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We have been given a lot of different messages in the popular media about what meaning we should assign to the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Some of it is confusing.

A couple of years ago, the Glassport, PA Assembly of God caused “a stir with its civic Easter program that included the mock scourging of the youth minister in a bunny suit. The goal was to show that Easter is not about a bunny, but the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Associated Press reported that some viewers were confused. Melissa Salzmann said her 4-year-old son J.T. was ‘crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped.’” Ouch.

Every year at Easter, thousands of preachers tell their congregation what to believe about the meaning of Easter. In the Unitarian Universalist tradition, we may tell you what we believe, but we never tell you what you have to believe. We emphasize a free & responsible search for truth and meaning.

Every year at Easter, I am reminded that in the orthodox Christian traditions, the cross always contains a suffering Jesus, just on the brink of death. This is supposed to be a reminder of the pain and agony which Jesus suffered on behalf of humanity.

But in the Protestant traditions, the cross is always empty. There is no suffering Jesus on it, because Jesus is no longer on the cross. What's more important? Jesus' life or his death? Think carefully before you answer because people have been burned at the stake for giving the wrong answer.

We can look at what ancient texts tell us, or even modern movies or TV shows. We get conflicting viewpoints. Let’s take a couple ancient texts. First, you have various editions of the Christian bible.

And, within the last couple weeks, a new gospel has been identified, the Gospel of Judas. It makes Jesus out to be sort of a laughing magician with Judas as the good guy henchman.

Over a hundred years ago, the Gospel of Mary was found in Egypt. You can see why it wasn’t included in the canon. For example, there is no physical resurrection of Jesus. Instead, we see the resurrection of the soul, in which the body is dissolved into matter.

The gospel of Mary argues against a second coming of the Christ. The book rejects Jesus's suffering and death as the path to eternal life. In this gospel, Jesus even says there is no such thing as sin.

More recently, a Hollywood actor made a movie, The Passion of the Christ, which emphasizes the extremely painful nature of the death of Jesus.

There is some emphasis on blame and guilt, along with the idea that it took that kind of gruesome pain and death to atone for all the sins of everyone who has been or ever will be born.

On the other hand, the Da Vinci code suggests Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a love child, and that the children and family of Jesus continue on to this day.

Along with ancient texts and movies, nowadays, we have TV shows where an invisible Jesus follows people around giving them advice.

In fact, if the crucifixion scene were stumbled on to today by your average TV show, I'm sure it would be something like the CSI shows. The CSI stands for "Crime Scene Investigation."

These programs have popularized forensic science so much that more college kids are majoring in it. And jurors in trials have come to expect DNA, fingerprints, and irrefutable scientific evidence because that's what the TV shows promise.

In one recent real life case, an 11-year-old girl pointed at the person on trial and said, “That’s the man who shot my father.” The jurors found him not guilty, and one explained, “I would have liked to see some evidence, like finding the gun with fingerprints.”

If the public has trouble with evidence that's only a few weeks old, what can we expect from 2,000 year old evidence?

The popular media may want us to focus on the grisly details of the death. That kind of news gets headlines, that kind of news can make people mesmerized like watching a traffic accident replayed on TV over & over & over again.

The CSI version of the last days of Jesus would talk about loss of blood and hypovolemic shock. There would be attempts to fix blame, to insist that the importance was about death, not life.

In the Unitarian Universalist tradition, we reject the fixation on Jesus’ death. We reject the “crime scene investigation.” We say that the death of Jesus is not nearly as important as his life. Millions of people have been born and died.

How do we approach the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth?

In the book of Luke, at the crucifixion, Luke says that the women & the others who followed Jesus watched the scene, quote "from afar." Luke uses that phrase in several places. In the parable of the prodigal son. The father sees the son– “from afar.”

This is how we approach the meaning of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth– from afar. Across centuries of time, oceans of foreign culture, and still! His life and deeds speak to us from beyond the empty tomb.

Jesus said to love God with all your mind and heart and strength. And to love your neighbor as yourself. These are radical, almost unbelievable things if you try to pick them apart, if you try to take them seriously.

How are we to love God? By clothing the naked, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and comforting the afflicted.

How are we to love our neighbor? Do we even know our neighbor? Is our neighbor next door? Or in Meacham Park? Or is our neighbor a child in Sudan dying of starvation?

The life of Jesus meant a life of service to others, of the deep spiritual insight that the kingdom of heaven is at hand– the Kingdom of Heave is available to us in this present moment, and it is also something to work to bring about for our children.

The life of Jesus was about seeing past the small differences among people to embrace Love with a capital L. The life of Jesus– to me– was about moving to radical spiritual depth, the whole hearted embrace of social justice, and caring for those most in need.

As a preacher put it 80 years ago:

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was 30. Then for three years he traveled and preached.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He did not go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place where he was born.

He did none of the things [we] usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a stake between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.

When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone and today he remains [a] central figure of the human race.

All the armies that ever marched, all the fleets that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the lives of [women &] men on this planet so much as that One Solitary Life. (Adapted from a message by James Allen Francis, originally published in 1928).

At Christmas, we celebrate new light in the darkness. At Easter, we celebrate new life from the darkness. At both times, we celebrate new potential in the world to overcome the ravages of human evil.

We remember the life and times of Jesus. Let us remember him now.

Let us “...sing & tell the story.”

Joyful is the Dark, #275.