Book of Common Prayer

The Lord's special love^[a]

God is good, so thank him^[a]

Firstborn sons

13 The Lord spoke to Moses. ² He said, ‘Keep every firstborn male separate and special for me. Every male who is the first to be born of his mother is mine. He is mine, whether he is man or animal.’^[a]

¹¹ The Lord will bring you into the land of the Canaanites. It is the land that he promised to give to you and to your ancestors. When he gives it to you, you must do this: ¹² You must give to the Lord all the firstborn males. That includes your own firstborn sons, and the male animals that are born first. They belong to the Lord. ¹³ When a donkey gives birth to her first male, you must give a lamb to God, instead of the donkey. If you do not do that, you must kill the donkey. You must break its neck. For any of your own firstborn sons, you must give an animal instead of your son.

¹⁴ One day, your son may ask you, “What does this mean?” Then you must say to him, “The Lord brought us out of Egypt with his powerful authority. He took us away from the place where we were slaves. ¹⁵ Pharaoh refused to let us go. But the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in the country of Egypt. He killed all the firstborn males, both people and animals. That is why I offer all the firstborn male animals as a sacrifice to the Lord. But for each of my firstborn sons, I give an animal to God instead.” ¹⁶ It will be like a mark on your hand or something that you fix between your eyes. It will be a sign that causes you to remember what happened. You will remember that the Lord used his great power to bring us out of Egypt.’

⁵¹ Listen to me. I will explain a great secret to you. Not all of us will die, but God will change all of us. ⁵² It will happen in a short moment, when the last trumpet makes a sound. When that trumpet makes its sound, God will raise up the believers who have died. He will give them bodies that can never die. In that way, he will change all of us.

⁵³ That has to happen. Our bodies that are becoming spoiled must change. They must change into bodies that never become spoiled. Our bodies that are dying must change into bodies that will never die. ⁵⁴ God will give us new bodies like that. When that happens, what is written in the Bible will become true. It says:

⁵⁶ Death only has power to hurt us because of our sins. And it is the authority of God's Law that gives power to sins. ⁵⁷ But now we thank God! Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we win against death and its power.

⁵⁸ So you must continue to be strong in your spirits, my Christian friends that I love. Do not let anything move you away from your faith. Continue to work hard as you serve the Lord. You know that whatever you do for him will not be useless.

24 Very early on the first day of the week, they went to the place where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body. They took with them the spices that they had prepared. ² They arrived there. They found that someone had rolled the big stone away from the hole. ³ They went inside the hole in the rock, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus there. ⁴ They did not understand this at all. But while they were thinking about it, two men appeared. Their clothes shone brightly like lightning. These men came and stood beside them. ⁵ So the women became very afraid and they went down low with their faces on the ground.

The men said to the women, ‘This is a place to bury dead people. You should not be looking here for someone who is alive. ⁶ Jesus is not here. He has become alive again! Remember what he said to you, while he was still with you in Galilee. ⁷ He said, “It is necessary that someone should give the Son of Man into the power of bad men. They will kill him on a cross. But three days later he will become alive again.” ’

⁸ Then the women remembered the words that Jesus had said in Galilee. ⁹ They left the hole where Jesus' body had been. They went to the 11 apostles. They told them what had happened. They also told all the other people who were there. ¹⁰ It was Mary from Magdala, Joanna, James' mother Mary, and other women who were with them that told the news about Jesus to the apostles. ¹¹ But they did not believe what the women said. They thought that it was just a silly story. ¹² But Peter got up and he ran to the hole in the rock. He bent down and he looked inside. He saw only the pieces of linen cloth that they had put around Jesus' body. There was nothing else. So he went home again. He could not understand what might have happened.