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As we stand on the brink of unprecedented challenges, it’s essential to reflect on the message of Easter.

The world may be in turmoil, but we must continue to strive towards a future of peace, prosperity and community. The farewell discourse from the Last Supper, though criticized by some, leaves us with an open ending and invites us to ponder our role in shaping a future as yet unwritten.

This Easter, I hope everyone can enjoy a well-deserved break with their families. Let’s use this ‘pause’ to strengthen our focus and objectivity, ensuring our story contributions are filled with peace, prosperity, and unity.

Transcript

In this week before Easter, I’m reminded of an old joke: Pontius Pilate said to Joseph, ‘I don’t understand, Joseph; you are a wealthy man and you have spent a fortune building a tomb for yourself and now you have given it to this pauper named Jesus,’ and Joseph replied, ‘It is only for the weekend.’ Easter weekend is upon us and the act of kindness from Joseph has endured for more than a weekend—for 2,000 years. Easter carries a message of rebirth, of starting over in the spirit of a God that forgives our transgressions while asking us through our actions to do better and to be better. John 14:27 records  

Jesus’s words at the Last Supper, the farewell discourse, as being: ‘Peace I leave with you, and the peace I give isn’t fragile like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.’ All I can say is that Jesus got everything else correct; so I know he will again be right. Yet the world is on the brink of tribulations I have not lived through before and had hoped I never would experience. Some biblical scholars have criticised the farewell discourse as having been written too late after the event, leaving the ending of the discourse open. One would think that was the point. What is the ending? Will it be community and prosperity as we have enjoyed in this beautiful country for hundreds of years or will it be another Dark Ages, this time with the stain and stench of neo-feudalism, violence and immoral relativism, which is really just nihilism repackaged as woke agenda. Will those who think they are too smart for religion succeed in destroying real religions? That is the ending that was not made clear. How could it be? The ending has not been written and we can add just one part of it. 

I hope this Easter everyone has a nice break and, in the real world, with our families to strengthen our focus and objectivity, ensuring our contribution to the unwritten ending is peace, prosperity, family and community.  

I hope you will be having an enjoyable easter with family or friends and have time to reflect on the things that matter.

Stay safe on the roads.

Transcript

As a servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community, this Easter I refer to Luke 23 describing governor of Judea Pontius Pilate’s trial of Jesus.

Under the custom of thou shalt pardon, Pontius Pilate offered the Jerusalem Passover crowd a choice between pardoning two people convicted of sedition: Barabbas or Judas.

Barabbas was a violent revolutionary who rebelled against Rome and killed indiscriminately. Jesus, though, was convicted of sedition following his Palm Sunday arrival, which led to Pontius Pilate fearing for his own power. As history records, the crowd chose to spare Barabbas in the hope he would protect them from the Romans. The crowds shunned Jesus, who had spoken against violence and in favour of quiet endurance in the knowledge that better times would come.

While Luke 23 is a parable about Jesus dying for the sins of others, there is another interpretation. The crowd chose a person who they falsely hoped would protect their physical selves over someone who fought for their spiritual selves. In a decision that mimics the Jerusalem crowd, during COVID many Australians abandoned spiritual values of love, family and fellowship to achieve what we now know was a false sense of physical safety.

Australians embraced the message from the Pfizer empire’s modern day Pontius Pilate. It was a message broadcast in daily brainwashing sessions from politicians, health bureaucrats, media mouthpieces and over shopping centre public address systems, all with the same billionaire owners as Pfizer. They were messages designed to turn society against those who stayed true to spiritual beliefs.

This Easter let’s reflect on Pontius Pilate’s faith. Emperor Caligula recalled Pilate to Rome, accused him of cruelty and oppression and then executed him. As it turns out, washing one’s hands of blame does not work. In the end, God always wins.