THE BIBLE –DISCOVERY YEAR 07
WITH LUKE’S GOSPEL
COMMENT FOR EASTER DAY – 08-04-07 
Isaiah 65: 17-25 
The magnificent imagery of this passage spells out the dream of peace for the Hebrew people.  The conflict, revenge and killing of the past is over, when under Persian control the people are left with the remnants of their shattered lives. The new thing he sees is people made truly in the image of God living peaceably in Jerusalem – a change as remarkable as that of a carnivore becoming a vegetarian!
John 18: 1-19: 42 
This is a story where the Hebrew peoples’ spiritual search becomes a universal story.  All actors except one were local, and made their deals from a religious, political and cultural perspective.  In our post 9/11 world we can understand how human rights and procedural justice quickly give way to violence and death.  But God in Jesus took on our human state, and suffered our human fate while offering a kingdom where love and truth prevailed.  Pilot’s sign made this a universal story.
Luke 24: 1-12 
The early dawn was quiet and still.  The disciples in despair did not want to wake Those who employed a caveman strategy of planning and brute force did not need to wake.  But three women, with no credit from either group, stood and listened in humble surprise.  Where they expected death they found life – a spiritual power which changed them by its creative power as the miracle took hold of their minds and hearts.
1 Corinthians 15: 19-26 
Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, an encounter of such blinding spiritual power it stays with him now as he writes this splendid chapter on the resurrection.  Being alive in Christ is a new quality of peaceful living.  The life of endless competition backed up by lethal force is of the primitive past.  This is a new spiritual reality where the loving energy of God accepts, forgives and holds together every child of every race.  This is Isaiah’s new creation.
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