THE RIVER JORDAN

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13.HE IMPORTANCE OF

THE RIVER JORDAN

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he sources of the river for the water are the foot of the “Hermon Mountain” probably the melting snow at the top of the mountain and other small rivers near by. The river is about 1700 feet above the sea level. In a distance of 12 miles, it drops down, to the sea level, at the ‘‘Lake of Hula”. This decent continues for six miles, until it enters the Sea of Galilee which lies about 682 feet below the sea level. Although the distance between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is only sixty five miles because of many twists and turns, the distance became two hundred miles between them. The river is normally between 100 to 200 feet wide. But the figure may change at the time of floods.

Its importance

1. Joshua passed through that river to Canaan with the Ark of Covenant. (Jos. 3:13-17)

2. Elijah smote the water. He and Elisha crossed the river. (II Kings 26:8)

3. Naaman was healed of his leprosy in that water. (II Kings 5:10-14)

4. Elisha made the axe head swim in the water. (II Kings 6:4-7)

5. John the Baptist ministered and baptized in that river. (John 1:19-28)

6. John baptized Jesus (John 1:29-34)

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The river Jordan is more important than any other like the Dead Sea or Red sea or the Sea of Galilee in the Bible. This river is mentioned in the Bible six times in the first book of Genesis alone and many times till Jesus took baptism, in the New Testament.

God told Joshua that His servant Moses was dead and asked him to lead Israel towards the Promised Land. God further said “as I was with Moses, I shall be with you, be not afraid and be not dismayed. I shall never fail thee where ever you go, I shall be with you”. Then Joshua took forty thousand army to attack the city of Jericho. He had to cross the River Jordan. (Joshua 1:5)

He marched with them and the Levite priests carried the Ark of Covenant. The river was full due to harvest season. As soon as the priests touched the water with their feet and the Ark of Covenant, the water was separated like the Red Sea. They crossed freely as if they walked on the dry land. God again spoke to Joshua saying “Today, I shall magnify thee before all Israel so that they can know as I was with Moses I shall be with you”. (Joshua 6:7) Then God asked for a sign. God told Joshua to select one man from each tribe to take a stone from the bottom of the river, and keep it before their tents, as a memorial for their children and their children to tell about the wonder of the river Jordan.

ELIJAH:

Elijah may be called one of the greatest

prophets. We know how he was fed by

ravens, and two times by an Angel. Before

he was taken to heaven by God on a chariot

in a whirl wind. Elijah went with Elisha and

asked him to stay at Gilgal. But Elisha replied

he wanted to follow him where ever he would

go. So they went to Bethel and from there to

Jericho. The sons of priests told Elisha that

his master was going to be taken to heaven

by God. From there they went to the river

Jordan and about fifty sons of the priests

followed them and stood at a distance.

Elijah took his mantle wrapped it and

smote the water and the water was divided

into two. They walked through the river as if

they walked on the dry land. (II Kings 2:8)

After they crossed the river Elijah asked Elisha

53 what he could give to him before he would be taken to heaven. Elisha asked him "the double portion of the spirit to be upon Him". Elijah felt that he asked for a hard thing. Even then he said, when Elisha sees him going to heaven, it shall be so unto him if not it shall not be so. As

they still went on talking

together, a chariot of fire and

the horses of fire appeared

and parted them. Elijah went

up by a whirl wind to heaven

then Elisha cried helplessly

“my father, my father” and

the mantle of Elijah fell up on

him.

ELISHA:

Elisha took that mantle

and stood before the river

Jordan. Like Elijah Elisha also

smote the water of the river

and said "where is the Lord

God of Elijah?" the water

was separated and made the

way. Elisha walked on the dry

land and finally reached

Jericho. In that city, he

changed the dirty water into

fresh drinking water. It is

called even to day “Elisha

spring in Jericho”

NAAMAN:

Naaman was the captain of the host of Syrian King. He was a mighty man of valor but was a leper. His companies went for a war and brought some people as captives from Israel. From those captives, a young girl spoke to the wife of Naaman. She told her that there was a prophet in Samaria who could heal her husband‘s leprosy. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood before the house of the prophet Elisha. The prophet could understand the cause of his coming from a distance and sent him a messenger saying that he should go and wash in the river Jordan seven times, and his flesh would come and he would be clean. (II King 5:10) But Naaman got angry because he thought the prophet would come to him and

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touch him in the name of his God

and say something about his healing.

He also said that there were rivers

in Damascus with better water than

the water of Jordan.

The servant advised him to

honor the words of the prophet.

Naaman immediately went to the

River Jordan and took seven dips.

As the man of God said a new flesh

came to him as the flesh of an

innocent child. He was clean. He

was very happy at this change and

came to the prophet with some gifts.

But Elisha did not accept the gifts in

the name of God. Then Naaman

commented “there is no God on

earth except the God of Israel”.

The Prophet’s servant followed

Naaman for some gifts. The prophet

came to know it and cursed him with

with the leprosy of Naaman. When

we visited Turkey, Israel and Palestine, in connection with Holy Land tour, we also took dips two times in the river at different places.

What is the importance of the dip?

When the people take a dip at the time of baptism, it is believed that their sins will be washed away and they will be clean. We may have to observe the following at the time of Baptism.

1. We must be born again

2. We must have pure, perfect and faithful heart

When Christ was taking baptism, the heaven was opened, the Holy Ghost came in the form of a white dove and a voice from heaven said “thou art my beloved son I am pleased with Thee”. So let us hope we may also have the same exciting experience in our lives which taking baptism in the river Jordan.

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JOSEPH AND MARY:

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oseph’s parents were Jacob and Timna and Mary’s Joachim and Anna. Both were the children of David. Jacob lived in Bethlehem. When Joseph was two years old, the family left Bethlehem and came to Nazareth. They settled there. Joachim and Anna lived in Jerusalem. They also left their place and came to Nazareth and settled down there. Anna remained barren for a long time. Only Joachim’s immense patience and devotion prevented him from giving divorce to Anna for want of children.

Nazareth is called “the flower of Galilee”. It was only a village at that time. . Anna used to weep for her barrenness. But one day God heard her prayers and blessed her with a child, Joachim was very thankful to God because He answered their prayers and gave them a baby girl. They gave her the name “Mary”. The parents thought that she was a “child of God”.

After sometime they also got a son but he was crippled and blind with twisted limbs

Joachim thought that if Mary were to be a boy, he would have been another David or Solomon. She was actually a gift of God to them.

As Mary grew up, she came to know about Joseph and his family who were maintaining carpentry shop at the end of a street. She used to go to bring water through that shop only. Joseph had a friend by name Samuel. He was a business man from Jerusalem. He used to go to all the places around Jerusalem, including Nazareth on business. He developed friendship with Joseph. Joseph used to tell him about the family matters, and there were no secrets between them. It was a custom in Nazareth and surrounding places that a girl should be betrothed at the age of twelve and to be married at 13.

Even at the age of 11 Mary looked very beautiful, and became a center of attraction. A man by name Abner from Nazareth who studied law wished to marry her. Another by name Cleophas the richest man in Nazareth wanted to marry her. But she rejected both of them. The family wanted her to marry Joseph only. Everything went on in favor of Joseph and Mary and their betrothal took place in a synagogue in Nazareth. Many people attended the function some days passed after the betrothal.

God sent his message through Gabriel the angel of God to Mary. It was almost sunset, when she was giving water to her donkey in the stable, an angel came and the light entered through the door and fell on the donkey. It stopped drinking water in surprise. Then followed a voice “Mary”, she thought that her father was calling her. So she replied ‘yes, father’. The voice was heard for the second time. The spirit made Mary close her eyes and listen to what the angel would say.

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Gabriel spoke “I am sent by God who always loves you. He had watched you while you were growing from child hood to womanhood. Now God had a message of great importance. You shall conceive and bear a son. You shall call him Jesus; He would be great and be called the son of God, The son of the most high”. Then Mary replied “the messiah?”. The angel added “God will give him the throne of his father David and he would reign over the house of Jacob”. Mary by closing her eyes and by feeling the fur of the donkey listened to all these words from God. But in the Bible, the same angel said “blessed art thou among women”. (Luke: 1:28)

Mary then replied “I am the willing hand maiden of the Lord”. Then the Holy Spirit fell on her. She trembled for some time as how to tell all that to Joseph. The finger of God also touched Mary. God spoke to her on certain occasions. Really, she is blessed among women

ZACHARIAS AND ELIZABETH

They lived at “Ein karem” (Luke 1:39) a small town. It was 4 miles away from Jerusalem. They were relatives to Mary’s family. So after she was conceived by the Holy Spirit wished to go to them and spend some time. Only her parents knew about the conception. Joseph also did not know about it. It was four days journey from Nazareth to Ein Karem. Elizabeth was also conceived in her old age as God blessed her just six months earlier than Mary. The same Gabriel angel met Zacharias in the altar of the church and gave him the news from God. Zacharias happened to be in the sacred place for he got his chance to burn the incense at the altar. Just at that time the Gabriel angel, appeared to him at the right side of the altar and told him that he would get a son and his name shall be John.

Zacharias could not believe his words, because they were too old to have children. The angel due to his disbelief to the words of God made him dumb and went away. So he came out of the church and could not speak with the people who awaited him

All the time Mary spent about two months with her cousin and returned to Nazareth. After she returned home, Joseph came to know about Mary and was disturbed. But the angel came to him in his dream and clarified everything. He was convinced and decided to help

57 Mary as a foster father because he had a “gift of faith”. His mother Timna accepted the conceived boy as a son of Joseph but Mary said “he was the son of God”

JOSEPH AND MARY – JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM

The distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem is about 87 miles. The means of transportation, in those days, was donkey only. Mary was full pregnant at that time. It was the time for the people to go to their respective native places for the purpose of the record of census.

Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for he belonged to it. Mary wished to go to Bethlehem with Joseph in such a conditions. She said “I must go to Bethlehem” and “I must go with my husband”. Finally they got ready and travelled to Bethlehem. They took about seven days to reach the place. Bethlehem was a small town at that time. They, at last, found a place at the back of an inn. There were three caves used for keeping the baggage and also they were used as stables for animals.

They settled in one of the caves. The time had come for her delivery. It was a custom in those days that no man should see a woman while she was delivering. So “the son of God and the son of man “came into this world with blood and pain in that cave. When Christ was born, a large number of angels came down from heaven and sang songs in his praise, saying “glory to God in the highest and on the earth peace and good will towards them. “The angels were the first who came and sang songs in celestial language. After two hours of the birth of Jesus the shepherds came who were guided by the star. At that time, they were feeding their sheep on the Jericho Mountains. The star that showed them the way changed its colors from time to

time. The shepherds reached the place and saw

the baby Jesus and worshiped him. They brought

some gifts also to Christ. They were:

1. Rabbit skins

2. A sack of fig fruits

3. A new born lamb

The next people that visited Jesus were the

three wise men called “magi”. They came from

Persia and Chaldea. They were philosophers, and

physicians. They studied about the heavenly bodies,

and had great knowledge. They took weeks to

reach Bethlehem. They met Jesus and worshipped

him. With their knowledge they prophesied that the

child would change the history of the world. They

also said Jesus would become the king of Jews.

58 The Magi brought some gifts to baby Jesus. They were:

1. Jars of precious myrrh

2. Frankincense

3. A ruby and gold in a velvet case

They, at last, advised Joseph and Mary to leave that place as early as possible because of the mad man king Herod. Then they went to their places in a different way as they were also afraid of the beast like man king Herod. The correct birth place is well preserved even today. In the church of Nativity if we go down through the narrow steps, to the underground there is a chapel and there is a small marble altar attached to the wall. There is a hearth with fourteen point star that marks the exact place of Christ's birth. A Latin inscription is there on the star saying “Here, Jesus Christ was born to virgin Mary”. The fourteen points Silver Star indicates fourteen generations between Jesus and David and also fourteen generations between David and Abraham. The holiest spot in Bethlehem shows the roots between Judaism and Christianity. Both the Jews and Christians believed that the blood of David passes through Messiah. The birth of Christ changed the history of the world. The B.C (before Christ changed to A.D.) Ano Domino in the year of our Lord.

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When King Herod came to know that the king of Jews was born, he became restless. He thought the three wise men deceived him. So he gave a declaration that all male children in less than two years must be killed in Bethlehem. Joseph and Marry came to know this news and went to Egypt and hid themselves there. Within a short time of his declaration, King Herod died.

According to historical information, the king died in 4th B.C. Before Joseph and Mary went to Egypt they took baby Jesus to Jerusalem temple for the presentation before God. It was on the 8th day of his birth. There was a man called Simon living in the temple of Jerusalem. He had been in that temple for years. He came and took baby Jesus into his hands. He said that once an angel told him he would see “the Messiah before he dies”. Simon felt very happy because he saw the Messiah before his death.

There was another woman by name Anna, aged about 107 years. She had been a widow for 84 years. She spent all her widow hood in the temple in praying to God and also saw Jesus and felt happy. Thomas, one of the desciples wrotre a book “The Infancy of Gospel of Thomas” In that book he mentioned some miracles of Jesus in his childhood days. As his foster father was a carpenter, Jesus used to help him now and then. While helping, if he found two wooden pieces in different sizes, he would put them together, and they became equal on all sides without cutting. This is one of the miracles. The other one is he used to make pigeons in his leisure time with mud, and tell them “go”. They flew into the sky as living birds. Jesus went to school regularly in Nazareth. It is said he recited the books of Moses in the school.

Those were the days of hatred among people for foreign rule (Roman rule). The young people in towns and villages hated Romans for their crimes. And the old people were dreaming of the coming of Messiah, to liberate them from the tyrannies of the Romans. He could understand how people were anxiously waiting for Messiah, because he, himself was the Messiah. He also remembered one incident how two thousand Jews were arrested at a time and miserably crucified. In addition to that he heard in schools and public places what people were talking about the Messiah. As Nazareth is on highways, he often met travelers from Asia and Europe. When the travelers talked about ‘nirvana’ he understood it. He was also familiar with Indian Vedic books and some stories from the Mahabharata.

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When Jesus was 12 years old, his parents took him to Jerusalem for Passover, festival. It was an important festival for the Jews because it was in the memory of the death of the first male child in Egypt before the people of Israel were liberated from the bondage of Pharaoh. So, the Jews were very particular about this function. They used to conduct prayers for seven days. When they were returning from Jerusalem to Nazareth, they missed Jesus. They returned to the city again and searched for him. They took three days to find him. Jesus was found in Jerusalem temple addressing the people with his wonderful knowledge. The people who gathered in the temple were amazed at his knowledge. He said, “Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you hoping for nothing. Then you will be called the children of the highest for

he is kind even to

the unthankful and

evil”. These words

were spoken by

Jesus when he was

12 years old. When

Jesus was between

18 and 30 years of

age, his foster father

Joseph died. He was

growing in age and

able to understand

the existing problems

of the people. He

began to think how

he could be able to

provide joy to the

people through

searching for truth.

He thought that the

kingdom of God

could be provided

through love only.

He understood at

that age why God

sent him into this

world .

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hrist, after knowing the political conditions of his time, how the Jews were ill treated by the Romans, He decided to serve the humanity. But his plan was different. It was not like his foster father’s friend Jesus Barabbas who followed violence. Christ wanted to tell the people that they should love God first and then their fellow men for happy living. Just at that time Jesus heard about John the Baptist, his cousin. He was preaching and giving baptism. He used to say to the people about the coming of Messiah. He met John the Baptist for the first time, to take baptism. John was surprised to see Jesus coming to him for baptism. By looking

at each other, they understood their mission and also knew that they

were doomed men.

When Jesus was taking baptism, at the age of 30, in the Jordan

River, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost came down in the

form of a white dove and fluttered the wings on Jesus shoulders.

Then a voice was heard from heaven saying “thou art my beloved

son. In thee I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) John the Baptist sent

two of his disciples to know whether he was the same man they were

looking for or they had to wait for Messiah. Actually everybody including

John the Baptist was anxiously looking for the coming of Messiah.

The people came to know later that Christ himself was the Messiah

Jesus answered some of the

questions put by John’s disciples.

Jesus told them that they

should inform John what they had

seen what they heard about him. The disciples saw the miracles of Jesus how he healed different people with different diseases. The blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers cleansed the deaf heard and the dead rose. They also saw his attractive preaching to the multitudes and to the poor. Jesus and John knew that they were going to die for a noble cause.

John the Baptist happened to meet Jesus for the second time. He said “behold him. Who takes away the sins of the world this is the son of God”. John the

63 Baptist was six months older than Jesus Christ and he died earlier than Christ. He was beheaded by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the great. Jesus saw the wonderful work done by John in his limited time. So in appreciation he said the following words "among those that were born out of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he". (Luke 7:28) Both talked about various existing problems for some time, and then departed never to meet again in their life time.

The Church of Beatitudes is built at the place of the mount where Christ gave his sermon. Christ in his sermon on the mount gave to the people some instructions to follow in our Christian way of life. He said “when you are giving alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing”. That means we must give our alms secretly. But God sees our alms secretly and rewards us what we deserve. While praying also God wants us to go to a lonely place so that nobody can hear our prayer and what we are asking for. God knows our needs before our asking. God wants us to seek the kingdom of heaven first and then righteousness. Then the other things follow them. We must be an example to others. We must be strong morally and spiritually. We shall never try to remove a mole from others eye by keeping a beam in our eyes.

He spoke many things in the Sermon on the Mount but whatever Christ spoke to the people he spoke with authority. And people were surprised of his sayings and wisdom. One day he was traveling in a ship with his disciples. At that time a storm came. All of them were afraid of the situation, and then Christ questioned them about their faith and warned the storm. It was controlled. The disciples questioned among themselves saying what kind of man he was, as the wind and the seas obeyed him. Though the disciples were with Christ all the time they could not understand him properly. The people who heard his sermons surprised of his knowledge.

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They thought that some supernatural power was speaking, but not the son of man or the son of the carpenter Joseph. Whatever was spoken by him, the people of his native place could not believe him or his greatness. One day Jesus Christ happened to go with his three disciples James, John and Peter to a mountain called Tabor. There appeared to them Moses and Elijah. In their presence Jesus transfigured himself. The appearance of Moses and Elijah and the transfiguration of Jesus Christ were a strange incident to the disciples.

The main work of Christ was to preach the word of God and to heal the sick from various diseases. The disciples observed these two things in Christ and questioned among themselves why they could not do what Christ was doing.

According to Jesus one can achieve any thing in life through “faith”. So he said “if you have a faith of a grain of mustered seed you can remove a mountain from its place” (Matthew 17:20). Nothing is impossible to man.

When somebody questioned him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? For that Christ simply showed him “a child”. He further said, “Unless you convert yourself as a child you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven”.

One must be humble and innocent as a little child. Then a lawyer happened to ask another question “which is the great commandment of the law? Christ said “thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind and added love thy neighbor as thyself” the lawyer could not understand the meaning of Christ’s reference immediately. Christ gave the example of the story of Good Samaritan. We know the story how the Samaritan was called Good Samaritan in the Bible. He happened to help a wounded man on the way between Jerusalem and Jericho. Two men went before him and saw the wounded man. But they did not care for him and went away. Apart from loving our neighbor, God wants us to be merciful towards others. We should not judge nor condemn but forgive others and God will forgive us “give and it shall be given to you”.

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God said “who ever comes to me, listens to me what I said and follows me, he is like a man who builds his house on a strong and deep foundation on the rock and floods cannot do anything to his house because it was on a rock. But he who hears not follows me is like a house built on a loose soil and it would fall when the floods come.”

Christ told many parables to the multitudes. Among the parables, the story of the prodigal son is really interesting. We know how the younger son took the share of his property from the father and went out of his house. He wandered, went to many places and spent money like water. And he enjoyed life only for some time. When he had no money to spend, no food to eat, he experienced how starvation would be. He ate even bran, the food of the pigs. He repented and cried for his foolishness. He, at last, decided to go to his father with repenting spirit so that his father might pardon him.

When his father saw him he came and embraced him. He felt extremely happy. The father arranged a grand feast for the return of his son. But his elder son grumbled for what was done by his father towards his younger brother. The reference is here we are the prodigal sons and God is our father. What ever mistakes we do in our daily lives, God will forgive us and take us into his arms

One day Christ went to the temple of Jerusalem and found people doing business. He got angry and threw away everything and disturbed them one of them asked Christ with what sign (authority) he was controlling them. Then he said “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it” and another man said that King Herod had taken 46 years to rebuild this temple and “how can he do it in three days”? Another Pharisee by name Nicodemus got a doubt. He was a highly educated man among his community. His doubt was “how can a man be born again”? When he already became old, “can he enter the mother’s womb for the second time”? Christ replied “man must be born of water and spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven”. God loved this world so much that he sent his only begotten son to save the people from sin.

So whoever loved him and believed in him shall have ever lasting life (John 3; 16)

Among the miracles Christ did, raising of Lazarus from death is the most striking one, because it touched Christ very much. So it is said “Jesus wept” (John 11:35)

Jesus wept two times in his life:

1. At the time of the death of Lazarus

2. When he looked at Jerusalem and God’s temple from the Mount of Olives he prophesied that they would be destroyed without stone upon the stone.

And this happened after forty years of the death of Christ. It was done by Roman king Titus in 70 AD and Christ died in 30 AD according to historical information.

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The miracle of the raise of Lazarus from death made some Jews even to kill Lazarus again but made more Jews to believe in Christ. Christ did the miracle of feeding 5000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish near the Sea of Galilee.

His sermons attracted the multitudes. Many people accepted Christ and Christianity. It was like harvest time. So he made another 70 disciples. He made two persons as one group and sent them to villages with empty hands. He

proposed eight important rules for them to follow. They are

called “beatitudes” which means beautiful attitudes. We can

find them in the 5th chapter of St.Mathew book. According

to Christ’s plan, they have to go to the houses and say peace

be to this house (Luke.10:5) as they are going to their houses

as lambs before wolves. Christ used this method also to

spread the word of God even to the remote places.

When he was going to be arrested by the Roman

soldiers, at the instigation of the high priest, he told his disciples

“love one another”. Some disciples expressed their desire

to see his father. Then Christ said “if you see me it means

you have seen my father. He is with in me. I am the image

of the invisible God, I am in the father and the father is

in me.”

Christ said that in his absence he would send a comforter, to them from the father to guide them that is called “The holy spirit”. He further said “I am the wine and you are the branches.” Christ asked God in his prayers to sanctify his disciples through his truth as thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

It was a custom in those days that the dead bodies should not be kept on the cross even on Sabbath day. Either they must be taken away or their legs must be broken. Accordingly the

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69 Roman soldiers came and broke the legs of the other two men. When they came to Jesus he already died, then his body was taken away by Joseph of Arimathai who was a secret disciple of Jesus Christ. He took the permission of the Pilate to take away the body of Christ.

Nicodemus also joined Arimathai with some spices. It was Mary Magdalene who went first to the tomb of Jesus. She did not find him first and so she worried. But Christ already arose from the dead and stood at a distance in the garden. He saw her and called her by name Mary.

She was excited at this and called Christ “rabbi” which means master. Then Christ said “touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father”. After he rose from the dead, Christ met the disciples three times and the third time he ate bread with them. (John 21:12-13)

It was also said he was found in a village called Emmaus which was about 7 miles from Jerusalem.

According to historical evidence, Christ was born in 5 B.C. and the king Herod who gave declaration at the time of Jesus’ birth that all male children below 2 years should be killed in Bethlehem died in 4 B.C. itself. In the same way Christ’s death was mentioned as he died on Friday 7th April at 4 PM in 30 A.D.

The prophets in the Old Testament mentioned 129 times of the coming of Messiah. His second coming was mentioned 329 times. This figure shows that the second coming is more certain. Jesus said that “I will come again” (John 14:3). John in the book of Revelation said “behold he is coming with clouds” (John 1:7)

All the prophets of the old testaments happened to say 129 times about the coming of Messiah, 500 years before he was born. If we look at the face of Jesus we find only love, and mercy but not anger or hatred. He is called “the Greatest prophet of all prophets”. In his three and half years of spreading God’s message, he prophesized more than any other prophet in the Bible. His prophecies were numbered by the following apostles:

1. Mathew recorded 39 prophecies

2. Mark recorded 40 prophecies

3. Luke recorded 35 prophecies

4. John recorded 60 prophecies.

These figures show that Christ is unparalleled to anyone in prophecy. He said prophecy about his disciples especially about John that he would write a book called “The Book of Revelation” with a vision in his old age

It is the resurrection of Christ that made Christianity flourish. If he had not risen from the dead “would anybody attend the church at all?” If we really believe in Christ that he died for our sins we must pray to him in the following way “O! God I am a sinner. I believe that you died for me on the cross. Now I receive you as my Lord and savior. I completely surrender myself to you. Amen.”

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