Anointing Wednesday

 John 12 talks about Mary anointing Christ's feet.  But  Matthew and Mark  talk about the anointing of his feet.  Many assume that these are the same instance and maybe miss translated, or just a different version of the same event.  However John clearly says that the anointing takes place 6 days before pass over and Mark clearly says 2 days before the feast.  So they are clearly two separate accounts. I for a long time have tried to figure out why he was anointed twice. Why his feet were anointed first and then his head anointed later. There had to be a reason. I had found so many symbols of the Passover fulfilled in Christ, I knew there had to be a reason for this one too.

I couldn't find instructions for the processing of  the lambs for Passover.  And then I stumbled upon it. The Passover lamb was a combination of all the sacrifices, so it had to meet all the requirements for the several different types of sacrifices. Burnt offerings were selected and their feet were anointed as part of the inspection process for their perfection. Scape goats were anointed on their head with the sins of the people before they were sent to the wilderness. Thus both requirements were fulfilled. His feet were anointed in preparation for the perfect offering, his head was anointed to prepare him to take him n the sins of the world.

Today we just a had a discussion of these events. I am open to ideas of activities or additional ideas for this day.

Fig Tuesday

  There is quite a lot of debate on the day the Christ cursed the fig tree.  However, I figure it doesn't really matter a whole lot what day he cursed it. Really it just matters that it happened, and what we learn from it.  

On his way into Jerusalem, sometime during his final week, Christ gets hungry and sees a fig tree along the road with leaves.  Now to understand this story you must understand the life of a fig tree. First of all it is not the season for fig trees this early in spring, so there should not have been figs on the tree.  However, figs grow before the leaves, and when the leaves come on, the figs should be ripe.  So none of the other fig trees had figs, but they also didn't have leaves.  So the tree was not cursed for not having figs as much as it was for pretending to be something it was not.  Or for being showy, puffed up and prideful.  Interesting to compare this to the other parables found in the next few Chapters.  

Tuesday and Wednesday Christ spends at the temple teaching.  But he isn't just teaching he is being scrutinized and judged by the Pharisees.  This too fulfills the Passover traditions.  Like mentioned on Palm Sunday the Jews brought the lamb into their home to watch it and make sure it had no faults, to make sure it really was perfect.  The Pharisees were there watching THE LAMB scrutinizing him and trying to find Faults in him. Christ's Parables he teaches at this time are direct condemnations of the Pharisees, just like his cursing of the fig tree. (I need  to list the parables and references)

Curly, our lamb, brought us a basket of fig newtons for dessert.

Monday - Cleansing the Temple

 Today we learned about how Passover is often considered synonymous with The Feast at of Unleavened Bread. For 8 days the Jews not only avoid leaven but seek out every opportunity to eat Unleavened Bread. The leaven in bread is symbolic of pride because leavening puffs up bread, and pride puffs us up.  So not only do they not eat leaven for eight days, they completely rid their homes of it, Spring Cleaning for the Jews is literally done religiously every spring during Passover.  They cleanse their house and look for the leavening to get rid of.  

At the same times the Jews were cleaning their house of the leaven and sin, Christ was cleaning his Father's house of the sin. This is discussed in all 4 gospels: Matthew 21:12–15; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46; John 2:13–16 and there is a video clip depicting this event. After our discussion of the cleansing of the temple,  the basket was full of eggs, each egg had a different task and a small amount of money, (anywhere from fifty cents to a couple of dollars).  Then the kids got to open the egg. They got to keep all the money, but to open another egg they had to complete the task in the egg.  We had a whole bunch of deep cleaning items I had been hoping to get done for a while. The money was just enough to get the kids motivated to do their job quickly but thoroughly. We then discussed how it is easier to feel of the spirit when our house is clean and in order and free of things that are distracting to the spirit.

Palm Sunday

 

Most Christians start Holy Week on Palm Sunday. This link has a good time line of Holy Week and the events that happened when. In our house Sunday morning the lamb stood with an Easter Basket. It was full of palm leaves and eggs. Some of the Eggs were numbered, We opened the numbered eggs to find out what scripture verses to read, which covered (Matthew 21:1-16)  and to read questions that lead the discussion.  We watched the new church clip about the Triumphal Entry.

After learning about Christ coming in on the donkey, and the people waving palm leaves we talked about how, after the Passover lamb was anointed they were then allowed to be chosen for the Passover, and that they were welcomed into the family home.  And how the people yelling Hosanna was them accepting Christ as their Messiah, on the very same day that they were accepting the lamb to come into their home.

We then made a palm leaf wreath, to hang on the front door as a symbol that we accept Christ as our Savior. I got these palm leaves, simply hot glued them and tied a yellow ribbon at the top. And then we talked about other ways to show that we have accepted Christ.  Ultimately we came to the decision we must follow his example and live like he did. So we must serve others.  The 6 eggs left in the basket were all eggs with
someone's name inside. Each person selected an Egg and that person will be their secret service person all week.

Making Easter Special

  I feel like for years I have made Christmas special. Starting seven weeks before Christmas I do a Sunday devotional with my family about Christmas and give them something to focus on through the week. But Easter often falls short, almost as an after thought. So this year, starting in January I started planning Easter.  I have studied and planned and studied and planned some more to make sure I get it right. I have spent weeks painting Easter Eggs with the story of the resurrection. I wanted to make sure I made it special so I took the whole holy week off to spend with my kids and make sure that it is a big deal. And thus it begins. . .

Saturday.

The evening before the Triumphal Entry Jesus had dinner with his friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  So this is where I decided to start my story.  (Actually we start slightly before that with the story of Lazarus being resurrected (John 11:1-44 or here is an awesome movie clip).  Then we went on to learn about how he had a dinner with his friends (John 12 1-2, 9-11).  That it was customary to serve your friends by washing their feet. But that Mary took it a step further by Anointing his feet with expensive Oil. We talked about the similarities of this with the Passover lamb's feet  being anointed with oil before they were allowed to be selected for the feast. According to Jewish custom Passover lambs were chosen six days prior to Passover, They were inspected to make sure they were free from blemish, this included all the way down to their feet which were often damaged from jumping around ins the rocky hill sides. Upon completion of the initial inspection their feet were anointed with oil to prepare them to enter the home for five days of further inspection.  At this point I introduced them to our adorable Lamb that I bought to be part of our week long festivities. We talked about the shepherds that watched over these lambs, and how it was important for the shepherds that watched over the Passover lambs, and watched for the first born lambs, were also the first to see the real Lamb of God.

We Then talked about how if it wasn't still the pandemic we would have invited friends over just like Mary and Martha did, we would probably them cookies (probably not wash their feet).  So Next year we hope to have friends over for cookies the Saturday before Holy week.  But instead this time we got Daffodils for our Neighbors, tied a bow on them and made a Note card that explained that, "Daffodils have long been a Symbol of the Resurrection.  They die, and then in the spring they come alive again and are often the first flower to bloom. We give the flower as a reminder of God's love and to thank you for your friendship.  We hope you will plant the flower somewhere to remind you year after year of God's love for you."

Charis

Why We Celebrate Hanukkah

 In December I went and picked my daughter up from her friend’s house.  Amongst all the many Christmas decorations ornamenting their shelves sat a beautiful Menorah. I immediately felt a

kinship with my daughter’s friend’s Mother. A fellow Christian celebrating Hanukkah, and why not?

I celebrate Hanukkah because it is a celebration of Faith, of Miracles, and of Temples. All things that we should celebrate.  Christ attended Hanukkah celebrations, in the bible it is referred to as the feat of the dedication. What is the history of Hanukkah?

The old testament ends in about  420 BC and the New Testament starts in about 1 BC. What happened in those 420 years?  This is the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Apocrypha. In about 160 BC Syria overtook Jerusalem, and like so often was the custom of those who took over Jerusalem they made practicing Judaism against the law. Syria took over the temple, and filled it with statues of their pagan Gods, and insisted on submission to the pagan God. There were some who resisted. Judas Maccabees was one of these so was Judith (a woman prophetess).  Judas Maccabee lead a rebellion, that knocked down the statues of the God’s and then they fled to the mountains to hide.  While they were in the mountains word spread that they were there and faithful Jews from all over joined them. Judith was in a city in the out skirts. Her city was surrounded by the Syrian army and they were just waiting for the city to surrender.  When the city was about to surrender she told them that they all lacked faith in God, and that it would be better to die faithful than to surrender to the Syrians.  She then went out to the leader of the Syrian Army brought him loads of cheese and whine, and when he drunk himself silly she chopped off his head and brought it back to the city. The Army fled, and the citizens of the city went and joined with Maccabees.  After a while the small army went and reclaimed the city from the Assyrians a Miracles in and off itself.  The first thing they did after winning the city back was to clear the temple of the Pagan Gods.  They wanted to start the temple back up, but only could find enough oil for one day. As part of the temple ceremony they were not supposed to let the lanterns burn out, they need to keep them full of oil at all times Oil takes seven days to purify, but they really didn’t want to wait to have their temple back.  They decided to go ahead and relight and rededicate their temple.  The second miracle happened, the oil lasted for the full additional seven days until they were able to have more.

Wow what an amazing story of Faith, commitment to following the Lord, Miracles and blessing for the faith and following the Lord. And the importance of temples. 

While these events were not recorded in Canonized scripture, Hanukkah is known as the Feast of Dedication in the Bible, Christ attended this annual celebration.  The celebration is a feast that God still provides Miracles, a Celebration that they could once again worship in the temple.  So it was

very exciting to find a fellow Christian who celebrates it as well. We should all still be celebrating the good news that God still preforms Miracles, that he goes before us and fights our fights for us.  And even more important that we have temples to worship in.  I love celebrating Hanukkah!

Hanukkah is very low key for us.  We light the Menorah and talk about the miracles we have seen in our lives. We will visit Temple Square, what could be more fitting the temple all adorned in lights. Traditional Hanukkah foods include fried foods to celebrate the oil lasting for eight days, and cheese to celebrate the faithful example of Judith. Some of the fried foods include latkes (traditionally potato, however this year I found an apple latke that I plan on trying) and doughnuts. Mozzarella sticks that combine both the cheese and fried foods.   There are plenty of recipes found on the internet. We have had several menorah’s; my kids do a good job of breaking them. I finally got this mini one, which just uses standard birthday cake candles, which makes supplying the candles a whole lot easier because it was hard for me to find menorah candles around here. 

We have celebrated Hanukkah for years.  We have also dabbled a little with Passover. But this past year, I stated wondering about the other Biblical Holidays? What are they about, what can I learn about my faith if I learn more about them. The last few months have taken us on an incredibly journey of discovery. We are constantly amazed at the things we have learned and have decided that we need to share this. We want everyone to be as excited as we are, we want other to be able to understand the things we have come to understand.