"Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead?"

 

The crucifixion of Christ, and His resurrection are the cornerstones of the Christian faith. There is no point to Christianity without them. The resurrection alone, is what makes Jesus different from all other spiritual figures, and is also a necessary part of the atonement work of Christ:

"And if Jesus be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are yet in your sins."  1 Cor. 15:17

All four Gospels contain an account of the empty tomb, and the resurrection of Jesus (Mt. 28, Mk. 16, Lk. 24, Jn. 20). The Gospels tell us that on the first day of the week, as the women went to the tomb of Jesus to anoint His body, they were shocked to find that the large stone, with which the tomb had been sealed, had been rolled away. Angels who were present there spoke to them and told them, "He is not here", and "He is risen" (Mt. 28:6, Mk. 16:6, Lk. 24:6). In one account, the resurrected Jesus Himself asked one of the women, "Whom seekest thou?" (Jn. 20:15). In Lk. 24:5, the angel asks, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" They were all saying the same thing: if you are looking for Jesus, you have come to the wrong place. He is not to be found among the dead.

Not only did Jesus attain this great resurrection victory for Himself, but He attained it for all of us as well. What a great thing we have to celebrate! Yet in the Church, and in our lives as believers, we have placed Jesus back among the dead by changing the day proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ into a day of Easter baskets, Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, Easter hats and parades, and pretty, new pastel Easter outfits. None of these things have resurrection life in them. They are all things that will pass away. He is not there. He is risen.

With our Easter traditions, we have also made the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ unrecognizable to the Jews, because we, the Church, have systematically removed these awesome events from their true contexts of Passover, and the Feast of First Fruits, of which they are very much the central meaning and Messianic fulfilment. By using the word "Easter", we have associated this day, instead, with false goddesses, including Ishtar and Ashtoreth. These pagan gods are not lovely and harmless, as we like to consider our Easter traditions, but they represent, instead, something very dark and carnal indeed, and have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. He cannot be found in it. He is not there. He is risen.

We are making it impossible for ourselves, our children, and others to find the resurrected Christ, because of these godless customs and traditions in which we have entombed Him again.

On the day of resurrection, when the women found the tomb empty, and heard the revelation of the angels, they ran to tell the disciples. However, the disciples did not believe them (Mk. 16:11, Lk. 24:11). Our failure to declare the resurrection of Christ on this day, really reflects the same unbelief. Not only have we again entombed Jesus in our dead traditions, but we have rolled an even larger stone, a stumbling stone of unbelief, back over the entrance of that tomb.

 

In the early Church, believers would greet each other saying, "He is risen!", and the answering declaration would be, "He is risen indeed!". Today we greet each other saying instead, "Happy Easter".

The angel is again asking the Church, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?", and Jesus Himself is asking, "Whom sleekest thou?"

 

To contact/give:

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Christmas, Fl. 32709
http://everlastingcovenant.wixsite.com/theshroud
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Behold, the Lamb of God!

                                                       

This time of year sees the world celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
The Gospel of John opens with both a declaration and a depiction that reminds us of the purpose and identity of Jesus:
"The next day John (the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!...Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"                                                                             John 1:29-36

The New Testament also closes with both a declaration and depiction of Jesus as the Lamb of God. The angels, elders, and creatures of heaven are declaring loudly:
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"           Rev. 5:12

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."                                  Rev. 19:7

"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light."                               Rev. 21:23

The name of "Lamb" is given to Jesus because on Passover, He was the sacrifice for sin on the cross, and our Father's provision for our deliverance from death. He rose from the dead on the third day after Passover. His association with Passover has a deep importance for His acceptance by the Jewish people, as well as a contextual and spiritual meaning for Gentile people. God decreed the blood of the Passover lamb thousands of years ago in the Torah as He delivered His people from the bondage of the Egyptians. He revealed Passover's prophetic significance in the New Testament/Covenant with Jesus' death on the Passover feast. The term "Passover" in Hebrew includes the meaning of "a sacrifice made that provides a sparing immunity from penalty and calamity". Yet centuries ago, the Church, as a whole, made a decision to separate the sacrificial Lamb of God from the Passover, and instead to calculate the date of His death and the celebration of His Resurrection each year from the date of the Vernal Equinox, the arrival of spring.
This would be error enough, but in addition, by making this change, the Passover Lamb of God has become associated with the goddess Ishtar, with Easter becoming the name given to His day of resurrection. This day is celebrated with new spring outfits, elaborate bonnets, and with cartoonish depictions of bunnies and eggs. While these springtime activities seem harmless enough and pleasant, and provide "fun" for our children, the goddess Ishtar, was a vile, destructive creature. She was the Assyrian/Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sexual promiscuity. Those whom she chose to "love", were eventually reduced to slavery, and then destruction. Her worshippers would construct tabernacles, or booths (Succothbenoth), of idolatrous prostitution. In her various identities, depending upon the culture, she was considered the personification of the planet Venus. She was not just associated with carnality, but she also carried weapons of war.
Her legend also includes an account of her descent into the Underworld, that should give all Christians serious pause. Ishtar's plan was to violently storm the gates of the Underworld in order to bring the dead back to earth to kill and consume the living. It would be a counterfeit, demonic version of resurrection. Why would we, as Christians, want to be any part of that? Why would we want to associate our Savior with that?  In the beginning, this mixing of Jesus' greatest gift to us with pagan worship was a decision made by the Church that may even have been done with good intentions. However, man should not think that he can change and "improve upon" the will and word of God, especially regarding His beloved Son. Now the tradition is continued perhaps in ignorance. However God gives a strong warning in His word that His people are destroyed from their ignorance and lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6).

If we remove Jesus, the Lamb, from the delivering power, timing, and deeply prophetic meaning of Passover, which was commanded by God to be taught to all our generations as an everlasting ordinance (Ex. 12:13-14), we lessen the meaning of His resurrection.

The Apostle Paul also exhorted the New Testament Church to observe the true meaning of the Passover:
"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.                                    1 Cor. 5:7-8
 

If we associate Jesus' death and resurrection with a pagan goddess instead of the Passover, we have placed a barrier to faith and knowledge of Messiah before the Jewish person, and robbed the Gentile of the full meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. We have created a spiritual mixture that does not bring the Lamb the glory He deserves. 
In past examples, as God's people mixed His name with the names of idols, He delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and they suffered the consequences as He removed them out of His sight (2 Kings 17 and 18). By continuing to manipulate the date of the Resurrection, and celebrate it as Easter, we do the same thing, creating the same mixture, by joining the sacred with the profane. 

Jesus certainly did not separate Himself from the Passover. On the night He was arrested:

"... He said unto them, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."                                                        Lk. 22:15-16

With His suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus fulfilled the Passover, as He, the Lamb of God, was purposed to do. Let us connect the Lamb again with the Passover in our understanding, and in our hearts. He desired and suffered so much to fulfill it on our behalf.

 



                                                                                   

                                             Above: Matza incl. Afikomen, Unity Bag, cup of wine  

                                                        

 

                                                      

                                                            Above: Seder plate with lamb shank

 

 



 

Above Depiction: Blood of the Passover Lamb applied to the doorposts and lintels