Seen first in the KAIROS Newsletter, Easter 2023
Five-year-old C and I had been making our way through the stories of Jesus. For the first time in his life, C and his mother had heard of Jesus’ birth, teachings, and miracles. When we reached the page of Jesus’ death, C stopped, set the Bible down, and whispered, “Oh, no.” And, when we read that Jesus rose again from the tomb, C exclaimed, “Oh, good! I like that guy!”
Encountering the Easter story with individuals hearing it for the first time revealed, without fail, the remarkably unique nature of my Savior. In Japan, only an estimated 0.57% of the population are evangelical Christian, and 97.9% of the population have never heard the Gospel before1, meaning that when we read the chronicle of Christ’s crucifixion, it was often entirely new material to them. Easter bunnies and dyed eggs have recently made their way to the island nation, but the meaning of resurrection and new life are vastly unknown. I could never predict the reception of Jesus, both a humble and a triumphant Savior, when we read together.
My job was to teach Japanese children and adults English, but the heart of my work was simple: at the end of each English class, my students and I read the Bible together. Each year, when I read the Easter story with my English students, I studied their reactions to Jesus’ death. More often than not, the same phenomenon occurred: whether the student reading the story was four years old or eighty, when they came to the sentence “Jesus died on the cross,” they stopped. A moment passed, perhaps two. They did not yet know the Bible well enough to understand the gravity of those words, and yet, they nearly always paused, and the silence in those moments became heavy.
Not everyone responded in the same manner as the aforementioned C, however. Some of my older adult students shook their head in confusion at the fact that the all-powerful God of the universe, in a great act of seeming weakness, humbled Himself to die on the cross. Upon hearing my explanation of Jesus’ death, a Japanese friend of mine told me, “Did you know there are some Christians who believe Jesus didn’t actually die, but His friends saved Him and hid Him away? Don’t worry—maybe He didn’t actually die!” I then detailed the Resurrection—how Jesus defeated death, how His life promises life to all those who believe in Him—but my friend remained convinced that the better ending to the story would be for Christ not to have died in the first place.
“Do we look at Jesus’ powerlessness as an example of God’s impotence or as proof of God’s love?” Philip Yancey asks in The Jesus I Never Knew.2 And I realize again that, to me, an American born and raised in a home that read the Easter story each year, Jesus’ death has become something I take for granted. Of course He died. Of course He rose again. Next story, please. But to those who have never heard it before, the chronicle of Jesus’ crucifixion is either embarrassing or beautiful. Christianity is an anomaly in that we celebrate a God who humbled Himself to the point of death. This God is not present in other world religions, and as such, He is startling. “On the cross, we see…the deepest revelation of the very heart of God—and it is all about laying down His own life to give life, to bear fruit.”3
At a Bible study at my church, in which some attendees were Christians and some were not, the majority of nonbelievers were not impressed with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. “In my beliefs,” a Bible study attendee explained, “we just have to regret the bad things we’ve done in order be sure we’ll be saved from hell.” There was no room for a Savior in her worldview, and as I discovered through continued study with this group of attendees, the idea of needing a Savior was strange at best, repulsive at worst.
After such Bible study sessions, I was sometimes tempted to be discouraged by responses to a story that is part of the foundation of Christianity. But that was not always the case. M approached me after one of the Bible studies with tears in her eyes. “I want to become a Christian,” she confided in me. “God loved me so much He died for me. I want to be in Heaven with Him someday, too.”
Time and time again, the truth unfolded before my eyes: the Easter story is shocking. When I shared it with those who had never heard it before, I had to be prepared for just about any kind of reaction. I still have yet to share the Easter story with someone who simply shrugs and says, “Okay.” But whether my students reacted with skepticism or with joy, I was reminded, time and time again, to revisit the story with awe because Jesus is not a normal Savior. He is vulnerable and victorious at once, and that is what sets Him apart from the gods of others.
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Given that this was originally written for a newsletter, it is not as personal in nature as my usual writings. I plan to write a reflection for Easter later this week, but this one felt relevant for Maundy Thursday.
“Country: Japan,” Joshua Project, 2022, https://joshuaproject.net/countries/JA
Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995), 204.
Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 127.
"'Do we look at Jesus’ powerlessness as an example of God’s impotence or as proof of God’s love?'"
It's incredible to see God's faithfulness in opening my eyes to such a beautiful, startling (as you say) story. I want my Jesus dead. So that I can have him alive again.