Oops: A Confession

Last week, a Jewish friend that considers me the source of all information related to Christians called me to find out the date for Easter this year. I was a little embarrassed for not knowing the exact date, but said "I think it is probably another month or so away."

Since living in Israel means following the Jewish calendar more closely than I would anywhere else in the world, I have become more committed to celebrating the resurrection in relation to Passover, rather than as it is scheduled according to the Gregorian calendar.

Knowing that Passover was still a month away, I naturally thought of the resurrection as being a month away because, as another friend likes to say when talking about the differences between the Gregorian calendar and the Jewish calendar: "He has to be crucified before he can be resurrected, and he was crucified at Passover."

I advised my friend that Google would be a good source for questions such as this, and while we were talking, I Googled the date of Easter and was shocked to find out that not only was it not a month away, it wasn't even a week away. I was more embarrassed than in the beginning and tried to explain why it had "snuck up" on me. He was sympathetic and said, "Don't worry, I'll keep this between us." I laughed and said, "Hey, he has to be crucified before he can be resurrected."

Please don't understand my oversight as a lack of interest in the resurrection of Jesus. I'm definitely with the Apostle Paul who said that if Jesus wasn't resurrected, our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:18).

For those who celebrated the resurrection today, I hope that your faith was strengthened by the truth of his resurrection and the hope that we have because he was resurrected.

Because He lives,
Craig