April 20, 2025 • 25 mins
Why does Easter begin with something as heartbreaking — and irreversible — as death?
In this honest, layered Easter message, Jeremy shares a deeply personal reflection on parenting, grief, and the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. From losing a beloved family dog to wrestling with theological shorthand that reduces Easter to a transaction, this is an exploration of why the cross is not about God’s anger — but about God’s grace.
Through the words of Jesus in John 12, we rediscover:
• ✝️ The cross as the judgment of the world, not its condemnation
• 🔥 How violence and injustice are exposed, not excused
• 🕊 Why the “prince of this world” is not the devil, but the systems and powers we’ve created
• 🌱 And how resurrection is not an escape — but the slow, inevitable healing of everything
This isn’t about a God who demands suffering. It’s about a God who refuses to look away from our pain — and invites us into a future shaped by peace, forgiveness, and impossible hope.
📖 Featuring insights from John 12, Ephesians, and personal stories of loss and wonder.
#Easter #WhyDidJesusDie #TheCross #Resurrection #GriefAndFaith #GoodFriday #EasterSunday #ChristianHope #HolyWeek
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy Duncan (00:00):
Easter is about trusting that every failure is
the possibility of forgiveness.That every dream you've had shot
down is the start of somethingnew somewhere on the horizon.
That every death is thebeginning of a new resurrection.
First, we get now to rehearseour story. And so before we
(00:23):
begin today, let me read theaccount of the first Easter
morning.
And this is from the gospel ofJohn chapter 20 starting in
verse 11. Now Mary stood outsidethe tomb crying. And as she
wept, she bent over to look intothe tomb and saw two angels in
white seated where Jesus' bodyhad been. One at the head, the
(00:45):
other at the foot. And theyasked her, woman, why are you
crying?
They've taken my Lord away, shesaid. I don't know where they've
put him. At this, she turnedaround and saw Jesus standing
there, but she didn't realize itwas him. And he asked her,
woman, why are you crying? Whois it that you're looking for?
Thinking he was the gardener,she said to him, sir, if you
(01:06):
have carried him away, tell mewhere you've taken him. I will
go and I will get him. But hesaid to her, Mary. This is
maybe, perhaps, almost for suremy favorite moment anywhere in
scripture. The moment where thehealing of the world and the
repair of the garden where wewere born, The point where
everything everywhere is finallymade right, and it now becomes
(01:30):
recognizable with a name.
Today, are gonna talk about thegrand scope of resurrection, how
the world was set on a pathtoward goodness on that first
Easter morning. It is big. It'sbeautiful. It's breathtaking.
And, we want to revel in all ofit.
But, please know that even asGod is at work saving the
(01:50):
cosmos, Christ is pausing tocall your name today. Yours and
mine and Mary's because thesalvation of the world can only
ever matter once it becomespersonal for all of us. And so
Jesus turns toward her in hergrief and in her confusion and
he says, Mary. With that, sheturned back toward him and cried
(02:14):
out in Aramaic, Rabboni, whichmeant teacher. But Jesus said,
don't hold on to me.
I have not yet ascended to thefather. Go instead to all of my
friends and tell them I amascending to my father and
yours, to my God and yours. SoMary Magdalene left and went to
the disciples with the news, Ihave seen the Lord. Let's pray.
(02:37):
Father of all life, son of allgrace, Spirit our mother who
upholds and sustains all of us.
God of such great surprise as toput a catch in our breath and
wings in our heart. We praiseyou for this joy too great for
words. For this new worldunleashed in us and now us in
(02:59):
it. For today, there are no moredead ends. We've journeyed
towards you through this season,and now we've arrived through
life and death here atresurrection.
At goodness and truth now aliveand breathing again in the
world. Would you remind us todaythat resurrection is all around
(03:22):
us always. As life returns withspring, as hope is renewed
within us, as you continue torepair your world piece by
beloved piece. Would you breathenew breath into dusty lungs this
day? Pump fresh blood into tiredhearts this morning?
(03:45):
Bring new vision to eyes thathave become too dull to see the
beauty that surrounds us inevery moment. Also that we might
celebrate life wherever it comesto find us today. In the strong
name of the Christ who died androse to new life, We pray. Amen.
(04:10):
This week on Tuesday evening, mykids and I, we rode our bikes
down to the church to walkthrough the stations of the
cross together.
And this is something that I'veparticipated in every holy week
for honestly decades now. Butit's also something that we are
now slowly introducing into ourrhythms as a family as our kids
get a bit older. But on Tuesdaynight, Scott was here from the
(04:34):
team doing his shift in the backof the room when I came through
with my family. And so onWednesday morning, Scott joked
with me saying that his favoritepart of watching us come through
the stations was once we got tothe backside of the stations
over here. As the story wasgetting more intense, closer to
the climax with every paintingwe encountered, my daughter
who's only five now would say tome, has he died now?
(04:59):
And I would say, not yet, baby.And we would encounter the next
painting which seemed to hereven more inconceivably
distressing, and she would say,has he died now? And this is one
of the hard parts of Easter.About parenting in general,
really, talking to your kidsabout mortality. See, my kids
(05:20):
have been very fortunate.
They have not encountered a lotof difficult news in their lives
as of yet. That is, of course,setting aside the drama that
erupts every time I ask my sonto load the dishwasher, which
seems very distressing to him.But this year, our family, we
had our first encounter withdeath. An encounter through
(05:41):
which my daughter was nowprocessing the Easter story when
at the final station, shefinally asked, is he died now
like Cedar? Cedar was ourbeloved golden retriever who
passed away earlier this year.
Except that now, at the finalstation of the cross, I realized
I had a new dilemma on my hands.Because when Cedar passed, my
(06:04):
kids needed to learn about thepermanence of death. For about a
week after Cedar died, mydaughter would crawl into bed
with me every morning if shedoes and ask, Cedar is still
dead? Yes, baby. And you arestill sad?
Yes, baby. Something profoundlytouching about the fact that my
(06:25):
daughter could not yetcomprehend death and yet was
very aware of her father'sgrief. But then, of course,
later that afternoon, we wouldgo riding our bikes through the
neighborhood, and my daughterwho loves to talk to everyone
she ever meets would alternatelycall out to strangers along the
path. My dog has died and my dadis sad. And then to the next,
(06:46):
look, I got new shoes.
They're pink. I told you thisstory before, but she contains
multitudes. The thing is it didslowly sink in that Cedar was
gone. Cedar was not coming backbecause Cedar had died. And here
we were at the final station ofthe cross here.
We are all of us on Good Fridaytaking in the story of Jesus,
(07:11):
wanting to feel every bit of it,and yet encountering that moment
through the only stories ofdeath that any of us have ever
known. Because Jesus has diedjust like cedar. At least for
today, baby. See, I think one ofthe hardest parts of Easter is
(07:34):
making sense of a story thatdoesn't make sense. Why does
Jesus die just to come back?
Why all that pain just for it tobe undone? Why choose something
so irrevocable to inaugurate thesalvation of the world? And
perhaps, I think just like mykids, I have found myself for
(07:56):
almost twenty years now, largelyunsatisfied with the answers
I've been offered. Now, maybethat feels familiar to me.
Because I don't mean unsatisfiedwith Jesus.
I find the story of the life anddeath, even the resurrection of
Jesus incredibly compelling.That's why I've given my life to
trying to make sense of it, butit's the explanations and the
(08:19):
shorthand versions that haveoften left me wanting. See for
the most part, the story I'vebeen told is that Jesus died
because God was mad. The storygoes that someone, somewhere, at
some point along the line made abad mistake. And because of that
(08:40):
mistake, all of us, we have beenmaking mistakes ever since.
Except that at some point,someone was always gonna have to
pay for it all. So one day, Godtook God's son who hadn't done
anything wrong and punished himto let us off the hook. Except
didn't really matter all thatmuch because he came back
(09:02):
anyway, and we're forgiven. Wedon't have to be sad as long as
we don't think too hard abouteverything that God did to
Jesus. Now, it's anoversimplification.
It's a caricature, really. But Ithink that's the problem. Right?
We're trying to explain thesalvation of the cosmos in an
elevator pitch to a five yearold, and it doesn't work. The
(09:24):
story is too big.
The implications, too important.The scope, far too grand for a
purely transactional approach tosalvation. Easter, all of this
is so much more than the bow tieon Good Friday to send us home
with a smile. Easter is wherethe world turns. And to properly
(09:50):
understand that, we have to domore than filter Easter through
our experience of losing furryfriends, and we have to do more
even than filter Easter throughancient imaginations of
appeasing the gods.
We have to, I think at least,turn to what Jesus tells us is
taking place here. And for that,I wanna go back to you. Well,
(10:12):
exactly where we left off lastSunday on Palm Sunday. There we
walked through Jesus' entry intoJerusalem in John twelve. The
crowds took palm branches andwent out to meet him shouting,
Hosanna, blessed is he who comesin the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the king of Israel.Except Jesus found a young
(10:33):
donkey and sat on it as it waswritten, do not be afraid
daughter Zion, see your king iscoming seated on a donkey's
colt. That that right there,that is the politics of Jesus.
The crowds want a king that willfight for them, So Jesus rides
out to meet them sitting on adonkey's colt. That's a symbol
(10:53):
of peace.
A sign that war is undone. Acallback to a story that we had
forgotten long ago. Except Jesusis not done here because in
verse 23, he continues our reeducation. He says, the hour has
come for the son of man to beglorified. And to be fair, that
(11:15):
sounds nice on its surface atleast.
At least, if you're in the crowdwaving palm branches and holding
signs of national sovereignty,believing that a king would come
and fight for you, that soundsvery much like what you might
want to hear. The hour has comefor the son of man to be
glorified. We're with him atthis point. Amen. Except, he
says, very truly I tell you,unless a kernel of wheat falls
(11:39):
to the ground and dies, itremains but a single seed.
But if it dies, it can producemany more. Anyone who loves
their life will lose it. Anyonewho hates their life will find
it for all of eternity. But nowmy soul is troubled. So what
should I say?
Father, save me from this? No.It's for this reason that I'm
(12:02):
here. To that part feels veryunlike what we might have wanted
from a savior. I mean, glorifiedsure, but falling to the ground
and dying, losing his life, andstruggling with the weight of
that implication, that doesn'tfeel very kingly to me at all.
(12:23):
So, why? Why did my dog die? Whydid I have to explain that to my
kids? Why did I have to stand atthe bedside of a friend, a young
dad who'd been part of thiscommunity since day one, a good
man who died on Good Friday? Whydoes our greatest celebration
(12:45):
need to start here at the cross?
Well, it's actually there. Atthe end of Palm Sunday, right on
the verge of holy week, juststeps from the depths of the
cross that Jesus offers us oneof the most enigmatic and
perhaps maybe also one of themost important descriptions of
(13:07):
what Easter is all about. Hesays this in John 12 verse 31,
now is the time for the judgmentof the world, for the prince of
this world to be driven outbecause when I am lifted up, I
will draw all people to myself.That is what the son of God
(13:29):
thinks Easter is about. Notappeasing an angry God, but the
very work of God that will judgethe world and drive out evil.
The work that will draw all ofhumanity toward resurrection.
Except, if that is what ishappening on the cross, then it
(13:51):
seems to me at least thatsomething has gone very wrong in
our shorthand explanations ofEaster. First, the cross is the
judgment of the world. See, I'veoften been told that judgment is
what happens after you die. Likeyou stand before the pearly
gates and God opens up a bigbook and he sends you either to
(14:11):
the good place or the bad one.
Jesus tells me that it's here inholy week on the cross that the
world was judged. Now, thinkpart of our problem is that our
default is to assume thatjudgment must mean retribution.
You did a bad thing, bad thingsgotta happen to you. It's not
(14:32):
what we see here in Jesus.What's reflected here is an
imagination of sin, notprimarily as infringement, but
maybe something more likecorruption or sickness.
Sin is not when you break therule. Sin is when you have
trouble seeing what's good foryou in the first place. Not
knowing what's good for yourneighbor. Not seeing what's good
(14:54):
for your world. Not graspingwhat a good God desperately
wants for you.
So the judgment of the world isnot when the world gets what's
coming to it. The judgment ofthe world is when all of our
brokenness is held up in frontof us and God finally refuses to
let us look away. I've alreadytalked about my dog today. Cedar
(15:20):
was one of the most beautifully,brilliantly oblivious dogs I've
ever met. Look, Cedar haspassed.
There's no point besmirching hisreputation. So let me put this
out there before I begin. He wasa wonderful dog. But every once
in a while, Cedar would decidethat we had been gone a little
too long or that he needed alittle more stimulation than we
(15:40):
had provided, and we would comehome to find the kids' artwork,
maybe left on a table now tornto shreds on the floor, or a
compost bag left unsecured, nowscattered across the room, a
child's stuffy love, let's say,just a little too recklessly.
And if you ever wanted to see abeautiful, brilliant dog, all of
(16:01):
a sudden turn into a black holeof awareness, all you had to do
is pick up any shred of thatmess and hold it near him.
All of a sudden, it wasinvisible to him. You were
invisible to him. He could notsee anything. He would avert his
gaze and turn his head to avoideven a hint of acknowledgment
that anything had happened.Guys, we do that all the time.
(16:23):
We ignore each other. We acquiremore than we need. We accumulate
excess at the expense of ourneighbor. We avert our eyes when
someone else is sacrificed forthe common good. As long as they
remain nameless so that we canmaintain plausible deniability.
We outsource sin so that we canpretend we don't see our mess.
(16:50):
And on the cross, God says, nomore. This is what your violence
looks like. This is what yourdisdain for each other does.
This is the pain that you'reblaming and you're scapegoating
manufacturers in your world.
And it's no longer hidden, andyou can't look away. That's what
(17:12):
judgment is. It's not God'sretribution. It's not God's
violence. It's not because Godwants anyone to suffer.
The cross exists because Godwants us to finally stop passing
our pain back and forth betweenourselves forever. The cross is
where we stop pretending we'reokay. And we come face to face
(17:40):
with what we do to each otherall the time in this world. The
judgment of God is not violence.The judgment of God is when we
are finally honest with ourviolence.
Father, forgive them. They don'teven know what they're doing.
(18:00):
Which means, it's now time forthe prince of this world to be
driven out. And that'swonderful, but it's a very
loaded language. The Greek herespeaks about the archon of the
cosmos.
Prince of this world iscertainly one way that you could
read that, but archon is a wordthat speaks about authority or
power, not a person. And cosmoshere refers to not the planets
(18:24):
and the stars, but the socialworld that we live in. It's
everything that we'veconstructed for ourselves. And
Paul actually uses the same ideain his phrase, the
principalities and powers overin Ephesians. But there he very
specifically says, our battle isnot with each other, not with
some kind of enemy, but withideas, ideologies,
(18:45):
principalities, and powers thatreinforce our violence in the
world.
And the cross is really thejudgment of the world, the place
where we see ourselves clearly,perhaps for the very first time.
I think it makes a lot of sensethen that the power of the
systems around us, the authoritythey think they hold over us,
well, all of that would slowlybegin to crumble next. See if
(19:10):
our sin, our violence canactually become visible to us,
if we can see it for what it is,then slowly it will, I believe,
necessarily have less power overus. Which means that when Jesus
is finally lifted up, he willdraw all of us toward himself.
(19:32):
See, this isn't just some merelyevangelistic claim like
prophesizing propaganda.
This is Jesus declaring thatonce an alternative to our
violence has been seeded intothe world, once an option is
actually visible to us, it willslowly but inevitably, maybe
like a mustard vine creep itselfacross the cosmos. And that,
(19:57):
this, that's why Easter has tobegin with death. It's why it
has to start with something thatseems so irrevocable. It's why I
will struggle to explain it tomy kids every year. That's why I
will probably wrestle with thisstory for the rest of my life
because Easter is about theimpossible.
(20:19):
Our violence, our systems, ourstructures, our sins that make
our world possible, finallycrumbling under the weight of
peace. And that seems absurd,which is why I think we try so
(20:40):
hard to retrofit Easter into ourimagination. That's why we turn
the judgment of cross into thepunishment of hell. I mean, how
can judgment really be grace? Idon't wanna treat my enemies
that way.
Much easier to think it's aboutretribution. So I return what
needs to be driven out of thisworld into an enemy rather than
(21:02):
our own culpability. So mucheasier to blame someone or
something rather than to do thework of divesting ourselves of
what's broken. So we turn thelifting up of Jesus into our
job, a propaganda campaign tocelebrate listening to ourselves
talk. I mean, I can get behindthat.
Much easier than trusting thatthe spirit of Jesus is at work
(21:26):
right now in every single personyou meet, calling them toward
futures that seem too good to betrue, even if they don't use the
same language that you do todescribe it. That's the point.
Because things don't changesomewhere at some point,
sometime down the line, thingschanged at Easter. And you and
(21:53):
I, we are just watching thelight slowly creep across the
land. That's why we celebratetoday.
Not because we believe the worldis everything it could be, but
because we trust it will be. Andyou and I, we are ahead of the
(22:14):
curve. Easter is about believingsomewhere deep in our bones that
goodness is inevitable. Easteris about trusting that every
failure is the possibility offorgiveness. That every dream
you've had shot down is thestart of something new somewhere
(22:36):
on the horizon.
That every death is thebeginning of a new resurrection.
Easter Sunday is aboutcelebrating that tomorrow is a
new Monday morning, where youcan wake up more honest with
(22:56):
yourself than ever before, morefree from whatever it was that
felt like it had you trappedbefore, more motivated to good
than you ever imagined possiblebefore. Perhaps even believing
for the very first time thatwhatever kind of death that you
have encountered or experiencedanywhere in your life, it was
(23:20):
not the end. And thatresurrection is somehow the
natural state of the cosmos.Because Christ is risen and not
one dead shall remain.
(23:41):
Let's pray. God, on this Eastermorning where we struggle to
make sense of your story, and itis necessarily, objectively too
good to be true, we ask that youwould help us sink deep into
(24:03):
those arms, To believe insomething that is irrational. To
trust in something that isinevitable. To believe that the
light of the world slowlycreeping across the land, making
its way toward us this day. Andthat because of that, we can
(24:26):
wake up tomorrow morning full ofsomething new and vibrant,
something motivating andenergizing, something like hope.
Hope for ourselves and thosenear us. Hope for this world
that you love that much. Maythat story slowly become ours,
(24:52):
and may we live in the light ofresurrection. In the strong name
of the Jesus who died and roseto new life, we pray, Amen. Hey,
Jeremy here, and thanks forlistening to our podcast.
If you're intrigued by the workthat we're doing here at
(25:13):
Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch. You can subscribeto our YouTube channel where we
are posting content regularlyfor the community. You can also
join our Discord server. Head tocommons.churchdiscord for the
invite, and there you will findthe community having all kinds
(25:34):
of conversations about how wecan encourage each other to
follow the way of Jesus.
We would love to hear from you.Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
Easter is about trusting that every failure is
the possibility of forgiveness.That every dream you've had shot
down is the start of somethingnew somewhere on the horizon.
That every death is thebeginning of a new resurrection.
First, we get now to rehearseour story. And so before we
(00:23):
begin today, let me read theaccount of the first Easter
morning.
And this is from the gospel ofJohn chapter 20 starting in
verse 11. Now Mary stood outsidethe tomb crying. And as she
wept, she bent over to look intothe tomb and saw two angels in
white seated where Jesus' bodyhad been. One at the head, the
(00:45):
other at the foot. And theyasked her, woman, why are you
crying?
They've taken my Lord away, shesaid. I don't know where they've
put him. At this, she turnedaround and saw Jesus standing
there, but she didn't realize itwas him. And he asked her,
woman, why are you crying? Whois it that you're looking for?
Thinking he was the gardener,she said to him, sir, if you
(01:06):
have carried him away, tell mewhere you've taken him. I will
go and I will get him. But hesaid to her, Mary. This is
maybe, perhaps, almost for suremy favorite moment anywhere in
scripture. The moment where thehealing of the world and the
repair of the garden where wewere born, The point where
everything everywhere is finallymade right, and it now becomes
(01:30):
recognizable with a name.
Today, are gonna talk about thegrand scope of resurrection, how
the world was set on a pathtoward goodness on that first
Easter morning. It is big. It'sbeautiful. It's breathtaking.
And, we want to revel in all ofit.
But, please know that even asGod is at work saving the
(01:50):
cosmos, Christ is pausing tocall your name today. Yours and
mine and Mary's because thesalvation of the world can only
ever matter once it becomespersonal for all of us. And so
Jesus turns toward her in hergrief and in her confusion and
he says, Mary. With that, sheturned back toward him and cried
(02:14):
out in Aramaic, Rabboni, whichmeant teacher. But Jesus said,
don't hold on to me.
I have not yet ascended to thefather. Go instead to all of my
friends and tell them I amascending to my father and
yours, to my God and yours. SoMary Magdalene left and went to
the disciples with the news, Ihave seen the Lord. Let's pray.
(02:37):
Father of all life, son of allgrace, Spirit our mother who
upholds and sustains all of us.
God of such great surprise as toput a catch in our breath and
wings in our heart. We praiseyou for this joy too great for
words. For this new worldunleashed in us and now us in
(02:59):
it. For today, there are no moredead ends. We've journeyed
towards you through this season,and now we've arrived through
life and death here atresurrection.
At goodness and truth now aliveand breathing again in the
world. Would you remind us todaythat resurrection is all around
(03:22):
us always. As life returns withspring, as hope is renewed
within us, as you continue torepair your world piece by
beloved piece. Would you breathenew breath into dusty lungs this
day? Pump fresh blood into tiredhearts this morning?
(03:45):
Bring new vision to eyes thathave become too dull to see the
beauty that surrounds us inevery moment. Also that we might
celebrate life wherever it comesto find us today. In the strong
name of the Christ who died androse to new life, We pray. Amen.
(04:10):
This week on Tuesday evening, mykids and I, we rode our bikes
down to the church to walkthrough the stations of the
cross together.
And this is something that I'veparticipated in every holy week
for honestly decades now. Butit's also something that we are
now slowly introducing into ourrhythms as a family as our kids
get a bit older. But on Tuesdaynight, Scott was here from the
(04:34):
team doing his shift in the backof the room when I came through
with my family. And so onWednesday morning, Scott joked
with me saying that his favoritepart of watching us come through
the stations was once we got tothe backside of the stations
over here. As the story wasgetting more intense, closer to
the climax with every paintingwe encountered, my daughter
who's only five now would say tome, has he died now?
(04:59):
And I would say, not yet, baby.And we would encounter the next
painting which seemed to hereven more inconceivably
distressing, and she would say,has he died now? And this is one
of the hard parts of Easter.About parenting in general,
really, talking to your kidsabout mortality. See, my kids
(05:20):
have been very fortunate.
They have not encountered a lotof difficult news in their lives
as of yet. That is, of course,setting aside the drama that
erupts every time I ask my sonto load the dishwasher, which
seems very distressing to him.But this year, our family, we
had our first encounter withdeath. An encounter through
(05:41):
which my daughter was nowprocessing the Easter story when
at the final station, shefinally asked, is he died now
like Cedar? Cedar was ourbeloved golden retriever who
passed away earlier this year.
Except that now, at the finalstation of the cross, I realized
I had a new dilemma on my hands.Because when Cedar passed, my
(06:04):
kids needed to learn about thepermanence of death. For about a
week after Cedar died, mydaughter would crawl into bed
with me every morning if shedoes and ask, Cedar is still
dead? Yes, baby. And you arestill sad?
Yes, baby. Something profoundlytouching about the fact that my
(06:25):
daughter could not yetcomprehend death and yet was
very aware of her father'sgrief. But then, of course,
later that afternoon, we wouldgo riding our bikes through the
neighborhood, and my daughterwho loves to talk to everyone
she ever meets would alternatelycall out to strangers along the
path. My dog has died and my dadis sad. And then to the next,
(06:46):
look, I got new shoes.
They're pink. I told you thisstory before, but she contains
multitudes. The thing is it didslowly sink in that Cedar was
gone. Cedar was not coming backbecause Cedar had died. And here
we were at the final station ofthe cross here.
We are all of us on Good Fridaytaking in the story of Jesus,
(07:11):
wanting to feel every bit of it,and yet encountering that moment
through the only stories ofdeath that any of us have ever
known. Because Jesus has diedjust like cedar. At least for
today, baby. See, I think one ofthe hardest parts of Easter is
(07:34):
making sense of a story thatdoesn't make sense. Why does
Jesus die just to come back?
Why all that pain just for it tobe undone? Why choose something
so irrevocable to inaugurate thesalvation of the world? And
perhaps, I think just like mykids, I have found myself for
(07:56):
almost twenty years now, largelyunsatisfied with the answers
I've been offered. Now, maybethat feels familiar to me.
Because I don't mean unsatisfiedwith Jesus.
I find the story of the life anddeath, even the resurrection of
Jesus incredibly compelling.That's why I've given my life to
trying to make sense of it, butit's the explanations and the
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shorthand versions that haveoften left me wanting. See for
the most part, the story I'vebeen told is that Jesus died
because God was mad. The storygoes that someone, somewhere, at
some point along the line made abad mistake. And because of that
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mistake, all of us, we have beenmaking mistakes ever since.
Except that at some point,someone was always gonna have to
pay for it all. So one day, Godtook God's son who hadn't done
anything wrong and punished himto let us off the hook. Except
didn't really matter all thatmuch because he came back
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anyway, and we're forgiven. Wedon't have to be sad as long as
we don't think too hard abouteverything that God did to
Jesus. Now, it's anoversimplification.
It's a caricature, really. But Ithink that's the problem. Right?
We're trying to explain thesalvation of the cosmos in an
elevator pitch to a five yearold, and it doesn't work. The
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story is too big.
The implications, too important.The scope, far too grand for a
purely transactional approach tosalvation. Easter, all of this
is so much more than the bow tieon Good Friday to send us home
with a smile. Easter is wherethe world turns. And to properly
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understand that, we have to domore than filter Easter through
our experience of losing furryfriends, and we have to do more
even than filter Easter throughancient imaginations of
appeasing the gods.
We have to, I think at least,turn to what Jesus tells us is
taking place here. And for that,I wanna go back to you. Well,
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exactly where we left off lastSunday on Palm Sunday. There we
walked through Jesus' entry intoJerusalem in John twelve. The
crowds took palm branches andwent out to meet him shouting,
Hosanna, blessed is he who comesin the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the king of Israel.Except Jesus found a young
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donkey and sat on it as it waswritten, do not be afraid
daughter Zion, see your king iscoming seated on a donkey's
colt. That that right there,that is the politics of Jesus.
The crowds want a king that willfight for them, So Jesus rides
out to meet them sitting on adonkey's colt. That's a symbol
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of peace.
A sign that war is undone. Acallback to a story that we had
forgotten long ago. Except Jesusis not done here because in
verse 23, he continues our reeducation. He says, the hour has
come for the son of man to beglorified. And to be fair, that
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sounds nice on its surface atleast.
At least, if you're in the crowdwaving palm branches and holding
signs of national sovereignty,believing that a king would come
and fight for you, that soundsvery much like what you might
want to hear. The hour has comefor the son of man to be
glorified. We're with him atthis point. Amen. Except, he
says, very truly I tell you,unless a kernel of wheat falls
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to the ground and dies, itremains but a single seed.
But if it dies, it can producemany more. Anyone who loves
their life will lose it. Anyonewho hates their life will find
it for all of eternity. But nowmy soul is troubled. So what
should I say?
Father, save me from this? No.It's for this reason that I'm
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here. To that part feels veryunlike what we might have wanted
from a savior. I mean, glorifiedsure, but falling to the ground
and dying, losing his life, andstruggling with the weight of
that implication, that doesn'tfeel very kingly to me at all.
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So, why? Why did my dog die? Whydid I have to explain that to my
kids? Why did I have to stand atthe bedside of a friend, a young
dad who'd been part of thiscommunity since day one, a good
man who died on Good Friday? Whydoes our greatest celebration
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need to start here at the cross?
Well, it's actually there. Atthe end of Palm Sunday, right on
the verge of holy week, juststeps from the depths of the
cross that Jesus offers us oneof the most enigmatic and
perhaps maybe also one of themost important descriptions of
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what Easter is all about. Hesays this in John 12 verse 31,
now is the time for the judgmentof the world, for the prince of
this world to be driven outbecause when I am lifted up, I
will draw all people to myself.That is what the son of God
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thinks Easter is about. Notappeasing an angry God, but the
very work of God that will judgethe world and drive out evil.
The work that will draw all ofhumanity toward resurrection.
Except, if that is what ishappening on the cross, then it
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seems to me at least thatsomething has gone very wrong in
our shorthand explanations ofEaster. First, the cross is the
judgment of the world. See, I'veoften been told that judgment is
what happens after you die. Likeyou stand before the pearly
gates and God opens up a bigbook and he sends you either to
(14:11):
the good place or the bad one.
Jesus tells me that it's here inholy week on the cross that the
world was judged. Now, thinkpart of our problem is that our
default is to assume thatjudgment must mean retribution.
You did a bad thing, bad thingsgotta happen to you. It's not
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what we see here in Jesus.What's reflected here is an
imagination of sin, notprimarily as infringement, but
maybe something more likecorruption or sickness.
Sin is not when you break therule. Sin is when you have
trouble seeing what's good foryou in the first place. Not
knowing what's good for yourneighbor. Not seeing what's good
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for your world. Not graspingwhat a good God desperately
wants for you.
So the judgment of the world isnot when the world gets what's
coming to it. The judgment ofthe world is when all of our
brokenness is held up in frontof us and God finally refuses to
let us look away. I've alreadytalked about my dog today. Cedar
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was one of the most beautifully,brilliantly oblivious dogs I've
ever met. Look, Cedar haspassed.
There's no point besmirching hisreputation. So let me put this
out there before I begin. He wasa wonderful dog. But every once
in a while, Cedar would decidethat we had been gone a little
too long or that he needed alittle more stimulation than we
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had provided, and we would comehome to find the kids' artwork,
maybe left on a table now tornto shreds on the floor, or a
compost bag left unsecured, nowscattered across the room, a
child's stuffy love, let's say,just a little too recklessly.
And if you ever wanted to see abeautiful, brilliant dog, all of
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a sudden turn into a black holeof awareness, all you had to do
is pick up any shred of thatmess and hold it near him.
All of a sudden, it wasinvisible to him. You were
invisible to him. He could notsee anything. He would avert his
gaze and turn his head to avoideven a hint of acknowledgment
that anything had happened.Guys, we do that all the time.
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We ignore each other. We acquiremore than we need. We accumulate
excess at the expense of ourneighbor. We avert our eyes when
someone else is sacrificed forthe common good. As long as they
remain nameless so that we canmaintain plausible deniability.
We outsource sin so that we canpretend we don't see our mess.
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And on the cross, God says, nomore. This is what your violence
looks like. This is what yourdisdain for each other does.
This is the pain that you'reblaming and you're scapegoating
manufacturers in your world.
And it's no longer hidden, andyou can't look away. That's what
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judgment is. It's not God'sretribution. It's not God's
violence. It's not because Godwants anyone to suffer.
The cross exists because Godwants us to finally stop passing
our pain back and forth betweenourselves forever. The cross is
where we stop pretending we'reokay. And we come face to face
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with what we do to each otherall the time in this world. The
judgment of God is not violence.The judgment of God is when we
are finally honest with ourviolence.
Father, forgive them. They don'teven know what they're doing.
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Which means, it's now time forthe prince of this world to be
driven out. And that'swonderful, but it's a very
loaded language. The Greek herespeaks about the archon of the
cosmos.
Prince of this world iscertainly one way that you could
read that, but archon is a wordthat speaks about authority or
power, not a person. And cosmoshere refers to not the planets
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and the stars, but the socialworld that we live in. It's
everything that we'veconstructed for ourselves. And
Paul actually uses the same ideain his phrase, the
principalities and powers overin Ephesians. But there he very
specifically says, our battle isnot with each other, not with
some kind of enemy, but withideas, ideologies,
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principalities, and powers thatreinforce our violence in the
world.
And the cross is really thejudgment of the world, the place
where we see ourselves clearly,perhaps for the very first time.
I think it makes a lot of sensethen that the power of the
systems around us, the authoritythey think they hold over us,
well, all of that would slowlybegin to crumble next. See if
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our sin, our violence canactually become visible to us,
if we can see it for what it is,then slowly it will, I believe,
necessarily have less power overus. Which means that when Jesus
is finally lifted up, he willdraw all of us toward himself.
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See, this isn't just some merelyevangelistic claim like
prophesizing propaganda.
This is Jesus declaring thatonce an alternative to our
violence has been seeded intothe world, once an option is
actually visible to us, it willslowly but inevitably, maybe
like a mustard vine creep itselfacross the cosmos. And that,
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this, that's why Easter has tobegin with death. It's why it
has to start with something thatseems so irrevocable. It's why I
will struggle to explain it tomy kids every year. That's why I
will probably wrestle with thisstory for the rest of my life
because Easter is about theimpossible.
(20:19):
Our violence, our systems, ourstructures, our sins that make
our world possible, finallycrumbling under the weight of
peace. And that seems absurd,which is why I think we try so
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hard to retrofit Easter into ourimagination. That's why we turn
the judgment of cross into thepunishment of hell. I mean, how
can judgment really be grace? Idon't wanna treat my enemies
that way.
Much easier to think it's aboutretribution. So I return what
needs to be driven out of thisworld into an enemy rather than
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our own culpability. So mucheasier to blame someone or
something rather than to do thework of divesting ourselves of
what's broken. So we turn thelifting up of Jesus into our
job, a propaganda campaign tocelebrate listening to ourselves
talk. I mean, I can get behindthat.
Much easier than trusting thatthe spirit of Jesus is at work
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right now in every single personyou meet, calling them toward
futures that seem too good to betrue, even if they don't use the
same language that you do todescribe it. That's the point.
Because things don't changesomewhere at some point,
sometime down the line, thingschanged at Easter. And you and
(21:53):
I, we are just watching thelight slowly creep across the
land. That's why we celebratetoday.
Not because we believe the worldis everything it could be, but
because we trust it will be. Andyou and I, we are ahead of the
(22:14):
curve. Easter is about believingsomewhere deep in our bones that
goodness is inevitable. Easteris about trusting that every
failure is the possibility offorgiveness. That every dream
you've had shot down is thestart of something new somewhere
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on the horizon.
That every death is thebeginning of a new resurrection.
Easter Sunday is aboutcelebrating that tomorrow is a
new Monday morning, where youcan wake up more honest with
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yourself than ever before, morefree from whatever it was that
felt like it had you trappedbefore, more motivated to good
than you ever imagined possiblebefore. Perhaps even believing
for the very first time thatwhatever kind of death that you
have encountered or experiencedanywhere in your life, it was
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not the end. And thatresurrection is somehow the
natural state of the cosmos.Because Christ is risen and not
one dead shall remain.
(23:41):
Let's pray. God, on this Eastermorning where we struggle to
make sense of your story, and itis necessarily, objectively too
good to be true, we ask that youwould help us sink deep into
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those arms, To believe insomething that is irrational. To
trust in something that isinevitable. To believe that the
light of the world slowlycreeping across the land, making
its way toward us this day. Andthat because of that, we can
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wake up tomorrow morning full ofsomething new and vibrant,
something motivating andenergizing, something like hope.
Hope for ourselves and thosenear us. Hope for this world
that you love that much. Maythat story slowly become ours,
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and may we live in the light ofresurrection. In the strong name
of the Jesus who died and roseto new life, we pray, Amen. Hey,
Jeremy here, and thanks forlistening to our podcast.
If you're intrigued by the workthat we're doing here at
(25:13):
Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch. You can subscribeto our YouTube channel where we
are posting content regularlyfor the community. You can also
join our Discord server. Head tocommons.churchdiscord for the
invite, and there you will findthe community having all kinds
(25:34):
of conversations about how wecan encourage each other to
follow the way of Jesus.
We would love to hear from you.Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
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