Daily Resurrection Power this Easter Season:

Day 1- Lamb

People began to pull off their outer garments and throw them into the road. I managed to stand up as the party came down toward us. The throng parted and I saw him. There, in their midst, was this king my brother had announced. He was very ordinary looking and I suppose that surprised me the most. I don’t know what we had expected.

“It’s the Nazarene!”

“Tell the daughter of Zion, your king comes to you, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” The voice at my ear was full and breathless, half wonder, half praise. It was my own mother just at my side.

Her hand went around my waist and I shivered, not from fear or worry, but in that way I would always feel a mysterious something drawing me toward the certainty of unseen angels and glories when the strains of the shofar could be heard coming from the Temple Mount announcing the beginning of the High Holy Days.

I tucked myself against her warmth and it seemed that she and I were one together in that moment under the bright dry sun on the road leading into Jerusalem.

“Hosanna!” the throng shouted in unison.
 
I had heard her speak of him until my father tired of her retelling the rumors of his unusual acts. Marvelous things that included even the dead being brought to life again. At least it was what the women at the well gossiped about whenever we went to draw water for our household. But not everyone believed him. In the end father forbade her to speak of him anymore.

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he would say.

I looked up at her. A tear of hope ran down her face.

“Will he now restore the kingdom, mother?” I whispered.

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” the crowd shouted.

She did not answer me, but began to join with the throng, her voice rising in joyful release and jubilation. She seemed transfixed and I suppose it was a good thing, for out of nowhere Cephas suddenly appeared before me, his face bright with excitement and he kissed me.

“I shall marry you!” he announced. “Bride and bridegroom!” And then he laughed. He pressed something into my palm and was gone into the crowd. I flushed with fear of being seen having been kissed like that and then I looked down as I opened my hand. A tiny wooden lamb, artfully carved as I knew Cephas was apt to do, lay nestled in the fold of my fist.

A bride to be, I thought, perfect, without spot or blemish.

The man on the donkey drew nearer. Hosannas went up all around me.

“Blessed is He who comes!” the throng shouted over and over. Everyone was just an excited child now. In another moment my voice was raised with mother’s and the rest. She and I clung tightly to each other. We became a symbol of our whole heritage and family name,  arms about one another’s waists, acknowledging the son of David as he rode into our holy city. My hand tight around Cephas’ promise, I lay the lamb upon my heart.

God has been on a mission, not merely to redeem the race of man, but to recreate it, to give it back its life. The revelation of the old covenant, the promise to Abraham, the Law and the Prophets—all of these pointt to the new thing that would be demonstrated and ratified in the incarnation. Jesus’ mission was not to become a philosophical or theological icon. He did not come to “set a good example.” His mission was to end the old Adamic race with its death-curse and to begin a new one.

His story is the new Genesis. The first woman was taken from the side of the first man. The Last Adam, Christ, carried the substance that would be formed into the companion eternally suitable for Him. His Church is that companion—we have been betrothed to the Second Man. Christ is the Head of a new creation: all who put their trust in Him.
 

From our family to yours, may the blessings of Easter surround you this season. HE IS RISEN!

This Easter meditation series is excerpted from The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory. Click here to order your copy online.