{"id":21591,"date":"2014-04-20T06:05:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T06:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/what-easter-means-to-me\/"},"modified":"2014-04-20T06:05:11","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T06:05:11","slug":"what-easter-means-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/what-easter-means-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What Easter Means to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easter, to me, means that Jesus is in control<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rembrandt, Descent from the Cross<\/em> (1634)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His arrest and crucifixion were not events that came upon Him unexpectedly.\u00a0 Instead, right from the very beginning of His ministry, He repeatedly told His disciples, \u201cThe Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.\u00a0 They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised to life\u201d (Matthew 17:22-23; see 16:21; 20:18-19; 26:2,10-12).\u00a0 It was His plan all along, \u201cjust as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many\u201d (Matthew 20:28).<\/p>\n

No ordinary man could have orchestrated things the way that they happened.\u00a0 On the surface, it may seem as if Jesus was not<\/i> in control, as He was betrayed, arrested, beaten, condemned, and crucified.\u00a0 However, even the betrayal by His friend and disciple Judas (Matthew 26:20-25; see Psalm 41:9), and the gambling for His clothes by the Roman guards at the foot of the cross (Matthew 27:35; see Psalm 22:18), were all part of His Master Plan, as prophecy after prophecy was fulfilled in every detail.\u00a0 The Bible is clear that Jesus\u2019 death on the cross was not an unexpected \u201caccident\u201d; instead, it was a choice that He made as the ultimate demonstration of His love for all mankind.\u00a0 After all, as Jesus Himself said, \u201cGreater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends\u201d (John 15:13), and as the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church thirty years later, \u201cGod demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us\u201d (Romans 5:8).\u00a0 When it comes to the fact<\/i> of His death, Jesus was still in control.<\/p>\n

Have you ever stopped to think about the details of that \u201cGood\u201d Friday twenty centuries ago?\u00a0 Notice that Luke wrote in his gospel, \u201cJesus called out with a loud voice, \u2018Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.\u2019\u00a0 When He had said this, He breathed His last\u201d (Luke 23:46).\u00a0 Most victims of crucifixion would slowly pass out and eventually die of asphyxiation.\u00a0 However, Jesus did not die in the normal way.\u00a0 Instead, He chose<\/i> the exact moment of His death, thus proving His words, \u201cI lay down My life — only to take it up again.\u00a0 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of My own accord.\u00a0 I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again\u201d (John 10:17-18).\u00a0 Even when it comes to the timing<\/i> of His death, Jesus was in full control!<\/p>\n

If Jesus\u2019 death was the end of the story, it would be a sad story indeed, because it would only be the story of a man who was defeated by death.\u00a0 But three days later Jesus proved that He was more than just a man, and that He had the ultimate control over death itself<\/i>, by walking out of the tomb alive and well and for all to see!<\/p>\n

What does all of this mean for you and me today in the third millennium?\u00a0 If Jesus had control over the fact<\/i> of His death, the timing<\/i> of His death, and death itself<\/i>, the most sensible and reassuring thing we can do is to give Him control over our lives<\/i> as well.\u00a0 When it comes right down to it, there is not really all that much in our lives that we have control over.\u00a0 However, the One who heard the cry for help from the thief hanging next to Him on Golgotha, is the same One who hears our cries for help today.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think that we could ever go wrong in taking our finances, our relationships, our jobs, our ministries, and our lives, and turning control of them over to Him.\u00a0 After all, if He can keep this entire universe running smoothly (see Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3), He should be able to keep our lives running smoothly too.<\/p>\n

Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Spring 2014 issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter, to me, means that Jesus is in control. His arrest and crucifixion were not events that came upon Him unexpectedly.\u00a0 Instead, right from the very beginning of His ministry, He repeatedly told His disciples, \u201cThe Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.\u00a0 They will kill Him, and on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2930,"featured_media":21592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4061],"tags":[2875,2748,4126,3636],"ppma_author":[4668],"class_list":["post-21591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living-the-faith","category-spring-2014","tag-easter","tag-featured","tag-means","tag-resurrection","author-michaeljknowles"],"authors":[{"term_id":4668,"user_id":2930,"is_guest":0,"slug":"michaeljknowles","display_name":"Michael Knowles","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/MikeKnowles20100808-e1389301624198-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/MikeKnowles20100808-e1389301624198-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21591"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=21591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}