Calvin Synod Herald, 2012 (113. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2012-01-01 / 1-2. szám
10 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Continued from page 9 stay a baby. He grew up. He began doing astonishing things, miraculous things. He healed lepers, and the lame, the blind and deaf. He fed thousands of people with a few fish and loaves of bread. He stilled storms with just two words. Why is he so dangerous to religious scholars and rulers? He told stories of shepherds, slaves and Samaritans; of lost coins, lost sheep and lost opportunities. But when he grew up he is not remembered as a great Philosopher, or an accomplished healer, or a brilliant Storyteller. He said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die.” He said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through me.” Ravi Zacharias in his Book “Jesus Among Other Gods” writes: “Every word of that statement challenges the fundamental beliefs of the Indian culture from which I come, and in reality, actually stands against an entire world.” Hinduism and Bahaism have long challenged the concept of a singe way to God. He claimed to forgive sins. The Jewish religious leaders wanted to stone him because he claimed that he was God in flesh. Jesus claimed to be the promised Messiah. Jesus claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus successfully fulfilled all of God’s laws that the rest of humanity found impossible to keep. With these words Jesus is saying that He is carrying all of humanity’s sins so that all who believe on Him as their Substitute and Redeemer will be saved. Jesus claimed that we can personally know God and that absolute nature of His truth. Agnostics deny that possibility. Our culture calls for tolerance. Yet truth can not be sacrificed at the altar of pretended tolerance. All religions, plainly and simply, can not be true. Some beliefs are false and we know them to be false. If these claims of Jesus are true, then all other religions are fake and other religions and rulers of the world need to be afraid. Let me tell you what Jesus did immediately after he made his claim to be the Savior or the world. He went to the gravesite of one of His dearest friends, a friend who had been dead for three days. Jesus had the stone taken away from the tomb’s entrance, and then, having made a prayer of thanksgiving to His Father in heaven, he called out to His deceased friend. “Lazarus, come forth.” We could have called all day, but with that one command of Jesus, Lazarus did come forth. Wrapped like a mummy, Lazarus came forth from that tomb, alive, healthy and healed. This action of Jesus tells the world that he has power to overcome death. I think you can have only two reasonable reactions to the words of Jesus and His resurrection. You can either, like many that day at the gravesite of Lazarus, believe Jesus is your Savior; or you can like some who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus and chose to plot how to eliminate Jesus. When Jesus was bom, there were two reactions: Wise men came and worshipped Jesus as Savior; Herod tried to kill Him. When he preformed miracles there were two reactions; people believed in Him, or they said he was possessed by the Devil. If you don’t know the story of Jesus, let me tell you the rest. Those people who tried to eliminate Jesus, did eventually succeed. They paid off one of His disciples to betray Him; they railroaded Him through mock trials; they manufactured evidence against Him; they encouraged the crowd to call for his death. The Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate had Jesus crucified and nailed to a cross, suspended between heaven and earth. There Jesus suffered and died. Do you believe this? If Jesus had been a mere man, he would have stayed dead. Dead is what happens to a man when his heart is punctured by a Roman spear. But Jesus, along with being a Man, is also the Son of God. That’s why on the third day after His murder, His sacrifice for us accepted by God, Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus came back to life. Do you believe this? There are only two reactions to the resurrection of Jesus; either you believe it, or you must try to stuff Jesus back into His tomb and act as if nothing extraordinary happened. Rev. Stefan Torok The Season of Lent Lent originated in the fourth century of the church. The season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and climaxing during Holy Week with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding Saturday before Easter. Originally Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized into the Church, but since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Today, Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter. Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are referred to as the Sundays in Lent. The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling. Christians today use this period of time for introspection, self examination, and repentance. This season of the year is equal only to the Season of Advent in importance in the Christian year, and is part of the second major grouping of Christian festivals and sacred time that includes Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Some churches today still observe a rigid schedule of fasting on certain days during Lent, especially the giving up of meat, sweets, and other types of food. Other traditions do not place as great an emphasis on fasting, but focus on charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical need with food and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities. Most Christian churches that observe Lent at all focus on it as a time of prayer, especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on the need for God’s grace. It is really a preparation to celebrate God’s marvelous redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for, as Christians. Mardi Gras or Carnival Carnival, which comes from a Latin phrase meaning "removal of meat," is the three day period preceding the beginning
