Happy Easter, Willow! Today's service was unique while we honored and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus—the reason for the faith we profess. In place of our typical teaching format, we were taken, via video, to the very places where Jesus journeyed to the cross and rose again. 

Video: The Via Dolorosa

Pastor Shawn took us on a journey from Jesus's trials to the Via Dolorosa. He shared that according to their own law, the religious leaders of the day committed one illegal act after another as they prosecuted Jesus. Pastor Shawn said, "It was a travesty of justice." Jesus faced many trials in the evening prior to his crucifixion. Eventually sentenced to death, he first endured flogging—a form of torture that often killed a prisoner before they made it to their crucifixion—and then death on a cross. The Via Dolorosa is the road he traveled from his flogging to Golgotha, the place of the skull. There are two possible locations for Golgotha, but tradition holds it is where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands today. Pastor Shawn shared, it was there that Jesus outstretched His arms on the cross for each of us. "It was here that Jesus put death to death." 

Video: Calvary

Pastor Dave helped us imagine what it might have been like when Jesus died for those that followed Him. When we read the Gospel accounts, we see people questioning and doubting and wondering. Pastor Dave shared that James, the half-brother of Jesus, once doubted Jesus. We can also read about Thomas, a disciple who didn't believe right away that Jesus rose from the dead. And it is certainly understandable that someone would doubt, after all, no one had ever risen from the grave before. But when we consider what it would have taken to move the stone from the tomb in which Jesus was buried—it was humanely impossible for just one person to move it—and when we consider that all Rome had to do was present Jesus's body to the public to stop the movement He had begun, but they couldn't—and when we consider that He appeared to more than 500 people upon His resurrection, it seems impossible that He didn't raise from dead. Pastor Dave shared that our lives are forever changed by this Good News and the lives of those like James and Thomas, who went from unbelief and doubt to fierce belief so that we might have the story of Christ today. Jesus went to the cross, died for our sins, conquered death, and rose from the grave so that we might have life and life abundant.