What about the Easter Bunny? The answer to that have other questions on this edition of Keylight. Hi, I'm Mike Kellogg and you are now listening to Keylight, where you can find honest answers to honest questions about God's Word. Now here is Steve. Thanks Mike and my pastor, Pete Owl, once in a year. This is Good Friday and we're going to... I can hardly wait to see what you think about the Easter Bunny. But we're going to answer some questions this around the whole weekend about Good Friday, about the cross, about the resurrection. As you know, I've been teaching most of the week on that and we thought it would be appropriate today to answer questions that are directed to this particular wonderful and glorious... I like this a lot better in Christmas. Because the pagans haven't stolen this one yet. And it's hard to steal. Well, they're doing pretty good with the Easter Bunny, but we'll talk about that. You've already said what... We're supposed to use that as a teaser. You're not supposed to say what you think before you pray. All right. Then I take that back. Listen, we love to get your questions by the way and we get a bunch. We get thousands and you always get an answer from me or somebody on the staff or in the magazine or on the broadcast, but do write them down. Send them the key life post office box 5,000 Madeleine Florida 32794 or key life Canada post office box 32150, Cambridge, Ontario in 3H5 in 3 or you can email us at stevetkeylife.org but be sure and give us your regular mailing address. And don't use the 1-800 key life number to ask questions. You can book them a part of key life tapes. You can get the magazine free, it takes her free, the booklet is free. You make a contribution on that number, but you've got to write your question down. People, why don't you leave us in prayer and then we'll turn to some of these questions. All right. Father, we do bow in your presence today and Lord, it's the end of the week and it is good Friday and what a day for us to remember all that you have done for us. Lord, if there's one thing we can say about you and that is you are good and you are kind and you are gracious. Your goodness pervades everything you do even though we don't always understand what happens in our life. But we honor you and we praise you and we worship you and we thank you for sending a Savior for us. His work was good and full and accomplished. Our redemption and bringing us into a relationship with you forever. So we praise you and ask that Lord does we worship this weekend as we go down into the depths of despair and then up to the heights of great joy in the resurrection on Sunday. We pray that you would be honored and that you would speak to us and build our faith and be honored and glorify. We pray for those who will lead our pastors and teachers and priests, worship directors and all those who are going to be in front of your people, that they may lead the flock and this most important time of the year. We give you honor. For key life and the ministry of grace be with Steve and continue to bless him and guide this time and use it for your honor and your glory and for your people in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. Now let's turn to some of these. This is a compilation of questions that we get all the time. I've got a very subject surrounding Easter in Good Friday. So I thought I would just kind of bring up these questions when you think about the Easter Bunning. You know, chocolate or the energy I do. No, no. No, no. I'm talking about theologically, philosophically, biblically and metaphysically. What do you think about the concept of the Easter Bunning? Well, back in Hezekiah 4, where the Easter Bunning is first mentioned, no, no, no. A lot of Christians get really bent out of this and so we're not being flippin' about it. You know, historically, when did it rights of fertility and all of that, we can't go into that. But I think that since you bring that up, that Easter and the fact that it's the major big time holiday says that Jesus won. That's right. It's like the Christmas stuff. Jesus won. Yeah. That's right. And so, you know, whatever is all behind that historically, the Easter Bunning and the eggs and all of that has been way overshadowed by what Christ has done in the resurrection. And that is the high holy day of the Christian year. And I mean, remember, when we talked about this sometime before about all of the sermons in the book of Acts, how all of those messages get to the resurrection because if the dead man is providing fertilizer for flowers, you're lost. That's right. That's right. So, are you all been out of shape about the Easter Bunning? No, I'm really not. I'm not any more than I am about Christmas trees or stuff. I think it's kind of a nice thing as long as you take it for what it is that it's a cultural thing. And I think kids identify with bunnies and, you know, that sort of thing. I don't have any problem with Easter egg hunts or stuff like that. But I think, and we don't have so much problem with doing that at Easter, the way we do with Christmas, is constant reminder that this is because a dead man got up and lost. That's right. That's right. Now, I'm with you on that. We have the Easter egg hunt every year. And our little list, through seven, you know, have a lot of fun with it. But I don't think she confuses what we do at church with what goes on afterwards. Not at all. All right. Let me ask you some of the... One of the questions we get a lot is somebody will say, I've been looking at the different scriptural texts, and doesn't seem to me that Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights. How do you explain that if he wasn't, how come they say he was? Yeah. It was the way... It was the Hebrew mind. It's the Hebrewism. It's the way they thought and spoke that if they were in the... If they were there part of that day, they constituted the whole day. That's how I understand that. Well, I did too. And in fact, although we... Because we answered these questions pretty much off the top of our head, we don't do a lot of research. But there are two or three places in the older testament where that phrase three days and three nights is used. And it plainly means any portion of three days and three nights, rather than a literal reference. Good, man. It resolves that. It really does, but it does throw people off, and it's understandable why it would. One of the questions that is asked a lot at this time of the years, when the women went to see, went to the tomb, why then, and you can also bring in the reference to the road to Emmaus, how come people didn't recognize Jesus? I mean, they've been living all this time. It seems to me that they are they ask, it seems to me that he would be easily recognized. You would think. And I, obviously, am your comment on that. But my take is maybe, number one, I don't think that anybody was really expecting the resurrection, which is evidence for its reality. They weren't expecting it. They didn't concoct it. So when they saw him, they was, can't be Jesus, couldn't they? The other thing... If my mother walked in here, I mean, she's been in heaven for a long time. Right, that would shock you a little bit. Well, you have been, I'd just say, somebody looked like my mother. Yeah. I mean, it can't be my mother. She's dead. Perception in what your category of your life, anticipation... I never thought of that. That's the new thought for me. So, that's one thing, is it was his resurrection body and perhaps in that resurrection body, even though it was him, clearly him, and he did hold himself from the people. Keep them from understanding who he was and perceiving who he was, at first, until he gave himself... Is that instructive when Mary, when she didn't know, you just tell me where you sent him? You remember Mary came and said, look, I know you're stolen Jesus' body. If you'll just tell me where it is, you know, it'll be cool. I'll go find it. I won't cause you any trouble. Yeah. And then Jesus said, Mary, and she went... That's Jesus. I think maybe she was just hanging your head and wasn't paying attention. Assume that the person in the garden was a gardener or a soldier or somebody that had stolen the body. You're saying so sort of depressed, not really holding her head up and looking at a man, looking in the man's face. Yeah, that could easily be. I think you're right. And then what about perhaps? There are... Self-imposed limitations of the incarnation as far as Jesus is concerned. You ask me about the time and the date. I don't know, only the father knows. You know, there could be a number. He couldn't do any mighty works there because of their unbelief, et cetera, et cetera. And Jesus, when he became human, didn't play games with that. However, after the resurrection, that was the full supernatural God, who was there. So, I think maybe on the road to Emmaus, there's something playful about that. Almost like God isn't as sour as we think He is. You know that he liked these guys that were on their way to Emmaus. He liked walking with them, answering questions, being there... I remember one time not to reference that. I remember one time speaking at Crusade back when they were out in the air at the spring. And this guy, we were on a plane, and this guy said, where are you going? I said, I'm going to a conference. He said, me too. He started asking me all kinds of questions about it, and then he started asking me other questions, and I just kind of let it go, you know. And then when I got up to speak at the opening section, he was sitting on a front row, and he went, whoa! And I think that may have been a part of the light side. Of Jesus. That's not a joke, but wouldn't it be fun to have these guys not know it's me and answer their questions, and then co-break bread with them, and then have them. And that would be a simple act for the resurrection. Good point. And how much time they actually spent together breaking bread, they could later they would be able to say, we were with Him. Yeah. Even though they only had that moment of recognition and then he vanished, they can say, this was not a brief, momentary thing. We didn't recognize Him at first, but we were with Him for an extended period of time. Yeah. Which would have bolstered their witness to other people. Good. I thought we handled that adequately. There might be a book in it. Nobody published it, but everybody did. That's true. Let me ask you another question. We get this question a lot, not necessarily in reference to Easter, but certainly to good Friday. Talk about Passover, and we have to do this pretty quickly. We pass over communion, Monday, Thursday. What does it say that Jesus is our Passover? What does that mean? He was the Passover lamb who, you know, in the Passover, we have the two sacraments today. We have the Lord's Supper and Baptism. And Baptism replaces circumcision in the Old, we think. And Passover is replaced by the Lord's Supper. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, You hold a Lamb of God if it's in the Lord. Good. This is a man that's your busy time of the year. It is busy. It's going to be crazy. Thanks for telling me that. I don't... I'm not going to mess it up on something. Oh, sure. There's going to be some pagans there, and I just want you to shine. Okay. If I mess it up, you can use it as an illustrate. Now I swear out of you. But before I go, I must say, Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.