March 10 – Promises Not Heard

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”  - Mark 10:33-34  (NASB)

Sometimes we find a promise that has already been fulfilled. It was a prophetic promise in this verse that Jesus’ disciples did not understand. We're reminded as we approach the observance of Resurrection Sunday* which includes the whole week leading up to that day. Although the observance of Easter has been completely commercialized with Easter eggs, candy, and bunnies, faith believers observe the first day of the week because Christ was resurrected on the third day after his crucifixion which was the first day after the seventh - Sabbath. The promise Jesus gave to his disciples in our passage was multifold. He promised that He – the Son of Man – would be arrested, charged by the Jewish rulers, condemned to death by the Romans. It would include mocking, spitting, scourging, and death. Suffering would be followed by His resurrection. They missed that promise completely. But we can understand after the fact and still rejoice that Jesus promised His death and all his suffering lead to His resurrection. He provided for us new life in Himself. That is why we still rejoice in our Lord and Savior Jesus. We can remember this every Sunday, not only on Easter Sunday.*

Why do we call it Easter?

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April 15 – Following God's Great Plan

“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” Mark 8:31 (NIV)

We look back in the timeline of Jesus' life on earth before this week and find that Jesus had prepared his disciples.  Isn’t it amazing that Jesus had foretold what would happen? He had told his disciples all about what he had just gone through and had assured them that after His death at the hands of the leaders he would rise from the dead and come out of the grave after three days. Even the enemies of Jesus remember that prediction when they went to Pilate to ask for special guards to be stationed at the grave.  Yes, God’s plan was to raise his Son again the third day and nothing could stop Him from carrying out this plan. So the time Jesus spent in the grave was only to follow God’s great plan. Let’s remember that God has plans for each of us too. We can trust Him to do what He wants in our lives – let’s do that.