Tico Tuesday, April 6th

JESUS IS ALIVE!! Christ is risen!

I just finished spending my 4^th Holy Week in a row in Costa Rica! I hope you all had a wonderful week and that you will continue to rejoice in the Resurrection of our awesome Savior! Here I am on Sunday morning. On the blog you'll find a picture of the sunrise (well, slightly after. The sun beat me out of bed, even though I tried to get up first) and a couple more pictures as well as some fascinating things I just learned about the first Holy Week! It's so cool to live with people who have a rich understanding of Jewish traditions!

Have a fantastic, joy-filled rest of the week!

Love,

Carrie

Ok, first the pictures. I think I'm going to do this every year and see how much I change from year to year. Last year-chubby cheeks!!! white white girl! Dirty hair and moister lips. This year, skinnier face! Wahoo! More tan! Jejeje... still with dirty hair (I do shower and wash it regularly, really!), and chapped lips from the beach. What a hilarious contrast! Oh and here's the newly risen sun.

So, a few weeks ago I was reading somewhere in the Gospels and Jesus talked about the sign of Jonah-how He will have to die and be buried for 3 days and 3 nights, just like Jonah was in the fish for that same period of time. I got confused, because if Jesus died on Good Friday, there aren't 3 nights between Friday and Sunday morning! That's only 2! And I KNOW Jesus wouldn't be wrong. He couldn't be. Bur normally we just pay attention to the 3^rd day aspect of it and say Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday morning. But that actually doesn't work-the Gospel of John says that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark and Jesus had already risen. The other gospels says that people approached the tomb at dawn. And the tomb was already empty! So, I don't think that the day of Sunday can even really count. So that brings us down to 2 days and 2 nights. Yikes!

But, this is what happened. Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples, right? Normally we say that was Thursday. Well, it was according to the Hebrew calendar. But, that was actually on Wednesday for those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar. This might get a little confusing, but I'll try to explain it right. Stick with me. Remember that the Jewish day begins at sunset. So, Jesus celebrated Passover Wednesday night (which for Jews is actually Thursday). The day after Passover is the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so that would be Thursday night, (which is actually Friday according to the Hebrew calendar). The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a very holy day, so it is actually made a Sabbath day too. No work can be done on that day, just like the Sabbath, the 7^th day of the week (Friday night to Saturday). This is called “Shabbaton” -big Sabbath. Because, there were 2 consecutive days of rest, Friday (which begins Thursday night) and Saturday. This doesn't happen every year. The Hebrew calendar is lunar, so there is a lot of variation year to year, but that is how it happened to be the year that Jesus was crucified. We know that Jesus our spotless Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us, but also-he was the Unleavened Bread of Life.

Anyway, all the hullabaloo of Gethsemane, betrayal and sending Jesus back and forth before officials and all that was on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. He was crucified Thursday afternoon. It is said that the 3 hours of darkness was a solar eclipse. I'm pretty sure that's true. Josue has been trying to look it up, but finding the date has been harder than he thought. But, they wanted to get everything done by sundown because day 1 of Shabbaton was beginning. The holy sabbath day due to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So, Jesus died Thursday afternoon. Day 1 (parts of a day count as a day). Thursday night. Night !. Friday. Day 2. Friday night. Night 2. Saturday. Day 3. Saturday night. Night 3. Then as a fantastic Gaither song says “THEN CAME THE MORNING!!” And the tomb was empty! The stone was rolled away and Jesus our Savior and Redeemer was ALIVE and incarnate on the earth once more!!! And the sign of Jonah was indeed fulfilled! Oh yeah, and that Sunday was the Feast of Firstfruits. How's Jesus for the best Firstfruit ever?

And the sweetness of following the church liturgical calendar? Easter (I prefer calling it Resurrection) is a SEASON!!! Yeah! We get 6 weeks of celebration, and then we celebrate the Ascencion and then Pentecost and it's just great! Jesus the Lord deserves all the celebration and praise we can give!