A Worldwide Family: Easter 2025
Last year I helped my church organize the 1,994th anniversary celebration of the vindication of the lord of the universe. We bleary-eyed worshippers joined together for breakfast as the sun was peeking over the hills. The singing was joyful, and the Scriptures spoke of hopes fulfilled and hope abiding.
Though I was away for Easter this year, I was invited to help again by selecting the Scriptures to be read in between songs and sips of coffee. My goal was to tell the story from start to end, explaining why Jesus came, and why he had to be resurrected in the first place.
Here’s how it all fits together: God’s plan to redeem his creation, starting with one family and ending with a family that spans the globe, told in 5 short passages.
1. God’s Promise to Abraham
Easter starts with a promise.
The promise was made over two thousand years before Jesus walked the earth. After the garden of Eden and the fall, and the flood, God chose a man through whom his plan to redeem all creation would take shape. It was from this man, Abraham, that Jesus was descended.
Abraham (who is referred to as Abram until Genesis 17) is the preeminent forefather of all 3 major monotheistic faiths. He’s called the Friend of God, and for good reason: despite being a wandering pagan, God calls him and promises to make him into a great family—a nation even—and through his legacy bring blessing to all the families of the earth.
Genesis 12:1–3; 15:5–6
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (ESV)
Shockingly, God promises all this without Abram having done anything worthy of God’s intervention. Further, God does not ask anything of him in return. Instead we see God call Abram in Genesis 12, and Abram obeys. Then we see God promise him offspring in Genesis 15, and Abram believes him. The Bible says God counted this to Abram as righteousness. In context this seems to mean that God’s promise is like a contract—not something trifling or easily broken—but it is interestingly a contract in which Abram has already upheld his end of the bargain simply by believing.
This point is driven home two verses later when Abram asks God to prove he’s good for his word. We watch God pass through a path of animal carcasses that Abram laid out. This passing through was the ancient Near East equivalent of a signature in black ink today. Passing through was saying in essence ‘hey, if I don’t uphold my end of the bargain, let me be as one of these carcasses’. And we watch God pass through alone.
By this God initiated, of his own accord and staked on his own life, the creation of a great family that he promised will bring blessing to the whole earth. All Abraham had to do to accept that promise was believe that God would be true to his word.
2. Abraham’s Descendent Will Bring God’s Promised Blessing
Coming into the second text, we’ve fast forwarded about 1300 years through Israel’s history. We’ve jumped past the other patriarchs, the formation of the twelve tribes of Israel, the 400 years in Egypt, and the subsequent exodus to the wilderness and then to the Promised Land. We’ve gone past the time of the judges in Israel and even past the establishment of the kings. Saul, David, and Solomon have all come and gone by the time we reach this text. But that history is held in mind as God speaks through his prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah prophesied and preached—and had his prophecies recorded—sometime in the 8th century BC. This particular prophesy comes from a section that is looking back over Israel’s history and its calling, and lamenting that it could not live up to its calling. In particular, Isaiah tells us that Israel was supposed to be God’s servant on the earth, his herald; even his son. They were to be the promised family that would bring blessing to all other families. In chapter 40 Isaiah says:
9Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
Israel, also called by Zion and Jerusalem in these poems, was supposed to lift up a strong voice and tell the world the good news that God is alive and active. They were supposed to image him forth. But alas, in chapter 41 Isaiah tells us that when God looks at Israel trying to find someone worthy to carry his good news, he cannot find anyone:
28But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. 29Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.
They chose to turn away from God and his wisdom and his way and instead serve idols—that which he calls “metal images” in verse 41:29. This is Israel’s history in a nutshell. The patriarchs had moments of turning away; Israel under Moses turned to idols starting with the golden calf; Israel under the judges and the kings repeatedly turned away and suffered judgement for it; and ultimately we know the pattern continued until Israel was exiled to Babylon in the 6th century BC.
But God made a promise to Abraham—to give him many descendants and that they would bless the world—and he said he was good for his word. In Isaiah chapter 42 he reveals how he’ll keep his word: we see a new servant, not Zion or Jerusalem anymore but instead seemingly a single man, and we hear God commission him to bring the blessing that Israel failed to bring.
Isaiah 42:1–9
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (ESV)
God delights in this servant. He puts his Spirit upon him. This servant will not faint or grow weary like Israel in the wilderness. He will work faithfully until he has accomplished what God has sent him to do: bring forth justice to the nations.
What does it mean to bring forth justice to the nations? Or to be given as a covenant, or a light for the nations for that matter? It is this: where Israel was called to believe in God like Abraham did, they instead turned to idols. Where they were supposed to bless the world, they instead followed the evil practices of the world—not least in their idolatry where they sidled up to pagan nations and sacrificed children to the false god Molech. But this servant would be different. He would trust God completely and would not succumb to idolatry. Through him, the old way seen again and again in Israel’s history would pass away, replaced by the new things springing forth.
Other prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah shed more light on this servant and the “new things” he would bring. Jeremiah tells us that under God’s new covenant, his law will be written on his people’s hearts. They will know it and do it. Ezekiel tells us God will pour out his Spirit on his people. They will turn from idolatry and worship the true God, and they will be holy like God is holy. That’s how justice will come. The servant will somehow make a way for God’s presence, his very Spirit, to dwell directly with human beings. He will create a new people capable at last of carrying God’s blessing into creation.
It would take another seven centuries for this to come to pass.
3. The Promised Servant Arrives
Before the servant appears in Isaiah chapter 42, chapter 40 tells us that God himself will come to his people bearing a message of peace, and that his coming will be announced by a herald in the wilderness. Valleys will be lifted and mountains made low to create a level path for his arrival. God says that his glory will be revealed, and that “all flesh shall see it together”.
The New Testament writers believed that chapters 40 and 42 were connected, and that they were fulfilled in Jesus. Matthew quotes the relevant passage from chapter 40 to introduce a strange new character at the start of his gospel: John the Baptist. John is a fiery prophet stationed out in the wilderness, baptizing people in the Jordan river, and is framed by the gospel accounts as the prophesied voice heralding God’s arrival. But we don’t see God arrive in a pillar of cloud and fire like he did in the Old Testament. Instead we see Jesus, a poor man from Galilee, come to John to be baptized.
Matthew 3:1–3, 7–9, 11, 13, 16–17
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (ESV)
Jesus wasn’t the only person on the scene with John. Pharisees and Sadducees had also come to see this firebrand prophet in the wilderness, likely to find out what trouble he was causing. The Pharisees were a powerful first century pressure group, advocating for strict Torah observance. They saw the Torah as the means to their true return from exile, signified by the return of God’s presence to Zion, and by the overthrow of their Roman, pagan overlords. To have a non-Pharisee proclaiming God’s coming was a red flag for them. Meanwhile, the Sadducees were the primary political group in power. They were saddled up close to the ruling Romans, and so naturally wanted to avoid inciting trouble. To them, this preacher drawing zealous crowds in the wilderness posed a danger.
We can assume this is why John responds to them the way he does: “You brood of vipers!”, and “do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham”. John knows they’re content living in the way of the “former things”, as Isaiah puts it. They’re okay calling on their lineage from Abraham and heritage from Moses and presuming those were sufficient for a right standing with God. But John tells them such a hope is misplaced. God’s people are more than the Torah, more than a geopolitical entity, and certainly more than a race.
In fact, it’s not just that God’s people are more than a bloodline: as their creator, God is free to expand or prune the family as he sees fit. God can raise up new children for Abraham even “from these stones”, John says. That is a message of immense hope for the world: God will succeed in blessing his creation. But it’s also a stern warning and challenge to John’s listeners. If God is building Abraham’s family on more than blood, then there’s no refuge in the family tree for those who deface God’s creation. God will not abide those who impose heavy burdens while neglecting weightier matters of the law (the Pharisees), or cozy up to pagan warlords at the expense of worshipping and serving God alone (the Sadducees), even if the perpetrators share Abraham’s blood. God does not desire a particular surname. He desires that his people believe in him, like Abraham. But their actions betray that they do not. That’s why John is preaching repentance: God is giving Israel a chance to turn and trust the one who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire, and so become the promised family.
At that moment Jesus comes onto the scene. When John baptizes him, we see the heavens open up and the Holy Spirit come down to rest on him. God calls him his beloved Son, and tells him that he is well pleased with him. It’s in this moment we can see Isaiah’s prophecy played out starkly: Israel, represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees, has chosen to reject God and reject his prophet, and they refuse to carry forth his justice. So God gives the world his promised servant instead, the one in whom his soul delights—or as the gospel puts it, with whom he is well pleased—and upon whom the Spirit rests.
4. Jesus Completes the Servant’s Task
Starting from John’s baptism, Jesus’s ministry proceeds to be one of peace and conflict. Peace, as he brings healing and restoration to those in Israel who call out to him. Peace, as he repeatedly triumphs over darkness, his holiness and mercy suffusing out to the unclean and the downtrodden through his healings and exorcisms. And conflict, as the rulers and authorities choose to reject him and resist the good news he carries. Again and again he confronts the hypocrisy of the rulers and scribes, who hate him even as—or especially as—they witness his miracles. Jesus shows us the cost to “faithfully bring forth justice” in a fallen world.
In all of it he is a “light for the nations” with Samaritans and Gentiles coming to him and believing in him. He tells his disciples that they too are lights, lamps for dark rooms, and cities on the hill to be seen by all around. Through him they can point the world to its creator too.
Ultimately, Jesus’s body is broken and his blood is spilled. He is crucified after indictment from the very people he came to save. But this was not the triumph of evil over good. No, in fact this was always the plan. This was how God intended to give him as a new covenant, as promised in Isaiah. That covenant is on offer even now to all who are willing to throw in their lot with Jesus.
John 17:1–2, 20-21; 19:14-16; 20:1, 19, 27-29
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. [Pilate] said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (ESV)
It’s a mysterious thing, but Jesus glorifies his Father and the Father glorifies him in his work on the cross. In his role as the one and only faithful one, Jesus receives authority from the Father over “all flesh”—that is to say, over all of us here in creation—and authority to grant eternal life to anyone the Father chooses. This is part of what it means for the Father to glorify him: the Father has made Jesus the King.
We see Jesus pray for his disciples, and for the disciples who will be made through them, (including us reading right now!) that we will be united with him and with the Father. We will be one as Jesus and the Father were always one. This is an incredible gift for Jesus to give to those who follow him. Much like Abraham, the promise is ours if we accept it by believing in the one who makes the promise.
Note also that John, (the gospel author this time, not John the Baptist), mentions Jesus’s crucifixion takes place on the day of the Preparation of the Passover. This was the day that the Passover lambs would be killed. As such, it is very likely that John intends us to see Jesus as the ultimate Passover lamb—one who will be slain and whose blood will be poured out to protect us from God’s judgement. The one who passed through the slain animals in the promise to Abraham would indeed become like one of them in the end. In a way, Jesus is the ‘signature in black ink’ certifying God’s trustworthiness to his word. And where the animal sacrifices had to continue under the Mosaic covenant, they could finally cease with Jesus’s sacrifice. He is the servant through whom God brings the new covenant, and his sacrifice is sufficient for all time.
After being crucified on Friday, Jesus is laid in a tomb. Mary Magdalene comes to his tomb early on Sunday to weep, and perhaps to tend to his decaying body. But she is surprised to see the tomb is open, and Jesus’s body is not inside! He appears to her—resurrected, alive, and somehow changed—and then appears to the other disciples later that evening in the midst of their locked room. They marvel. But one of the disciples, Thomas, is not convinced. He can’t believe his eyes. Even in the first century nobody thought people came back from the dead—it was not accepted among Jews, not accepted among pagans, not accepted in any popular school of thought. The Jews thought the resurrection wouldn’t occur until the end of the age. And yet, here was Jesus, resurrected in the middle of history!
Ever compassionate, Jesus tells Thomas to touch his wounds and feel his body, and see that he is truly alive and with them. He is not a ghost or a spirit. He tells him to believe, and Thomas does, going so far as to acknowledge that Jesus is not only his king but also his God. God had come, just as the herald in the wilderness had said. He had come in the form of the faithful servant, the obedient son, the one Israel was always meant to be but was unable to be until that point. Jesus reassures all who read his words who did not get to touch his wounds for themselves: he says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. He always intended for his promise to extend out beyond the disciples. He’s offering it still to anyone who believes in him.
5. God Raises Up Children From the Stones
Lastly we come to some of the words of the apostle Paul, written about a quarter century after Jesus’s resurrection. Paul is reflecting on Jesus’s work in light of the Old Testament. He starts with the original promise to Abraham, and grapples with the crucifixion and resurrection as crucial to the fulfillment of that promise. Through Jesus, he says, Abraham is finally able to receive his promised descendants, and the families of the world are able to receive their blessing. But because of Jesus’s transformative work, the descendants are far more numerous than imagined, and the blessings are far greater too.
Romans 4:13, 22–25; 15:8–13
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”
10 And again it says,“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”
11 And again,“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.”
12 And again Isaiah says,“The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (ESV)
In verse 15:8, Paul summarizes Jesus’s work: “Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs”. Becoming a servant and confirming promises; for Paul, this was the heart of what Jesus came to do. This was why he preached, died, and was resurrected.
Paul agrees with Matthew when he says that Jesus became a servant to the circumcised, in fulfillment of the prophecies in Isaiah. As Isaiah said, Jesus was faithful and did not succumb to idolatry. He carried out God’s will even to the point of death on the cross, and as John said, God glorified him for his faithfulness. God resurrected him from the dead and gave him authority over all creation, including authority to give eternal life to all who believe in him. These are some of the “new things” Isaiah spoke of, made possible because in his death, Jesus was given as a “covenant for the people”.
Paul tells us how that covenant-making works. He says Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification”. Similar to John telling us that Jesus was slain like the Passover lamb, Paul sees Jesus’s death as a sacrifice able to absolve us of our trespasses and guilt. God will overlook our sins because Jesus went to the cross in our place, paying the due penalty for those sins. But the story didn’t end there: God resurrected him from the dead, vindicating him and everyone who follows him. He was proved to be in the right—justified—and his accusers who put him on the cross were wrong. In the same way, those who follow Christ and have their sins taken away are justified before the accuser. In the resurrection, Jesus set the prisoners free, as Isaiah said he would, by breaking the power of the satan over God’s people.
Not only did the resurrection prove Jesus to be the faithful servant, it was also where Jesus showed God’s truthfulness. When the risen Jesus appeared to the disciples saying “Peace be with you!” he was living proof that the peace was real. We can have peace with God because he paid for our sins, and we know his payment was real and accepted because God saw fit to raise him from the dead. In giving Jesus as a worthy sacrifice and establishing this new covenant, God was truthful to the promises made in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and elsewhere. And also with the new covenant, he finally made a way to keep the promise to Abraham, showing that he had been truthful from the very beginning.
Earlier in the letter Paul described this promise to Abraham in new words. He said “the promise to Abraham and his offspring” was that “he would be heir of the world”. This is a way of wrapping up what God said in Genesis, that Abraham would have many descendants and that he and they would receive blessings. But it clarifies what those “blessings” entail: anyone who receives the promise stands to inherit the world. The Israelites had inherited the promised land, Canaan, based on God’s initial promise. But that was always meant to point to something more. Under the new covenant, prophesied by Isaiah and established by Jesus, we can see that it is more. It’s nothing less than a promise to dwell in and rule over all creation, just as God originally intended with Adam and Eve before the fall. That means Jesus’s confirmation of the promise to Abraham is nothing less than the confirmation that God is actively undoing the fall! He is redeeming the world that Jesus, Abraham, and all the members of the family will inherit.
So how does one join the family? Paul reaffirms what Jesus told us in the gospel of John: God’s promise of blessing, and membership in Abraham’s family, and eternal life is on offer to anyone who simply believes. The promise is received “through the righteousness of faith”, as Abraham received it by believing God when he spoke. Paul characterizes this faith in a new way though: it is belief “in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord”. Belief that does not include Jesus is not belief in God. This is how God identifies himself now. He is the one who raised Jesus from the grave. Membership in the family is grounded on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s one other piece of Jesus’s work that Paul includes in his summary, but that we haven’t touched up until this point. Paul tells us that Jesus became the faithful servant for one more reason: “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy”. God promised Abraham children as numerous as the stars; a great nation full. He promised to bring blessing to all the families of the earth through Abraham’s line. Paul is telling us that through Jesus, God has done what John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees he would do: he has begun to raise up children for Abraham from the stones. The good news has gone out—as it was always meant to do through Israel, but failed to do until the one faithful Israelite was born—and it has reached the other nations of the world. Paul quotes a number of Scriptures to prove that this was always the plan. The blessings for Abraham were never meant to start and end with Israel. They were meant to start with Israel and flow out to the whole world. With faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead as the only prerequisite for membership in Abraham’s family, his “bloodline” has grown far greater than he could have ever imagined. It is the blood of Jesus our king and our eldest brother that holds this “bloodline” together, and in it we receive the blessing of glory and eternal life in the redeemed world we’re waiting to inherit.
To close, let’s echo Paul in saying “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”. And what is this hope? That by the blood of the faithful servant God kept his promise to Abraham, bringing justice to the earth and a new covenant for all who believe. Under this new covenant, those who believe are assured full membership in Abraham’s family and all the blessing that entails. They will be resurrected on the last day just like Jesus, and will share in the new heavens and new earth forever. And even before then, members receive renewed life by the power of the Holy Spirit. We wait patiently in the Spirit’s power, working and hoping in the present age for the age to come. Amen!