Tag: First Century Judaism

THE EASTER EGG & THE EMPTY TOMB

Although Christianity is essentially a form of Judaism, over the centuries the Christian Faith has incorporated and inculcated itself into the various cultures of Pagan societies. So Christianity’s spiritual inheritance is a blend of ancient Hebrew faith mixed with some Christianized archaic Pagan practices. And while this fact is often greatly overstated these days by those who wish to discredit and malign Christianity, the reality is that Christian observances (such as the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ) include some formerly Pagan elements as well. Consequently, things like colored eggs, bunny rabbits, and so on, have been given new and eternal significance by the grace and truth of God revealed in Christ our Savior. For “God has placed all things under Christ’s feet and has made him the head over all things for the church…” (Ephesians 1:22).  

Moreover, while the name of the annual celebration of the resurrection of Jesus maintains its Hebrew roots in many non-English languages (Pascha in Greek, Pascua in Spanish, etc.), in English the name of this most holy of all Christian holy days is taken from an Anglo-Saxon spring festival centered on the goddess Eostre, a Germanic goddess of the sunrise whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. So this is only the case in English (Easter) and German (Ostern), not in other languages. In most languages, the paschal connection between the celebrations of Passover and Holy Week is maintained, stemming from the Hebrew root word of Pesach.

Now that all this has been said, how are we Christians to regard symbols like colored Easter eggs?

The egg is an obvious candidate for a resurrection symbol of renewal and regeneration. The egg has been honored during many spring rites throughout the ages: Egyptians, Jews, Persians, Romans, Celts, and even the Chinese, have all understood the egg as representing new beginnings. Whether it was the commencement of building a bridge across a river, sowing a field of wheat, or launching a new fishing boat, the egg was used as an emblem of renewal. So Christians naturally adopted the egg symbol to specifically and preeminently represent the new life received through the cross and empty tomb of Jesus. For, again, “God has placed all things under Christ’s feet and has made him the head over all things for the church…”

The good news is that God enacts, establishes and extends his absolute love for all nations and peoples through the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ the Son of God, offering the free gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life to everyone by God’s grace through faith. Therefore, according to the biblical gospel, Christianity ascribes the ancient Hebrew symbolism of the Passover lamb and the archaic Pagan symbolism of the decorated egg to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Universal Messiah.

So for us Christians, a colored Easter egg (and its emptied shell after eating it) represents the empty tomb, and it calls us to be empty tombs as well. For the truth is that we can sometimes be overwhelmed by our unrealized expectations, disappointments, losses and grief; we can sometimes be overcome by despair, frustration and an apocalyptic mood. We can become so spiritually and emotionally severe that we become tombs filled with the deadly stench of judgment and condemnation, directed at ourselves and others. However, we must realize that we cannot force the Kingdom of God to be perfectly manifest in others any more than we can force God’s Kingdom to be perfectly manifest in ourselves. So we must love and forgive ourselves and others, just as God loves us and forgives us in Christ.

In other words, by the grace of God, let us become empty tombs in our lives — empty of our desire to control and our attachment to specific outcomes. By God’s grace, we must LET GO and LET GOD! By God’s sovereign grace and will, let us TRUST IN THE LORD and be at peace. God is the Lord of human history (including you and me) and God’s steadfast love endures forever.

“O give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:2)

Blessed & Happy Eastertime!!! Pastor Tim

A HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD

When Hilary and I visited England recently for our 30th wedding anniversary vacation, we were blessed to attend a Sunday morning worship service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. And interestingly, while we were assembled for worship in that massive sacred space, engulfed by grand Christian architecture all around, the Bible reading from Acts 17 appointed for that Sunday included the following text…

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus [in Athens, Greece] and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” – (Acts 17:22-25)

Wow, what an amazingly ironic juxtaposition of worship setting and Holy Scripture!

Now I don’t want to sound like I’m saying that holy places and sacred spaces are unimportant. For indeed, it’s true that great cathedrals, temples, shrines, basilicas, chapels, and even neighborhood church buildings like ours, really do serve a wonderful God-given purpose in the lives of believers. In fact, such structures as these are designed and built by the faithful (according to sacred geometry and symbolism) precisely for the purpose of helping us to set our minds on divine things, as well as to help support us in fellowship and help energize our mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Of course, sometimes we can be lulled into a false sense of stability and security by sacred buildings and structures. And for Jesus’ fellow Israelites at the time of his earthly ministry in the Holy Land, there was very much a false sense of security centered upon one particular building: the Jerusalem Temple.

Whether they lived close to it in Israel or far away from it in Babylon, the Temple in Jerusalem was the sacred magnet that continued to draw the Jewish People back. And the Temple that Jesus visited in Jerusalem was built by King Herod “the Great” in an attempt to gain favor with his subjects, and to have something to brag about to his friend Caesar in Rome. It was the Second Jerusalem Temple, and it stood on the very site of the First Jerusalem Temple built by King Solomon (which had been destroyed centuries before). Herod’s Temple was much more massive and ornate than Solomon’s Temple, and its existence symbolized not only religious revival, but also the continuity of the nation of Israel itself.

Sadly, the Second Temple, which was supposed to be dedicated to holiness and righteousness and charity, was corrupted. So this is why Jesus was upset as he entered (with whip in hand) this enormous symbol of Israel’s identity, driving out those who had turned the Temple into a market of trade merchants. The sacred activity of the Temple had become a profiteering business. As a result, something meant to be prayerful and sacred had been turned into a commercial transaction run by an elite monopoly.

In today’s day and age, we hear about the monopoly of elites over mass media, communication and information, but this was a monopoly of religious elites. Therefore, with great zeal, Jesus put together a whip of cords, and he turned over the tables of the money changers, driving them out with his whip. Of course, I don’t think Jesus actually hurt anyone, but he also wasn’t the meek and mild Jesus of Sunday school imagination either. So in righteous zeal, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Prophecy of chapter 14 of Zechariah, that there shall no longer be marketeers (or trade merchants) corrupting the House of the Lord (see Zechariah 14:21).

Consequently, Yeshua (Jesus), a faithful Jew of the First Century, hit at the very heart of First Century Jewish identity and security. He declared that the Temple will be destroyed, and to his listeners that announcement seemed incredible and unthinkable. It struck at their personal and national faith. And even though some Jews believed that God’s Holy Presence had not returned to the Holy Sanctuary of the Second Jerusalem Temple anyway, this didn’t change the fact that Herod’s Temple was still a great symbol of national faith and life.

However, Jesus was simultaneously speaking about both the Jerusalem Temple and the Most Holy Living Temple of his own mortal body, the very Living Temple of God’s New Covenant for the sake of the whole world. So Jesus knew beforehand that he would suffer, die and rise again; that the Temple of his body would be destroyed and renewed for our eternal sake.

And this New Covenant miracle of all miracles grants to us an everlasting identity and an eternal security, built entirely upon God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. For as the Apostle Paul states in the Epistle to the Ephesians…

“You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the Household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a Holy Temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.” – (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim