Throughout my life, I have often wondered what it would have been like to have lived in biblical times. I imagined so many scenes with me right smack dab in the middle of the story.
I envisioned standing beside Eve when the serpent tricked her. Would I have been stronger or wiser than Eve? Or would I have joined right in with her forbidden feast?
Like every Sunday School child, I imagined living aboard the Ark with those stinky animals and walking across the Red Sea while staring at the walls of water miraculously held back by God.
I tried to picture David killing Goliath with his slingshot, Gideon and those men lapping up the water like dogs, and the walls crashing down at the battle of Jericho. I imagined it all.
And I especially loved thinking about all the younger women in the Bible, like Ruth, Queen Esther, and Mary. What must it have felt like to be chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus?
Just think what it would have been like to walk beside Jesus and watch the narrative of salvation as it played out in front of our eyes. How wonderful to have witnessed the miracles, signs, and wonders. But how perplexing and tragic to have been right there on Calvary the day the Lord was crucified.
It’s so easy for us to celebrate the victory of that day with the hindsight knowledge of His resurrection. But His mother, His disciples, His friends, His followers, and even His foes had no idea what would take place in three short days.
Theirs was a very different perspective than our own. We cannot really see the story of Easter from their eyes – or can we?
Well … actually … Redeem TV is extending viewers an opportunity to do just that. Through eight, free episodes of Eyewitness Bible Series: Easter, viewers can see and hear firsthand accounts of characters within the Easter story, one story for each day of the Passion week.
Starting with Palm Sunday and the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of a young colt, each episode tells the Easter story from a unique perspective. In each episode, a lone character sits down in front of the camera and shares his or her story in first-person, as an eyewitness to a particular event in the Easter story.
I have to admit that these episodes are quite different from any drama I have ever watched on the life of Jesus. Honestly, it was startling at first to see an actor sitting calmly in a chair and conversing with the audience as if we were all sitting around a campfire or a kitchen table.
But it did not take long at all for the actors and the setting to fade away into the reality of their scripturally based story. Soon, all I could see or hear, or even feel, was the truth of their tales.
I was right there when the disciples untied the young colt and carried it to the Lord. I felt what Lazarus felt after he came back from the dead. I took my seat at The Last Supper and listened to the story of the vine and the branches. I was there when Andrew spoke of ancient prophecies and when Judas tried to justify and explain his doubts.
It was me in their stories. I was Peter; I was Pilate, and I was Joseph of Arimathea. And for just a few moments in time, I was Mary Magdalene in that garden when the newly resurrected Savior called her name.
I know. I know. It’s just a television series. It’s just a troupe of actors, merely acting out and dramatizing what might have occurred during that week so long ago. These actors are only imagining what it might have felt like to be there when Jesus lived and died and rose again. They are simply putting themselves in the Easter story.
Excuse me, but that’s the whole point of this blog.
In fact, that’s the whole point of Easter when you get right down to it.
Jesus came to earth and put Himself in our place. He lived our lives, felt our pain, bore our griefs, took our troubles, carried our sins, and saved us from ourselves. That is the unbelievable, unexplainable, priceless, and selfless story of salvation. That is the Easter story, the story of a sinless Savior who died in our place so that we could live forever with Him.
And guess what! Redeem TV offers us a free ticket to witness that story up close and personal during this Easter Week celebration. I would challenge you to punch that ticket and watch as many of the eight, free episodes of Eyewitness Bible Series: Easter as possible.
To do so, just go to www.redeemtv.com and sign up for the free viewing portion of their streaming services.
And for more information on Redeem TV, check out this May 2021 article from AFA’s The Stand (formerly AFA Journal): https://afajournal.org/past-issues/2021/may/redeeming-tv-with-families-first/.
