Neil Ellingson - Easter Sunday - April 5, 2015

Co-pastor Neil Ellingson on death and resurrection for Easter Sunday, 2015.

Readings:

The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Yeshua

MARKOS

It was… nine in the morning, when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him was written above:

THIS IS YESHUA KING OF THE JEWS.

With him they crucified two thieves, one on the right and one on the left of him.

And those passing by blasphemed him, shaking their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself by coming down from the cross. Likewise the high priests mocked him among themselves and with the scholars said, “He saved others but he can’t save himself. Let the mashiah, the King of Yisrael, now come down from the cross so we can see and believe. 

MATTITYAHU

“He trusted in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the son of God.’”

LOUKAS

One of the criminals hanging there insulted him and said, “Are you not the mashiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other one reproved the first criminal and said, “Do you not fear God, since you shared the same sentence? And we were justly punished, and are getting what we deserve, but he did nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Yeshua, remember me.”

And Yeshua replied, 

Amain, I say to you, today you will be with me

In paradise.

MARKOS

From noon on, darkness came over all the land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock, Yeshua cried out in a great voice, 

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?

meaning,

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Some of those standing near heard him and said, “See, he calls to Eliyahu.” And someone ran up with a sponge soaked in vinegar, placed it on a reed stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him alone. Let us see if Yeshayahu comes to take him down.”

But Yeshua let out a great cry and breathed his last breath.

…

And the centurion who was near saw him breathe his last and said, “Truly this man was the son of God.”

LOUKAS

On the first day of the week at early dawn the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, and when they went inside they did not find the body.

And it happened that while they were at a loss about this, look, two men stood near them in clothing that gleamed like lightning.

The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the earth but the men said to them, 

MATTITYAHU

Don’t be afraid. I know you are looking for Yeshua who was crucified.

He is not here. He has risen just as he said…

The women left the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell the news to the students. And look, Yeshua met them and said, 

Hello!

And they came near him and grabbed his feet and worshiped him.

Yeshua said to them,

Do not fear. Go and tell my brothers and sisters

To go to the Galil and there they will see me.

LOUKAS

When they returned from the tomb they reported all this to the eleven and to the others. The women were Miryam of Magdala and Yohannah and Miryam of Yaakov and the other women with them. They told the messengers these things, and to them their words seemed madness. They did not believe them.

Crematorium by John Betjeman

Where laurel hedges hide the coal and coke

  Our lawn-surrounded crematorium lies;

And every half-an-hour a puff of smoke

  Shows what we loved dissolving in the skies—

  Dear hands, dear feet, dear laughter-lighted eyes

And smiling lips which waited for a joke.

Now no one seems to know quite what to say:

  Friends are so altered by the passing years—

Well anyhow it’s not so cold today

  And thus we try to dissipate our fears.

I am the Resurrection and the Life!

Strong, sly, and painful, doubt inserts its knife.