Why is Easter Good News? Part 5

for all of us longing for justice, the king is here + the Easter GBBW Pack

Today is part 5 of 6 different ways the Bible talks about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as good news. So far we’ve looked at peace, purpose, demonstrating God’s true character as one who sacrifices for us, and freeing us from sin’s power.

Next up: justice.

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Each evening, after dinner and before the home stretch sprint of getting ready for bed, we watch a half hour or so of what we’ve come to call “Family Show”. The four members of the family take it in turn to choose a movie for our nightly tradition. 

(This story is brought to you by Disney+)

((I’m kidding about that…although if anyone at the House of Mouse wanted to send some free Disneyland passes my way, I might be persuaded))

(((I’m kidding about that too…I think)))

For family show a couple years back we started watching The Ugly Dachshund. It’s one of those sweet, silly 1950’s and 60’s Disney movies that you could call harmless fun…if it weren’t for the casual racism and misogyny that is just part of the furniture. We often find ourselves pausing and having quick conversations about certain of the less sweet and silly parts of these sweet, silly movies. 

Anyway, the running gag in this particular movie is that this humongous, loveable Great Dane, Brutus, thinks that he’s a Dachshund, like the four little dogs he shares a home with. The mischievous Dachshunds repeatedly make messes, messes so giant that when they leave the scene of the crime in the nick of time, Brutus is the logical one to blame. 

My older son almost turned the movie off several times. 

You see, Riley cares deeply about things being fair, and the horror of the unfairness, the injustice of poor Brutus being blamed for things he wasn’t responsible for, well, it was almost too much for Riley. 

Our family is one of intense feelings, it’s fair to say, and we needed to pause the movie more than once to talk it all through.

Riley, of course, is not the only one to have noticed that injustice seems to permeate the world we live in. The Good News we’re exploring this week is that Jesus’ death and resurrection—or more particularly the story of Palm Sunday when combined with the story of Easter—has something to say to the kids (and grownups) among us who feel justifiably intense feelings at the injustice we see.

Jesus’ death and resurrection have something to say to those of us who feel justifiably intense feelings at the injustice we see.

Scientists have done studies with infants that show that even pre-verbal kids are able to identify and react against the unfair. What’s more, scientists have done studies with monkeys where when two monkeys both receive a bit of cucumber as a reward for a certain behavior, they’re both thrilled. But if one of the monkeys starts receiving the far superior GRAPE as a reward while the other keeps receiving a CUCUMBER, well, that bit of inferior vegetable matter will get thrown right back in the scientists’ faces in protest at the unfairness, the injustice of it all. 

Sometimes, younger generations get a bad rap for being idealists who just don’t understand the way the world works when they complain about injustice. But what if God put that sensitivity to injustice into our DNA for a reason? What if it’s there because God wants us to do something about it?

We’ve talked before about how God’s grand vision for creation is that God would partner with humanity to bring the love, and life, and goodness, and holistic wellbeing, and JUSTICE of God to the whole universe. Being sensitive to injustice from birth might be a key part of what marks us as being the image of God. Because that sense “this isn’t right, and someone should fix it” sometimes, often maybe, gets a response from God like “you’re right, that’s why I put you there.” 

Luke 19 tells us that “Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.” Then a few verses later, “As he was going along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. When he came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to celebrate and praise God at the tops of their voices for all the powerful deeds they had seen. Blessings to the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory on high!” 

The people of Israel in the time of Jesus were acutely aware of the injustices of the world around them. They had been oppressed by one nation after another for centuries, and now Rome was doing the job. The people were desperate for someone to put this injustice, that they experienced every day, to an end. They were anticipating the day that God had promised, when a king would come in the name of the Lord, would overthrow Rome, and end the injustices they suffered. 

And here, riding into town is Good News, Jesus, intentionally embodying the words of the prophet Zechariah, words all these people would have immediately recognized as coming true right before their eyes: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem, for look, your king comes to you. Triumphant and glorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a donkey.”

The king is here! The world is about to be made right again. Rome will be vanquished, and Israel will be free. Jesus was clearly using the words of the prophets to claim to be the messiah, the king come from God, and the people were ecstatic. And they shout out accordingly. But then Luke’s story goes on. 

“When Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it.” And the people must have started wondering, “What exactly is going on here? This isn’t how we expected the king to come. Maybe these are tears of joy?”

But Jesus speaks these words over the city of Jerusalem, about this capital city and its temple that was supposed to be the city he had come to rule over and save: “If only you had known on this day – even you – what peace meant. But now it’s hidden, and you can’t see it.” He goes on to use the words of the prophets to predict that destruction is coming for this city, for Jerusalem. 

Jesus predicts the exact thing the people were afraid of – that Rome would come and destroy the city and the temple, the very things the Messiah was supposed to save. How can we understand this?

There is a very complex mixture of things going on here, of course. But one of the things going into all this is Jesus presenting us with a new vision of Justice. The people were expecting justice to come through the existing systems, the way the world works. In other words, the people were expecting Jesus to bring justice by way of violence and power. Those are the tools a King uses, right? 

And then Jesus goes and gets himself killed. Not very useful for a King. Was he lying about being the Messiah then? No justice coming here? Back to waiting for the Messiah to come?

But then, Resurrection, a King breaking out of those systems of violence and oppression. Not using them to become powerful. This King has a power greater than the power kings use to break people to their will. 

Easter is good news because lasting justice is on the way.

This is justice ushered in not when yet another power uses the same tools to win, but by sacrifice, love, and giving of oneself. (The very things power scoffs at as useless and for the weak.) 

Jesus’ story of Palm Sunday, Death, and Resurrection plays us a different, new song. We hear it and are invited to harmonize.

Good news for those longing for justice, Jesus the king is here.

For kids, the might sound like this:

“I love how you want to see things be fair. That part of who you are matches who our God is. God cares about justice–things being right for everyone, not just rich people, or powerful people, or fancy people, or important people.

“But you know what’s WILD? Jesus brings that justice and fairness not by becoming the richest, the most powerful, the fanciest, or the most important. He basically did the opposite. He shows that justice will come through sacrifice and generosity, and he went first, and did it the most.”

Here’s our full 6-story series for Easter! It includes the 3 stories I sent last week, plus the remaining 3, all in one handy-dandy PDF.