Resurrection Cards: Learning About the Intricately Orchestrated Pinnacle of Human History

By Barbara Rainey

Did you know Jesus never asked us to celebrate His birthday? But we do ... lavishly and extravagantly. But if we have Christmas and Easter out of proportion in our world, and we do, how can we elevate Easter this year? How do we balance our celebrations of these two world-changing events?

Today we’ll look at some important details surrounding the first Easter, followed by an easy but profoundly meaningful way to bring this story to life for yourself and your whole family.

For starters we must remember that Jesus, His parents, siblings, disciples, and friends were all Jewish. Like a warm current in the cold ocean, the people of Israel, Jesus’s people, moved to a centuries-old pattern of life no matter where they lived. This annual ebb and flow was founded upon seven festivals—three in early spring, one in early summer, and three in autumn—given by God as special occasions to remember Him and to celebrate His goodness to them.

Like Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Day, Jewish festivals were holidays that anchored their annual calendars as these holidays do for us. But one of the important differences in their holidays was the offering of sacrifices during some of the festivals. The whole purpose of the sacrificial system provided a way for the people to apologize or repent for their offenses toward God, also called sin. When offered with genuine humility, sacrifices kept their hearts in sync with His and free from the undertow of sin.

Very, very importantly, in the year of Christ’s crucifixion and Resurrection, the Jewish springtime feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits were, by God’s divine plan, timed precisely to occur consecutively on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. These three festival days changed every year, much like the date of Easter changes for us each year.

A couple of other important details that add great meaning and mystery to our understanding of Easter: Jewish days ended and began anew at sundown, not midnight; and the Jewish Sabbath day is always a Saturday, not Sunday. Therefore, in 33 A.D, Jesus died on the cross on a Friday which was Passover that year; as the sun set Saturday the Sabbath began was that year the first day of Unleavened Bread; and Sunday’s dawn revealed Christ’s Resurrection. This explains the verse that says, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). And there is so much more ...

Jesus said repeatedly that He always pleased His Father. As a Jewish man, He was expected to keep the religious laws, feasts, and celebrations that had been in place since the time of Moses. And Jesus wanted to keep them because they were all clues about His true identity. Unknown to His kin, every God-directed detail of the feasts, the temples service, the sacrifices—even the temple floor plan—revealed hints to His true nature as the Messiah.

Every breath of Jesus’ life was lived to precisely fulfill the law and prophets and to perfectly obey the Father, including His keeping of the Jewish feast and festivals.

This spring, will you join me in elevating Easter? Will you ask the Spirit to open your eyes to see with fresh wonder? Will you make an investment of time and money toward this holiest of days? Truly learning, meditating, and worshiping Jesus for what He endured for us will change you just as it did the disciples who participated live in the first Easter.

This year we’re offering one of my all-time favorite resources that will help you and your family experience the power of Resurrection Sunday. Resurrection Day Stories: 8 Conversation Cards for Your Easter Table, are beautiful, frameable 5x7 cards. Each features a stunning drawing of a moment in the Easter story. The reverse side gives you a short story to read for devotions or out loud around a table. and it’s available through our Etsy store.

Here is the text for card number two in Resurrection Day Stories:

HIDDEN BREAD

Condemned to death from before time began, but not yet arrested by the Roman soldiers, Jesus chose as His last meal the Passover; a supper eaten annually by the Jews to remember their deliverance in 1445 B.C. from Egyptian slavery and to celebrate their beginning as a nation. In their hurried exodus from Egypt, Israelite women baked bread without leaven, or yeast, because there was no time to let it rise. Today’s flat Passover bread, matzah, is pricked with tiny holes and grilled, marking the finished bread with visible stripes and piercings. The words “pierced” and “striped” in the story of the Cross are signs of deep truth for those with eyes to see.

During the Passover supper the Jewish father breaks the matzah into three equal pieces, symbolizing the Trinity, wraps the middle portion in a white linen napkin, and hides it. The children search eagerly for the piece, which, when found and brought from its cloth, is eaten with the Cup of Redemption. At Jesus’ last supper, He explained He was the Passover Bread—without leaven (sin)—as He shared it with His disciples. The next day, His body, the Bread of Life, was broken in suffering, wrapped in linen burial cloths, and hidden in the earth. Jesus, born in Bethlehem, meaning “House of Bread,” became our buried kernel of wheat—sprouting to eternal life on Resurrection Day.

(If you have matzah, break it, then wrap and hide the middle piece for the children to find or break or other bread and eat it as you read the next story.)

There are several ways you can use these stories. Beginning on Wednesday night of Holy Week, read the eight short stories chronologically for personal meditations, concluding on Easter Sunday morning. Or read them around your Easter Day brunch or lunch (at the beginning of the meal or interspersed between courses) to marvel with family and friends at the miraculous, redemptive work of Christ. Or send them as Easter gifts to family members or friends.

Resurrection Sunday is the intricately orchestrated pinnacle of all human history! The mystery of Christ’s life and work is profound, eternal, and unfathomable. God in His love displayed astonishing signs to grow our faith and our adoration.

May you and yours elevate Easter to the place of prominence this momentous event deserves.

Visit our Etsy store to order Resurrection Day Stories: 8 Conversation Cards for Your Easter Table.

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