He is Risen!

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.  But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened."

-Luke 24:1-12

Holy Saturday

"On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment." 

- Luke 23:56

Good Friday: Lamentations 5

Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;

    look, and see our disgrace!

² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

    our homes to aliens.

³ We have become orphans, fatherless;

    our mothers are like widows.

⁴ We must pay for the water we drink;

    the wood we get must be bought.

⁵ With a yoke^[a] on our necks we are hard driven;

    we are weary, we are given no rest.

⁶ We have made a pact with^[b] Egypt and Assyria,

    to get enough bread.

⁷ Our ancestors sinned; they are no more,

    and we bear their iniquities.

⁸ Slaves rule over us;

    there is no one to deliver us from their hand.

⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

    because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰ Our skin is black as an oven

    from the scorching heat of famine.

¹¹ Women are raped in Zion,

    virgins in the towns of Judah.

¹² Princes are hung up by their hands;

    no respect is shown to the elders.

¹³ Young men are compelled to grind,

    and boys stagger under loads of wood.

¹⁴ The old men have left the city gate,

    the young men their music.

¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased;

    our dancing has been turned to mourning.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head;

    woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are sick,

    because of these things our eyes have grown dim:

¹⁸ because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;

    jackals prowl over it.

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, reign forever;

    your throne endures to all generations.

²⁰ Why have you forgotten us completely?

    Why have you forsaken us these many days?

²¹ Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;

    renew our days as of old—

²² unless you have utterly rejected us,

    and are angry with us beyond measure.

Holy Thursday: Lamentations 4

How the gold has grown dim,

    how the pure gold is changed!

The sacred stones lie scattered

    at the head of every street.

² The precious children of Zion,

    worth their weight in fine gold—

how they are reckoned as earthen pots,

    the work of a potter’s hands!

³ Even the jackals offer the breast

    and nurse their young,

but my people has become cruel,

    like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ The tongue of the infant sticks

    to the roof of its mouth for thirst;

the children beg for food,

    but no one gives them anything.

⁵ Those who feasted on delicacies

    perish in the streets;

those who were brought up in purple

    cling to ash heaps.

⁶ For the chastisement of my people has been greater

    than the punishment of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment,

    though no hand was laid on it.

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow,

    whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

    their hair like sapphire.

⁸ Now their visage is blacker than soot;

    they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

    it has become as dry as wood.

⁹ Happier were those pierced by the sword

    than those pierced by hunger,

whose life drains away, deprived

    of the produce of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women

    have boiled their own children;

they became their food

    in the destruction of my people.

¹¹ The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;

    he poured out his hot anger,

and kindled a fire in Zion

    that consumed its foundations.

¹² The kings of the earth did not believe,

    nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,

that foe or enemy could enter

    the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ It was for the sins of her prophets

    and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous

    in the midst of her.

¹⁴ Blindly they wandered through the streets,

    so defiled with blood

that no one was able

    to touch their garments.

¹⁵ “Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them;

    “Away! Away! Do not touch!”

So they became fugitives and wanderers;

    it was said among the nations,

    “They shall stay here no longer.”

¹⁶ The Lord himself has scattered them,

    he will regard them no more;

no honor was shown to the priests,

    no favor to the elders.

¹⁷ Our eyes failed, ever watching

    vainly for help;

we were watching eagerly

    for a nation that could not save.

¹⁸ They dogged our steps

    so that we could not walk in our streets;

our end drew near; our days were numbered;

    for our end had come.

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter

    than the eagles in the heavens;

they chased us on the mountains,

    they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰ The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life,

    was taken in their pits—

the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow

    we shall live among the nations.”

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,

    you that live in the land of Uz;

but to you also the cup shall pass;

    you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

²² The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished,

    he will keep you in exile no longer;

but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish,

    he will uncover your sins.

Wednesday of Holy Week: Lamentations 3

I am one who has seen affliction

    under the rod of God’s wrath;

² he has driven and brought me

    into darkness without any light;

³ against me alone he turns his hand,

    again and again, all day long.

⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,

    and broken my bones;

⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me

    with bitterness and tribulation;

⁶ he has made me sit in darkness

    like the dead of long ago.

⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

    he has put heavy chains on me;

⁸ though I call and cry for help,

    he shuts out my prayer;

⁹ he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,

    he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me,

    a lion in hiding;

¹¹ he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;

    he has made me desolate;

¹² he bent his bow and set me

    as a mark for his arrow.

¹³ He shot into my vitals

    the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all my people,

    the object of their taunt-songs all day long.

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,

    he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

    and made me cower in ashes;

¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace;

    I have forgotten what happiness is;

¹⁸ so I say, “Gone is my glory,

    and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”

¹⁹ The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

    is wormwood and gall!

²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it

    and is bowed down within me.

²¹ But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

    his mercies never come to an end;

²³ they are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

    “therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

    to the soul that seeks him.

²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷ It is good for one to bear

    the yoke in youth,

²⁸ to sit alone in silence

    when the Lord has imposed it,

²⁹ to put one’s mouth to the dust

    (there may yet be hope),

³⁰ to give one’s cheek to the smiter,

    and be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not

    reject forever.

³² Although he causes grief, he will have compassion

    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³ for he does not willingly afflict

    or grieve anyone.

³⁴ When all the prisoners of the land

    are crushed under foot,

³⁵ when human rights are perverted

    in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶ when one’s case is subverted

    —does the Lord not see it?

³⁷ Who can command and have it done,

    if the Lord has not ordained it?

³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

    that good and bad come?

³⁹ Why should any who draw breath complain

    about the punishment of their sins?

⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways,

    and return to the Lord.

⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands

    to God in heaven.

⁴² We have transgressed and rebelled,

    and you have not forgiven.

⁴³ You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,

    killing without pity;

⁴⁴ you have wrapped yourself with a cloud

    so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵ You have made us filth and rubbish

    among the peoples.

⁴⁶ All our enemies

    have opened their mouths against us;

⁴⁷ panic and pitfall have come upon us,

    devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸ My eyes flow with rivers of tears

    because of the destruction of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes will flow without ceasing,

    without respite,

⁵⁰ until the Lord from heaven

    looks down and sees.

⁵¹ My eyes cause me grief

    at the fate of all the young women in my city.

⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause

    have hunted me like a bird;

⁵³ they flung me alive into a pit

    and hurled stones on me;

⁵⁴ water closed over my head;

    I said, “I am lost.”

⁵⁵ I called on your name, O Lord,

    from the depths of the pit;

⁵⁶ you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear

    to my cry for help, but give me relief!”

⁵⁷ You came near when I called on you;

    you said, “Do not fear!”

⁵⁸ You have taken up my cause, O Lord,

    you have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;

    judge my cause.

⁶⁰ You have seen all their malice,

    all their plots against me.

⁶¹ You have heard their taunts, O Lord,

    all their plots against me.

⁶² The whispers and murmurs of my assailants

    are against me all day long.

⁶³ Whether they sit or rise—see,

    I am the object of their taunt-songs.

⁶⁴ Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,

    according to the work of their hands!

⁶⁵ Give them anguish of heart;

    your curse be on them!

⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them

    from under the Lord’s heavens.

A Question from a Reader

Dear Timothy,
Up until a short while ago my favorite Bible was also the NRSV Reference Bible with the Apocrypha--French morocco leather. I actually bought several of them to serve me for the rest of my life. Then I discovered 2 Esdras chapter 7 verses 28-30. At first I thought this to be The death of our Lord Jesus Christ at his first coming, but at further reflection it appeared to look as if it is speaking of our Lords second coming, see the mention of Him staying 400 years and then dying. But if this is so, it is wrongly teaching a second death of Christ.

I may understand this wrongly. I tried to find info on this passage in the internet and had no luck to explain the 400 yrs. and the Lords death.
This caused me quite some distress and I came to decide not to use the NRSV with Apoc. although I otherwise love it.

Can you perhaps help me with the understanding of this passage? Perhaps I can continue to read my NRSVs and keep them.

I wish you well, and a wonderful Easter, may the Lord Jesus be with you.

Tuesday of Holy Week: Lamentations 2

How the Lord in his anger

    has humiliated daughter Zion!

He has thrown down from heaven to earth

    the splendor of Israel;

he has not remembered his footstool

    in the day of his anger.

² The Lord has destroyed without mercy

    all the dwellings of Jacob;

in his wrath he has broken down

    the strongholds of daughter Judah;

he has brought down to the ground in dishonor

    the kingdom and its rulers.

³ He has cut down in fierce anger

    all the might of Israel;

he has withdrawn his right hand from them

    in the face of the enemy;

he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,

    consuming all around.

⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy,

    with his right hand set like a foe;

he has killed all in whom we took pride

    in the tent of daughter Zion;

he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy;

    he has destroyed Israel.

He has destroyed all its palaces,

    laid in ruins its strongholds,

and multiplied in daughter Judah

    mourning and lamentation.

⁶ He has broken down his booth like a garden,

    he has destroyed his tabernacle;

the Lord has abolished in Zion

    festival and sabbath,

and in his fierce indignation has spurned

    king and priest.

⁷ The Lord has scorned his altar,

    disowned his sanctuary;

he has delivered into the hand of the enemy

    the walls of her palaces;

a clamor was raised in the house of the Lord

    as on a day of festival.

⁸ The Lord determined to lay in ruins

    the wall of daughter Zion;

he stretched the line;

    he did not withhold his hand from destroying;

he caused rampart and wall to lament;

    they languish together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;

    he has ruined and broken her bars;

her king and princes are among the nations;

    guidance is no more,

and her prophets obtain

    no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of daughter Zion

    sit on the ground in silence;

they have thrown dust on their heads

    and put on sackcloth;

the young girls of Jerusalem

    have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes are spent with weeping;

    my stomach churns;

my bile is poured out on the ground

    because of the destruction of my people,

because infants and babes faint

    in the streets of the city.

¹² They cry to their mothers,

    “Where is bread and wine?”

as they faint like the wounded

    in the streets of the city,

as their life is poured out

    on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ What can I say for you, to what compare you,

    O daughter Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,

    O virgin daughter Zion?

For vast as the sea is your ruin;

    who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your prophets have seen for you

    false and deceptive visions;

they have not exposed your iniquity

    to restore your fortunes,

but have seen oracles for you

    that are false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way

    clap their hands at you;

they hiss and wag their heads

    at daughter Jerusalem;

“Is this the city that was called

    the perfection of beauty,

    the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶ All your enemies

    open their mouths against you;

they hiss, they gnash their teeth,

    they cry: “We have devoured her!

Ah, this is the day we longed for;

    at last we have seen it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed,

    he has carried out his threat;

as he ordained long ago,

    he has demolished without pity;

he has made the enemy rejoice over you,

    and exalted the might of your foes.

¹⁸ Cry aloud to the Lord!

    O wall of daughter Zion!

Let tears stream down like a torrent

    day and night!

Give yourself no rest,

    your eyes no respite!

¹⁹ Arise, cry out in the night,

    at the beginning of the watches!

Pour out your heart like water

    before the presence of the Lord!

Lift your hands to him

    for the lives of your children,

who faint for hunger

    at the head of every street.

²⁰ Look, O Lord, and consider!

    To whom have you done this?

Should women eat their offspring,

    the children they have borne?

Should priest and prophet be killed

    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ The young and the old are lying

    on the ground in the streets;

my young women and my young men

    have fallen by the sword;

in the day of your anger you have killed them,

    slaughtering without mercy.

²² You invited my enemies from all around

    as if for a day of festival;

and on the day of the anger of the Lord

    no one escaped or survived;

those whom I bore and reared

    my enemy has destroyed.

Monday of Holy Week: Lamentations 1

How lonely sits the city

    that once was full of people!

How like a widow she has become,

    she that was great among the nations!

She that was a princess among the provinces

    has become a vassal.

² She weeps bitterly in the night,

    with tears on her cheeks;

among all her lovers

    she has no one to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,

    they have become her enemies.

³ Judah has gone into exile with suffering

    and hard servitude;

she lives now among the nations,

    and finds no resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

    in the midst of her distress.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,

    for no one comes to the festivals;

all her gates are desolate,

    her priests groan;

her young girls grieve,^[a]

    and her lot is bitter.

⁵ Her foes have become the masters,

    her enemies prosper,

because the Lord has made her suffer

    for the multitude of her transgressions;

her children have gone away,

    captives before the foe.

⁶ From daughter Zion has departed

    all her majesty.

Her princes have become like stags

    that find no pasture;

they fled without strength

    before the pursuer.

⁷ Jerusalem remembers,

    in the days of her affliction and wandering,

all the precious things

    that were hers in days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

    and there was no one to help her,

the foe looked on mocking

    over her downfall.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously,

    so she has become a mockery;

all who honored her despise her,

    for they have seen her nakedness;

she herself groans,

    and turns her face away.

⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

    she took no thought of her future;

her downfall was appalling,

    with none to comfort her.

“O Lord, look at my affliction,

    for the enemy has triumphed!”

¹⁰ Enemies have stretched out their hands

    over all her precious things;

she has even seen the nations

    invade her sanctuary,

those whom you forbade

    to enter your congregation.

¹¹ All her people groan

    as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

    to revive their strength.

Look, O Lord, and see

    how worthless I have become.

¹² Is it nothing to you,^[b] all you who pass by?

    Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

    which was brought upon me,

which the Lord inflicted

    on the day of his fierce anger.

¹³ From on high he sent fire;

    it went deep into my bones;

he spread a net for my feet;

    he turned me back;

he has left me stunned,

    faint all day long.

¹⁴ My transgressions were bound^[c] into a yoke;

    by his hand they were fastened together;

they weigh on my neck,

    sapping my strength;

the Lord handed me over

    to those whom I cannot withstand.

¹⁵ The Lord has rejected

    all my warriors in the midst of me;

he proclaimed a time against me

    to crush my young men;

the Lord has trodden as in a wine press

    the virgin daughter Judah.

¹⁶ For these things I weep;

    my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

    one to revive my courage;

my children are desolate,

    for the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,

    but there is no one to comfort her;

the Lord has commanded against Jacob

    that his neighbors should become his foes;

Jerusalem has become

    a filthy thing among them.

¹⁸ The Lord is in the right,

    for I have rebelled against his word;

but hear, all you peoples,

    and behold my suffering;

my young women and young men

    have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ I called to my lovers

    but they deceived me;

my priests and elders

    perished in the city

while seeking food

    to revive their strength.

²⁰ See, O Lord, how distressed I am;

    my stomach churns,

my heart is wrung within me,

    because I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves;

    in the house it is like death.

²¹ They heard how I was groaning,

    with no one to comfort me.

All my enemies heard of my trouble;

    they are glad that you have done it.

Bring on the day you have announced,

    and let them be as I am.

²² Let all their evil doing come before you;

    and deal with them

as you have dealt with me

    because of all my transgressions;

for my groans are many

    and my heart is faint.