Carpenter’s Corner: Shoe leather wisdom

This is part two of a story that began over two thousand years ago. It is a love story that ends with betrayal, suffering and an­guish.

Judas left in haste after Je­sus looked him in the eye and told him to do what he must do quickly. Judas ran out of the upper room throwing his cloak over his head to hide his identity. The upper room was built on Mount Zion just a short dis­tance from where the Temple stood on Mount Moriah. He had cut a deal with the High Priest, 30 pieces of silver, to lead the Temple Guard to where Jesus could be quietly arrested.

Jesus and His disciples left the upper room singing a hymn as they crossed the road leading to the Kidron Valley. Winding down the dirt trail Jesus stopped in the middle of a vineyard and began teaching under the light of a full moon.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Ev­ery branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and ev­ery branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean be­cause of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

Jesus was instructing the twelve that He would be send­ing a Helper, the Holy Spirit, and that as long as they stayed connected to Him the Holy Spir­it could flow through the vine, into the branches and produce fruit in their lives. The Teacher went on to say that even branch­es that produce fruit will get pruned so they produce even more fruit.

Jesus spent the early morning hours on the Mount of Olives in prayer. Being put upon his back was an unimaginable bur­den that no man could shoulder, but Jesus was no ordinary man; He was God Himself in human flesh. Soon He was to be be­trayed by a friend, arrested by His fellow Jews, illegally tried by the Sanhedrin and finally crucified by His own creation. As the pressure mounted He be­gan to perspire drops of blood.

By morning Jesus had been beaten, spit upon, mocked and whipped within an inch of His life. He carried His cross beam to Golgotha as the crowd contin­ued to hurl insults and accusa­tions at him. He was crucified at 9:00 am. At noon a strange darkness filled the sky until He gave up His Spirit at 3:00 in the afternoon. He died before his legs were broken.

Joseph of Arimathea accom­panied by Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, acquired the lifeless body of Jesus from Pi­late the Roman governor. They hastily prepared it for burial as sundown and the eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread fast approached.

Jesus died Thursday the 14th of Nissan on the Jewish calendar and was hastily put into the gar­den tomb a few hundred yards away from where He was cruci­fied. Friday was a High Sabbath, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so all work had to be completed before sundown on Thursday.

Jesus’ mother, His friends and disciples had to wait until Sun­day, the first day of the week, to finish burial preparations which included hundreds of pounds of assorted spices and herbs. Sab­bath oil lamps were now being lit and prayers were being offered up to the Almighty. Many were confounded at the strange darkness that covered the land for three hours on Thursday and the strong earthquake that had followed.

Mary Magdalene ran to the tomb early in the morning be­fore light. The Roman guards were gone and the stone, cover­ing the tomb, had been rolled away. Two angels in white robes were sitting where Jesus’ empty grave clothes now lay. Fearing someone had stolen the body Mary ran away and into the arms of Jesus.

“You’re alive! I watched you die, how this can be?” asked Mary

Jesus said to her, “I am the res­urrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

This is the greatest story ever told; where God sent His own Son into the world to redeem all of mankind. The day Jesus rose from the grave, came back to life, was Sunday on the Jewish Feast of First Fruits. So while the priests were waving the sheaves of wheat in the temple complex Jesus became the first fruits of the dead.

Eternal life waits all who con­fess with their mouths that Je­sus Christ is Lord and believes in their hearts that God has raised Him from the dead!