Scripture/Sermon of the Day

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. 2 Look, there was a great earthquake, for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven. Coming to the stone, he rolled it away and sat on it. 3 Now his face was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. 4 The guards were so terrified of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him. 7 Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, ‘He’s been raised from the dead. He’s going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ I’ve given the message to you.”

8 With great fear and excitement, they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. 9 But Jesus met them and greeted them. They came and grabbed his feet and worshipped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my brothers that I am going into Galilee. They will see me there.”

I. Well, here we are. We’ve made it to another Easter. Easter 2026. And we know this because it’s spring. The grass is growing outside. Daffodils are all over the place — they’re growing wild. Crocuses too. We know it’s Easter because look at all those Robins — so many Robins, like 20 at a time. What do you call that many Robins? “A flock?”

II. Any way — that’s how we know it’s Easter. We see the flowers, the grass, the birds. We also know it’s Easter because we give gifts to each other. Like candy, especially chocolate rabbits and eggs. Annie and I went to T.J. Max on Good Friday evening to buy Easter gifts.

I guess we could say that, for some people, there’s also something, I guess, “religious” about Easter. People talk about something called a “resurrection” that happened thousands of years ago. I looked it up in the Merriam Webster dictionary. It says: “The state of one risen from the dead.” Christians say on Easter, God made someone rise from the dead. But — WHO?

III. A few weeks ago, to help prepare all of you for this special day we call “Easter” — I made a short Jeopardy game with just one question. If you could answer correctly, you could win one of three prizes: a nice set of steak knives recently purchased from Ebay, in almost new condition except they’re a little dull and have some cracks in the handles. Or, you could win a refurbished Shark vacuum cleaner, also like new except for a slight odor of cat litter if you use it longer than three minutes. Then there’s a Dunbar favorite, an all expense paid night in the Waterbury Motel 6 with AMAZING views of Interstate 84. And by special request, we added one more prize, a trip to Scotland — Connecticut. You provide your own transportation but we’ll give you 20 dollars for gas — which could have bought a lot more about a month ago.

IV. Today we announce the answer to the Jeopardy question from the Dome, which was in the readings this morning, and also the hymns. So— let’s answer it now: Who did God raise from the dead on that first Easter, 2000 years ago in Jerusalem? Yes… it was “Jesus”! But— WHICH ONE?

V. Did God raise Jesus of Nazareth — or the outlaw, the criminal, Jesus Barabbas? Because in the gospels, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, thought Jesus was innocent — he said “This man has done nothing wrong.” He offered the people a choice, since it was Passover and every year at that time he released a prisoner. He said, “You choose — we can execute Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Barabbas, the real criminal.” And people said they wanted the criminal released and Jesus — the good person — executed. But we have to ask. This is a story — would people, in real life, actually choose a criminal over a good person? Would people choose Al Capone over Martin Luther King?

Even now — there’s a lot of confusion in our religion. Because a lot of Christians believe — even today — that God raised Jesus — but not the one from Nazareth, but Jesus Barabbas, the outlaw-criminal. People in the highest levels of power in our country right now worship the other Jesus, the mean-spirited, violent one.

Like the people today who call themselves Christian Nationalists. There are millions of them — and they are leading our country. They think the Jesus God raised was the violent, murdering outlaw Barabbas. Listen to a prayer one of them said recently at a Pentagon Prayer Breakfast. Our Secretary of Defense prayed: “Let every bomb find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them ….overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” What? Will somebody tell Secretary Hegseth that he's praying to the wrong Jesus -- that Jesus of Nazareth was the one God raised — the one who taught us to love our enemies, the one who taught us to forgive and “bless even those who hurt us.” Tell those powerful people that we worship the Jesus of love and peace and forgiveness. Our religion is not one of revenge and “overwhelming violence” to people we don’t agree with.

We need to help people get this right. God didn’t resurrect the violent criminal Jesus Barabbas — it was the other one, Jesus of Nazareth — the one called “The Good Shepherd.” God resurrected the Jesus who brings us overwhelming love and forgiveness and compassion for everyone. Everyone needs this love — it is the air our souls breathe. I pray that this is the Jesus who is resurrected in our minds and hearts and lives.