{{2012_03_28_t1.jpg}} {{2012_03_28_t2.jpg}} {{2012_03_28_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2012_03_28|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_iv|| Topics Collection iv ]] ======Easter is Coming II: past and present ...====== Wednesday, March 28, 2012. We are approaching Easter. How do we understand Easter in a clear and sincere way? How can we understand it beyond eggs and holidays, what is behind these traditions? {{2012_03_28.jpg }} **Our past and present ...** We are all very much part of the stream of time. We have a personal past, we are living in the present time, we are moving into our future. We cannot just cut the past. What happens today is based on the past. The current set-up of things is coming from past events. Our knowledge and culture is based on the actions of our fathers and fore-fathers, mothers and fore-mothers. Even our thoughts are influenced by the thoughts we had yesterday and the day before. Many people have tried to influence the past, many are trying today. Some just try to forget and ignore their personal past. Some are trying to change the results of their actions in the past. Others even try to rewrite their personal history, change or tamper with facts and records. What actions did we do in the past? Would we say it is good what we did? Or do we need to say some things were not good, they were wrong? Perhaps we come to the conclusion that we should have acted differently? We cannot completely ignore this type of judgement. We have ideas about what we or others should have done. We have a judgement about the past and the presence. {{ 2012_03_28_2.jpg}} **A second step towards Easter ...** The events around Jesus which are the basis of Christian Easter traditions give a new perspective to our treatment of our past as well as our presence and our future. Lets talk first about the past, about its strong role in all what we are now, today. Jesus dies at the cross of Calvary. Easter is a death first of all, a death which is the end of a period of suffering. "Via dolorosa" is his way to the cross, with questioning by the authorities, with pain and beating, with carrying the cross and the exposure as a criminal in public. It is a display of a past which is judged as death-worthy. It is a judgement of his presence and his past. He was brought to death because of his claim to be the son of God, and of his role which threatened the authorities of his time. The New Testament claims that in his death he offers the death of our past, of all we were before, of all things which went wrong, of all guilt, of all pain in our past. He was the son of God, he was the one who was set to be the king. Thus, the accusations were false, he was innocent, he died without guilt. But God gave a reason to his death: he became the innocent sacrifice, to end the dictatorship of the past, to establish universal forgiveness, to be a source of new life and new grace, for every day. This is our second step towards Easter. (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iv|... more texts]]