Easter: Jesus lives!!

Link #1: Determining the past, present, or future date for Easter: [via this website]
Link #2: Biblical sequence of Jesus' events..& Scripture citations...that crucifixion week [at this Living Web, Gospel Harmony website]
Link #3: About origin of Easter [here]

The Bible is divided into the Old Testament (Christ concealed) & the New Testament (Christ revealed). The 400 years of captivity & slavery of the Jews in Egypt symbolizes our captivity to sin. The Passover celebration is the annual remembrance celebration of that miraculous evening of delivery from Egypt following the killing of "pass-over lambs". Jesus = divinity cloaked in humanity. By Jewish tradition, the lamb to be sacrificed during the Passover celebration was selected five days before the sacrifice was to be made. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey...not a war horse, five days before He was crucified. The lamb was customarily slain at 3 p.m. on Friday of Passover Week. Jesus was born to die as mankind's Passover lamb. Crucifixion usually took a great number of hours or even days to kill. Jesus uttered the words "it is finished" & gave up His life on the cross on Good Friday after just 3 hours on the Cross at 3 p.m., the 9th hour (Luke 23:44). Jesus was not "killed".

Saturday: Jesus arrives in Bethany (on the side of the Mount of Olives opposite the side which is within view of Jerusalem & has  the Garden of Gethsemane) for a dinner in His honor. "Mary of Bethany" puts expensive (an amount worth one year's wages) Nard, a burial perfume, on Jesus' feet.
Palm Sunday: the donkey is obtained & Jesus rides it (an arriving king with peaceful intentions always road a donkey) & descends the western side of  the hill-like Mt. of Olives, down through the Kidron Valley (a small valley) & up the other side into Jerusalem...the people "red carpet" the way with their cloaks & wave palm branches. This is the Sunday leading into the "Passion" (the suffering).
Monday-Wednesday: various happenings (including much "table talk" to His disciples...example, see John 14-17), see link #2 , above
Maundy (Holy) Thursday: Jesus washes disciples feet. They have "The Lord's Supper"...the Last Supper...in the "upper room", just prior to which Jesus dips a piece of bread in oil & gives it to the disciple who will betray Him (Judas Iscariot), and Judas leaves (only 12 were there for the actual supper: Jesus plus 11). Jesus promises the Holy Spirit as Counselor to His followers. Jesus prays to the point of "sweating blood" in the Garden of Gethsemane; then He crosses the Kidron Valley to the Jerusalem side of the valley & enters a garden...arrested there. Jailed in a cell in the home of Caiaphas, the High Priest, just outside the Jerusalem walls.
Good Friday:  Neither the Romans, the Jews, or any other group or army could arrest Jesus and put him on the Cross...nor did the nails keep Him on the cross: it was His love for mankind and love of and obedience to His Father that took Him to the cross & held Him there (Matthew 26:53-54; John 19:11)! Those people were mere participants in a divine drama that had to happen. Jesus was tried before Pilate and had the daylights beaten out of him...flogged (John 19:1)...at the 6th (11-noon) hour (John 19:14); given vinegar in a sponge held on a stick of hyssop (the plant that was used to paint pass-over lamb's blood on the dwelling doors that night before the great exodus from Egypt); crucified & died at the 9th (2-3pm) hour (Luke 23:44) followed by earthquakes, darkness falling over the earth (at 3 in the afternoon), tombs opening and bodies of the dead walking (Matthew 27:53) & the tearing of the huge & tall Temple Holy of Holies veil/curtain (Mark 15:38)  from the top downward (meaning that all people...not just the High Priest because Jesus now became the High Priest for mankind...now & ever after  have direct access to God through Jesus).  Body taken by wealthy Jewish leader, Joseph of Arimathea; & Nicodemus the Jewish Pharisee supplied (& they covered His body with) 75 pounds of preservative mixture of aloes & myrrh (a large amount...an amount usually used to preserve a king)...buried in a sealed (Matthew 27:62-66) tomb and guarded to specifically prevent the disciples from stealing the body so that they could claim that He rose from the dead.
Saturday...the last day of the Jewish week (Passover Sabbath): Jesus' body in the tomb...everyone obediently rests & honors this most important Jewish day.
Easter Sunday: the tomb is found to be empty & as a result of the resurrection, Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene (His first resurrected words are to a woman) & that evening to all disciples except Thomas...and to "doubting" Thomas a week later, & to over 500 (I Corinthians 15:6) during the 40 days between resurrection & ascending to Heaven.
 

(posted 19 April 2003; latest update 22 March  2009)