Easter

Hello Everyone. I am a new blogger trying out the new 'digs'. I shall return ... in a moment. Hey, I've returned. I believe I'm going to enjoy blogging and I trust you'll enjoy reading and, in turn, sharing your perspectives. I created a profile too.

Today, on the Christian calendar, is Maundy, or Holy, Thursday. Lent has passed and we now enter and process the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and its significance for our lives here and now. Today is also the start of the Jewish Passover and ends April 20. In redemptive terms the Passion and Passover have similar roots and themes: the exodus out of slavery.

Easter derives from an old Germanic word meaning the dawn - a very early translation of the Hebrew word for Passover, pesha.

To my Christian and Jewish believers I say Shalom!

Before proceeding, what effect did Lent have on you? What importance does the Passion or Passover have for you, if any? At another time I'd like to share what made a believer out of me.

Anyway ....

I'd like to pose the question, Will the real Jesus please stand up?

What is your take on Jesus? Someone has accurately observed that we have tried to domesticate Jesus. We try to mold Him to our liking. Is that wise? Who is He really? Does our future really hinge on our belief or disbelief of Him? Everyone has an opinion.

The Da Vinci Code presents one. The Gospel of Judas, another. And The Jesus Papers, yet another. It seems that, particularly at these seasons of Christian faith, it's open season to either discover, to remold, or to discredit the claims of Jesus.

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, by his own admission, is written as a novel; yet it is taken, even by Brown himself, as factual. The Judas Gospel was written, it is claimed, in the 300's AD. Its authenticity is only in its being part of the historical record, but not in its content. Its content is, as one noted scholar on such matters puts it, gibberish.

Some of these 'gibberish' claims are: Jesus often appearing to the disciples as a child, ill feelings between Jesus and the 12 apostles, angels creating angels, and other story-like fantasies. These writings are based on Gnostic beliefs; beliefs rejected by early Church Leaders and knowledgeable scholars today.

The New Testament Gospels were all written soon after the events recorded, between 50 AD and 90 AD; in fact, the complete New Testament was written from 45 AD to 95 AD. Such early dates would give credence to the Gospels and Writings; many of the characters were still alive.

The Cross of Jesus Christ nails history together. Literally. The story of man, from its beginning to its present, is so varied and disconnected that it had to be nailed together to give it continuity. Ever since the nail was driven, the human story reads more smoothly. It connects all the scattered dots. There's an interrelatedness between the various parts. There's a reason. A rhythm. A purpose. A goal. The Cross connects BC and AD.

Tony Campolo writes, There is something great that you will never do unless you come to Jesus. There is something wonderful that God will never be able to accomplished through you until you surrender to His will. There is something of ultimate importance that God wants you to achieve for Him. I am convinced that God has a special mission for you to perform in His name.

And C. S. Lewis adds, A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.

If these things be true, it does matter, really, where we come down on Jesus.

Well, this is the end of my first blog.

Happy Easter!