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Tag: Easter (Page 1 of 3)

What About After Easter?

April 14, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Wow it’s been a week to say the least. There’s a thing in a pastor’s life called the Easter Hangover. It’s the few days or week after Easter when we go into hibernation mode to just recover. I know it’s odd since we only work one day a week and just because we have an extra service or two over the Easter season shouldn’t make much of a difference. Yeah yeah yeah I hear you.

But the week following Easter is always a week for me to slow things down a lot and refocus on what’s really important. Sure I’ve taken things easy this week and gotten a little more rest than I normally would but I’ve still done the regular functions of my job. One thing that’s really sat on my heart this week is what about after Easter? What are we to do with all the hype?

You’ve probably heard the popular sermon that states It’s Friday but Sunday is coming. It’s the idea that Good Friday was so terrible and so awful and so horrifying, but it wasn’t the end. It had to happen in order for Sunday to have its power. So the message kept repeating that Sunday was just around the corner. But what about after Easter?

I recently heard someone ask what about Easter Monday? What happened the Monday after Jesus rose? What did the disciples do that day? What did Jesus do? What should we be doing?

I think there was a bit of an Easter hangover that happened even for the disciples. I mean look at the emotional toll that this weekend took on them! Their teacher and really good friend was just horribly beaten and died in front of them. They watched as his body was buried and guards were placed so no one could get to him. They mourned and cried and sat in sheer shock and bewilderment. They were terrified about would then happen to them.

But here we are, it’s after Easter. Nothing happened to them. Jesus is no longer in the grave. He’s risen and that’s truly amazing but wow are they exhausted! We don’t have a lot of specific detail on the actions of Jesus after he rose from the dead. We don’t know specifically what he did on Monday after Easter or how he spent his Friday this week.

Maybe they had a fish fry? Or took a trip on the sea with the guys in the boat. We know that he did spend time with them and appeared to them several times. We know that he was in large groups of people who all were shocked to see him alive. If I had to guess this week was spent letting the disciples get used to the idea that the resurrection was real. He didn’t require a lot of them. Or give them any really important information because they probably wouldn’t have remembered it in the first place!

You see the most important thing the disciples did after Easter was tell everyone what they had seen. It’s crazy easy to show up to church on Easter morning and hear the pastor and greet the people. We can sing the songs and get all emotional about the moment, but what do we do with it when we leave the building? What about the rest of the week? What about next Sunday?

This is a week to let it all sink in. Take time to get used to the fact that the resurrection is real! And it’s just as real for you and me today as it was for them that first Easter week. So get used to the idea that Jesus’ resurrection is real. But it’s time we start doing something with the reality of the resurrection.

On The Homestead

April 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Very seldom do I take a slow morning to sit and sip my coffee in my chair as no one else in the house is moving. The sun is just peaking up in the eastern sky. The air is crisp with that early spring cool. A frosty dew is covering the grass tips. Birds are chirping outside. And a single deer is crossing the field out back.

I’m writing this on the morning of Good Friday, but I’m thinking about tomorrow. No one talks about tomorrow. I mean we make sure we have the Easter meal as prepared as we can have it. We make sure everyone’s matching outfits for Easter worship are laid out and prepared. We clean the house just in case that crazy relative decides to do a quick inspection for dust around the place.

We did the traditional Maundy Thursday and Good Friday worship and will pick one of the special Easter morning services to attend as well. But what about Saturday? Why have I not really given much attention to Saturday? Can you imagine what it must have been like to be one of Jesus’ followers on Saturday?

As I sit and sip my coffee, irony of all ironies the brand is Death Wish Coffee, I wonder what the disciples did that Holy Saturday? Did they even sleep last night? Were they too anxious? Were they too afraid? Were they just too overcome with sadness that sleep escaped them? Were those same things the cause for them to pass out and sleep harder than ever before?

Then as the dark night sky gave way to morning light, as the rooster crowed somewhere just outside the city walls, they couldn’t go back to life a normal. The entire city was in turmoil. The entire city was overwhelmed and in a state of angst. Some were happy that Jesus was dead. Others who wanted him dead were no longer so sure of their decision. Still others were devastated by how it all went down.

What must it have been like to be there that Saturday? Did anyone talk about it? Or was it a topic that everyone just stayed away from because they knew it was just too soon?

As we are wondering these very things, Jesus is resting. The hard work is done. This Holy Saturday wasn’t a day to die. It wasn’t a day to rise. It wasn’t a day to conquer enemies or vanquish foes. It was a day to rest. He ended Good Friday with It is finished! That means nothing more was needed. The debt for the sin of all mankind was paid in full. Today he simply rested. In his rest he presented himself the victor. He stood before the powers of evil to prove that he was victorious. Nothing more was needed. Nothing more could be done. He had done it all.

Today is a day to rest. Enjoy the quiet moments. Listen to the children play and laugh. The work, the real work of this weekend has been finished. Because Jesus won you also are victorious! Happy Easter Weekend friends!

The Sound of Silence

April 7, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In the early morning hours, before the sun began to peak above the horizon, darkness covered the landscape. The air was cool. No one was around. It’s almost as if the earth stopped for a moment. There was an eerie silence that was oddly deafening.

As your feet strolled slowly across the dew covered grass, you notice that nothing was moving. No animals were scurrying about. No birds were chirping. No rustling in the woods. Nothing. Not a single sound could be heard but that silence was so powerful it was almost audible.

The farther you walk, the more uneasy you feel. No noise around you is bringing feelings of fear to your mind. The air is heavy with humidity, yet it is cool on your lungs as you take in a slow, deep breath. You can smell the aroma of flowers cut through the moist air. But still no sound to be heard.

The only sound is that of your feet touching the ground as you make your way across the terrain. Step. Shuffle. Step. Shuffle. You stop walking to see if anything is out there, but alas nothing around you. Not a single moving thing on the face of the earth can be heard.

This sound of silence is reminiscent of the events of Good Friday and Holy Saturday (the day before Easter). It’s the sound, or lack of it, that had overcome the world. The disciples were no longer confident. They were cowering in fear. The soldiers were fast asleep. The enemies of Jesus were dreaming sweet dreams thinking they had won. Satan was even comfortable in the blow of defeat that he dealt to Jesus.

Now displayed lifeless in his tomb, Jesus was gone. No one was looking for him anymore. His cries from the cross were silenced in the moment his head fell. The silence of this moment speaks volumes in our lives today. It’s the sound of silence.

Most of the time we are somber in silence. We are fearful in dark quiet places. We think that victory is loud and boastful. But not today. Today the victory is found in the stillness of that morning. The triumph is experienced in the deafening moments of quiet.

On this Good Friday, pause for a moment. Enjoy the quiet of the early morning. Remember the silence the women heard as they traveled to the tomb. Focus on the quiet and dark of that Good Friday morning. Listen to the silence. What does this moment say to you?

On A Tuesday

April 4, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The events of this week are powerful for those who live out their Christian faith. From Palm Sunday celebrations to seemingly business as usual until the special services on Thursday and Friday and then the big reveal on Easter morning, this week is filled with power and emotion. But it’s not just the big days that are important. There is something special about each of these days through the week that we call Holy Week.

Yesterday we dealt with having the case of the Mondays. And today we’ll move into that day often called Holy Tuesday. The word holy is a word designated for things set apart or different for a specific purpose. This Tuesday of Holy Week is a special one to be sure.

A few key things happened on this Tuesday of Holy Week that make it stand out from the other Tuesdays in life. First, we see Jesus on a trip which isn’t all that unusual. On the way he discusses what faith really means by killing a fig tree. I know it seems a bit odd to do this but the point was made in a bold fashion. The disciples, kind of like we are today, were a bit on the hard headed side and easily missed the often obvious!

So Jesus kills the fig tree for not bearing fruit and then tells the disciples that if they had faith they too could do similar things. The point wasn’t about killing a tree really. The key was faith. We say we have faith, but when it comes time to actually act on that faith there are often crickets! No action. Faith gives way to fear which gives way to freeze. But Jesus offers an alternative. Believe that the one who called you to do this is able to help you accomplish it.

But there’s more to this Holy Tuesday than a dead fig tree. Jesus makes his way to a mountain called Olivet. And here he gives a sermon that is often referred to as the Olivet Discourse. I know super original naming right?

Well on this mountain, Jesus starts to teach that things are going to change drastically over the next few days. He tells them he’s going to die. Then that he won’t be around anymore. Then that they will be in charge of keeping this movement going in his absence. This is really why he was teaching them about faith through the fig tree. He needed them to believe they were able to do what he was calling them to do.

Nestled in the middle of the Olivet Discourse is a section dealing with the end of the world. Insert ominous music in the background. Well the section dealing with the end is really a lesson on how the world will un-evolve when he’s gone. So Jesus is saying that he’s going to die and rise and ascend. But when he’s gone the world is going to be really hard. And increasingly so as we get further and further from His death and resurrection. The more time lapses between when Jesus was here the harder and more evil the world will become.

But there’s a glimmer of hope buried in that sermon. Not only will things get hard and we’ll really not like it at all while it’s happening, but when it runs its course he will come back. That’s the cool part of this whole week.

Jesus is hailed as King. Paraded through town. Then quickly abandoned for a more convenient prospect. Then killed and tossed outside the city to hopefully be forgotten. But his followers are supposed to carry this message just like he carried his cross. Until one day life will be so full of evil and death and wrong and sin that God will call it over. He’ll send Jesus back and collect what’s rightfully his. The rest will dealt with in what is called judgment.

So this week isn’t really about Jesus dying and rising as much as it is laying the foundation for something that is yet to come in the future for all of us. Holy Week is about Jesus coming back again to close the book on this sinful world and set us up in a place that is far better than anything we could ever imagine. And that’s what happened on a Tuesday.

Today In History

April 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week is a week that Christians around the world celebrate as something we call Holy Week. It’s the week that we attribute to Jesus coming into Jerusalem where he is heralded as King. Then things turn drastically for the worse and by the end of the week he’s dead and buried. Pretty hard shift to say the least. But how did it all happen? And what happened between Sunday and Friday to bring this change in how people saw Jesus?

What exactly is Holy Monday anyway?

The Monday of Holy Week is called Holy Monday. Really not much holy about most Mondays so we’ll take it right! This day is called holy primarily because it falls during this week that in general is considered Jesus’ holy walk to the cross.

But did Jesus do anything special on this Monday to make it special?

The answer is a bit complicated. So we’ll give it a yes and a no. I get it that’s the cheater’s way out but stick with me here for a minute.

On the Monday of this Holy Week time period, Jesus entered the city and went straight to the temple. In the center of the town was a temple. And it was a lot like a small community of its own complete with worship center, tons of people and even the ability to buy and sell certain things.

Well, this particular day Jesus enters the temple area and is upset. He’s upset because the main thing in the temple was supposed to be worship and sacrifices to God. But that’s not the focus that day. The focus was on the buying and selling things.

Ok so Jesus didn’t really have a problem with the buying and selling either. From what many bible scholars and cultural history buffs tell us, you could buy and sell animals for sacrifice in certain parts of the extended temple complex. The issue Jesus had was essentially the currency conversion rate and the mark up placed on these goods.

You see in the temple you couldn’t just walk in with street money and expect to buy things. There was a temple currency of sorts that generally had to be obtained. So they had these currency conversion tables. The issue here however is the temple got to determine the conversion rate. So they could charge some people more for the conversion and others less depending on the person’s overall economic standing.

Then there is the mark up. The issue here is that when people came to buy an animal for the regular sacrifice, the temple sales people were marking up the cost of animals to make a little extra cash. It’s not really known if they were pocketing the money or storing at the temple or sending their families to Disney World. All that is known is that they were selling things are a far higher price than they should have. So Jesus enters the temple and tells them all to get lost until they can have the right heart.

Now when making money is your motivation for doing something. And when someone stops you from making money, you get a bit bent. This is what started to happen to some of the leaders when Jesus came in and turned over the tables and removed them from the temple.

So what we see on this Monday of Holy Week is the beginning of the end for Jesus. This is one reason why things turned so quickly for Jesus and shouts of praises on Palm Sunday turned to kill him by Friday.

Are You Trapped?

April 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments

One of my biggest fears in life is being trapped and have no way out. I don’t like water because I’m a tad afraid of getting trapped below the water. I know it’s one of those irrational kind of fears, but it’s a real fear for me. I don’t care for enclosed spaces and the idea of suffocating freaks the heck out of me. I do not like to feel trapped.

But it’s not just trapped under water or in a small space that is an uncomfortable feeling for many people. The idea of being trapped in a decision or a job or a relationship or a guilty feeling or an addiction are less than appealing thoughts as well.

Imagine for a moment being held against your will. You’re forced to work and treated like something less than human. You aren’t praised for going above and beyond. You’re barely paid enough to live a decent life. You don’t make an honest wage. You’re tired. You’re scared. It’s just not a good place. The dark nights seem darker. The hot summer days feel scorchingly hot. The cold winter nights freeze you to the core. Trapped in this kind of life is a place no one wants to be.

Now imagine that into this trapped life comes someone you’ve never met. He comes in and in a powerful display of force suppresses your captor. He frees you. He takes your kidnapper and restrains him so that you can go free. But you have to make a decision.

Will you stay with your captor or will you go free?

This decision may seem like an easy one for you and me right now. It might seem like a no brainer. But it seems all too often that we tend to choose our captivity over our freedom. Even though it sucks being stuck in the bad moments and trapped in our guilt or addiction or depression, there’s something comforting about the familiar. We like to stay in situations that we know, even if they they’re bad situations.

What do you need to be freed from? What comfortable sucky situation do you keep going back to simply because it’s known to you?

We all do this, in probably more ways than we realize. But the truth of the matter is we need to be ok walking away from the things that trap us. We need to be willing to close doors that aren’t beneficial, healthy or profitable even if it means saying goodbye to someone or something that at one point was meaningful to us.

This will post on the Thursday before Easter. It’s a day that really celebrates freedom from things that trap us. The events of this day in history were a reminder to the people who follow Jesus to flee the things that trap and run toward the freeing presence of a relationship with Jesus. The bread and the wine are reminders of all that Jesus did to forgive us and set us free from the strongest captor we’ve ever encountered.

What holds you today? It’s time to let those things go and rest in the freedom that’s been won for you.

Praise The King

April 5, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Easter for those of us who follow Jesus is about so many amazing things. While some try to shun the bunny and the eggs, some of us can fully embrace these fun parts of Easter with the real meaning of this great day. For followers of Jesus, Easter is about Jesus. It’s about his resurrection and how he conquered the darkness and all the powers of evil in the world.

At Living Word Galena this Easter we focused on Jesus as our King. We talked about how he is the one true king this world needs. Knowing that we serve a King who’s not like other kings is pretty freeing. Knowing that Jesus is kind and compassionate and selfless and is willing to put himself aside for the those who follow him makes this day known as Easter even that much more special.

Today I want to leave you with a song that pretty much summarizes what we talked about this Easter. It’s a song titled Praise the King. I just heard this for the first time a few days ago and was struck by the power of the words.

Nothing flashy. Nothing over the top. Just Jesus as your king but then again that’s all you really need.

Why was Palm Sunday so important?

March 30, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Ok so some of you won’t really care about this nearly as much as I do but I’ve been a pastor for 19 years and have read, preached on or at least heard the Palm Sunday story every year that I’ve been alive. But this year the whole thing took on new meaning. It’s like 19 years of ministry finally paid off with a little knowledge.

The Palm Sunday account, known as the triumphal entry has tons of meaning packed into it. I’ve included the video of the message at the bottom but here’s a list of the things Jesus really did when he came riding into Jerusalem on that day we call Palm Sunday.

Mount of Olives

Did you know that over 600 years earlier, recorded in Ezekiel 10 and again in 43, the prophet is given a vision of God’s glory leaving and then returning to the temple? In 586 BC the glory of God filled the temple then exited through the east gate. It proceeded up the Mount of Olives and rested there until…

Yep that’s right, until Palm Sunday when Jesus came back down the Mount of Olives as the Son of God bringing the Glory of God with him.

Colt the foal of a donkey

So Jesus asks his followers to go, get him a donkey so he could ride into town. Now before we get all freaked out that he stole a donkey, that’s just not true. You see they had a practice in this time that a king could claim eminent domain on a beast of burden if needed. Well, Jesus is king, granted a totally different kind of king but king nonetheless, so the donkey was rightfully his to use for this moment.

And it had to be a donkey and not a full grown horse because tradition also demonstrated (and is echoed in Genesis 49 and the accounts of David and Solomon in 1 Kings 1) that a king would come into town on a donkey if he came bringing peace. Jesus then is the Prince of Peace according to Isaiah 9, so rightfully he brings that peace into Jerusalem once again. This riding in on a donkey was also prophesied in Zechariah 9, so Jesus doing it this way was fulfilling what was promised about him.

Additionally the donkey is said to be an unridden donkey. This too was significant because a king to be considered the greatest would ride a donkey that was unridden. The king was the only one who was to ride his animal. It generally was unbroken by someone else showing that no one could be as great or powerful as this king.

Hosanna!

The people lined the streets, threw their coats on the ground, waved palm branches and shouted hosanna! This may seem to be nothing major but even the words of the people fulfilled some of the Old Testament. The words that the people spoke were and echo of Psalm 118 in a psalm of praise.

Triumphal Entry

A triumphal entry was a Roman tradition actually. One would get a triumphal entry parade if you were a king or mighty warrior who was headed into battle against a worthy adversary or had conquered a group of 5000 or more. Oddly enough Jesus would actually do both of these!

A few days after he was welcomed into town in this triumphal entry, he would go to a cross where he would die on the cross. Now for most people dying was a sign of weakness or being beaten, but not for Jesus. To fulfill the Old Testament rules, someone had to die to pay for sin. Since Jesus didn’t have sin, his death would be a perfect death. That meant that in his death he was victorious. Therefore he deserved a triumphal entry!

But if you go ahead in the story to Acts 3-4, you see the disciples healing a man. Then everyone wanted to know how they did it and who they were. They taught about Jesus and this very week in history. People were so overcome by the event that they surrendered their previous way of life and gave themselves to Jesus. And there were 5000 of them total!

The temple

Jesus lets the fanfare run its course then ends up in the temple. But in a very anticlimactic way looks around and leaves. This is a sign to show that while the glory of God has returned it’s not going to be staying in the temple. Now the glory of God is on the loose. This would be made even more evident in the events of Good Friday when the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom symbolizing God tearing.

The temple curtain was said to be the divider between God and man. But when Jesus died the glory of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God was released for all to see. Now instead of standing in judgment afraid of eternal punishment, we stand before God made holy and righteous because Jesus is our righteousness and God’s glory at the same time.

These are just a handful of the Old Testament passages that are fulfilled in the event we call Palm Sunday or the triumphal entry.

Joel, Jesus, Judgment

February 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

On Ash Wednesday, we kicked off a new series titled One World, One King. The idea behind this series is that we’ve all at times bowed down to a king that we’ve made with our own hands. We bend our knee to our favorite political party, music artist or movie star. We worship finances, fame and even family. But the messages in this series are all about refocusing our worship on what really matters. The one true King of all is the only one deserving of our worship.

In the first message in this series we set the stage by looking into the book of Joel. This book is included in the Old Testament group of books known as the minor prophets. He wrote to the Northern Kingdom, known as Judah, about something he saw that was alarming to say the least.

An invasion of locusts was predicting an army that would soon obliterate the kingdom. But that wasn’t the end. The point of this whole book is the final moments of the world. The days we call the Day of the Lord.

Throughout this message we connect some dots to see how over every horizon of time there are gods we worship and divisions we form. But the goal and the obligation of every Christian is not to highlight the flaws in one another. Our call is to honestly, seriously and intentionally reflect on the gods we’ve formed with our own hands.

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