CSN - Sunday LightWing Messages - Easter Sunday

4/20/2025

Apr 20, 2025

Jesus Before Pilate

Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”

So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.

Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”

But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.” But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us! and to the hills, “Cover us!”’

For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The Death of Jesus

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. Luke 23:1-49 (NIV)

1 peter 1 3 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ which according to his ...

FOUNDER’S MESSAGE:

Happy Easter to all people of faith who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus!

Last week on Saturday, the Jewish holidays of Passover commenced at Sundown, and for the Christian of faith, those not simply wearing the cloak of pretend piety and overt virtue signalling, today is a time of genuine honesty and sincerity before our Heavenly Father. As Adam and Eve and countless others throughout human history discovered, there is no hiding or pretending in Heaven’s sight.

For the many Christians of faith who began Holy Week in a more sacred mental mindset, or an more respectful mood, today may contain greater rewards of reflection on Jesus’ sacrifice. The irony is that for those Christians who believe Jesus was God, there was no sacrifice. Jesus was one with God, but if he were not a man, there was no suffering – no sacrifice. And beyond the easy escapist answer of how “mankind is so ignorant, we cannot know the mysteries of a life of faith,” one must consult with and trust Jesus’ words rather than those who tell us what he really meant. Despite the numerous translations and mistranslations of the Bible, the one interpreter people of faith should totally trust is our Father in Heaven. How many truly ask Him the meaning of Jesus’ words – how many listen for an answer – how many can receive the answer?

The beauty of God’s Providence is that one can also understand the sacrifice of Jesus as the son of God much more deeply than simply trusting the words of modern day Pharisees and scribes, or interpreters of the New Testament. There are so many layers and layers of unjust theology that are so very difficult to wade through that it is understandable that the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is still unfathomable to many of the faithful. And, by writing these words, I am aware that I am offering up blasphemy to many who have greater faith in the contemporary scribes and Pharisees than faith in Heavenly Father’s confirmations. How can one be certain of this? The signs of the “great and terrible day of the Lord” are abundant. One would have to be living under a rock, or floating through their lives in total oblivion to not see the signs of the times we are living in right now.

On one past Easter we shared excerpts from a book written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled “The Cost of Discipleship,” which compared Costly Grace to Cheap Grace. Our first message today is from Bonhoeffer again. The message is a “Lenten reflection” from the book Meditations On The Cross, a book sharing Bonhoeffer's letters and sermons — focused on Jesus’ suffering, the way of the cross, the resurrection, and on overcoming death. The extracted message we submit is “Discipleship And The Cross.”

The second message this Easter Sunday is one I wrote during Holy Week in 2023 with relevant reflections upon the time of COVID and Jesus’ prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane. During this period, I had meditated, prayed, studied, and reflected much about Jesus in the Garden and especially about the prayers he offered in such a time. I sensed that this most serious time can truly be understood as the last moments of Jesus’ earthly freedom and the last time he spoke directly with his disciples before the resurrection. He requested (more likely, required) them to pray with him as he prayed most intensely nearby. Sadly, the disciples could not do what he requested of them. I came to the realization that Jesus is calling us all to watch with him, but also to pray that we would not fall into temptation in such a time as this. My message is titled, “The Challenge of Unshakeable Faith.” It is because we need it now, in such a time as this.

May God bless all of our readers and all of their loved ones. May God bless America!

Church Launches "Because He Lives" Easter Campaign | LDS Daily

May we, who are called by His name, humble ourselves and truly appreciate with deepest gratitude His Mercy and His loving Grace. May we also repent, and turn from the realms of spiritual apathy and disinterest, and reverse our compliance with the wicked ways of the world - even to be able to stand upright in such a time of great upheaval. Yet, in such a time as this, let us be courageous to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness.

Discipleship and the Cross Dietrich Bonhoeffer

LENTEN MEDITATION: Discipleship And The Cross

By Dietrich Bonhoeffer (From: Meditations On The Cross)

Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Out of my sight, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:31-34)

Suffering and rejection are the summary expression of Jesus’s cross. Death on the cross means to suffer and to die as someone rejected and expelled. That it is Peter, the rock of the church, who incurs guilt here immediately after his own confession to Jesus Christ and after his appointment by Jesus, means that from its very inception the church itself has taken offense at the suffering Christ. It neither wants such a Lord nor does it, as the church of Christ, want its Lord to force upon it the law of suffering.

This makes it necessary for Jesus to relate clearly and unequivocally to his own disciples the “must” of suffering. Just as Christ is Christ only in suffering and rejection, so also they are his disciples only in suffering and rejection, in being crucified along with Christ. Discipleship as commitment to the person of Jesus Christ places the disciple under the law of Christ, that is, under the cross.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself. Just as Peter, in denying Christ, said, I do not know the man, so also should each disciple say this to herself or himself. Self-denial can never be defined as some profusion – be it ever so great – of individual acts of self-torment or of asceticism. It is not suicide, since there, too, a person’s self-will can yet assert itself. Self-denial means knowing only Christ, and no longer oneself. It means seeing only Christ, who goes ahead of us, and no longer the path that is too difficult for us. Again, self-denial is saying only: He goes ahead of us; hold fast to him.

The cross is not adversity, nor the harshness of fate, but suffering coming solely from our commitment to Jesus Christ. The suffering of the cross is not fortuitous, but necessary. The cross is not the suffering tied to natural existence, but the suffering tied to being Christians. The cross is never simply a matter of suffering, but a matter of suffering and rejection, and even, strictly speaking, rejection for the sake of Jesus Christ, not for the sake of some other arbitrary behavior or confession. The cross always simultaneously means rejection, and that the disgrace of suffering is part of the cross. Being expelled, despised, and abandoned by people in one’s suffering, as we find in the unending lament of the psalmist, is an essential feature of the suffering of the cross, yet one no longer comprehensible to a form of Christian life unable to distinguish between bourgeois and Christian experience.

The first suffering we must experience is the call sundering our ties to this world. This is the death of the old human being in the encounter with Jesus Christ. Whoever enters discipleship enters Jesus’s death, and puts his or her own life into death; this has been so from the beginning. The cross is not the horrible end of a pious, happy life, but stands rather at the beginning of community with Jesus Christ. Every call of Christ leads to death. Whether with the first disciples we leave home and occupation in order to follow him, or whether with Luther we leave the monastery to enter a secular profession, in either case, the one death awaits us, namely, death in Jesus Christ, the dying away of our old form of being human in Jesus’s call.

But there is yet another suffering and yet another disgrace that no Christian escapes. Only Christ’s own suffering is the suffering of reconciliation. Yet because Christ did suffer for the sake of the world’s sins, because the entire burden of sin fell upon him, and because Jesus Christ bequeaths to the disciples the fruit of his suffering – because of all this, temptation and sin also fall upon the disciples. It covers them with pure shame, and expels them from the gates of the city like the scapegoat. Thus does the Christian come to bear sin and guilt for others.

Individual Christians would collapse under the weight of this, were they not themselves borne by him who bore all sins. In this way, however, they can, in the power of Christ’s own suffering, overcome all the sins that fall upon them by forgiving them. Thus do Christians become the bearers of burdens: Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Just as Christ bears our burdens, so also are we to bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters. The law of Christ which must be fulfilled is the bearing of the cross. The burden of my brother or sister that I am to bear is not only that person’s external fate, that person’s character and personality, but is in a very real sense that person’s sin. I cannot bear it except by forgiving it, in the power of the cross of Christ in which I, too, have a portion.

Those who are not prepared to take up the cross, those who are not prepared to give their life to suffering and rejection of others, lose community with Christ, and are not disciples. Discipleship is commitment to the suffering Christ.

Whether we really have found God’s peace will be shown by how we deal with the sufferings that will come upon us. There are many Christians who do, indeed, kneel before the cross of Jesus Christ, and yet reject and struggle against every tribulation in their own lives. They believe they love the cross of Christ, and yet they hate that cross in their own lives. And so in truth they hate the cross of Jesus Christ as well, and in truth despise that cross and try by any means possible to escape it.

Those who acknowledge that they view suffering and tribulation in their own lives only as something hostile and evil can see from this very fact that they have not at all found peace with God. They have basically merely sought peace with the world, believing possibly that by means of the cross of Jesus Christ they might best come to terms with themselves and with all their questions, and thus find inner peace of the soul. They have used the cross, but not loved it. They have sought peace for their own sake. But when tribulation comes, that peace quickly flees them. It was not peace with God, for they hated the tribulation God sends.

Thus those who merely hate tribulation, renunciation, distress, defamation, imprisonment in their own lives, no matter how grandiosely they may otherwise speak about the cross, these people in reality hate the cross of Jesus and have not found peace with God. But those who love the cross of Jesus Christ, those who have genuinely found peace in it, now begin to love even the tribulations in their lives, and ultimately will be able to say with scripture, We also boast in our sufferings.

David Jeremiah Quote: "Faith is the solid, unshakable confidence in God which is built upon ...

“The Challenge of Unshakeable Faith”

By Dennis Jamison - April 8, 2023

Prior to Easter in 2020, it was time in which the world had been exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic. I wrote that “the people of the world find themselves in uncertain times, with many people and families concerned about their health -- even their very lives.” Many readers may remember such a time. Many readers may have known loved ones who suffered – maybe even have lost loved ones then. At the time, I wrote:

The world is in a state of turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic, but there are many other items of concern and issues of confusion. In such a time of tribulation… Many people seek practical answers; yet some deeper souls seek wisdom from assurance of things unseen. Thus, many turn toward faith in times of crisis. Still
others will become fearful and pursue personal pathways of panic. People are free to choose the directions they each decide to go, but with the pandemic seemingly everywhere, many people do feel trapped, or find themselves adrift in the chaos and confusion.

Surprisingly, many Christians and people of faith, even leaders of the faithful, were challenged in their faith in the time of COVID. Many demonstrated their lack of faith as they placed their trust or their obedience with secular authorities. Now those secular “experts” have lost credibility due to the discovery of many false or invalid premises upon which they pursued repressive methods of a “lockdown mentality.” It was a time just prior to the Easter holiday, and I foolishly assumed that for people of faith, our physical life and the material world did not represent all that there was to life. However, I witnessed as time went on that fear triumphed over faith in such times – not for everyone, but for multitudes.

Especially for Christians, I assumed they knew that the time of the resurrection of Jesus from death into eternal life was also the time when Christianity began. However, I did observe some “Christians” struggled with the resurrection, and many gravitated towards an acceptance of the material restraints placed upon them from despotic government officials despite living in a nation in which our rights have been proclaimed as coming from God. It was contradictory.

Fear is a formidable and a powerful force. It has the capability to intimidate – even to eradicate faith. Thus, Jesus stated emphatically that “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)

Possibly the people of faith rationalized that this did not apply in a pandemic, or reasoned that the government was more to be feared than almighty God, since they hadn’t seen Him around lately. It occurred to me a while later that fear had intimidated even Jesus’ disciples, and it had

been especially apparent on the night of his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus even knew that they would abandon him in such a time when the guards of King Herod’s puppet government came to lock down the Messiah.

I believe it is fitting to examine this moment in the life of Jesus from the perspective of unshakeable faith. Our advantage that in this time is that Christians should know or believe in the resurrection of Jesus. It is the essence of the birth of Christianity. Yet, in their time, the disciples in the Garden with Jesus, or in the Holy Land at the time, had no experience of what was about to happen in their lives. They only had Jesus’ word that he would resurrect. That’s why the moment was about faith for them. Their faith was shaken. What of us, at this time? Is it about faith for us today? Will Jesus find faith when he returns? As I wrote in April of 2020, “a simplicity of faith can be a great blessing; but, it can present its own illusions. Yet, faith is what every human being will need to get through this most unusual time in human history.”

As I look upon my nation in 2023, I am beginning to reexamine the question of whether Jesus will find faith when he returns. Look at the nation honestly. Does it resemble a nation of faith? Or is this nation ruled by fear? The Hebrews lived under the fear of the Roman Empire. Christians do need to take account of reality. Do Christians live under fear of America’s government?

Fear can shatter rational thought, or at least suspend it – like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming automobile. Fear can paralyze people as they lose hold of whatever grip they had on some meaning in life. Fear can erupt in panic, and panic can lead to such irrational behavior that it defies common sense. Look at the nation honestly. Do current events reflect common sense?

The challenge now is for people of faith to exercise their faith in a manner greater than ever before in their lives. People of faith need to align their thinking with God’s perspective, and align their actions with God’s will. Do not think God is unconcerned with the evil that is ravaging and tormenting our nation. He is not a stoic judge who observes uncaringly from Heaven. If it were the case, Jesus would not have stopped and wept over Jerusalem as he made his way into the Holy City. If that were the case, Jesus would not have been so sorrowful in the Garden of Gethsemane. We need to know more deeply the loving heart of God. Such knowledge does increase faith.

Jesus’ prayers after the Passover meal were incredibly significant and help us to know more deeply the loving heart of God, if we see from His viewpoint and not our simplistic human perspective. When Jesus went into the Garden, He was deeply saddened, as we have his words from Matthew: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” Again Jesus was in anguish and wept as “he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)

The prayers of Jesus in the Garden were in alignment with what he predicted at the time he wept and prayed over Jerusalem before he went into the city: “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Jesus did weep in the Garden, but he was not a wimp weakly weeping for the sake of saving his own life. Jesus was human, but he had no fear of dying, even though MLK offered this as a reasonable explanation in his semon: "Garden of Gethsemane." One must remember Jesus had calmed a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, he had faced the elite of all the Hebrew authorities and remained aligned with God’s Word, he had escaped crowds seeking to kill him several times to continue to do God’s Will, he even faced off against Satan and was victorious.

Jesus wept for God, and he wept for his friends, and he wept for his people. I am aware that this may fly in the face of “accepted” or “orthodox” explanation regarding his intent. But, if one is not consistently clear with what Jesus truly taught as well as what he practiced, it is easy to pivot to a human perspective that he prayed for himself.

It is clear Jesus knew that God’s Providence of establishing His Kingdom “on Earth as it is in Heaven,” would be prolonged until he returned. Does anyone of genuine faith not think that Jesus could well imagine what Hell could happen to God’s children in that time? Biblical history helps clarify this. What did the Hebrew people do when Moses did not return for quite a lengthy period after ascending the mountain? How much more Hell has happened since Jesus left us? How much faith have people retained after 2000 years, if it can be lost in a few turbulent years?

Look at America honestly. Do current events reflect strong and vibrant faith? Can you begin to sense why Jesus wept? How much faith can Christians be proud of when he returns? At this time, contemporary Christians demonstrate more how they can be crippled by ignorance and dominated by fear. It is why this message has to do with unshakeable faith.

It seems to me that especially now American Christians are in a similar state the disciples were in as Jesus asked them to watch with him in the Garden of Gethsemane – to practice their faith. Christians in America seem to be currently challenged in a similar way, to put their faith above fear of the unknown. The closest disciples were asked to watch with Jesus – to exercise faith and to suspend fear in such an irrational time. In this time, the truly faith-filled people are required to demonstrate unshakeable faith – to show, or to exercise greater faith than ever before – to absolutely align their thinking with God’s thinking, and to align their actions with God’s Will.

This is exactly what Jesus was doing in the Garden – aligning himself with God’s Will. However, he also told those whom he brought with him to pray that they may not enter into temptation: “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:40)

Tragically, In this most serious time, just before he was arrested, his closest disciples could not keep watch with him and simply pray with him. It was a most intense time and represents the final moments of Jesus’ earthly freedom and the last time he spoke with his disciples before the resurrection. In such a time, although Jesus had prepared his closest disciples, it is obvious that they were not completely prepared for all of the events that would overwhelm them. While fear may have filled the hearts or minds of the disciples at various points in their lives of faith, they were really unprepared for all that would transpire from the arrest of Jesus in the Garden to the agony of his crucifixion.

That fateful night, Jesus’ disciples panicked and ran away. In this most critical time, “...all the disciples forsook him and fled.” (Matthew 26:56) It is evident from biblical history that when leaders of faith are shaken or taken from the scene, followers tend to flee. Jesus predicted his disciples would also abandon him: Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ’I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’” (Matthew 26:31)

Look at America honestly. Do leaders in the different social realms help American citizens to keep their faith or abandon faith? Did the leaders of the Hebrew society help them to know the time of their visitation, or did they reject the stone that became the cornerstone? This is such a time that faith-filled people need to absolutely align their thinking with God’s thinking, and align their actions with God’s Will.

This is exactly what Jesus was doing in the Garden – aligning himself with God’s Will. Jesus did weep in the Garden, but he wept for God’s Providence not because of his self-centered will. He hoped for his disciples to keep the faith – to show unshakeable faith in time of great need. Such

unshakeable faith is required in such chaotic times. People of faith need to read their Bibles or God’s Word more than focus on secular news; they need to be more attuned with their trusted spiritual leaders than with those of little faith or those with no faith at all. They need to humble themselves and seek God’s face in prayer, and listen to His voice speaking to their consciences amidst the chaos. People of genuine faith need to promote hope and sincerely seek ways to help others and to solve problems. Unshakeable faith is required in such a time as this.