Mark Keown

Unbelievable! Sensational! Glorious! Hallelujah! “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever.” What can I say? If Friday and Saturday were the worst days of my life, this is the best day of my life. It is the greatest day in history! Yeshua is risen! He is alive! He is Messiah! Our hopes have not been in vain! Praise be to the God of Israel! It all started as was planned. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome and one or two others went to the tomb to anoint the body. Yeshua’s mother was spent so and John and James’ mother remained with her. The women were wondering how they would get the stone aside. We should have gone with them I now realize—we are such wimps! As if the Romans will help! They needn’t have worried for when they got there, they were stunned to find that the Roman soldiers were gone and the stone had been rolled aside! For a minute they thought they had the wrong tomb, but they had taken a careful note where the tomb...

Nothing much to say about today except, “woe, woe, woe!”—lament and grief. We remained in the house, we cried, we sang songs of lament, we talked, we tried to make sense of what has happened, but we have no answers. We heard again the details of the trial from Joseph and Nicodemus. We heard them share their deep sense of failure for not speaking up, for not standing against what had gone on. They wondered what might have happened had they done so. Who knows? We heard Peter admit what had happened at the fire in the courtyard of the high priest’s home. It turns out that Yeshua had been right about Peter denying him. He told that three times he was asked if he was a companion of Yeshua, but three times he had not been able to find the courage to stand for him and had denied it. Then the rooster had crowed! He spoke of his deep sense of bitter failure, his anger at himself, his perplexity. I was impressed with his honesty, and somewhat thankful—otherwise Peter would have hung on ...

This is the worst day of my life—I can’t even call it life. It is the day the “Messiah” died! It is the day my hopes have been shattered! Seems he was only a prophet after all! If so, he was a false-prophet. He is certainly not Messiah; he is cursed of God, hung on a tree! A crucified Messiah! Foolishness! He is not the son of the divine, for the Jewish leaders rejected him and the Romans with their false gods vanquished him. Yet how can this be? Yeshua cannot be a false-prophet, not this man of love who healed the sick with a touch, who fed the poor, and who raised the dead—oh that he would raise himself! But the resurrection will come at the end; we are not there yet! I don’t know what to think. Here’s what happened. After I fled from the garden the previous night I went to the house where we had celebrated Passover. The others came in dribs and drabs. Only Peter and Judas were not there. So it was Judas who betrayed Yeshua? Why had Yeshua called him then, if he knew? Why...

Again we awoke with no idea what was about to happen? It was the day of Passover. Me and a few of the others thought we would take the initiative, so we asked Yeshua where he would like us to prepare the Passover? He singled out Peter and John for the task. I was more than mildly annoyed—hadn’t I done a decent job with the colt? Back down the pecking order. I hope they stuff it up. I was really disappointed at not having the honour of slitting the throat of the lamb and watch the priest scatter the blood at the base of the altar. Anyway, he sent them into Jerusalem where they would be met by a man with a water jar whom they were to follow. He would lead them to a home and a guest room—that is the place we are to prepare. Must have some wealth to house us all, whoever it is. Perhaps one of our friends in the Sanhedrin, like Nicodemus or Joseph. Just as with the donkey colt, I am not sure whether it was a set-up or some prophetic moment? Feels like a set-up this one. So Peter and...

We walked the three kilometers back to Bethany and were surprised to find we were not eating at Martha and Mary’s. They need a day off for sure! Rather, we had been invited to the home of a certain Simon, one of the many lepers whom Yeshua had touched and healed—I still marvel at such power. As you can imagine, as a man who lost everything with his leprosy, Simon is not a wealthy man. Yet, he loves Yeshua so much that he will not take no for an answer. Yeshua refuses to dishonor him, and so we went to eat with him and his family. The meal was simple, but generous and good. He gets the idea of generosity, like the widow. In fact, it is nearly always people like the healed leper who do. As we reclined, a woman came in to the home to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive perfume. As I observed her approach Yeshua from behind as he stretched out from the table, I remembered a similar event back in the home of another Simon, the Pharisee (it was Nain I think). We were eating at...

After a spot of lunch and the midday prayers it was back to the Temple, this time to the Court of Women. We sat beside the Temple treasury with its thirteen trumpet shaped receptacles into which people make their various offerings. Passover is a great time for people to show the world their generosity to the Holy One. We observed people of great wealth placing in huge amounts of gold and silver coins—I was impressed at their piety. As we watched, an old woman dressed in black, clearly a widow, shuffled over to the freewill offering chests. We watched as she drew two small leptons from her bag, looked skyward with reverence and placed them in. It would take 100 of these to make up a day’s wages.   I wasn’t impressed after seeing all the generosity of the others. Yeshua spoke, telling us that she had given more than the others for she gave out of her poverty, all she had to live on. I felt rebuked, but said nothing. He’s right of course. I wondered if there was a link to...

We rose again in the morning, this time with muted expectation. A few bits and pieces to eat and then we again headed into Jerusalem. The fire had gone from us all, replaced with concern. No-one dared to ask Yeshua what was going on, we were all worried. We had talked into the night while Yeshua wandered the hills as is his custom. No-one could figure it out. Some believed today would be the day and were hopeful. Most were not so sure.  We walked past the fig-tree; the one Yeshua had cursed the previous day. As usual, Peter could not hold back, and blurted something about it. Yeshua took the opportunity to remind us of the power of prayer—if we believe, we will see glorious happen, like moving mountains. I prayed for the end of Roman rule. I have faith! Actually I feel more like the man who a while ago cried out to Jesus, “I believe, take away my unbelief!” But I would never admit it. We shouldn’t be surprised that the tree withered; after all, this is the guy who calmed the storm...

Wow! Today was a really strange day! Not at all what I expected! Yesterday ended with killing the fatted calf and today began with yet another great feed; Martha’s unleavened bread is to die for. Then we headed into Jerusalem again. No big crowds today, but the anticipation in the group was massive.   I noted that the women, especially Martha’s sister Mary, were as excited as the men. Some of them are also keen to be involved in the war—I heard them talking about Deborah last night. I am not so sure, but Yeshua doesn’t seem fazed at all. They are getting more involved since Mary sat at his feet. He is so inclusive. Anyway, we were well fed and ready for war! All except for Yeshua who hadn’t eaten with us; he was starving, the result of another night praying on the Mount. I really think he should have had a feed and got some sleep for the conflict ahead. As we headed toward Jerusalem we walked past a fig-tree and, hungry as he was, Yeshua wanted a feed. He chose it because ...

Ah, what a glorious day! We stopped at Martha’s again—another great feed! Yeshua was focussed, never seen him like this before—kind of tense, but his look was steel.  He called me to him early the next morning with the one called the Twin (Thomas). A good sign to be chosen for the task, I am near the top of the pecking order! If I fulfil the task well, I will be granted more opportunities—Yeshua is big on doing the small things well and you will get more responsibility. He told us to go over to Bethpage with clear instructions. I am still not sure whether he had set it up or whether it was word from Abba (Father)—wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter. After all, he was up all night praying—again!   Does he not get sick of sleepless nights? I had gone with him to pray but, as usual, had nodded off—too much of Martha’s food and wine. Anyway, he sent us to grab a donkey colt and bring it to him and tell anyone who cares that it is for the Lord’s work and we will ...

This appears also on the Laidlaw College Blog. It is the imaginary diary of a disciple with Jesus in the Easter week. It is day 1000 in this disciple's walk with Jesus. What an amazing few days. There was Yeshua, for the third time, telling us that he is going to be rejected, arrested, suffer greatly, die and then rise. Why does he say that stuff all the time? It is nonsense! None of us really get what he means. He can’t be taken literally most of the time anyway. No doubt it is another parable. I am sure he will explain it when he is ready. Some weeks ago, Peter tried to talk to him about all this talk of suffering and death, but he flipped his lid, started rebuking Satan and telling us to keep quiet about it. Peter felt humiliated. Most people think Yeshua is a prophet, but we know he is the Son of Man, the Messiah. Peter said it, Yeshua confirmed it. So now we are nearing Jerusalem. We know the time is at hand. The last battle is about to begin. The Romans are going to g...