THE EASTER STORY (5)

BY EVANGELINE UNITY ESAABA FOLSON

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, La-ma Sa-baah-Tha-ni?

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

MATHEW 49-50

The rest said, let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save Him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

MATHEW 28:5-7

And the angel answered and said unto the woman, fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen from the dead: and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.

This is the fifth and last in the series on “The Easter Story”. It covers the death and resurrection of Jesus. 3 passages were quoted, two from Mathew 27 on the death of Jesus and one from Mathew 28 on the resurrection of Jesus. The implications and lessons from each passage will be considered.

MATHEW 27:45-46

This passage brings out Jesus’s feelings at a point where He was exhausted and felt forsaken by God. It is important to note that Jesus like every man felt the pain and the weakness after going through a terrible ordeal.

Note also that there was thick darkness from the sixth hour to the nineth. I believe the darkness was mentioned because it was not yet time for the sun to set.

There are a few lessons to learn from the passage:

The thick darkness, is an indication that something usual was happening.
Though Jesus felt forsaken He did not accuse God. He accepted His fate and endured to the end.

In difficult times, the first thing to be done is not to blame God but to pray for God’s will to be done in our lives. It is also important to pray for grace and strength to overcome the challenge.

MATHEW 27:49-50

This passage gives an account of how our Lord’s ordeal ended. The worst that could be done, had been done. His endurance had been stretched to the limit. There was nothing else to do but to die.

We can learn from this passage that:

God steps in when we are too weak to do anything.

Jesus gave up the ghost (died) and after that God gave Him Victory over death and gave Him the name that is above every other name in heaven and on earth.

MATHEW 28:5-7

The passage above clearly states that Jesus rose from the death. This was an extraordinary occurrence. The resurrection also confirms what Jesus said (John 2:19)

“Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up”. Jesus’s resurrection also fulfils prophecy and again confirms that prophecies from God are always fulfilled in God’s own time.

Do not get frustrated or anxious because prophecies given about you have not been fulfilled in a long time. Habakkuk 2:3 says the vision is for an appointed time (time set by God).

Furthermore, the resurrection assures us that God can raise all that died in Christ when He appears again from the heavens. It also confirms our hope of living with God in heaven. This would be a better life than we have now.

CONCLUSION

Meditate on this song

There is victory for me

Through the blood of

Christ my Saviour

There is victory for me

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