Happy Easter.<\/p>\n
I realized this week that I have been writing A Pinch of Salt for 34 years. If I remember correctly, I\u2019ve missed two weeks in that time. But I\u2019ve done a couple of extras over the years, so I\u2019m going to claim 1,768 columns in the books.<\/p>\n
I have also written at least 34 columns about Easter, Good Friday and the rest of Holy Week.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s been an honor. It also results in a bit of a problem.<\/p>\n
Hopefully you\u2019ve noticed that I don\u2019t like to repeat myself. Sure, I revisit topics, but I try to take different approaches.<\/p>\n
Christmas and Easter are a couple of my annual topics, especially since I became a committed Christian 25 years or so ago. We\u2019re talking about the birth and the death of Jesus Christ, after all.<\/p>\n
In addition to being the two most important days on the Christian calendar, they are among the most popular holidays in America. To be specific, Christmas is the most popular holiday in all the polls. Easter is down the list a bit \u2013 I suspect because it doesn\u2019t result in a three-day weekend.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, I tried to explain how Passover, a major Jewish holiday, is connected to Easter. I am no theologian, and I undoubtedly oversimplified \u2013 probably made some outright mistakes too.<\/p>\n
But Passover is taking place at the same time as Easter again this year. It happens a lot \u2013 Passover begins on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, typically the first full moon of spring. Easter is on the first Sunday after that same full moon.<\/p>\n
Would you like the dates? Passover begins on April 1 this year and ends on April 8. Easter is on April 5 \u2013 this Sunday.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s the calendar stuff. Now for the important stuff.<\/p>\n
Passover is one of the biggest events in the Old Testament. While the Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt, Moses attempted to convince the Pharaoh to let them go. God visited increasingly harsh plagues. The tenth plague, with Moses warning the Pharaoh in advance, was the death of every firstborn.<\/p>\n
God promised to \u201cpass over\u201d the homes of the Jews as they prepared for the Exodus out of Egypt. They ate unleavened bread so they could leave at a moment\u2019s notice (and they did leave the next day).<\/p>\n
Something to commemorate for sure.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s jump forward 1,450 years or so. That, according to Bible experts, is about how long it was between the first Passover and the life of Jesus Christ. His ministry only lasted for three years, culminating in the earth-shattering (literally) last weekend of His life.<\/p>\n
As a child, one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian story for me was why they called it Good Friday when that was the day Jesus Christ was killed, crucified on a cross. The answer is that Christ died to \u201cwash away\u201d our sins, so we could be saved by grace.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of books have been written trying to explain that last sentence, so I won\u2019t try to do that here. Suffice it to say that it was a Good Friday indeed when our salvation was secured through Christ\u2019s sacrifice.<\/p>\n
In a number of my previous Easter columns, I\u2019ve proclaimed this Sunday as the most important day of the Christian year. I still believe that is true.<\/p>\n
Easter is the day that Jesus Christ was resurrected, to be born again and to sit at the right hand of his Father. It is the promise of eternal life through the grace of God.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m the first to admit that some of this can be hard to believe \u2013 rising from the dead, eternal life, etc. The modern scientist side of me rails against such unproven claims.<\/p>\n
But \u2013 and it\u2019s a big but. I have been blessed to personally experience the saving grace of God. I wouldn\u2019t be here today without His intervention.<\/p>\n
I have spent the last couple of decades trying to study the Bible and listening to those much more knowledgeable than I to come to a belief in something I can\u2019t prove. In dark moments, I can still doubt. But then I remember Christ and the sacrifice He made.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s called having faith.<\/p>\n
He has risen. He has risen, indeed.<\/p>\n
Happy Easter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Easter. I realized this week that I have been writing A Pinch of Salt for 34 years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,8462,8461,131,133,132,137,3738],"class_list":{"0":"post-246607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-grunion-opinion","10":"tag-grunion-pinch-of-salt","11":"tag-long-beach","12":"tag-long-beach-headlines","13":"tag-long-beach-news","14":"tag-los-angeles-county","15":"tag-the-grunion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}