The first Easter week was a week in which prophecy abounded. It was a week in which both long standing prophecies were fulfilled and fresh prophecies proclaimed. Jesus was intimately involved in both fulfilment and proclamation, utterly endorsing the crucial role of prophecy in God’s revelation of his purposes.
Right at the beginning of Easter Week (Palm Sunday) Jesus quite deliberately rode into Jerusalem on an ass, knowingly fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zech 9:9). The crowds, moved by the Spirit, acknowledged the event with cries of “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord”. God had spoken through his prophet by the Spirit and he was now fulfilling it centuries later.
Later in the week (Good Friday) the detailed prophecy of Isaiah 52-53 was fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus did not initiate this event though he clearly knew what it signified and embraced it. This prophecy of Isaiah contained not merely an extraordinary description of the crucifixion but a very clear explanation of what precisely it meant. The clarity of both the description and the explanation is breathtaking, and leaves no doubt as to the fact that Jesus took on the judgment of God for sin and for our sake. Neither, by the way, should we overlook the fact that the same passage in Isaiah astonishingly points both to the resurrection and the ascension.
When we turn
to the powerful prophetic pronouncementsthat Jesus made about the future, we find that some had their focus on the Jewish nation and the inevitability of judgement, since in rejecting him it rejected “the time of God’s coming” (Lk 19:41ff). These pronouncements came to pass in the succeeding decades. We find his other pronouncements had their focus on essential features in human history before his return in glory (Matt.24). Two millennia of history have endorsed his words, and future history will further endorse them.
The words of Micah resonate loudly around these prophetic events; “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Mic. 3:7). God does this in order to establish our faith as we see prophecy fulfilled.
Right at the beginning of Easter Week (Palm Sunday) Jesus quite deliberately rode into Jerusalem on an ass, knowingly fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zech 9:9). The crowds, moved by the Spirit, acknowledged the event with cries of “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord”. God had spoken through his prophet by the Spirit and he was now fulfilling it centuries later.
Later in the week (Good Friday) the detailed prophecy of Isaiah 52-53 was fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus did not initiate this event though he clearly knew what it signified and embraced it. This prophecy of Isaiah contained not merely an extraordinary description of the crucifixion but a very clear explanation of what precisely it meant. The clarity of both the description and the explanation is breathtaking, and leaves no doubt as to the fact that Jesus took on the judgment of God for sin and for our sake. Neither, by the way, should we overlook the fact that the same passage in Isaiah astonishingly points both to the resurrection and the ascension.
When we turn
to the powerful prophetic pronouncementsthat Jesus made about the future, we find that some had their focus on the Jewish nation and the inevitability of judgement, since in rejecting him it rejected “the time of God’s coming” (Lk 19:41ff). These pronouncements came to pass in the succeeding decades. We find his other pronouncements had their focus on essential features in human history before his return in glory (Matt.24). Two millennia of history have endorsed his words, and future history will further endorse them.The words of Micah resonate loudly around these prophetic events; “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Mic. 3:7). God does this in order to establish our faith as we see prophecy fulfilled.
May God give you a rich Easter.
Bob
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