(Be blessed by this DWOD for Easter, March 31, 2013, which was first published as a Niagara Faith column in the St. Catharines Standard)

In keeping with tradition, this Easter column begins with a joke.

Three people are greeted at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter who tells them they can enter upon answering the question: “What is Easter?”

Candidate #1 replies: “That’s when we cook a turkey and give thanks.” Peter frowns.

The next one says: “It’s when Jesus came to earth as a baby, with angels, shepherds and the Wise Guys.”

Peter is disgusted by this display of ignorance until # 3 pipes up: “Easter is when Jesus was crucified for our sins and lay buried in a tomb for three days.”

His face lights up as our candidate continues: “Then he rises from the dead, and if he sees his shadow, it means we have six more weeks of winter!”

That’s when St. Peter fainted!

Actually this joke may not be all that far-fetched.

Four years ago, British supermarket chain Somerfield issued a press release which read:  “Brits will on average be enjoying 3.5 (chocolate) eggs each over the Easter weekend alone. But over a quarter don’t know why handing them out symbolizes the birth of Jesus.”

Shortly thereafter, an apology accompanied a revised version which described Easter as the “re-birth of Jesus.”

Shocked that the amendment did not actually make amends, Somerfield’s public relations firm contacted the Church of England.

Here is a church official’s (under)statement: “I clarified with them that it would probably be best to refer to Easter as a celebration of Christ’s resurrection rather than his birth.”

Hence the third press release which finally wiped the (Easter) egg off Somerfield’s corporate face.

Several years ago I quizzed young children in church about the meaning of Easter.  Perhaps it wouldn’t surprise you to learn that the Easter Bunny and egg hunts dominated the responses.

Now you know why such quizzing is not part of my Easter repertoire anymore!

How about adults?

According to a recent survey by the Barna Group, 42% of Americans said that the meaning of Easter was the resurrection of Jesus.  2% said that Easter is about the “birth of Christ” while another 2% indicated it was about the “rebirth of Jesus” (hello, Somerfield!)

Some simply celebrate Easter as a festival of new life, replete with symbols such as baby chicks, lilies and butterflies, with no reference to the bodily resurrection of Jesus whatsoever. Others claim that he lives, but only in the memory of his followers.

The Biblical record, though, is very clear about what Easter is.

On the third day after Jesus died and was buried, some women went to anoint his body with spices, as was the custom. When they got to the tomb, they found that the stone that sealed the entrance had been rolled away and the tomb was empty.  Angelic beings told them: “He is not here. He has been raised!”

Shortly thereafter, the Risen Jesus made personal appearances to Mary, some women and then to his disciples over a period of 40 days.

He showed them his nail-pierced hands and wounded side (where a spear had been thrust on Friday) and invited Thomas to touch him (John 20:27). In Matthew 28:9 we are told that they clasped his feet.

According to Luke 24:42, he ate a piece of broiled fish and honey. Clearly he was not just a Caspar of a Christ, a disembodied spirit being, but a full-blooded human with a fully functioning digestive system!

To quote John Updike in Seven Stanzas at Easter:
“Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body;
If the cells’ dissolution did not reverse,
the molecules reknit,
the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.”

That, beloved reader, is Easter.

“The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56-57)

All four gospel accounts end their narratives of the Crucifixion with a report of Jesus’ body being laid in the unused tomb of one Joseph of Arimathea.

They also add that it was the day of preparation for the Sabbath.  Technically, the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday. So, Jesus was buried before Sabbath officially began.

When the story continues in the next chapter though, we are already into Sunday, the first day of the week.

Ever wonder what happened on the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Day?

Not a whole lot, apparently.  At least nothing that the gospel writers considered worth recording for posterity.

The reason, of course, is that it was the Sabbath. And good Jews keep the Sabbath holy by doing no work whatsoever.

Just as God rested on the seventh day of Creation, so did the people of God.

Luke records that the women who hung around long enough to watch Jesus being entombed, went home and prepared spices and perfumes with which to anoint his body on the first day of the week.

But, on Saturday, they did nothing. They rested, as they were supposed to.

So, here we are, on Holy Saturday. What are we to do?

Simply rest.

There is a sense in which Holy Saturday is more than a day for some of us. It is more like a season.

We may have just come through a season that was akin to Good Friday—marked by rejection, persecution, betrayal, abandonment, loss, even death.

The hope of Resurrection is in our hearts. We believe that our circumstances will be reversed. We confess that victory is ours.

As we are often fond of saying: “It’s Friday…but Sunday’s coming!”

And that indeed is the right attitude to have.

But the fact of the matter is, we need to go through Saturday in order to get from Friday to Sunday.

There is no way to avoid it. We simply cannot bypass it.

So, what do we do in the season of Holy Saturday?

Exactly what the women did. Exactly what every law-abiding Jew is supposed to do on the Sabbath.

We rest.

Easier said than done, isn’t it?

Sadly, many of us find ourselves rest-less in this season, don’t we?

We fret. We worry. We may even be tempted to doubt.

Yet God calls us to simply trust Him and rest in Him.

As He says in Isaiah 30:15: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

So, whether Holy Saturday for you is simply the last day of Holy Week or a season lasting more than just one day, will you follow the example of the women?

Prepare yourself for Sunday, for Resurrection Day, for the upcoming season of new life, when you will enter into the fullness of your destiny.

Then rest.

“For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” (Hebrews 9:19-21)

Last night at our Maundy Thursday observance, as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper while sitting around tables, we recalled how Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper by giving new meaning to some of the traditional elements of the Passover meal.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.“ (Matthew 26:26-28)

Jesus’ words about the blood and covenant echo the words of Moses quoted in Hebrews 9, don’t they?

The linking of blood with covenant adds a new dimension that goes beyond satisfying the requirement of blood for the remission (forgiveness) of sins.

Nowhere is this is demonstrated so vividly as in the Feast of Passover.

Passover, as you know, recalls how the angel of death passed over houses where blood was applied to the doorposts.

In other words, the blood of the Passover lamb offered them protection.

Since “Christ is our Passover Lamb” (as Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 5:7), the blood of Christ also offers us protection even today.

You may be familiar with the expression: “I plead the blood of Christ over …………”

In her book The Blood and the Glory, Billye Brim tells this story.

An American evangelist identified as Brother Stevens, along with his wife, was conducting powerful evangelistic meetings in Canada. Many were coming into the Kingdom and many were being set free through the gospel of the Kingdom. They had left their children at home in Tennessee.

Brother Stevens was tormented by the devil with the thought that he was going to kill the Stevens’ children through rabid foxes in the woods adjoining their property. Immediately, Brother Stevens remembered the reports of friends who had seen foxes roaming on his land before he’d left Tennessee. He and three mature believers agreed in prayer, pleaded the blood of Christ over the children and by faith drew a blood line of protection around the Stevens’ property.

Later on, his brother reported that he found five dead foxes as he was walking around the edge of his property. He had the heads examined and found they were all rabid. The foxes had dropped dead when they tried to cross the blood line and enter the property.

The blood of Christ, applied to the fence posts of their property, not by paint but by faith, had offered protection and repelled the attack of the enemy.

Perhaps you need to apply the blood of Christ by faith on the doorposts of your heart for your own protection, over members of your family and even your property.

It is as simple as declaring: “I plead the blood of Christ over ……”

You too will discover that there is Power in the Blood.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”  (I Corinthians 1:18, 23-25)

No matter which way you look at it, the Beatitudes run counter to what conventional wisdom would dictate.

Even in Jesus’ day, they would have struck the listeners as being counter-cultural.

Who in their right mind would consider it a blessing to:

• be poor in spirit to possess the kingdom of heaven, when it would be more preferable to be rich in goods instead?
• mourn and be comforted, while you could pursue pleasure and be doing things that make you happy?
• be meek and inherit the earth, when you have the chutzpah to be arrogant and simply take over anything you want, including the earth?
• hunger and thirst for righteousness, when you could live a full life, without ever having to worry about being right in God’s sight ?
• be merciful, when you could have your way by being ruthless, win through intimidation and rule by retaliation?
• be pure in heart just so you could see God, while it would be way more convenient to allow impurity to creep in so that you can feel like you are God?
• be a peacemaker, when you have the ability to bulldoze the enemy and establish your supremacy?
• be persecuted, when you could choose to compromise and be popular instead?

Yet, Jesus makes it clear right from the get-go, that he was not interested in winning a popularity contest.

He was not concerned about recruiting disciples in large numbers by making the entrance requirements easy.

He would state without a hint of compromise: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Once again Jesus is being counter-cultural, even counter-intuitive, wouldn’t you say?

Yet, as the apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians and us, this is part of God’s strategy.

“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (I Corinthians 1:27-29)

It is upside down thinking that leads to right side up living!

No wonder that outsiders described Paul, Silas and other Christians as “these who have turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6)

Would you and I be accused of the same offence today?

If we were to live our lives by the Beatitudes, the answer would be an unqualified YES!

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”  (Jeremiah 6:16)

If it had only happened once, it would have been dismissed as a simple oversight.

But it happened twice in one week. Now it could not be ignored.

The first time was when the baker realized just before spooning muffin mix into the baking cups that he had left out the brown sugar.

Normally the brown sugar would’ve been added either to the dry flour mixture or whisked in with the butter, eggs and other wet ingredients.

At this late hour, the only option was to add the brown sugar to the prepared batter and mix it up as well as possible.

On the second occasion, the chef was preparing his signature dish: Tandoori chicken. This time the missing ingredient was the lemon juice that should’ve been added to the spice mix in the blender.

Once again, improvisation saved the day. The lemon was squeezed directly over the marinade-coated pieces of chicken. Not the best solution. But it was the only option.

Both omissions could’ve been avoided by taking one simple step.

All I had to do was to pull out the recipe and check off the ingredients one by one. But, no! That was totally unnecessary. After all, had I not baked blueberry muffins with almonds and cooked Tandoori chicken on countless other occasions?

Why bother looking up the recipe? I knew it like the back of my hand!

Obviously, I hadn’t checked the back of my hand too much lately 🙂

Apparently legendary coach Vince Lombardi would begin training camp every season by holding the pigskin in his hands and saying to the professional players assembled in front of him: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Yes, they had played football for many years. Yes, they were capable of memorizing and executing complex plays on the field. Yes, some of them had even been part of Super Bowl winning teams.

It did not matter one bit to the coach. He had to take them back to the “basic fundamentals” (as I heard one person describe them) at least once a year.

Over the 40 days of this Fast, we have been reading and reflecting on several passages that are quite well-known. One could even say that they contain the original recipe.

Whether it was the familiar passage from Exodus that contained the Ten Commandments, the passages from Ephesians 4 and I Corinthians 12 that describe the purpose and function of the Church or the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 that we focus on for the final five days of the Fast…

They are all familiar to us. We have heard them in church countless times. We have read them over and over again as part of our daily devotions. We have likely been treated to a number of sermons based on every one of them.

Yet, we cannot assume that we will remember them automatically and order our lives accordingly, can we?

That is why from time to time, we need to take the time to read them again, to reflect upon them one more time, to let them renew our minds and saturate our spirits.

This simple step prevents us from omitting key ingredients of the Christian faith and having to regret it later. It boosts our chances of enjoying the abundant life that Jesus promises in John 10:10, amen?

What other passages would you consider to be part of our “original recipe?”

Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19)

Something totally unexpected happened during worship at a Baptist Church in Puerto Princesa, Palawan when I was visiting the Philippines.

The commotion started as soon as Pastor Julius Canoy announced that it was now Prayer Time.

In my tradition, Prayer Time and commotion do not go together. If anything, we would bring commotion to an end by announcing that it was now time for prayer!

Instinctively, every head would bow and every eye would close. Many, including the pastor, would immediately drop down on their knees. Everyone would assume the classic “Praying Hands” posture instantaneously.

That is not what happened that morning in May 1997.

Everyone in attendance sprung out of their seats, paired up with another congregant and started chattering away in Tagalog. The din was deafening.

As I stood stunned by this sudden turn of events, a young man approached me and asked if I could be his prayer partner. I nodded in agreement.

He proceeded to tell me prayer requests that were on his heart that day and asked if I would pray in agreement with him.

Next it was my turn to voice my needs, while he prayed in agreement with me.

After about 10 minutes of praying for each other, we returned to our seats along with the other 200 worshipers. The service continued with the pastor talking and the rest of us listening the rest of the way.

At the end of the service, I asked the Pastor if this was a Philippine tradition or perhaps a Baptist tradition with which I was not familiar.

He laughed and replied that it was actually a Biblical tradition.

As I wondered how my denomination could have somehow missed it, he pointed out these words of our Lord from Matthew 18:19:

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Strangely enough, I had not paid attention to these words that closely before. We were famous for quoting the next verse: “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Especially at prayer meetings where the attendance was in single digits 🙂

But somehow we had skipped verse 19 in our haste to get to verse 20…or so it seemed.

It dawned on me that although we may not have quoted this verse, we had actually experienced the power of agreement in prayer over and over again in our lives.

It made me realize why prayer trees, prayer chains, prayer meetings, prayer groups, etc. had such a great track record of answered prayer.

The Lord also impressed upon my spirit the need to pray together with Sulojana, so that we could harness the power of agreement in our marriage.

These days, we quote this verse rather copiously, as we claim the promise of Jesus when we pray corporately in unity with one another.

How about you? Do you pray in agreement with another person? With several others?

If you do, praise God! Keep it up! If not, perhaps it is time to get started, amen?

I pray that you will continue to experience the power of agreement in prayer as you advance toward your destiny.

Please read Matthew 18:21-35 in preparation for this DWOD.

At a Pastors and Leaders Conference in 2005, the Lord used a seasoned minister named R. T. Kendall to touch my heart and shake me to the core.

“R. T.”, as he is affectionately known, delivered the most powerful message on forgiveness that I have ever heard in my life.

He shared story after story from his personal life and corporate ministry spanning more than four decades that resonated with me.

The story of Joseph forgiving his brothers (Genesis 45) was at the core of his teaching that night.

At the end of the evening, one of the prayer ministers laid hands on me and asked the Holy Spirit to minister to me. He promptly obliged!

A flood of emotions came bursting out of me. I found it difficult to stand as the Father’s love started washing over me to the point of being overwhelmed.

I lay on the carpet for at least 45 minutes, as the Great Physician performed radical heart surgery.

With every incision, every poke, every prod, I recalled many from my life whom I had not fully forgiven.

Slowly, but surely, I began to follow the process that R.T. taught that day.

As I released each person from the debts they owed me, I also released myself from the shackles that held me imprisoned in the depth of my being.

It was one of the most liberating nights of my life.

But it was only the beginning of a journey of forgiving, which continues to this day.

The revelations that R.T. shared that night are contained in his book “Total Forgiveness” which I would highly recommend to you.

The very first chapter of this book contains a summary of all that touched my heart that night in 2005.

You will be delighted to hear that Charisma House, the publisher, has made this entire chapter available for you to read for free. Just click here.

I look forward to hearing how the Lord used R.T’s message to touch your heart and perhaps even shake you to the core!

“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

The wisdom of Jesus in helping us deal with conflict in the church is simply amazing.
It is simple.

Step One: Meet one on one. If that doesn’t settle it, take
Step Two: Take one or two others with you. If you’re still not able to resolve it, take
Step Three: Share it with the church community. When this fails, then finally take
Step Four: Shut the door.

It is amazing.

Keep it simply between the two of you. If that works, then no one else ever needs to know that there was an issue between you. Only God and you both know.

When Step One fails, take no more than two others with you. Once again, keep it as hush-hush as possible. Use gentle persuasion, not force or pressure.

If there is still no way to settle the conflict, take it to a larger group. As a last resort.

After all three steps are exhausted, now you can treat them as an outsider.

Sad to say, but in thirty plus years of ministry, I have witnessed more violations of this process than not.

Even sadder to say, in those three decades, I myself have violated this process on more occasions than I’d like to admit.

Needless to say the folly of not following Jesus’ words has always led to needless pain.

More often than not, the mistake that I have made is to skip Step One and talk to others first before meeting with the offending (offended) party.

In a way, our employment systems encourage this process, don’t they?

If you are part of a union, you are asked to file a grievance and involve others right away so you are not forced to do the confronting yourself.

Even in the church, in our denomination, for example, we have a Ministry & Personnel Committee that both staff and members can contact when there is conflict.

As valuable as this process can be, the issues do not usually get resolved without the parties meeting face to face, even if it is in the presence of two or three others. So, eventually it is one-to-one communication that settles the matter.

Now, do you see how wise Jesus was to suggest that we do this first in the process laid out in Matthew 18?

The reason why we are tempted to skip Step One is because it is the most difficult one to take.

None of us likes confrontation. We dread the prospect of talking face to face. We are tempted to believe that going through a third party right off the bat is better.

Yet Jesus makes it very clear that we cannot bypass this first step.

In this passage, he is asking the offended party to take the initiative.

Elsewhere, in these words from the Sermon on the Mount, he is asking the perceived offender to make the first move.

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.” (Matthew 5:23-24)

Either way, the message is clear, isn’t it?

Whether you are the offender or the offended, you go first!

Will you?

Annie Pain was a saintly woman in her late 80’s, a member of Aneroid United Church, where a newly-minted minister named Jeeva Sam had just begun his ministry.

Raised in the Baptist Church, she along with her family became part of the United Church when it came into being in 1925.

One day circa 1982/83 she overheard a conversation in which I talked about going to the local bar to meet some of our “members” who were not usually present in church.

Her radar went on red alert instantly. She took me aside and said: “You know I can’t stop you from doing anything. But I don’t think you should be going to the bar.”

“But, Annie!” I protested. “I’m only going to have a Sprite when I’m there. Don’t worry. I’ll set a good example for all our members who are regular patrons.”

“That’s not the point!” she shot right back. “What if some of our young people see you just go in there or even see your car parked right in front of the bar? They don’t know what you’re doing inside or what you’re drinking. It sends them the wrong message–if it’s OK for the minister to go to the bar, it’s OK for us too!”

No matter how hard I tried to justify my position with persuasive appeals to Scripture, human reason and the example of Jesus, Annie would not back down.

This incident came to mind when I read these verses from Matthew 18: “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” (vs. 6-7)

As much as Jesus hung around tax collectors, prostitutes and other so-called “sinners” of his day, he was still careful not to let his example result in someone stumbling into sin (even though it did raise some issues for the religious establishment of his day!).

His words are rather harsh, wouldn’t you say? Obviously Jesus wants to underscore the seriousness of causing someone to stumble.

The apostle Paul addresses the same issue in these words from Romans 14: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister…If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.” (vs. 13, 15, 20, 21)

Would it surprise you to know that to this day I have no idea what the inside of the Aneroid Bar looks like?

All glory goes to God. All thanks to Annie Pain.