He Is Risen Indeed!

March 31, 2024

Pastor Patrick presented today's message, "He Is Risen Indeed!" A video of the message is here.

It's been said that there have been four attempts, or stages, to God's desire to make Man good. The first was Creation itself when God gave Man a conscious. That didn't work so well as right off the bat Cain kills Abel. The second stage was the Noahide Laws given to Noah after the Flood for all of mankind. That doesn't work so well either. The third attempt was to choose a people whose mission would be to spread knowledge of God and His desires for Man to everyone else on earth. He chose the Israelites and provided them the Ten Commandments as well as many other laws to guide Man into goodness. The results have been questionable at best.

Then something happened (as Patrick put it). This is what many commentators see as the fourth attempt by God to align mankind with His desires for them - Jesus.

So, what's new? As Patrick made abundantly clear, Jesus conquered death, was resurrected, so that we, too, may enter heaven despite our sinfulness.

I think it's fair to say that the Old Testament makes it fairly clear what God wants of us in terms of behavior on earth (e.g. the 613 laws as Judaism enumerates them). What isn't so clear, however, isn't talked about much at all - the afterlife. More specifically, exactly how we are going to be judged? It's quite clear we will be judged (e.g. "I am the Lord" following many commandments), but how the accounting is to be done is unknown.

Like covenants of old, this New Covenant has terms. Probably the most succinctly put version is: "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15).

In this case, the payment for your sins has been made through Jesus. It's done up front, totally a freebie. There is one requirement on our side of the ledger: we must have/put our faith in Jesus.

What does that mean - put our faith in Jesus? I'm in the camp that says putting your faith in Jesus means doing what the Godhead says to do in order to be right with God and right with your fellow Man. It's the James thing, "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20b). Or put another way, how can you say that you have faith/trust in someone if you don't follow their advice?

So, God puts up His ante first. Jesus has paid the price upfront. Jesus has paid the price upfront FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE (HAVE FAITH) IN HIM. And having faith in Him means following His instructions. The carrot hangs out there, you might say. Are we going to walk our path in such a way as to grab it?

And this is where I think the Torah can be so helpful. All God's instructions to us as to how to behave, both personally and in society at large, are in the Torah. Sometimes extracting the meaning can be a little difficult, but it's there.

By the way... It can be argued, at least by some, that God has made a fifth attempt, Muhammad/Islam, and a sixth attempt, Joseph Smith/Mormons.

Bonus

Pretzels: Christian Connection

I just discovered this Lent/Easter season that the pretzel shares its history with Christianity. Pretzels share the Easter stage with Easter Lilies and Dogwood trees! And don't miss National Pretzel Day coming up on April 26th.

So what's the connection? Basically, there are three connections.

One is that the ingredients of the pretzel are OK to eat while fasting during Lent. There are no prohibited food items, just flour, salt, and water,

Two, the three holes in the pretzel represent the Holy Trinity.

Three, the shape of the pretzel reminds us of a common prayer position of arms crossed across the body and reaching to the shoulders as picture above. One idea for where the name pretzel came from is the Latin word bracchiola which means "little arms." This word became brezel in German, and then pretzel in English.

Regarding the name, there's another story that tells of a 7th Century monk in Europe that invented "little rewards" for his students that learned their prayers. In Latin, "little rewards" is pretiolas. From there we get pretzel.

For a little more detail on the subject, read here.

Maybe next year we'll talk about Hot Cross Buns...

Bonus2

Greatest Commandment = The Shema

Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was. His answer is in Mark 12:29-31: "The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."

The first part is nearly a verbatim quotation from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." This is referred to in Judaism as the Shema (part of the Shema, anyway). We've discussed that earlier, here. Shema means "Hear!".

The second part (love your neighbor...) comes from Leviticus 19:18b: "you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD." Few people include that last phrase when reciting this passage, but it's critically important. The last phrase, "I am the Lord," indicates that this command comes directly from God AND that God is always watching (even if no one else is).