Holy Week - Peace, Violence and Victory

Spirituality Column #176
March 23, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Holy Week – Peace, Violence and Victory
By Bob Walters

How odd that the greatest truth in the universe – Jesus Christ’s saving grace revealing God’s love, power over death, and our eternal home – is not explained in plainer language.

I know … it’s all right there in the Bible. But it’s a gigantic truth too big for words, too good for our sin, too eternal for our temporal understanding.

Next week is Holy Week – Palm Sunday to Easter – the Christian celebration of that enormous truth, of the Logos, of the Word of God.

Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s “triumphant” arrival into Jerusalem. How odd that he rode a donkey, a symbol of peace and humility, rather than a horse, a symbol of power and triumph.

How odd is the violence of the Crucifixion on Good Friday, when Christ, the sinless Prince of Peace, died horribly to defeat death and erase our sin.

How odd that Christ’s victory over the grave on Easter assures us of eternal life. How odd that God’s love resides not in our understanding, but in our faith in His love, which gives us true hope.

How odd that a believer’s heart is assured and at peace, yet the world expects words to soften hardened hearts. How odd that a man without sin erased my sin, yet I’m still a sinner, yet I am loved, and in my faith am saved.

The difficulty describing this with words is at least twofold:

1. God’s truth is a love relationship, not a word puzzle. Try describing your love relationship with someone or something using only words. Can the totality and expression of love be contained in words? Not a chance.

2. Christ is a real person, not merely an idea, so words and images fail. The Bible’s words show us how to meet Christ, but truth resides in the relationship, not in the meeting.

Holy Week begins with the Peace of Christ and adulation; peaks with the crucifixion’s infinite violence and scorn, and ends with Christ’s resurrection and mankind’s victory over death. And so begins the truth of eternal life.

It’s a big week. Read about Palm Sunday in the Bible (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19), and continue reading each book to the end.

Ask Christ to send the Holy Spirit to help you understand. I pray you’ll find love and peace, discover truth, and learn that it’s not odd at all.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) knows you can’t argue the Holy Spirit into someone, knows truth exists in Christ, and knows God loves each one of us. Amen.

Good Friday - One Really Hard Day

Spirituality Column #21
April 3, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Good Friday - One Really Hard Day
By Bob Walters
Author of the book: Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Eternal Life for all mankind is the Good News of the Gospel and the reason we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter. Christ defeated death for all of us so, in faith, we live eternally with God the Father in Heaven.

But as Easter Sunday celebrates Christ’s rising from the dead and promise of Eternal Life, Good Friday marks perhaps the most evil day in the history of humanity; the day Man killed Christ, the Incarnate Son of God.

I hate Good Friday.

Crucifixion is a horrendous death. As one's body weight hangs from outstretched arms tied or nailed to a crossbeam, the lungs cannot function and suffocation comes in agonizing minutes. The foot pedestal (or nailed feet) on the cross allows one to painfully brace ones body weight enough to allow excruciating breaths that prolong the death process for agonizing hours.

Christ breathed his last … “It is finished” (John 19:30) … and died before the Roman soldiers had to hasten death by breaking His legs with a club.  So His bones were not broken (John 19:36).

God’s perfect Eden for mankind was undone by Adam’s sin in the Garden, and because of that sin death came into the world (Genesis 3:22). Christ, God’s Son on the Cross, provided mankind with “forgiveness” – which means not the ignoring of our sin as the word is commonly misunderstood today, but the renewal of life.

Christ died for our sins, indeed, but our sins are not the ultimate point. Christ died to defeat death itself, giving us eternal hope and communion with God.

That’s the point.

As we contemplate the horror of Christ’s death on the cross, and the horror of our own sin which separates us from God, ask this question about the crucifixion: Why did Christ do that for us?

Those in faith have the answer: So we can live forever, sinless, with Him, in Heaven, for His Glory.

God loves and values each of our lives that much, but Good Friday is still a rough deal.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) often prays the Orthodox "Jesus Prayer": Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.