Yes! There is Good News! 4.22.17

Do you have a favorite season of the year? There are only four to chose from so we haven’t many choices. The answer to this question depends, of course, upon who is asked, what the weather is like when the question is asked, and where the one who is asked lives. Okay, so we live in Iowa. The weather this day (that I am writing) is beautiful. And since you can’t answer, I’m going with spring!

Have you noticed the green lawns? Sally and I have a dozen beautiful yellow daffodils at our front step. Oh, the rhubarb is up and will be ready for pies in about another week! I could go on and on - I like spring. But there is a better reason to like spring. Yes, there is a more marvelous, more wonderful, and more spectacular reason. This time of year brings us a reminder of the greatest event; yes, the greatest miracle in the history of mankind: the death, burial and resurrection of the Son of God!

Do you believe that? If you do, do you live your life in accordance with that belief? Let us take a look at the time frame surrounding this event that took place approximately 1,987 years ago (give or take a couple years). Let’s begin in the book of Luke, chapter 22. In verse 8 we read, “And Jesus sent Peter and John saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” The Passover was the most important time of the year for the people living in Judea. This was for them a celebration and a memorial of the time when God brought their forefathers out of bandage in Egypt. Jesus was getting ready to bring people out of the bondage of sin.

In verse 15, Jesus says to His disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Did you catch that? Jesus was about to experience a most excruciating death with beatings, insults, floggings, mocking and the torture of having His hands and feet nailed to a cross and still He says He was “eagerly desiring” to eat this Passover.

He sat in that upper room with the twelve; and in the book of John 13:1 we read, “he knew the hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.” Picking up in chapter 14:1, Jesus says. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” He was going to His own death and He was comforting His disciples; not just once but three separate times (see verse 27 and 16:7).

Jesus knew what was coming and He knew what He was doing, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘take and eat; this is my body; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’” (See Luke 22:19 - 20, and 1 Corinthians 11:24 - 25.)

There is a lot more to come.