He Is Risen
Passion Play, Act 8, Scene 1
Easter2023, 26/42
The Empty Tomb
He is risen. He is risen indeed!
Early Sunday morning one of the friends comes back with rags and a jug of water and a box of the grave spices that are supposed to cut down on the smell. She’s braced for the task. But when she comes to the grave she finds that the linens have been thrown into the corner and the body is gone. Evidently anonymous burial isn’t quite anonymous enough after all.
She sits outside in the sun. Here at the edge of the desert the insects have woken up. A bee is nosing about in a lily. The lily is like silk thinly tucked over itself, but much more perishable. It won’t last long. She takes no notice of the feet that appear at the edge of her vision. That’s enough now, she thinks. That’s more than enough.
Don’t be afraid, says Yeshua. Far more can be mended than you know. She is weeping. The executee helps her to stand up.
Adapted from Unapologetic by Francis Spufford
Easter2023, 25/42
You have made it to Easter! What a day to celebrate. There are 6 readings today as the words and events of the day unfold. We recommend setting an alarm on your phone to pause, read, and reflect at each hour! Refer back and refresh this page for updates at 6AM, 7AM, 8AM, 9:AM, 11AM, and 12PM.
A Day Like Any Other
Saturday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD
It is the Jewish Sabbath. The city is quiet. The air above the city lacks the usual thousand little trails of smoke from cookfires. Hymns rise from the temple. Families are indoors. The soldiers are back in their barracks.
The Chief Priest grows hoarse with singing. The governor plays chess with his secretary and dictates letters. The free bread the temple distributed to the poor has gone stale by midday, but tastes alright dipped in water or broth.
The tomb in which Jesus was buried is guarded by a Roman Centurion. Death has interrupted life only as much as it ever does. We die one at a time and disappear, but the life of the living continues. The earth turns. The sun makes its way towards the western horizon no slower or faster than it usually does.
Wait for it. Things are about to change for eternity.
Adapted from Unapologetic by Francis Spufford
Easter2023, 24/42
The Veil Is Torn Asunder
In His last hours Jesus uttered seven statements that have become known as the Seven Last Words Of Christ:
1. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
2. Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
3. Woman, behold thy son.
4. My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
5. I thirst.
6. It is finished.
7. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed out His life. And the curtain of the Holy of Holies of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing Him saw Him expire this way, he said, truly this man was God’s Son! Mark 15:37-39
And then He was laid in The Tomb.
There was a good and righteous man named Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, who had not agreed with their plan and action. He was from Arimathea, a Judean town, and was looking forward to the kingdom of God. He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Taking it down, he wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever been placed. It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed along and observed the tomb and how His body was placed. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Luke 23:50-56 CSB
Wait for it. All your cries have been heard and the ransom paid in full.
Easter2023, 23/42
The Seven Last Words of Jesus /7
Friday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Luke 23:46
This is a prayer of great significance that every Christian must apply to our lives. Jesus trusts God to the very end. Let this be your daily prayer: “I commit myself to you, O God. In my living and in my dying, in the good times and in the bad, whatever I am and have, I place in your hands, O God, for your safekeeping.” (Note 1)
(1) 24 Hours That Changed the World. Adam Hamilton
Easter2023, 22/42
The Seven Last Words of Jesus /6
Friday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD
“It is finished.” John 19:30
A salvation was made possible, a love shown. His earthly mission was complete. He took our place, offering Himself to God as a sacrifice on behalf of humanity, demonstrating both humanity’s brokenness and God’s love. (Note 1)
(1) 24 Hours That Changed the World, Adam Hamilton [Paraphrased]
Easter2023, 21/42
The Seven Last Words of Jesus /5
Friday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD
“I am thirsty.” John 19:28
It is easy to understand in His humanness that Jesus was thirsty having hung on the cross for many hours without food or drink.
This statement has implications beyond physical thirst. Ponder and pray on the concept of Jesus as giver of living water. “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” John 4:9-10,14 It grieves the heart that Jesus could be thirsty in any way, even for a short time on the cross.
The Seven Last Words of Jesus /4
Friday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1
This from Jesus? This from the Son of God who prayed and fellowshipped with God? Yes, this from the one who knew implicitly that the cup could not be spared Him. It is a cry of utter despair from the human (Son of Man) Jesus, who in that moment felt far away from the Father who sent Him.
Written some 1,000 years earlier, Psalm 22 foreshadows the experience of Jesus at His crucifixion. The Psalmist opens with the same despair:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? Psalm 22:1 NIV
But the psalm closes with triumph and hope.
The humble will eat and be satisfied.
those who see the Lord will praise Him.
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.
All the families of the nations will bow down before you,
for kingship belongs to the Lord; He rules the nations.
All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down;
all those who go down to the dust will kneel before Him –
even the one who cannot preserve His life.
Their descendant will serve Him; the next generation will be told about the Lord.
They will come and declare his righteousness; to a people yet to be born
they will declare what He has done. Psalm 22:26-31 HCSB
Easter2023, 19/42
Friday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD
He cannot do anything deliberate now. The strain of His whole weight on His outstretched arms hurts too much. The pain fills Him up, displaces thought, as much for Him as it has for everyone else who has ever been nailed to one of these horrible contrivances, or for anyone else who dies in pain from any of the world’s grim arsenal of possibilities. And yet He goes on taking it in. It is not what He does, it is what He is. He is all open door: to sorrow, suffering, guilt, despair, horror, everything that cannot be escaped, and He does not even try to escape it, He turns to meet it, and claims it all as His own. This is mine now, He is saying; and He embraces it with all that is left in Him.
The world He claims, claims Him. It burns and stings, it splinters and gouges, it locks Him round and drags Him down. His despair is unfathomable.
Easter2023, 18/42
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