The Lord has risen! Alleluia!
If you have been following the liturgical readings in the season of Lent leading to the great Easter Vigil, you can but be amazed how these readings and prophecies have fall into place. I am not a bible scholar and this attempt is not in any way to proclaim that this is how you should see these events but here is my take and I hope you can pick up something from them.
In the Garden of Eden, the first man - Adam enjoyed the company of God. He has been given the tree of life which we now know has become the tree of death because of his disobedience. In the Garden of Gethsemane, God revealed to Jesus (the second Adam) that he will be given the tree of death (the cross); this tree of death, has become for us the tree of life and Jesus by his obedience to the Father has restored our relationship with God, we being his children again.
Abraham was told to go to a mountain to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Of course we know the story how Isaac came about and because of this, how much Abraham have loved his only son. Isaac carried the wood that will be used to burn the sacrifice offering on his back and kept on asking his father where was the lamb they will use for the sacrifice?. Abraham kept on telling his son - God himself will provide the sacrifice. As we know, an Angel stopped Abraham and prevented that he be offered as a sacrifice. In turn, Abraham found a ram whose head were caught by thorns in the bushes and used it instead as a sacrificial offering. Abraham called that mountain and to this date the mountain is called - "It shall provided." In contrast, the only son of God carries on his back the wood that will be altar of his own sacrifice and look, his head is covered with thorns. God has provided the ultimate sacrifice.
Moses led the Israel people out of slavery in the ultimate exodus of all time. Through him the Passover is celebrated up to this time as God's intervention on the cry of his people - that God answers prayers. He gave us the vision of the manna in the dessert and Jesus is the ultimate bread of life. The bread that you eat and you will not get hungry again. Moses raised the image of the bronze serpent and promised people that they will be saved upon looking on it. It you remember, the serpent is the image God used in the garden of Eden who deceived Adam and Eve and it could be the image of sin itself. And Jesus who knows no sin has become sin himself when he redeemed us and the image of Jesus being lifted on the cross as if proclaiming, here I am look at me I have become your sins.
When we read the passion and the resurrection story, it is always easy to overlook these things because we know how the story ends. We can skip the details and proceed with the ending. However, for people in Jesus' time, it is not the case. Imagine Blessed Mary standing at the foot of the cross, alone (almost) could have been beating her chest and uttering the prayers, Oh God, o God why have you allowed this horrible thing to happen to your son. And this is the true reality of life, there are moments we feel abandoned, betrayed, left alone, ignored and our prayers have not been answered. Many don't find the value of pain, suffering, hardship and many more negative life's circumstances. So we choose the easy way out or we blame God and accuse him of not loving us.
God waited for this day to raise his son back life. A. This Easter, God has proven all of us wrong. We may be suffering and we may suffer for the rest of our lives. We may be sick and lo and behold, regardless how many prayers offered for us, we will not be healed. God may have ordained us for this kind of life. But like his son - there is resurrection, there is life after death and our glory is not in this lifetime. So for now we live our life with faith...that someday, we will receive our glory and at the gate Jesus himself will welcome us - Come enter the place I have prepared for you my faithful servant.
May Jesus' resurrection give us the power to live our life faithfully and then yes we can celebrate Easter in our lives every day.
Happy Easter!
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