A Mystical, Both/And Season

GOOD FRI., APR. 10, 1998, 2:19 PM
WARREN ST., CHARLESTON

The service this noon served to impress upon you, yet again, with more power, that this Passion Week is certainly a prime example of the mystical and the both/and. I, as Jesus, the Christ, am alive and active in the earth, this day and every day. Yet today is a remembrance of My dying, truly dying, on a cross, on a hill outside of Jerusalem. I had a wound in My side, I bled from the nail holes in My hands and feet, but, finally, I could no longer breathe in, so I gave up My earth life. Or was it taken from Me?

The Scriptures say that I was sentenced to die, by Pilate, because My Presence and My strong rejection by the Jews threatened the peace of this small part of the Roman Empire. Pilate admitted that I had committed no actual crime, for he saw Judaism as just the ethnic religion of this conquered people. There was no theological significance for him to be titling Me as King of the Jews. So, there was a trial, of sorts, and then the death sentence. I was crucified against My Will and the Will of God, My Father.

AND this death, in a cruel and ignominious way, was part of the Plan that Father, Son, and I, Holy Spirit, had made and were agreed upon. It happened as it was supposed to happen. As Jesus I had the power to speak to Pilate in ways that would have made it impossible to condemn Me. When I was hanging on the cross someone taunted Me and challenged Me to come down from the cross. I could easily have done that (and it certainly would have changed the “Easter story!), but it was destined that I must suffer and die for the sins of many, even all of you.

(That’s another both/and… My death was the propitiation for the sins of the world, of all that were and are in it AND sin is still evident in the world and many do not accept… or do reject… this “offer” and hence remain sinners, no matter what their positive actions.)

The Old Testament proclaims, in many ways, that the Jews are My Chosen People. As Jesus I was born, raised, and educated as a Jew. I am sometimes identified as being of the House and Lineage of David, Israel’s greatest king. AND… My Chosen People rejected Me (after accepting Me as the potential Messiah), drummed up a charge against Me, rejected Pilate’s desire to free Me in the Passover season, and continued the cry of Crucify Him! Thus, these special people deserve to be hated and vilified for, spiritually, the worst crime possible, the execution of their God/Messiah. AND… I forgave them from the cross, for the Plan was being carried out, and they had played their part.

You have calculated that My Body was dead for about 40 hours. I was reclothed, taken to the tomb donated by Joseph, laid down in the tomb, with the large stone rolled to cover the entrance. Presumably I was there, as a dead body, during the Sabbath time… AND My Spirit did make a “missionary journey” to a region of lost souls, a ministry to some who had not had the opportunity of knowing Me. (AND… I am outside of time in this, so 40 hours was as long as I needed for this “adventure”.)

On Sunday morning, now called Easter, one of My angel friends rolled back the stone, and I was alive again, in body, as well as mind and spirit. AND… My Body, even with the holes inflicted by the crucifixion (which I had retained) was now real AND mystical. I could appear and disappear, and I walked through closed doors BUT I could also eat bread and fish with My disciples. Eventually I, in bodily form, ascended into heaven, which certainly is mystical.

You, and other good Christians like you, are supposed to remember Me on the cross on this day, suffering unjustly and dying AND you know that I shall be back on Sunday (your Sabbath), and the now familiar story will come out as it always does.