The Time Of Easter

SAT., APR. 10, 1993, 7:02 AM
FARM, STUDY

It is that time of the year called Spring, and that time in the Christian year called Easter… or, as the card says, the Day of Resurrection. Because this aspect of time is circular, it is an experience you have had many times, in many different ways. Yet time is also linear, so this particular celebration is one you have not had before and will not have again.

The sun may not shine so fully tomorrow, so let’s assume this is the Easter morn. It’s good to picture that Resurrection Day as one that dawned without clouds or rain, the sun rising into a cloudless sky. Those who came to the sepulchre early that morning found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Who had taken My Body and why?

But the prior question (assuming that this was a Thursday to Sunday experience) is that of where I was from burial Friday afternoon till Resurrection Sunday morning. Your creed used to say I descended into hell. Now it affirms that I descended to the dead. It was a unique experience for Me, as Jesus… even as I had had it often as Holy Spirit. It usually is assumed that My Body was there in the tomb over two nights and all of Saturday. I tell you that I left, in My Body almost immediately after the stone had been rolled into place. Since it was the Sabbath, I was technically breaking the commandment, as then interpreted, for I was in active mission. You see, it would have been too confusing to return on the Sabbath, so I had to wait until the first day of the week.

So I went to a realm which could be called hell, where spirits languished because they had not heard sufficiently or they had rejected the message of God with us. It was a mixed experience. A few responded with true zeal, for these spirits were ready for “rehabilitation,” in a more positive realm. Many others responded positively, but My “time” was not sufficient there for them to gain the spiritual strength that they had lost or never generated. And, sadly, some held to their languishing, almost relishing the suffering their souls were experiencing. Mission efforts have been much like this ever since.

The symbol of My appearance, with the stone rolled away, on that first Easter morning, was that Sunday is the first day of the week, the day of Resurrection and new life, in the spirit. I had the unique opportunity of keeping My Body, even as I could “regulate” the recognition of it. I didn’t have to be a disembodied spirit, communicating in spooky ways. I was back for those to see whom I wanted to believe more fully in Me, as Risen Lord.

I was not yet satisfied with the understanding and dedication of My disciples, so I had to return and let them see that I truly had overcome apparent death. They would try, but I knew they were not capable enough of translating My broken, but now restored Body into the Church, as I desired. I could help them, and they did what they could, but I had to return again, after the Ascension, to commission Paul for that task. He wasn’t able to see My Body, as the disciples did, but his spirit was right, and he responded, about as I wished.