Easter and what it represents leads me to say that this is my favorite holiday and season of the year. This year, Palm Sunday will be on April 13 and Easter on April 20.

New life, re-birth and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of Christian beliefs. If Jesus had never risen from the dead, our faith and Christianity would be worthless.

To give your life so another person can live is the ultimate proof of love. During the night that Jesus was betrayed, He told His disciples of His intention to give His life in exchange for mankind. He told them: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). And then he set the ultimate example of self-sacrifice by going to the cross.

Have you ever given any thought to the fact that Jesus did that for you – that He died in your place? In so doing, He not only proved His love for you, but He also made it possible for you to be forgiven of your sins and to have an eternal home in heaven!

Because of this miracle that God did in the life of Jesus and then in us, now is the time to prepare our hearts and spirits for this season of redemption and new life.

Insights for You

The night before going to the cross, our Lord established His Table. You and I know this as Communion. He took elements of the Jewish Passover feast and made them His own – giving them greater significance than they preciously had. The “bread of haste” moved from being a symbol of provision for the journey from slavery (Exod. 12:1-11) to being an enduring picture of the cost Christ paid for our rescue from slavery to sin.

The cup, one of four used in the Passover celebration, fulfilled the ancient promise of God to redeem His people. The elements of communion are continuing reminders of the cost of our past, present, and future redemption.

Manna from Heaven

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’

“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”

Mathew 26:26-28, 30