This question came up in church last week:

How much did Jesus know about the cross? How much did he know about what would happen when he arrived in Jerusalem? Did he know about all the events that would take place between Palm Sunday and Easter, or did he just have a general knowledge that he was going to suffer and die?

The person asking the question felt that Jesus’ determination to walk the road to Jerusalem would mean that much more to us if we could say with confidence that Jesus knew everything that lay ahead for him.

It is an interesting question, and theologically delves into the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became fully man without ceasing at the same time to be fully God. Jesus possessed both a divine nature and human nature in one person. So how does one reconcile Jesus’ omniscience as God with his growth and development as a human being?

The Scriptures indicate that Jesus retained his divine omniscience even in the incarnation but chose not to exercise it at certain times. So where did Jesus get his knowledge of things to come? Some of his knowledge of future events may have come through his personal study of Scripture, some by direct revelation from the Father in prayer, and some by his divine attribute of omniscience. We find examples of all three of these avenues in Jesus’ life, and it may be that various combinations of the three contributed to his knowledge at different times.

As Jesus made his way toward Jerusalem and the cross, the Scriptures tell us that he knew many details of what lay ahead for him. He knew that he must suffer and be rejected, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (Luke 9:22) He knew that he would be betrayed. (Luke 9:44) He knew that he would be handed over to the Gentiles and that they would mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. (Luke 18:31)

Many of these things Jesus could have known simply from his study of the Scriptures. But Jesus also knew other details that would have required a different type of knowledge. For example, Jesus knew from the beginning who would not believe and who would betray him. (John 6:64) Jesus knew in advance that Peter would deny him three times. (John 13:38) And when the soldiers came for him in the garden, John tells us that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. (John 18:4) He could only have known such things by direct revelation from the Father or by drawing on his omniscience as the Son of God.

So, how much did Jesus know about the cross as he walked toward Jerusalem? Did he know every single detail that would take place that week? Possibly, but we cannot say for sure. It is all part of the mystery of the incarnation.

But if we step back further in time, before his incarnation, Jesus most certainly knew every detail that would take place leading up to the cross. Drawing fully from his omniscience in his pre-incarnate state, Jesus knew everything that he would suffer in Jerusalem. Yet he still chose to come and die for lost sinners like you and me. He is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) How much did Jesus know about the cross? We may rest assured that when Jesus left the glories of heaven to come to earth, he did so with full knowledge of the cross and all that it would entail.

Easter comes early this year, which means many churches are also preparing for an early Lenten season. (Ash Wednesday is on February 6, 2008, only several weeks away!) Unless you were around for Easter back in 1913, this will be the earliest Easter in your lifetime. This year Easter falls on March 23, which is the second earliest date possible. The last time Easter fell this early in the year was March 23, 1913; the next time won’t be until March 23, 2160.

Easter can take place as early as March 22 but no later than April 25. The last time Easter fell on the earliest possible date was March 22, 1818. That will not happen again until March 22, 2285. The most common date for Easter to occur is April 19. Here is a list of the nearest past and future occurrences of Easter falling on either March 22/23 or April 24/25:

• March 22, 1818
• April 24, 1859
• March 23, 1913
• April 25, 1943
• March 23, 2008
• April 24, 2011
• April 25, 2038
• March 22, 2285

Calculating the date of Easter is no simple task. The cycle of Easter dates does not repeat until after exactly 5,700,000 years! For more information on how the date of Easter is determined, see the brief article: Determining the Dates for Easter and Passover.

Related posts:

• Why Are Easter and Passover a Month Apart This Year?
• Determining the Dates for Easter and Passover
• Easter (A Poem)

Have you ever wondered why Easter and Passover do not always fall together on the calendar? Some years they happen in the same week, but then other years they are a whole month apart. For example, this year Easter is on March 23, 2008, but the Passover does not begin until April 20, 2008.

It all has to do with solar years, lunar months and the Jewish leap year! You can read all about it in the following article: Determining the Dates for Easter and Passover.

Related posts:

• The Earliest Easter in Your Lifetime
• Determining the Dates for Easter and Passover
• Easter (A Poem)

Elle, at A Complete Thought, has written two very moving posts about her firstborn son, James, who died at age 2 1/2 after two years of illness and extended hospital stays. James was born on April 3, Easter Sunday, 1994.

The first post is a letter written to her son this year on what would have been his thirteenth birthday. In the second post, written on Easter of this year, Elle shares openly about her own struggle with faith following James’ death, along with the added difficulty of learning how to celebrate Easter once again, which now represented not only the resurrection of her Lord but also the birthday of the son she had lost.

I pray that these two posts will minister to others who have lost children as well as deepen the hearts and understanding of those who have never experienced such a loss. Thank you, Elle, for sharing personally and from your heart. May God continue to comfort you and your husband with his strong hand of love.

Bible Belt. This story gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Bible thumper.” A Minnesota jail guard is on leave after striking a prisoner with the prisoner’s own Bible.

PC Bunny. A Rhode Island public school thought the Easter Bunny was too Christian, so they changed his name to the more politically correct “Peter Rabbit.” But wait, that won’t work either. Peter was one of Jesus’ twelve apostles. Perhaps they should just call it the PC Bunny.

Getting a leg up on crime. A man with a prosthetic leg was apprehended by police after his leg fell off during the getaway. He and his partner had just hoisted a 1,500-pound ATM machine loaded with cash into their pickup truck when police gave chase.

You know the type. In fact, maybe you are one yourself! I am talking about people who attend church only twice a year, usually at Christmas and Easter.

There is a whole slew of jokes about them, including the one about the person who complained to the pastor on the way out of the service: “Every time I come to church, you are always talking about the same thing. It’s always either the birth of Jesus or his resurrection!”

I was talking with a pastor friend this week who shared with me that one person on his way out of church this past Easter Sunday greeted him with a hearty: “Merry Christmas!” Whoops, wrong holiday.

And then you’ve got to appreciate the honesty of the couple who told my wife on their way out from our Easter service, “See you next year!”

You know, sometimes you just have to laugh.

Click here for more Christmas related posts.
Click here for more Easter related posts.

The History of Easter. You can view the history of Easter in under four minutes on this video from the History Channel. So who really came up with the Easter egg first?

Amazon.swim Martin Strel, a 52-year-old man from Slovenia, completed a 9-week-long, 3,272 mile swim down the Amazon River, braving piranhas, toothpick fish and bull sharks along the way. Strel’s previous long-distance swims include a 1,866-mile swim along the Danube, a 2,360-mile swim down the Mississippi and a 2,487-mile swim along the Yangtze river in China.

Newsweek’s April 9, 2007 religion feature by Jon Meacham is entitled: Is God Real? The article is a follow-up to Newsweek’s recent religious poll and the discussion/debate Newsweek hosted between Christian pastor Rick Warren and atheistic author Sam Harrison on the same question.

Meacham describes the two debate participants as follows:

Warren believes in the God of Abraham as revealed by Scripture, tradition and reason; Jesus is Warren’s personal savior and was, Warren argues, who he said he was: the Son of God. Harris, naturally, takes a different view. “I no more believe in the Biblical God than I believe in Zeus, Isis, Thor and the thousands of other dead gods that lie buried in the mass grave we call ‘mythology’,” Harris says. “I doubt them all equally and for the same reason: lack of evidence.”

Newsweek religion contributor Rabbi Marc Gellman adds his own thoughts to the subject in his April 5, 2007 article, “Problems and Mysteries.” I got a chuckle out of Gellman’s closing words. After commenting on his own Jewish faith, Rick Warren’s Christian faith, and Sam Harris’ lack of faith, Gellman signs off with these three greetings:

Happy Passover to my Jewish readers.
Happy Easter to Rick and all my Christian friends.
And to Sam Harris, happy springtime.

Is God real? This is the most basic question of faith, and one that must be addressed in order to come to God. Hebrews 11:6 says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Without God there is no meaning to life. Without Christ there is no hope of resurrection and life beyond the grave. There is just “happy springtime.” Springtime is nice, but it cannot compare with Easter. May you know the reality of God and his love for you in Christ this Easter season.

Johnny Hart, the creator of the B.C. comic strip series, died Saturday of a stroke at the age of 76. He was at the drawing table in his home when he died.

I have always enjoyed the B.C. series (as well as the Wizard of Id, the other series Johnny was involved in). Johnny had a keen sense of humor, and his comics almost always made me laugh, and often made me think as well.

Johnny was a Christian, and he sometimes injected his faith into his B.C. strips. Here is his comic from Easter Sunday yesterday.

Thank you Johnny for sharing your life, faith and humor with us over the years. We will miss you, of course, but how magnificent for you to celebrate Easter Sunday 2007 in the presence of your resurrected Lord!

(Continue reading for some articles about Johnny Hart and some more great B.C. comic strips!)

(more…)

Yesterday for Easter service the teens in the church put on a mini-passion play accompanied by the song “The Via Dolorosa.” The morning message followed up on the drama by exploring The Three Ways of Easter that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 16:21:

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Matthew 16:21)

The main idea of the message was that although we celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter, for Jesus the way of resurrection required that he first walk the ways of suffering and death. And so there are really three ways of Easter.

    1) The way of suffering and sorrow.

    2) The way of death and judgment.

    3) The way of resurrection and life.

These are the three ways that Jesus had to walk, and they are three ways that we also walk as Christians. Being a Christian means following Jesus. And following Jesus means walking the path that he walked, following in his ways.

This third way, the way of resurrection and life, is what we normally focus on at Easter. This is the way that we all want to take. But you can’t get there from here. There are three ways of Easter, and you cannot walk the way of resurrection and life without passing through the other ways first.

Jesus rose triumphant from the grave. The good news of Easter is that he offers to share his victory with you. Will you accept his offer?

Note: To read the complete message, go to the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.

(Continue reading for the song lyrics to “The Via Dolorosa” as sung by Sandi Patti.)

(more…)

Here is a poem I wrote for Easter a number of years ago. I hope you enjoy it, and I wish you a very happy Easter!

“EASTER” – by Ray Fowler

Weave a crown of thorns; spit on love incarnate;
Stretch his flesh against the splintered surface and
Strike the nail’s head. Crushed for our sins,
The Savior breathes ever slower.

Breath of Spirit pierces the tomb’s dark chamber;
Blinding flash illumines the corpse now rising,
Standing, dancing, joyfully living love for
Those who had slain him.

________________________________________
Click here for technical notes on the poem “Easter.”
Click here for more poems by Ray Fowler.

“Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.” (Matthew 27:59-60)

Today is Holy Saturday. It is a day when Christians around the world find themselves caught between remembering the crucifixion on Good Friday and celebrating the resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is a day of mixed emotions. It is a day of waiting and anticipation.

It is good to remember that we are merely caught between the observances of these two days. On that first Holy Saturday, Jesus’ followers were caught between the actual events of Good Friday and Easter. They had to go through the full day with Jesus their Lord and Master crucifed, dead and buried. On Easter we celebrate the empty tomb. But on that holy and sacred day the tomb of Jesus was woefully full.

Jesus’ followers did not know that Easter was coming (although they should have!). We do, and that makes all the difference. We live on this side of the resurrection. On this Holy Saturday and every Holy Saturday we serve a risen Savior.

So let us rejoice in Christ who died and rose again. But let us also remember this day when Jesus’ body lay buried in the tomb. Let us feel for the disciples whose hope was buried along with him. And let us marvel at the incongruent wonder of God in the ground.