Saturday, April 07, 2007

Jesus..in 100 words

An unused womb.

No vacancy.

A dirty stable.

Magi.

Herod.

Escape.

Wilderness.

Temptation.

Baptism.

Beatitudes.

Teaching.

Parables.

Miracles.

More miracles.

Even more miracles.

Debates.

Believers.

Palms.

Hosanna.

Temple cleansing.

Pharisees.

Sadducees.

Scribes.

Unbelievers.

Doubts.

Questions.

Conspiracy.

Passover.

Betrayal.

Gethsemane.

Grief.

Bloody sweat.

But Thy will.

Friends asleep.

Arrested.

Broken loyalty.

Denial.

Desertion.

High priests.

Pilate.

Herod.

Pilate again.

Barabbas’ replacement.

Mockery.

Beatings.

Thorny crown.

Blood.

Unforgiving wood.

Long walk.

Weak.

Tired.

Falling.

Calvary.

The nails.

The sign.

Hanging.

Thirsty.

Forsaken.

Pain.

Agony.

Death.

Endured.

For us.

Three days.

Resurrect.

Empty tomb.

Last appearance.

Ascension.

At the Right Hand.

Returning.

Eternity.

- ACL

21 "Insiders" spoke their mind. Join in...:

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Powerful, Andre.

Hope you have a blessed Easter, my friend. :-)

Greeneyes said...

Andre~ My Greeneyed Hansome MAN


excellent job, you are truly blessed with your thoughts ,thank you for sharing ,may you and yours have a Blessed Easter ,HUGS


Greeneyes ♥☺♥

Perez said...

Ummmm.....Well my view as a Jew....Don't take me the wrong way, but why do Christians observe Pessach (Passover) when Jesus really has nothing to do with the Hebrews leaving Egypt?

The H.C. said...

Great Post Dre,
But you do so many great ones I'm shortening it to just G.P. to save time. I looked up "Milder tone" in my "Big Book of Euphemisms", it said "Less militant". I hope you had a great Easter.

Anonymous said...

Perez,

To understand Christianity, one must understand the Trinity, but that's another long story.

Anywho, Jesus didn't "directly" have a lot to do with many things in the old testament, but because our belief (at least Baptists, anyway) requires that we believe the Bible in its entirety, and one of the first verses in the Bible reads as such: Genesis 1:26A: And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...."

Emphasis on the "Let US"

Jesus was there in the beginning, but this is a serious digression.

I'm not sure what you mean by "observe." We regard a lot of events in the Bible as true, and passover is one of them. Is this what you mean?

Anonymous said...

Okay, bad phrasing. We regard ALL of the events in the Bible as true.

Sorry. :(

heiresschild said...

great post andre, i love anything having to do with Jesus and the Word of God. i hope you had a great Easter yesterday. loved you comments on my last post.

Anonymous said...

Perez: While Jesus didn't necessarily have a role in the Hebrews leaving Egypt, there are many symbolic connections between the two (a common connection between New Testament and Old).

Jesus is considered the sacrificial lamb to pay for our transgressions. The blood of this lamb could be considered to be spread over our household to prevent the judgment from falling upon us. Most importantly, christians believe Jesus to be delivering God's people (all people who would follow Him, even Gentiles) to the promised land, which is an important part of the Passover story.

Finally, Jesus (and His earliest followers) were Jewish, not christian, and therefore observed the traditional rites of Judaism. An orthodox understanding of christianity is that it continues the Jewish lineage, not replaces it.

Unfortunately, most christians have a "the old testament doesn't count anymore" understanding of the bible.

Anonymous said...

To Will: Yeah! That's what I meant to say!

Perez said...

Thanks Joslyn and Will, you guys put light on what you guys do, but still I got questions. What I meant by observe is you Christains don't observe Purim or Yom Kippur, it is just strange to me that you guys have Pessach and you eat pork. And do you even keep Pessach as the Jews, as Jesus would have? Do you have seder or matzah? Again I mean no offense....Just asking

Anonymous said...

Perez: Some christians do have a traditional Jewish Pessach during the appropriate time, with the seder, and most celebrate it with some form of matzah, at least in the sense that we share a meal of unleavened bread.

Some denominations (or sects of christianity) have a seder in the sense of a liturgical calendar dictating prayers and reading of scriptures.

Many christians are ignorant of the Jewish heritage and tradition, though I admit, my own understanding is shallow and limited, although I am working on it.

I can't say why Purim and Yom Kippur are not celebrated, but I do have a theory on why it is seen as permissible to eat pork:

One of Jesus' main teachings seemed to have been searching for the ideas behind the rules, so to speak. For example, when asked which of the ten commandments was the greatest, he summed all ten into two simple commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Why do I keep holy the sabbath? Because that is how I love God. Why don't I steal, murder, or covet? Because that is how I love my neighbor.

Many of the laws from the old testament seem to be practical in principle. For example: Wash your hands before you eat. What the Jewish people accepted as tradition probably saved them from many diseases at the time. I think that probably the food commandments fall into this category, as improperly cooked pork can be extremely bad for you, especially considering the storage conditions of the time. Also, birds of prey and carrion eaters are also forbidden, and it seems as if medical practicality explains it.

Finally, Jesus says: Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'

Anonymous said...

*Clears Throat*

Thank you, Will!

If I'm not mistaken, Yom Kippur is defined as: "The day on atonement to afflict the soul and atone for the sins of the past year"

If this statement is true, then we wouldn't observe that day due to the fact that Jesus is the ultimate "atoner" if you will, and we believe that we can repent and any given moment, and at that moment, God will forgive us our sins (through Jesus)at that very moment. There is no need to revisit past sins for which you've already been forgiven. Why wait a whole year for atonement?


Here's the definition of Purim that I found: a Jewish festival celebrated on the 14th day of the month of Adar in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews in Persia from destruction by Haman.


The reason why Christians don't celebrate Purim is because Esther was seen as a symbolic representation of the Church, and Haman (who died by crucifixion, according to rabbinic legend) as an antithesis to Jesus.
Simply put, it seems as though the holiday seems to celebrate Haman, versus God or Jesus. That would be a no-no to us (at least, to celebrate it under the Christian guise)

:)

Andre said...

@ Diane: Thanks for your comment and for the Easter wishes. I'm hoping that you had a great time with food, family, and the Savior yourself!

@ My green-eyed queen: I'm blushing. Right now, I'm a black man, with green eyes, and red cheeks. I'm turning into my own Easter egg.

Thanks for the comment.

@ Perez: I'll get back to you in a moment...

@ HC: The way I see it is simple: your blog lends itself to inciting just as many riots (actually, I think MORE) than mine does. If anybody's 'militant', it's you.

Sorry. I don't make the rules.

@ Heirress: Like you, I love peering deeper into Jesus through my own experiences and by other people's accounts. Frankly, I think this post was an insult to Him. He's much too involved and inexhausible to be covered in 100 words. But I tried...

Thanks, as usual, for stopping by.

@ Perez: Sorry for putting you on the backburner, but here goes:

I think that Will and Joslyn did my dirty work for me. They nailed it. I think the Passover (and other religious observances) point out Jesus' true nature, which is is why He didn't shy away from it.

As you know, the Passover is the Jewish commemoration of how God redeemed His people from the oppressive Egyptian rule. Similar to how the sacrificed blood of a defect-less lamb was used save the lives Jewish firstborns, Jesus (as recorded in the New Testament) is the PERFECT sacrificial lamb used to redeem us from sin. The parallel is pretty clear to me. Admittedly, over the years, the Passover celebration has become all but eliminated in many circles (I'm guessing it's because Christianity is based on the two major ordinances; Communion and Baptism). But in Jesus time, it was still a big deal to keep the traditions and practices. Jesus, not being an opponent of tradition but rather a fulfiller of it (Matthew 5:17) didn’t hold back in celebrating the Passover; especially since He was the new lamb.

I'm just re-emphasizing points made by Will and Joslyn. I think they covered it all.

Thanks to all three of you for the exchange.

The H.C. said...

ME???? Inciting Riots?? Why, I would shake my fist at you for that one if I didn't have a pitchfork in one hand and a burning torch in the other. LOL, I guess we're both a little militant at heart. It not our fault the political situation here in the states needs a firm kick in the ass, and besides, without passion, we couldn't be writers.

Marianita said...

I like it!

(Late) Happy Easter

Anonymous said...

joslyn: I think I have to disagree with your ideas on Yom Kippur.

Although Jesus has paid for my sins, that doesn't mean I don't get judged for them, or that I stop sinning. I still need to atone, and so does any other christian. This kind of christianese isn't going to be enough to get out of that one.

Jesus isn't the ultimate atonement, He is the ultimate sacrifice, which is a big difference.

I also don't think that Purim is the idolatry you made it out to be. Deliverance is an important and recurring theme throughout Judaism, and christianity.

Also important is the fact that the Jews were delivered FROM Haman, not BY Haman. They are do not celebrate Haman during Purim, they celebrate deliverance from him.

To say this is idolatry and anti-God or Jesus is the same thing as saying that celebrating Easter's deliverance from satan is glorifying satan. I don't buy it.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful post, Andre.

But the last few words really say it all!

Anonymous said...

Hey Will,

Please understand that these are not my ideas on either Yom Kippur or Purim. I’m simply stating facts.

Regarding atonement, the Christian belief is that we can atone at any given moment, and once our sins are atoned, there is no reason to revisit them, nor do we need to wait an entire year to atone for our sins (or re-visit the atonement, for that matter). That’s the Christian belief, not just something that I came up with personally. I never said that we didn’t have to atone for our sins; I said that we didn’t have to wait to atone for our sins, and once we are forgiven, all is forgotten (in God’s view, for that matter).

As far as Purim is concerned, you’re right: they were delivered From Haman, not by Haman. Thanks for the correction. However, the history still holds true that this man was crucified, as was (by the early Christian church) seen as a anti-thesis to Christ (whom also dies on the cross). It should also be noted that this could be seen this way: “Why don’t Whites celebrate June-teenth?” It’s not that Whites don’t or refuse to celebrate this date; it’s just seen as deliverance for a specific race (the day the slaves were officially freed from slavery). It would be like Canada (or, as Homer calls it “America Junior”) celebrating the 4th of July. Technically, they can celebrate. It just wouldn’t hold the same significance or meaning.

All that is to say, that the reasons mentioned above is why this ritual isn’t included in the Christian Church, however it’s not seen as a sin (depending on who you speak with) to participate. 

Anonymous said...

josyln: They are your ideas about why christians do not observe those religious practices, though they do contain some facts about the practices themselves.

I think you are close to right on christian atonement, but some refining is needed. You are using two separate ideas with one word: Atonement. One idea is the payment or sacrifice for the sins of the world (Jesus). The other is a reconciliation with God.

I am arguing that Yom Kippur is the later of the two, and therefore is not in conflict with the salvation provided by Jesus Christ.

To illustrate let's examine a couple of lines from the Lord's prayer: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

This is a prayer of atonement. It doesn't negate our salvation through Christ, but it is an example of a tradition, or rite, of repeated atonement, even after salvation.

Similarly, Yom Kippur is a rite about atonement. In Jewish traditions, many important aspects of daily life are included in the traditions so they don't get left behind in the busy whirlwind of life. Atonement is certainly an important aspect of life, and a periodical inventory is necessary for real growth.

About Purim: The early Christ following churches were Jewish. The early "christian" churches were Roman. This is an important fact to take into consideration. It wasn't until hundreds of years after Jesus that christians began to adopt the "Jewish traditions don't matter" mentality they have today.

Why we don't celebrate these traditions is a critical question, and one that we must honestly evaluate, and not just assume church tradition alone has a sufficient explanation.

Perez said...

Joslyn-Haman was thrown on a stick, not crucified. When you say crucifixion, that is a cross, which crimals were put to death on, Haman was put on the stake in from of him home, which was to kill Mordecai.

Okay to both Will and Joslyn-Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, which we apologized to our family/friends, not G-d. G-d can not forgive us for the wrong we have done to people.

Back to Joslyn-You see this is what I don't understnad about what you believe, you guys will celebrate Pessach because Jesus did it too, well remember he was Jewish and celebrated Jewish holidays, so why don't Christians celebrate all Jewish Holidays and not pick and choose which ones. From what I understand, Christians think they are from Jewish backgrounds and we are your poeple, not everyone may see it that way, but lets just say the ones who do, are the celebrating holidays that don't mean as much?

To both again-You guys have believe what you believe. However, I don't think any amount of questions can answer anything. I never understood my Christian family and I find Christianity contradietory

Anonymous said...

Perez: My understanding is that Yom Kippur is both atonement to God and to your neighbor. Perhaps this depends on which sect of Judaism you partake in?

The way most people believe in christianity is contradictory, and most christians don't make sense. And you are right, no number of questions will change that (or them, unfortunately).