Archive for the ‘death’ Category

15 Apr

Holy Week

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in Bible, Christianity, death, Easter, Faith, Good Friday, Holy Week, Jesus, Maundy Thursday, Psalm Sunday, Simple Living, Sin, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Triumphal Enter into Jerusalem - HosannaJesus entering Jerusalem

Traditionally, the week before Easter is called Holy Week. It starts on Palm Sunday. Holy week began today.  It is the last week of the penitential church Season of Lent. 

Palm Sunday
In the Bible, Holy Week begins with a religious festival. People have flocked to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and see the controversial prophet Jesus. Many come to cheer him on as Jesus rides into Jerusalem. They wave palm Branches and shout “Hosanna,” which means “save us,” a Jewish call of lamentation that has since become a call of praise. Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a Donkey.  Jesus’ triumphal entry fulfills an Old Testament prophecy and is seen as a sign of humility. Some who cheer him that day will inevitably cry “Crucify him” only a few days later, so the memory of Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem is a time of mixed joy and sadness.

Maundy Thursday
In the evening of this day Jesus met with his disciples for the last time before his death. Before the meal, he washes their feet, another sign of humility. During the meal, he prophesies that one of the disciples will betray him. On this evening, Christians are thinking of Christ’s establishment of the sacrament of Holy Communion. In many congregations, a worship service occurs in the evening, in which the congregants come together for a Eucharist meal, just as the first Christians celebrated it. Often after the communion, the altar is cleared, and left unadorned on Good Friday.

Good Friday
On Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. He was tortured and killed. His suffering is therefore at the heart of this day. But it also commemorates the suffering of mankind in general, because through Jesus, God has sided with the suffering. The day is quietly celebrated as Christians contemplate Jesus’ suffering and death. Together with Easter, Good Friday forms the centerpiece of the Christian message of good news: God is stronger than Death! On that day Jesus suffered all that a man can suffer to atone for the sins of mankind. Sin and Death did not have the last word. God raised Jesus as he will one day raise all believers who die in Christ.

Holy Saturday
On the evening of Good Friday, Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried. On Saturday, the Sabbath, that would not have been allowed. So Saturday is the full day that he was dead. In the creed, this means Jesus descended into Hell, or the realm of the dead. We aren’t sure what that is and what it is like there, but the message that Jesus was “resurrected on the third day” provides confidence that at the end of the age God will resurrect Christian believers.

Easter Night
The Bible doesn’t describe the physical resurrection of Jesus. On Easter morning, the women find the empty tomb and are told by an angel that Jesus was resurrected. That might have occurred at night, because in the Jewish Tradition the day begins with the night (“It was evening and it was morning, the first day”). Easter (Saturday) night belongs to Easter Sunday. The resurrection is celebrated on this “night,” mostly in the early hours of the morning, but in some places it is celebrated on Saturday evening. It is a celebration that, in its design, leads from darkness to light. At its climax many congregations light the new Pascal candle declaring “Hallelujah, Christ is risen; He is risen indeed.”

Easter Sunday
The women who discover Jesus empty tomb are the first to spread the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection. In the course of this and the next few days many people meet Jesus and witness the resurrected Son of God. In the early church congregations met regularly for a common Sacrament the day after the Sabbath to commemorate the resurrection. In the Christian context, Sunday was thus marked as the most important day of the week and as a day of rest.

An invitation:
Easter occurs on April 21st this year. For readers in the Sioux Falls area, you are invited to attend an Easter Sunrise service conducted by Church of the Resurrection (www.resurrectionsf.com). The service will begin at 7a.m. at the McKennan Park bandshell. Bring lawn chairs. The service will occur rain or shine.

 

 

14 Jul

Farewell My Friend

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in advice, Bible, cancer, Choices, Christianity, death, Faith, family, forgiveness, Salvation. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Jesus on CrossGreater love has no one than this,  that someone lay down his life for his friends.

                                                                                                                            John 15:13 (ESV)

The digital age we live in is truly amazing. It has enabled me to land two jobs with companies I never set foot in before being hired. In both cases, I was recruited online, interviewed by phone and hired sight unseen.

I worked a total of over seven years in these positions, all the while communicating via email telephone and Skype and exchanging data through encrypted virtual private networks. I visited each company only once. When I was born in 1955, such technologies existed only in the minds of science fiction writers. Today they’re quite common.

One of the most amazing digital wonders I’ve enjoyed is having cultivated three good friendships with individuals whom I’ve never met face-to-face. I’m not speaking about Facebook friendships either. These friendships are with people whom I’ve shared things about my life and theirs of the sort that can only be shared with people you trust.

I was recently shocked to learn that one of these friends, Bob, has been diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer that will take his life in a few short months.

Bob is a good man who has spent much of his life working to make others’ lives easier.   Sadly, I know that being good isn’t enough. He has not been open to believing the Gospel message and remains to this day an agnostic.

Bob is spending his last days surrounded by family, many of whom practice the Serbian Orthodox form of the Christian faith. Please join me in praying that during this time of transition his heart might be opened to receive Christ, so that in the final hour he might say:

“The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing”                                      

                                                                                                                                2 Tim. 4:6-8 (ESV)

Postscript August 3, 2015–my friend Bob Hall passed away peacefully on July 28, 2015.

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