Crucifixion – GRAFTED

If you are a traditional Christian and this blog doesn’t offend you, then I’m doing something wrong. Easter should be the most important holiday for Christians. It’s great that Yeshua was born, but if he didn’t rise from the dead then none of the rest of it means anything.

I want to examine the festival that Yahweh proscribed and contrast it with the practices that Christians have adopted to celebrate the most important day in human history (so far) since the creation of man.

Much of this is taken from my book Grafted: Embracing Torah (yes, a shameful plug for my book – I wrote it to be read, so I need to let people know it is out there) which has an entire chapter reviewing the differences between the festivals that Yahweh mandated and the ‘Christian substitutes’ that are celebrated today.

First Fruits (Bikkurim)

⁹And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ¹⁰Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: ¹¹And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (Leviticus 23:9-11)

The first fruits of everything are considered the provision of Yahweh (e.g., grain, livestock, children, etc.). This offering commemorates the blessings and follows the first of the grain harvests. It appears the grain (in this case, barley) is literally “waved” before the altar and then the Priests would keep the offering (the Levites have to eat, also).

This sacrifice is not burned as the animal sacrifices are and takes place to be on the day after the first Sabbath after Passover. This is played out in the narrative of Yesuha’s death and resurrection.

The year of Yeshua’s crucifixion is similar to last year (2020 AD) in that Passover was (is) on the fifth day of the week (Thursday). This means that First Fruits was celebrated on Sunday morning – a little over 80 hours after the Passover meal was eaten.

This year (2021 AD), Passover is on Saturday at sunset and First Fruits is on Monday morning

Why is this important? Yahweh’s prescribed days all had present significance and future significance. Israel knew this, as did Yeshua, who before he was arrested, schooled the people on what was to soon unfold:

³⁸Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. ³⁹But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:38-40).

This is not the Friday night to Sunday morning crap that is taught from the pulpit. When you read these verses, you probably questioned it yourself, but decide that thousands of preachers cannot be wrong (they can and they are – they are human, after all).

I made the same mistake for decades.

Let the evidence convince you:

“three days and three nights” literally mean three 24-hour periods. 72 hours.
Friday 4:00 (Christ died at 3:00 – give an hour for Joseph of Arimathea to plead with Pilate to get the body and then place in the sepulcher) to Sunday 6:00 (When Mary came to the tomb, it was yet dark – John 20:1) is 38 hours – barely half of what is needed to fulfill the scriptures.
Yeshua is the ultimate Passover lamb (if you don’t believe this, then I’m not sure why you would read any of my blogs). The Passover lamb is killed during the day before Passover -in this case, Wednesday afternoon because Passover begins at Sunset.
Wednesday 6:00 (Christ died at 3:00 – I’m going to give Joseph of Arimathea three hours to plead with Pilate to get the body and then place in the sepulcher – this gives him enough time to return and celebrate Passover) to Saturday 6:00 (it could be any time after 6:00) is a minimum of 72 hours – fulfilling the scriptures.

Christ rose Saturday night, probably after sunset (the beginning of a new day and of First Fruits). The priest would have knowingly celebrated Yahweh’s blessing of their harvest and unknowingly celebrated the resurrection of Christ, the First Fruit of a new people who will have the Word written in their hearts.

Joseph of Arimathea was so vital to all that transacted this day (see my blog “What did Joe know . . . and when did he know it”). Joseph was a Pharisee, but more importantly, he was a believer. He risked the fury of the other Pharisees who were trying to quash the upstart, Yeshua and his followers.

Criminals that were sentenced to death were generally tossed into Jerusalem’s garbage dump – The Valley of Hinnom (also known as Ge-henna). The valley was the site of child sacrifice that was sanctioned by earlier Israeli kings, so the land was defiled and had no other purpose. The fires in Gehenna never went out because people were constantly fueling the flames by throwing their trash into the valley. This was the image that Yeshua gave his disciples when he spoke of everlasting punishment (Mark 9:44, 46, & 48 – quoting Isaiah 66:24).

Yeshua’s body would have been tossed into the valley after his crucifixion if not for the intervention of Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:50-53). Joseph begged Pilate for the body and placed it in his own sepulcher so this ‘wave offering’ of the firstfruits would not burn. It also allowed for the sign of Jonah to be fulfilled and provided a perfect evidence for the resurrection: the empty tomb.

Easter

Easter is usually celebrated with a sunrise church service (a day and a half after ‘Good Friday’ – also discussed in my book . . . which is also another shameless plug) and then a feast (customarily featuring ham – clean and unclean foods are examined in my book, also). Children are given Easter baskets with chocolate bunnies and other candies. Later the children will search for colored Easter eggs.

The word “Easter” comes to us from the Babylonian goddess “Ishtar” (not to be confused with the 1987 movie starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman). She is also known as ‘Mrs. Nimrod’.

Nimrod (great-grandson of Noah – Genesis 10) was the first great king of the world. His capital was Babylon and he built the Tower of Babel. His wife was Semiramis, an ambitious woman who enjoyed sharing power with Nimrod. The Book of Jasher tells us Esau killed Nimrod (Esau ran from Nimrod’s soldiers and sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of pottage because he had no strength left to continue his flight) and Nimrod’s wife had her husband deified. After his death, Semiramis became pregnant and declared that the sun god (the deified Nimrod) had impregnated her with his heavenly rays (similar imagery to the virgin birth).

Tammuz was born and when he became of age, his mother, Semiramis, married him so she could continue as joint ruler. When she died, it is said that she went to Nimrod but he was not ready for her, so he sent her back to Earth inside an egg. When it landed, it cracked open and Semiramis – who was now a bird – turned into an egg-laying rabbit. She thus became the goddess of fertility (Ishtar).

Tammuz (also a great hunter like his father) later died in a hunting accident when he was killed by a wild boar. He, also, was deified (becoming a ‘son of the god’) and became the Mesopotamian god of fertility (pagans like having lots of gods associated with fertility) and is associated with shepherds. His life was honored by prayer and fasting for 40 days prior to Ishtar Sunday (first day of the week following the Spring equinox).

These false gods found their way into multiple cultures (probably due to the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel):

Babylon	Nimrod	Tammuz	Semiramis
Assyria	Ninus	Bacchus	Ishtar
Egypt	Ra	Osiris	Isis
Canaan *	Ba’al	Tammuz	Ashtoreth
Greece	Zeus	Dionysius (Eros)	Aphrodite
Rome	Jupiter	Cupid	Venus

* – Judges 2:13

During the Ishtar service, the priests would impregnate young virgins on the altar. Following this, three-month-old children (the offspring of the Ishtar service the previous year) were sacrificed on the same altar and eggs would be dipped in the infant’s blood. After the service, a feast featuring a wild boar (in honor of Tammuz), would be eaten.

Let us stick with the Passover and First Fruits celebrations because Yeshua is our Passover lamb. If you celebrate with a Seder supper, be sure to incorporate the death and resurrection of Yeshua into the stories of Salvation from oppression in Egypt.

After having suffered a brutal whipping of forty lashes; after suffering the taunts and jeers of the public which only days before had idolized him; after carrying a large, heavy cross (the instrument of your impending death) through the streets and up a large hill; after being stripped and having nails thrust through your wrists and feet to impale him to the cross; after spending hours struggling for each breath and struggling through unbearable pain . . . after all this, Yeshua was nearing the end of his life.

He had one last thing he wanted to share before he gave up his spirit:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

Why’d he say that?

I was taught that he had become our sins and therefore his Father could not look upon him. After all he had been through, he cried out in pain and suffering seeking some solace from an absent Father who had turned His back on His son.

Knowing what we know of Christ from the Scriptures, does this sound like a man who sought to do his Father’s Will in all things? Let us look a little deeper at what was going on and what was said.

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” is Aramaic and should attract attention because of the infrequent use of that language in the Scriptures. The verse gives the translation in the verse, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Why use the Aramaic? Why not just start with the translation?

There is something more being conveyed here than a mere statement.

If ‘Yeshua became our sin, so Yahweh could not look upon him’. I have real problems with this explanation:

If my child committed a crime punishable by death, I would be there for him. Not because I thought he was innocent, but because I would want him to know that I still loved him despite what he had done.
If I knew he was innocent, I would definitely be there so he would know that he was not abandoned.
I know I am not a more loving father than Yahweh.

So if we are going to say Yeshua was not literally accusing his Father, what reason would he have for making such an inflammatory statement? Sometimes we say something to spark a thought or a response from others.

If you said, “If at first you don’t succeed”, there is no need to finish the phrase because everyone knows you are telling someone who has failed to, “try, try, again”. By just stating the first part, the second half of the quote instantly comes to mind because it is so well known.

Psalm 23 is extremely well known. If I said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”, most people’s memories would trigger with the words, “I will fear no evil . . . .”

You know what else was very well-known to the Jews of the time of Christ? Psalms 22 and 24, on either side of Psalm 23.

The expression, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” is actually the first verse in Psalm 22. David wrote this Psalm nearly 900 years before the crucifixion.

If you read the first half of the Psalm 22, it is a rather detailed description of the crucifixion of Yeshua (the second part concerns when he returns in glory).

“strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round” (Pharisees were referred to as bulls)
“I am poured out like water,” (water poured out when his side was pierced)
“all my bones are out of joint” (one of the results of crucifixion)
“my tongue cleaveth to my jaws” (Yeshua cried. “I thirst”)
“For dogs have compassed me” (Romans were referred to as “dogs”. There would have been a detachment of Roman soldiers present to ensure no one interfered with the imposition of Pilate’s justice)
“they pierced my hands and my feet”
“I may tell all my bones”
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

Yeshua’s final words are, “It is finished”, which how Psalm 22 closes. Even the Centurion (who would know some of the Judean’s culture in order to be a more effective advisor to the Roman governor) recognized the evidence from Psalm 22 and stated, “Truly this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54)

Based on the earlier usage of “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” in Psalm 22, I assert that it makes more sense – and is consistent with scripture – to believe that Yeshua was not using his last breath to condemn his Father, but rather, he was witnessing to the people watching his crucifixion.

They had to be demoralized to see their Savior beaten and crucified. He called their attention to a Psalm of David, written over 900 years earlier to remind them that all this was prophesized. I believe even the Centurion got the reference.

First Fruits (Bikkurim)

Easter