal money returned for a potter’s field
Zechariah 11:13, Matthew 27:3–10

Accused by false witnesses
Psalm 27:12, Matthew 26:60–61, Mark 14:57

Offers no defense
Isaiah 53:7, Matthew 26:62–63, Matthew 27:12–14

Struck and spat upon
Isaiah 50:6, Matthew 26:67, Mark 14:65, John 19:1–3

Hated without reason
Psalm 109:3–5, John 15:24–25

Soldiers divide His garments and gamble for His clothing
Psalm 22:18, Matthew 27:35

Pierced through hands and feet
Zechariah 12:10, Luke 23:33, John 20:27

Executed with malefactors
Isaiah 53:12, Mark 15:27–28

Agonized in thirst
Psalm 22:15, John 19:28

Given gall and vinegar
Psalm 69:21, Matthew 27:34, 48, John 19:29

No bones broken
Psalm 34:20, John 19:32–36

His side pierced
Zechariah 12:10b, John 19:34

Buried with the rich
Isaiah 53:9, Matthew 27:57–60

Deserted by His followers
Zechariah 13:7, Mark 14:27,Matthew 26:56

Resurrection
Hosea 6:2, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 49:15, Luke 24:6–7

Ascension to Heaven
Psalm 68:18, Luke 24:50–51, Acts 1:11, Ephesians 4:7–10

Counterfeit

As I survey the world we share it becomes quite evident that things are often not as they would seem. In fact, our modern world is full of counterfeits which give us false impressions of beauty and value and skew our thinking in many important areas of life. Perhaps the biggest culprit is our beloved media, which offers movies, television and music for entertainment and enjoyment. These mediums, however, all proffer false realities and downright fiction that affect every part of our world view. For instance, actors, enhanced by surgery, makeup and special effects give us the impression that everyone should look perfect. The result is a whole generation of people who can never live up to such artificial standards. Thus men and women alike live under the judgment this vicious fallacy. One glance at the tabloids or newspapers, however, confirms that no matter how attractive someone appears on screen they are no better on the inside … and often worse. Beauty really is only skin deep, after all. It is much the same with precious stones and metals. With the right lighting, they all look good to the untrained eye. And so it is with many of the things which surround us.

This principle holds true in the spiritual realm of our lives as well. God has provided us with a world of beauty and blessing, but we continue to trade in the real thing for cheap counterfeits which lack intrinsic and lasting value. As mentioned above, our society sacrifices priceless inner beauty and character for temporal external beauty. We stand in line for food that looks and tastes wonderful, yet is terrible for us. We become addicted to various levels of pornography which cheapen the beauty, function and relationship God meant for us to enjoy with one another. We publicly condone and encourage homosexuality which, in my humble opinion, completely deviates from our intended design. We choose earthly pleasure over eternal righteousness. We trust money for security and happiness. The list goes on and on and, and in every case it’s a compromise. In each instance we settle for something less than God intends for us to enjoy in this world. And when we do so, we’re buying a cheap knock off from he who is the evil opposite of God. In a very real sense, then, God intends us for heaven, but we slowly settle for little bits of hell … until we become utterly accustomed to them.

My hope and prayer for us today is that we shall learn not to settle for anything less than the real thing, as it was originally intended. We live in a world of counterfeits. Yet, wise is the one who has faith enough to trust that God only wants the best for each of us.

Counterfeit
Believers know God has a plan
Yet, there is another plan in play
For the evil one is a counterfeiter
Who leads the weak astray
By imitating the good things
That the Lord prepared for us
Perverting them ever so slightly
So that we misplace our trust
He offers lust instead of love
Twists food with gluttony
Makes our work a quest for wealth
Turns blessings to depravity
He strews our path with idols
Of most every shape and size
Which clamor for attention
From our unsuspecting eyes
Tantalizing all our senses
With countless sugar coated lies
The great deceiver draws us into
His fateful web of compromise
Until we can no longer
Distinguish counterfeit from real
Wooed by his empty promises
With all of their appeal
So those who would be faithful
Must guard their hearts and minds
Against the world’s counterfeits
Lest they awake one day to find
That they have bought the bill of goods
The master counterfeiter sold
And traded all God’s blessings
For idols of mere fool’s gold
By Frank Carpenter ©