Farewell - For Now

On Wednesday, April 19th at about 11:30 in the morning, Zola Levitt went home to be with Yeshua, or in his words, received his promotion after staying at his post until the end. He kept filming shows right up until the end every time he had a good morning when he felt strong. Zola was diagnosed with cancer on February 10th, and it spread from his lungs to his brain and liver.
Zola Levitt was a pioneer in evangelism and ministry to Jews before the term Messianic Jew became widespread, and opened a lot of doors in the Church to understanding the Jewish roots of our faith in Christ and giving the body of Christ tools to reach out to the Jewish community and show them the love of Yeshua. If you have never seen Zola's presentation of Christ in the Passover, it is a revelation. If you are Jewish, you need to see it to understand how Yeshua was the messiah and became your Passover Lamb. You will see new meaning in ceremonies you have been participating in all your life. If you are a Gentile Christian, you need to see it to understand the roots of our faith and the origins of the Lord's Supper. It will shed new light on the last week of Yeshua's life.
I join thousands of others all over the world in rejoicing in Zola's legacy and life, and in praying for his family and those in his ministry and continuing to pray fervently:

Why Easter?

Why again do we call it Easter? I propose a change, and even offer a couple of alternatives, one of which I have heard others use more each year.
Resurrection Day is a perfectly acceptable alternative to Easter and I use it myself frequently, depending on the audience, but my preferred name for this poorly named holiday is Firstfruits. Many of the Jewish festivals have at least some fulfillment in Jesus' first coming, and the Feast of Firstfruits is no exception. Firstfruits is a part of the Passover celebration, which is itself another column. Passover itself is the beginning of a whole week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in which observants eat only unleavened bread and no yeast at all. The Sunday after Passover during the feast of Unleavened Bread is the Feast of Firstfruits, an originally agricultural festival when the firstfruits of the harvest were taken to the Temple (or Tabernacle) and presented to the Lord in a wave offering.
It is of course no coincidence that Yeshua (that's Jesus to you) rose from the dead on the Sunday after Passover during the feast of Unleavened Bread. Unleavened bread is a symbol of purity and the absence of sin, and Jesus is the Firstfruit of the Resurrection. Believers will all be in possession of glorified bodies like the one Jesus showed off with during his appearances after his resurrection. He is the first one permanently raised from the dead. All those he raised from the dead during his earthly ministry of course died again at a later date.
So there you have it. My vote is to celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits or Bikkurim, its Hebrew name, instead of calling it Easter. Easter Bunny? Can't help you there. Don't know where that weirdness came from.
Have a Blessed Bikkurim!