Easter 2016

Dear Neighbor,

When Jesus was on the cross He made sure that Mary would have a home after His death and resurrection. In the Gospel of John we read:

Jesus then seeing the mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, says to His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then He says to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home (John 19:26- 27).

We see that Jesus cared very much for Mary, so why did he call her “woman” instead of “mother”? The Gospels do not record a single time when Jesus Himself refers to Mary as His mother, although the Gospel writers sometimes do.

Jesus was born of Mary, so she was His mother. But His Father was Jehovah God. He received a body and hereditary tendencies toward evil through Mary, just as we inherit these things from our parents. But His soul was Divine. Through the course of His life He gradually put off what He had inherited from Mary. He replaced all of it with Divinely Human qualities from within, to the point that He was no longer her son, but the Son of God.

Through constant victories in temptations, Jesus overcame all the weaknesses of ordinary human nature. He “glorified” His humanity, that is, He made His Human nature Divine. Now He has all power in heaven and on earth (Mat. 28:18) to save everyone willing to follow Him. He said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Me” (John 12:32).

Because the Lord our Savior rose on Easter, fully God and fully Man, we know who to turn to for help. We know He is with us in all our trials. Because He conquered the hells, by His power we can overcome in our temptations too. He says, “In the world you will have affliction, but have confidence: I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). You are welcome to come to worship at 10:00 a.m. on Easter morning and every Sunday.

Happy Easter!