Happy Easter!
Easter Sunday is only the beginning!
A great fifty-day feast (known as “Eastertide,” “Easter Season,” or “Easter Time,” as well as “Paschal Season”) kicks off on Easter Day. In the Church Year, this is quite literally fifty days of feasting.
Easter is the highpoint of the Church Year. After all, the main point of the whole gospel is to prepare us for an eternal celebration and feast.
This is reflected in the fact that our Lenten fast only lasts forty days (not including Sundays), while Easter is fifty days. Fasting will pass away, as Jesus said, but the Great Feast of the Lamb will last for ages of ages (a Hebrew into Greek expression for eternity!). So let the feasting begin!
Why fifty days of Easter Time? It’s actually quite simple. After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days on earth before he ascended, and then there were ten more days after that before the Day of Pentecost.
Luke writes in the first chapter of Acts that Jesus “presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
In chapter two, we find the followers of Jesus gathered for the Day of Pentecost, which actually means “fifty.” It happened during the Hebrew feast of Shavuot, which is why the followers of Jesus were gathering. The Hebrew festival was originally a harvest first fruits celebration, and later it had evolved into a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
So, the Great Fifty Days are a celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and all that means for us, leading to the launching of the Christian Church and its mission on Pentecost.
A great fifty-day feast (known as “Eastertide,” “Easter Season,” or “Easter Time,” as well as “Paschal Season”) kicks off on Easter Day. In the Church Year, this is quite literally fifty days of feasting.
Easter is the highpoint of the Church Year. After all, the main point of the whole gospel is to prepare us for an eternal celebration and feast.
This is reflected in the fact that our Lenten fast only lasts forty days (not including Sundays), while Easter is fifty days. Fasting will pass away, as Jesus said, but the Great Feast of the Lamb will last for ages of ages (a Hebrew into Greek expression for eternity!). So let the feasting begin!
Why fifty days of Easter Time? It’s actually quite simple. After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days on earth before he ascended, and then there were ten more days after that before the Day of Pentecost.
Luke writes in the first chapter of Acts that Jesus “presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
In chapter two, we find the followers of Jesus gathered for the Day of Pentecost, which actually means “fifty.” It happened during the Hebrew feast of Shavuot, which is why the followers of Jesus were gathering. The Hebrew festival was originally a harvest first fruits celebration, and later it had evolved into a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
So, the Great Fifty Days are a celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and all that means for us, leading to the launching of the Christian Church and its mission on Pentecost.
On this 2nd Sunday of Easter, the Bishop and Cabinet prepared a full worship service to begin this 50 days journey.
You can watch this worship service tomorrow during our regular worship time or at this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/VD_LMMwusco
God bless,
Pastor Clarissa