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March 29, 2026 "This Story Goes Beyond Suffering"
Not a traditional sermon. No main ideas, no three points and a poem. Just a retelling of the story with some comments and questions. I'll give you just a few of the highlights.
What if Judas isn't a monster? What if he's a mirror? How often do we trade what's really important in this life for something that's much smaller?
The meal: Jesus becomes the host, even when his betrayal is set in motion. He still gives. That's the kind of love we're talking about here.
Peter: we know what this feels like. It's the moment you realize you've become the person you promised you'd never be. The moment you say the thing you don't really mean but you say it anyway because you're afraid and defensive.
Jesus in the garden. Maybe surrender isn't denying what we feel, but being honest about it and naming it trusting that God is big enough and good enough to handle it.
The soldiers mock Jesus, "Hail the king of the Jews." They don't know how right they are. This is what real kingship looks like. Not violence or coercion, but self-giving love.
We get to the cross and the tomb. Is that the end? Can a love like Jesus' come to an end?
Final question: Where do you find yourself in the story? Maybe with Judas, Peter, the disciples, Pilate, the crowd. Wherever we find ourselves, that's where the story finds us. Not with condemnation, but with presence. A deep presence calling something more out of us. Inviting us to be transformed. Because, maybe it didn't really have to go this way - we just let it.
Finally, at the center of the story isn't just suffering and violence and death. At the center of the story is love. And maybe that love is active in the world today, in our lives today. In the broken places of our lives, in redeeming the past we can't seem to shake. I think this story tells us something significant: divine love goes further than we think. It goes into and beyond betrayal. Into and beyond denial. Into and beyond failure. Maybe divine love goes even further and beyond death itself.
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Matthew 26:14-75; 27:11-66
http://bible.com/events/49586645
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By ReNew Ames
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Not a traditional sermon. No main ideas, no three points and a poem. Just a retelling of the story with some comments and questions. I'll give you just a few of the highlights.
What if Judas isn't a monster? What if he's a mirror? How often do we trade what's really important in this life for something that's much smaller?
The meal: Jesus becomes the host, even when his betrayal is set in motion. He still gives. That's the kind of love we're talking about here.
Peter: we know what this feels like. It's the moment you realize you've become the person you promised you'd never be. The moment you say the thing you don't really mean but you say it anyway because you're afraid and defensive.
Jesus in the garden. Maybe surrender isn't denying what we feel, but being honest about it and naming it trusting that God is big enough and good enough to handle it.
The soldiers mock Jesus, "Hail the king of the Jews." They don't know how right they are. This is what real kingship looks like. Not violence or coercion, but self-giving love.
We get to the cross and the tomb. Is that the end? Can a love like Jesus' come to an end?
Final question: Where do you find yourself in the story? Maybe with Judas, Peter, the disciples, Pilate, the crowd. Wherever we find ourselves, that's where the story finds us. Not with condemnation, but with presence. A deep presence calling something more out of us. Inviting us to be transformed. Because, maybe it didn't really have to go this way - we just let it.
Finally, at the center of the story isn't just suffering and violence and death. At the center of the story is love. And maybe that love is active in the world today, in our lives today. In the broken places of our lives, in redeeming the past we can't seem to shake. I think this story tells us something significant: divine love goes further than we think. It goes into and beyond betrayal. Into and beyond denial. Into and beyond failure. Maybe divine love goes even further and beyond death itself.
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Matthew 26:14-75; 27:11-66
http://bible.com/events/49586645