I love stories with surprise endings. Plot twists you never saw coming. Movies that force you to watch the whole thing over again as soon as they’re done, because the ending changed everything you thought was really happening.

I think God wired us to love surprises, because Easter is the best plot twist in history. Think about all the surprises that happened the first Easter weekend.

Plot twist: Jesus really is a king.

Everybody around thought this homeless street preacher was being delusional when he talked about himself as if he was royalty. The Roman soldiers sure did:

They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,“Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:28-31).

And it wasn’t just the soldiers. Every single group that came into contact with Jesus mocked him. The chief priests spit on him and punched him in the back, taunting him to prophesy who hit him. The scribes and elders mocked him. The crowd jeered at him. We were all represented: Romans, Jews, religious leaders, common people, everyone. We all mocked Jesus in some way or another. We all didn’t want to believe he’s really a king.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I think God wired us to love surprises, because Easter is the best plot twist in history.[/perfectpullquote]But the plot twist is that he’s the king of kings. Paul said in Philippians 2, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11). The soldiers mockingly made a sign for Jesus saying “King of the Jews,” but he’s actually the king of the universe!

What that means is that Jesus has the authority to deal with any problem in your life. He’s the king!

Plot twist: Jesus really has power.

That’s what he claimed when he was going around doing miracles and performing healings. But many people thought it was all faked. As he hung on the cross…

Those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying,“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:39-40)

That was the charge the high priests made against him after he was arrested. They tried to accuse him of cooking up some crazy terrorist plot to destroy the temple, and then rebuild it in three days. Which is ludicrous. Imagine the kind of power that would require. When the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD, it took them six months to destroy the temple. How could one guy destroy it in one day? When the temple was built by Herod, it took dozens of years to build it, with thousands of workers. How could one guy rebuild it in three days? It seems outrageous. So the people are saying, “You’ve got the power to destroy and rebuild the temple in three days? And you’re going to do that while you’re hanging there on the cross? Good luck with that, buddy.”

He looked absolutely powerless on the cross, but the reality was that Jesus has infinite power. He was actually pointing to his own body when he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.” He was talking about resurrection. That’s real power.

In Paul’s letters, he never talks about the kinds of displays of God’s power that we like to talk about. He never mentions hurricanes, or tsunamis, or tornados. He talks about the resurrection of Christ. Take Philippians 3: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” Or 1 Corinthians 6: “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” Or Romans 1: “Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” Resurrection power is way more impressive than a hurricane’s power.

And here’s the thing: we all need more power. Maybe right now you feel powerless against discouragement. You’re just not happy, and you don’t know why. Or maybe you’re powerless against temptation and sin. The same things keep tripping you up, and making you fall. Maybe it’s powerlessness against trials. They keep coming and coming. You need more power, and Jesus is the source of infinite power.

Plot twist: Jesus really dominates death.

After Jesus died on the cross, everyone thought that was the end of the story. But immediately after, strange things started happening:

Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. (Matthew 27:50-53)

The people in Jerusalem saw Jesus die. But now they’re seeing hundreds, maybe thousands of people who were dead and now aren’t dead anymore! God has rolled the stones away from their tombs, just like he did three days later for his son. All these people are just walking back home, like nothing ever happened.

Just imagine that. Imagine losing your five-year-old son to pneumonia. You have a funeral for him. You bury him. And then one afternoon, he appears at your front door and asks what’s for dinner. Incredible! Everyone thought the death of Jesus was just another death, but Jesus died to conquer death. He brought about the death of death, sin, and evil.

This couldn’t be accomplished by the death of a regular person. If I died on a cross, it wouldn’t do anything for you. You might be inspired, but you wouldn’t be saved from God’s wrath. You wouldn’t be saved from his rejection. You wouldn’t be saved from death. Only the death of God himself could accomplish this. And only one person in the story actually saw this plot twist as it was happening:

When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said,“Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54).

This centurion had probably witnessed thousands of deaths in his career, but he saw something different about this death. He saw something different about this man. When this man dies, other people live.

That’s the best plot-twist in history. So invite a friend and come join us this Easter Sunday to celebrate it!