By Gerard van Veen
The Passover celebration
It is a very old tradition that people celebrate Independence Day or Liberation Day. We read about this already in the biblical books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Jewish people had, and still have, Passover.
It is history’s first freedom festival that was repeated every year. In the Jewish Passover, the people sang and gave thanks as they ate in memory of the liberation from slavery in Egypt. Jesus also celebrated Passover with His disciples as we can read in the gospels of Matthew (chapter 26), Mark (chapter 14), Luke (chapter 22) and John (chapter 13).
They prepared the meal, the Master washed the feet of His disciples. They were eating bread and they drank from the cup with Him; they listened to what He told them about sending the Holy Spirit, that their sorrow would turn into joy; He prayed for them that they may be one, they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. The new element at this celebration was that Jesus said: “This is My body… This is My blood… Do this in memory of Me.”
The Easter message
All four evangelists give the message of Jesus’ resurrection in the form of narratives. When they are compared with one another, it can be seen at once that they display certain differences. Mark and Luke speak of three women at the tomb, though not the same three.
Matthew mentions two; and John only one, though she says, “We don’t know where they laid Him.” Matthew and Mark speak of one angel appearing, Luke and John say two. In Matthew, the angel is sitting on the stone, while in the three other gospels the angel(s) are inside the tomb. The four gospels agree, however, on the main themes: the empty tomb, the appearing of angels and above all on the heart of the message: “The Lord lives.”
Undoubtedly, their differences demonstrate the assurance and the honesty of the early Church, which did not slyly smooth out the discrepancies, but was confident enough to allow them to stand. The unity and priority of the Pascal message remains crystal clear in spite of these differences.
The walk to Emmaus
In the 24th chapter of the gospel of St. Luke, we read the beautiful story of two men who were on their way to Emmaus, a village about seven miles from Jerusalem. Jesus joined them – but they did not recognise Him and said: “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know what happened with Jesus of Nazareth?”
They told Him everything about how He was condemned to death and crucified, that some women of their group were at the tomb early that morning, that they did not find His body, and that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.
Jesus then said to them: “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart…”. Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village, He walked ahead as if He were going on. But they urged Him strongly, saying, “Stay with us.” So He went in to stay with them, He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him; and He vanished from their sight.
They returned to Jerusalem to the eleven and their companions, who told them, “The Lord is risen indeed and He has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how He had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
