According to the calendar, Passover began this week. I wish I was Jewish, because then I would already be steeped in the culture and understand the traditions. One of my best friends in elementary school (back in the dark ages) was Jewish so as a child I asked her a lot of questions at Passover and Hanukkah times because they celebrated a lot of rituals and traditions with each Jewish holiday. But I was floored when I spoke with her parents and brought 'God' into the conversation. They immediately bristled and spoke with disdain and disgust towards a God who would put their people through all that they had endured. My young mind couldn't grasp how their 'religion' didn't seem to have anything to do with God. It was more about heritage. I am only guessing, but I presume the Holocaust had a profound, personal influence in their lives.
I am learning some stuff lately that fascinates me. I've always known there is a ton of symbolism in the Bible and Jewish customs, but if you really start to examine it, if you didn't believe in God at all, you would find it absolutely uncanny....almost creepy..... how every part of the Jewish customs, rituals, and feasts that the Jews were commanded to practice not only foreshadow Jesus Christ, but all the events in Jesus life were perfectly timed in relation to these feasts. Even if you cynically think Jesus was a misguided lunatic who orchestrated it all to 'look' like the Messiah, he couldn't have orchestrated the timing of events in his life to perfectly fulfill all of these pictures found in the feasts and the prophecies written hundreds of years before his birth. When priests chose perfect passover lambs, they went to Bethlehem to get them. The shofur would sound at 3 o'clock to signal the end of Passover - it is finished - no more blood needs to be shed. Curious that Jesus walked through the whole Passover meal, fulfilling the whole picture within that Festival of Freedom; fulfilled other ancient prophecies while being tried and tortured; and then he died at exactly 3 o'clock. It is finished. As we were recently reminded at our church, Jesus was not killed by anyone. He was born to die, and laid down his life at the appointed time.
So, this really has nothing to do with 'religion' - Jesus actually saw through the religious people in his day. Blindly following traditions and rituals is meaningless unless we can 'see' the pu
rpose and meaning in them.
This morning I have lost my glasses - can't find them anywhere! I could only see 'dimly' this morning as I searched the whole house for them. I wish they had GPS like a cellphone so we could find each other! I'm still looking (thank goodness for my contact lenses!). It is important for me to continue searching diligently so that I can see. I wouldn't want to go through my whole life seeing only dimly and missing the clear picture! Religion is said to be man's search for God and that all ways point to him. Christianity is unique in its claim that God started the whole thing. While we've been ignoring Him....seeing only dimly....He's been orchestrating throughout history an amazing plan to get our attention. Jesus and the Bible are like the GPS to help us locate Him...to see more clearly. He laid down a cross over the chasm between us and Him so we can walk over and reach Him! Mindboggling! Humbling! He lovingly wants me??!! And I would deserve this why?
I am learning some stuff lately that fascinates me. I've always known there is a ton of symbolism in the Bible and Jewish customs, but if you really start to examine it, if you didn't believe in God at all, you would find it absolutely uncanny....almost creepy..... how every part of the Jewish customs, rituals, and feasts that the Jews were commanded to practice not only foreshadow Jesus Christ, but all the events in Jesus life were perfectly timed in relation to these feasts. Even if you cynically think Jesus was a misguided lunatic who orchestrated it all to 'look' like the Messiah, he couldn't have orchestrated the timing of events in his life to perfectly fulfill all of these pictures found in the feasts and the prophecies written hundreds of years before his birth. When priests chose perfect passover lambs, they went to Bethlehem to get them. The shofur would sound at 3 o'clock to signal the end of Passover - it is finished - no more blood needs to be shed. Curious that Jesus walked through the whole Passover meal, fulfilling the whole picture within that Festival of Freedom; fulfilled other ancient prophecies while being tried and tortured; and then he died at exactly 3 o'clock. It is finished. As we were recently reminded at our church, Jesus was not killed by anyone. He was born to die, and laid down his life at the appointed time.
So, this really has nothing to do with 'religion' - Jesus actually saw through the religious people in his day. Blindly following traditions and rituals is meaningless unless we can 'see' the pu
rpose and meaning in them. This morning I have lost my glasses - can't find them anywhere! I could only see 'dimly' this morning as I searched the whole house for them. I wish they had GPS like a cellphone so we could find each other! I'm still looking (thank goodness for my contact lenses!). It is important for me to continue searching diligently so that I can see. I wouldn't want to go through my whole life seeing only dimly and missing the clear picture! Religion is said to be man's search for God and that all ways point to him. Christianity is unique in its claim that God started the whole thing. While we've been ignoring Him....seeing only dimly....He's been orchestrating throughout history an amazing plan to get our attention. Jesus and the Bible are like the GPS to help us locate Him...to see more clearly. He laid down a cross over the chasm between us and Him so we can walk over and reach Him! Mindboggling! Humbling! He lovingly wants me??!! And I would deserve this why?
I'm thinking Christians need to celebrate Passover along with Good Friday. Pass the matzos.
"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't,
wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when
we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And
even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his
love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were
of no use whatever to him." Romans 5:7-8 (The Message Bible)
"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't,
wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when
we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And
even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his
love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were
of no use whatever to him." Romans 5:7-8 (The Message Bible)
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