The time between Palm Sunday and Easter

Most people, when asked about Easter, think of Easter Bunnies and coloured eggs.  When asked about the religious content of Easter, I think most people (which includes ALL the un-churched and de-churched people) - would acknowledge that Easter might have something about Jesus... but really don't believe "the stories."  You see, "the stories" are impossible to believe; no-one raises from the dead.  When you are dead, it's over; you move on... but dead people stay dead.  For a long time, I agreed with that... and I believe that even today.  When I die, I die to this world and place my trust on Jesus' promise of eternity by the way He defined it. But I am dead to this world and I am not likely to be seen walking around the streets by people that I know (please do not confuse me with my twin brother - he still may be alive - but that doesn't count).

Interestingly enough, even Jesus closest friends and family believed that Jesus was dead after his crucifixion.  Read the accounts of the first people who came to the empty tomb... they were surprised by its emptiness.  These followers didn't run around and claim him to be alive right a way.  They were confused and didn't understand what had just happened.  They too, believed that dead was dead.  But... something happened.

These scared, in hiding, confused followers of Jesus were not waiting at the tomb for Jesus' return.  These are the same cowards who later BOLDLY claimed that they saw the resurrected Jesus.  Take a read in the Bible, outside of the first four "books" of the Early Christian writings (aka the New Testament), there is little written about what Jesus did and what Jesus said.  The majority of the writings cover a more simple message of the resurrection.  Andy Stanley puts the message this way:  You killed him; God raised Him; we saw Him; say you're sorry.  Even the writers of the first four accounts of Jesus' life (the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) spent far more ink and time on the death and resurrection - the last couple of weeks of Jesus' life than they spent on the three years with Jesus.

Something happened that allowed the story of Jesus' resurrection to survive the Roman Empire and all the persecution of the early church and be one of the most recognized stories in the world (even if it is hard to believe).  Something happened to Saul (late called Paul) on the road to Damascus that changed him from a person who was out to destroy the early church to become the greatest church planter of all time.  Something happened to a bunch of people who willingly went to their deaths KNOWING the resurrected Jesus.  And it wasn't about the teachings of Jesus - there were (and still are) great teaching out there by many spiritual leaders (even though they are dead); this was about an event that was being proclaimed... "we saw a risen LORD Jesus."  That was the message; that's what they died for... an event that occurred some 2000 years ago.

Everything we know about Jesus and His teachings comes from (and started with) a small handful of people who first believed that Jesus was dead; found it confusing that Jesus' body was missing; until they saw Him for themselves.  They put their faith into the resurrection... not the stories, not the teachings, not the things that He did... they put their faith and their trust into Jesus' resurrection.  It's the foundation of the early Christian people.  It should be your's, too.