A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor's Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace

by Brian Zahnd

I still have hope. Why? Because of the way the Jesus story is told. On Good Friday, the procurator of superpower ideology and the priests of colluding religion rejected his ideas. He was condemned, sentenced, tortured, executed, pronounced dead, and buried in a tomb bearing the imperial seal of Rome. Strike up another victory for the Empire. The End. Yet that’s not the end of the story … On Easter Sunday, the ideas of that preacher of peace were vindicated by the power of resurrection! Yes! Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus changed everything! If Jesus had remained in the tomb with its stone sealed by the imperial authority of Rome, Jesus’s ideas would have died with him. But the resurrection changes all of that. The resurrection is not only God’s vindication of his Son; it is the vindication of all Jesus taught. Easter Sunday is nothing less than the triumph of the peaceable kingdom of Christ. Easter changes everything. Easter is the hope of the world, the dawn of a new age, the rising of the New Jerusalem on the horizon of humanity’s burned-out landscape. Easter is God saying once again, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!”