|
Easter 2012
The Prophesy of the Prophet Isaiah (around 740-701 B.C.) concerning Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant, whose suffering and death would justify many - Extracted from the Prophet Isaiah, Chapters 52-53:
1 Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, Zion. Put on your finest clothes, Jerusalem, Holy City; for the uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more.
2 Shake off your dust; get up, captive Jerusalem! The chains have fallen from your neck, captive daughter of Jerusalem!
3 For Yahweh says this, 'You were sold for nothing; you will be redeemed without money.'
4 For the Lord Yahweh says this, 'Long ago my people went to Egypt and settled there as aliens; finally Assyria oppressed them for no reason.
5 So now what is to be done,' declares Yahweh, 'since my people have been carried off for nothing, their masters howl in triumph,' declares Yahweh, 'and my name is held in contempt all day, every day?
6 Because of this my people will know my name, because of this they will know when the day comes, that it is I saying, Here I am!'
7 How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, of the messenger of good news, who proclaims salvation and says to Zion, 'Your God is king!'
8 The voices of your watchmen! Now they raise their voices, shouting for joy together, for with their own eyes they have seen Yahweh returning to Zion.
9 Break into shouts together, shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 Yahweh has bared his holy arm for all the nations to see, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
11 Go away, go away, leave that place, do not touch anything unclean. Get out of her, purify yourselves, you who carry Yahweh's vessels!
12 For you are not to hurry away, you are not to leave like fugitives. No, Yahweh marches at your head and the God of Israel is your rearguard.
13 Look, my servant will prosper, will grow great, will rise to great heights.
14 As many people were aghast at him - he was so inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked like a man-
15 so many nations will be astonished and kings will stay tight-lipped before him, seeing what had never been told them, learning what they had not heard before.
1 Who has given credence to what we have heard? And who has seen in it a revelation of Yahweh's arm?
2 Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts;
3 he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard.
4 Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God;
5 whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises.
6 We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him.
7 Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth.
8 Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken. Which of his contemporaries was concerned at his having been cut off from the land of the living, at his having been struck dead for his people's rebellion?
9 He was given a grave with the wicked, and his tomb is with the rich, although he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit.
10 It was Yahweh's good pleasure to crush him with pain; if he gives his life as a sin offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his life, and through him Yahweh's good pleasure will be done.
11 After the ordeal he has endured, he will see the light and be content. By his knowledge, the upright one, my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself.
12 Hence I shall give him a portion with the many, and he will share the booty with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and for being counted as one of the rebellious, whereas he was bearing the sin of many and interceding for the rebellious. |
|
Extracted from the Gospel according to John, Chapter 20:
The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead
1 It was very early on the first day of the week (Easter Sunday) and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb
2 and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved (hereinafter referred to John, the Evangelist, author of this book). 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,' she said, 'and we don't know where they have put him.'
3 So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.
4 They ran together, but the other disciple (John), running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first;
5 he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.
6 Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying on the ground
7 and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple (John) who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.
9 Till this moment they had still not understood the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
10 The disciples then went back home.
Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdala
11 But Mary was standing outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside,
12 and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet.
13 They said, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' 'They have taken my Lord away,' she replied, 'and I don't know where they have put him.'
14 As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.'
16 Jesus said, 'Mary!' She turned round then and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbuni!' - which means Master.
17 Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'
18 So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord,' and that he had said these things to her. |
|
19 In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, 'Peace be with you,'
20 and, after saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord,
21 and he said to them again, 'Peace be with you. 'As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.'
22 After saying this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.
24 Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. (Note: Thomas is called the Twin because he has a twin sister.)
25 So the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord,' but he answered, 'Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.'
|
