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Easter ...

Thursday, April 18, 2019. Currently, Christian in the whole world celebrate Easter. It is about the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is about events which took place about 2000 years ago in Jerusalem, but still have meaning and power until today.

Indeed, the Easter story about the pain and death of Jesus is a very moving and challenging story. It takes much of its meaning to us as humans from the fact that we all experience pain and that we all are going to die. Indeed, that someone who is very important is dying leads us to the core tension and challenge of life.

Jesus dies …

There is much more to say here … but let us look into the New Testament description of the events first.

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. (from Luke 23)

Jesus is dead. All the hope of the disciples is gone. He gave fantastic speeches. He had words of wisdom and consolation for many people. He did a lot of miracles. He healed. He fed thousands of people. His faith was fantastic - deep and full of life and authority. But now, he was dead. How could that be? The disciples were going home. They thought: it is over! They lost their hope. Pure despair came to them, and they tried to turn back to their old life, as it was before Jesus. All gone …

More to come …

Death is necessary. This is one of the main points of the Old Testament, of the creation accounts. God created man and woman, and it was good. He created them with free will. And humans were told to live with it, and to use it. But we have been using our free will ever since to do things which we should not do. We chose evil. We chose to leave love and truth and trust. We do this even until today, again and again. And God, as a consequence, declared death to be necessary. He did it from the beginning: on that day you will die. And it happened. We all live with death. This is what the biblical story is adressing. This is what Easter is addressing …

The life of Jesus has many layers of meaning. His death has many layers of meaning. The scriptures talk about justice. They talk about the guilt and sin, which needs to be taken away. Guilt needs to be paid, to be reconciled, to be taken away. All this is done with the death of Jesus.

But the story is also about trust. It is about trust in death and through death. Jesus is showing this trust. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” It is about purity in pain, about forgiveness in the presence of hatred. It is about a No to things which keep us from love and truth and trust.

In the Old Testament death is declared to be necessary. Here, Jesus himself declares death to be necessary. The death of the old existence, which is separated from God, is necessary. But there is something new possible. There is new life possible, truth, love, trust, future. This death is not the end … (Roland Potthast) ... further texts

jn_en_2019_04_18.txt · Last modified: 2019/04/18 12:03 by potthast