Easter is a well-known holiday almost everywhere around the world. In the United States it is celebrated on at the end of March or in early April on the Gregorian calendar. It is a time where families get together, eat a bountiful supper, and so on. For some, Easter is a time where they get up and go to church for one of the few times in the year. For others it’s a chance to dress up and stuff their faces full of food. Others go to church, meditate on the Easter message from the sermon, and then forget all about it as they go back to church the next weekend feeling no different. To the children, it might just be all about the Easter candy. What is Easter and how did it come to be?
If you’ve ever gone to church, you will probably have heard the same old (seemingly) boring story about Jesus dying on the cross and then somehow being raised back to life. You hear it every year or so and it gets really boring after awhile. Pretty soon, you begin to tune out the Easter message and maybe start to forget about it.
Jesus of Nazareth was the son of a carpenter and the Son of God. He had twelve close friends, disciples, that followed and learned from Him everywhere about everything. The start of Easter starts with the Triumphal Entry, now known as Palm Sunday in the USA. Basically, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people were enamored and amazed at Jesus and they threw down their coats, turbans, and palm leaves so the Lord wouldn’t ride on the sandy street. This coincided with the beginning of Passover Week.
Passover Week is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the Passover Angel. This angel, also known as “The Angel of Death”, was the last of the ten plagues God used to get the Israelites out of the Egyptian grasp. God forewarned the Egyptian people through Moses that an angel would come and kill the firstborn of every family very soon. The only escape from this was the blood of a perfect lamb smeared over the doorframe of the people. Some Egyptians took the warning seriously and did what the Israelites did and their family was spared.
The Angel of Death came during the night and swept past the houses with the sacrificial lamb’s blood, and slew the firstborn child of the houses that did not have the blood on the door. The Pharaoh’s oldest son was killed, prompting the Pharaoh to grief and anger and send the Israelites away.
Many Israelites flocked to Jerusalem at that time of year to celebrate escaping Egypt and the saving of the firstborns of those that obeyed what God had said. The Passover Week was an eight day feast to commemorate this occurrence.
After Jesus was finished with His entry, He celebrates Passover with His disciples. They all go up to a room to do the rituals that have been going on since Passover Week was started.
They broke bread, and drank wine out of four different cups: the Cup of Sanctification, the Cup of Judgement/Deliverance, the Cup of Redemption, and the Cup of Restoration.
Now, Jesus didn't drink the cup of Restoration. The reason is because He wasn't finished with His work yet. He still needed to be crucified, be dead for three days, and then rise up from the grave, go to Heaven, and then return again whenever God sent Him back.
After the supper Jesus had with His disciples, they all went to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed to His Father (God). He prayed so hard, He started