The Gospel is the good news!

Today is Easter Sunday and while I worked last night and spent my morning sleeping rather than attending church with my family, I have been pondering this holiday season for weeks.

Tonight my goal is to finish reading "Behold The Man" the last book in a series called The Kingdom and the Crown, by Gerald Lund. This will be my third or perhaps even my fourth time through the series which follows the lives of a fictitious family in Israel who become followers of Christ and chronicles the life and ministry of our Savior during in His final days.

You may be asking yourself why I need to set a goal to finish a book from a series I've read so many times. Or maybe you would ask that, if you knew that it's been in my work locker for over a month. This time through I think that focusing on the crucifixion and death of the Savior has caused me to be apprehensive and left me unable to read those agonizing chapters.

Judas' betrayal of the Savior, after Gethsemane (Matt 26:48-49) which led Him to be tried, unjustly by the Great Sanhedrin before being delivered into the hands of the Romans. The Sanhedrin found him guilty of blasphemy, knowing the Romans would never put him to death for it, they told Pilate He was guilty of treason, stirring up contentions among His followers which would surely lead to conflict. Pilate, who found "no fault in this man," gave in to the throng of people who had gathered at the Antonia Fortress crying "Crucify him, crucify him." Roman soldiers mocked Him and whipped Him, they fashioned a crown of thorns and placed it cruelly on His head. Christ was then raised upon a cross by stakes driven through His feet and hands. The small notch of wood was of little comfort, placed so that sitting took pressure from a prisoner's feet, but inflicted tremendous pressure and pain on the chest. In His agony He cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is to say, 'My god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?' (Matt 27:46) And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. (Luke 23:46)

That was the bad news.

In Gethsemane, Christ performed the initial act of His atoning sacrifice. He prayed to The Father, taking upon himself the sins and sufferings of the World. The pain was so great it caused Him, even the son of God, to sweat "as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:40-44)

(John 20:1-2,11-18) On the third day after Christ's crucifixion, He appeared to Mary Magdalene when she sought Him at the tomb where they had laid Him. "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my bretheren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." In an upper room in Jerusalum, He appeared to His disciples. They saw and felt the marks on His body. (Luke 24:39) He said to them, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."

At a garden called Gethsemane He offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin and sorrow. He suffered pain which caused Him to bleed from every pore. Most importantly, with that suffering, He broke the bonds of sin and sorrow.

On a hill called Calvary at a place called Golgotha, He laid down His life. But most importantly, on the third day, He took it up again, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead. His resurrection broke the bonds of death. He lives. He lives so that we may live again.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)

And this, this is the good news!

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