Jesus the Unstoppable, Unkillable, Ultimate Weapon of Doom?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 17, 2026
7 Easter, A
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Psalm 66:7-18
John 14:15-21

So, in the Legend of Zelda video games, when you finally get to fight the big, bad, boss guy, Gannon, you get to fight him twice. You defeat him the first time, and then he immediately comes back from the dead, bigger and badder, and you get to defeat him all over again. It’s fun, some lovely extra play time, and I’m pretty sure that’s what Jesus’ disciples thought was going to happen when Jesus was resurrected, that he had come back bigger and badder, and ready to destroy the Roman Empire.

When Jesus told the disciples they would be baptized by the Holy Spirit, in Acts 1:1-8, they asked if he would be destroying the Romans and establishing his kingdom over Israel. That’s exactly what they thought he was going to do prior to his death, and after his resurrection, it seems like they thought he was even more powerful and would then take care of it, but his answer was still “no”. Jesus wasn’t going to kill a bunch of people to force his way in the world.  

Instead, he told his disciples to continue his mission of healing and reconciliation in the world. 

Unlike for the evil bad guy in the Legend of Zelda games, the point of Jesus’ resurrection was not that he would return as an unstoppable, unkillable, ultimate weapon of doom for his enemies. The point of Jesus’ resurrection was to show us that not only did God share in a death like ours, but that we will then share with him in a resurrection like his. 

Life continues on after death. Healing and reconciliation continue on after death. Our unity with God and one another continues on after death, and even during death.

Even in death, God is with us. We often feel God is with us when life is going well. Some of us feel God’s presence in beautiful worship. Some feel the Spirit moving in times of great joy or purpose. Some know God is with us when we experience blessing in our lives. 

Jesus’ suffering on the cross, his death, and resurrection assure us that God is with us even in our suffering. Peter says as much in the reading we heard today, 1 Peter 5:6-7. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” God is with us and for us even in the dark times, so Peter tells his readers to give their anxieties and fears over to God. That’s the kinda stuff the bigger and badder resurrected Jesus is going to take on. 

He already took on our sin, and that killed him, but it couldn’t keep him down. Jesus proved more powerful than our sin, so what does he ask to take on now? All the stuff that causes us to sin. Give all that stuff over to Jesus, and let him fight it out for you, and know that you are not alone.  

“Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour,” Peter wrote. “Resist him, steadfast in your faith, [cast all your anxieties on Jesus], for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.”

Folks in Peter’s time were going through what he called “a fiery ordeal,” and Peter told them to rejoice since they were sharing in Christ’s sufferings. Ok, truthfully, rejoicing that we are suffering seems a bit much to me, but accepting the suffering and finding joy that Jesus joins us in that, that makes sense to me. When we suffer, Jesus is with us and has suffered with us. That means too that Jesus is with us and we will join with him in healing, joy, a resurrection like his. 

Now, the fiery ordeal that Peter was addressing seems to be that other folks weren’t too keen on that church being followers of Jesus. It seems like the church Peter was writing to was deeply disliked and even persecuted for their faith. ‘Remember guys,’ Peter was saying, ‘remember that folks did the same thing to Jesus when they didn’t like what he had to say, and they even killed him for it. So, Jesus is with you in your suffering.’

Notice that he didn’t tell them to take on an “us against the world” kind of stance. Cast your anxieties on God, Peter said. Give them over to God so that God can deal with your fears, rather than you living with them all alone. Don’t take on the world, thinking that unstoppable, unkillable, ultimate weapon of doom, Jesus, is going to fight against and kill all the bad people for you. Give all your anxieties to God, realizing that suffering indeed happens. 

There are Christians today who do seem to feel that unstoppable, unkillable, ultimate weapon of doom, Jesus is going to kill all of the people they think are bad, and they talk like Jesus’ disciples did in Acts 1, when they asked Jesus if he was going to kill the Romans and establish his kingdom in Israel. “Not gonna happen, guys.” That was Jesus’ answer to his disciples back then, and that is Jesus’ answer to the ultra-nationalist Christians nowadays who think they should be able to force their faith and way of life on others.

Forcing one’s faith and way of life on others may seem faithful to those who do it, but it isn’t loving, and it isn’t focused on eternal life. Those folks may think they are focused on eternal life, but really, they’re focused on avoiding punishment when they die. That’s not eternal life.

Jesus told his disciples what eternal life is, that we may know God and Jesus Christ whom God sent. That goes beyond faith, beyond belief. Knowing God goes beyond proclaiming certain doctrine as true. Knowing God comes not just through faith, but through love, as John tells us in 1 John 4:7, “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 

Eternal life is knowing God, and those who love, know God. So, those who love have eternal life. Do you love? Then fear not, for you have eternal life. Do you love? Then fear not. Cast all your anxieties upon God because God cares for you. Do you love? Then give to God all of the worries and fears that cause you to sin, and ask the unstoppable, unkillable, ultimate weapon of doom, Jesus to fight those worries and anxieties for you. That is the battle Jesus wages in his resurrection, not against our physical enemies, but against our spiritual enemies. Jesus’ battle is against the fears, the hates, and the hurts that lead us to harm. 

So fear not, and trust that Jesus is with us in our pain and in our suffering. Jesus shares with us in our suffering, and we share with him in his resurrection. Trusting in Jesus, then cast all your anxieties on the unstoppable, unkillable, ultimate weapon of doom, Jesus, who loves and cares for us. Then, love others as he has loved us, for God is love. To love is to know God, and to know God is eternal life.

Faith, not a Formula: Following the Advocate

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
March 9, 2025
1 Lent, C
Romans 10:8b-13
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Luke 4:1-13

In Bible study this week, we talked about following the ways of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, rather than following the ways of the Adversary, whose name is Satan. During our disagreements in Bible study over what we thought a passage meant, we’d sometimes respond by telling another person they are wrong, and our way of believing is right. Oddly enough, arguments would ensue, some back and forth variation of I’m right and you’re wrong. Now, if one of the two people was right, then then other one may well have been wrong, but when we get into those arguments, we’re working against one another, following the way of the Adversary, Satan. 

We could simply offer our own beliefs, not against the other person, not declaring them wrong, but simply offering what we believe. That’d be more of a Holy Spirit kind of way, not speaking against you, just advocating for what I believe. That way, we remain united, even in our differences, as opposed to a church that is fractured and torn apart.

A fractured church is what we see in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The church in Rome was made up of both Jewish followers of Jesus and Gentile, non-Jewish, followers of Jesus, and those two different groups seem to have been at odds with each other, both telling the other that they were wrong. “You have to be Jewish if you really want to follow Jesus,” the Jewish Christians said, and the Gentile Christians responded, “We don’t do all of that law of Moses stuff that you do, because we just believe in Jesus, so our faith is better.”

Well, Paul was having none of it. “Ain’t none of you got a leg up on the other, guys.” To the Jewish followers of Jesus, Paul was pointing out that the law was fine, but why would they demand it of anyone, when they still needed Jesus in addition to the Law. Then, to the Gentile Christians, Paul was pointing out that they were no better than the Jews, if anything, maybe a little worse off, because everything to know about God was right there to be understood in creation all around them, and yet they had made idols to worship instead of God. 

So, Paul’s basic argument is, “Y’all are both doing fine, and you don’t need to follow Jesus in the exact same way.” The different ways we all follow Jesus in the church now are all pretty good because we are all so very different. With all of our differences, we all still share this idea that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. That’s what Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome to let them know that even though they were very different, what united them was Jesus. Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead.

With Paul’s writing of unity within the church, there has been a temptation whittle his writings down to a simple formula. One, “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord,” and two, “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” Then, “you will be saved.”

I’ve heard these words talked about as the right way to believe in Jesus and that anything those words will lead you to destruction. So, we’ve got fighting within the church as people take Paul’s words and turn them into something he didn’t intend. We use Paul’s words to say to different kinds of Christians, “I’m right, and you’re wrong,” and we let the Adversary tear the church apart. 

We don’t quite go to war with different parts of the church the way we used to. Christians killing Christians over which type of Christian you were. Heck, there were even times in some parts of the church where making the sign of the cross over yourself in the wrong way could get you killed. 

Nowadays, our attacks tend to be more verbal, Facebook, shaming, and maybe that’s not as destructive as killing people, but we’re still harming one another terribly out of this feeling that “I’m right and you’re damned.” 

This all comes out of fear and a resulting need for certainty. What if they’re right? Does that mean I’m wrong, and if I’m wrong, is my salvation in question? So, we give into the temptation for certainty, rather than faith, and the opposite of faith is certainty. Doubt goes along with faith, because we don’t know with faith. We choose to believe. Certainty, on the other hand, leave no doubt, and therefore no faith. So, in our quest to alleviate fear, we choose certainty over faith. We fight with one another, because nothing helps certainty more than an out group (I must be saved because they aren’t), and we end up following the ways of the Adversary, Satan, rather than the Holy Spirit.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, we like to think that it was easy for Jesus not to be tempted, thinking about Jesus being God, but we gotta remember, Jesus was human. You bet Jesus was tempted. He’d been out there for 40 days. He was hungry, so when Satan said to turn bread into stone, you bet Jesus wanted to do it. One, he could have, just used his God-powers and poof, magic bread, but The Adversary was the one challenging him to do so. Giving into that temptation, Jesus would have been following the way of the Adversary, telling God, “I no longer trust you. You’ve kept me here, safe, for 40 days, and now, I no longer trust you.” 

Then, when Satan told Jesus he’d give him power and authority over all the kingdoms of the world, you bet that was tempting. Think of what Jesus could do with all the people of the world under his control. He could make the nations and the people do as he wanted. ‘You want to seek injustice? Too bad, you’re not allowed. You want to oppress your workers and ignore the needs of the poor among you, well, I won’t let you, because I’m in charge now.’ 

Everything Jesus preached and taught, he could make people do, except, of course, he’d have to worship the Adversary first, and then he’d have to follow the way of the Adversary. He’d be fighting against anyone and everyone who didn’t want to do as he said. What would happen when people said, “no.” Would he drive them out of town? Take all of their money? Just kill them? Yea, that wouldn’t have worked out so well, Jesus following the way of the Adversary.

So, Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil, choosing instead to trust in God, knowing that God was absolutely for him. 

That is the trust Jesus offers for us to have as well because Jesus is absolutely for us, and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Advocate to be for us as well. God is 100% for us, not like Satan, the Adversary, who is against us and leads us to be against one another.

God gives us the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate, that we may be each other’s advocate as well. Rather than fear leading us to the temptation of certainty, God’s love for us can lead us to the trust of faith. With that trust, trusting that God is for us, we don’t need others to be wrong for us to be right. We can let other Christian groups and denomination believe and practice their faith as they do without having to prove them wrong. 

That even goes for the weird denominations (and I think we all know which denominations we all think are weird). I know which ones I think are weird and wrong, and that’s for me not to share, but to give over to God, and say, “Here you go, Lord. I think they’re weird, but that’s my problem, not theirs, and I’m going to give that to you and ask that you grant me your Spirit, that I may be for them and not against them.”

That’s what Paul was encouraging the Christians in Rome to do. The Jewish Christians thinking the Gentile Christians were weird and the Gentile Christians thinking the Jewish Christians were utterly baffling, Paul was writing them to let them know that their unity was in Jesus, and Jesus was for them both. Weird, crazy: groovy. God is for us, and so we can be for one another. In our fears and our temptations for certainty, we can trust God’s love and be for one another, following in the ways of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

Foolish and Powerless – Be At Peace

There are two things I really don’t like: feeling foolish, and not having the power to do what I want to do.

Adam and Eve got hit with both the foolish feeling and the powerlessness – so they lashed out. Maybe they felt betrayed by God, wondering if he had lied to them? They didn’t go and ask him about it, though. They simply decided, “I want this stuff, and screw they guy who has given me everything and says I can’t have this one thing that I want.” I want power and I want not to feel foolish so to Hell with that guy, I’m getting what I want.”

They chose desire and getting what they wanted over good relationship.

The problem was that they weren’t made to be satisfied by getting everything they wanted. They were made to be satisfied by being in good relationship with each other. The one thing that was not good in creation was that the man was alone.

The story didn’t say that it wasn’t good that the man didn’t know enough, or it wasn’t good that the man wasn’t powerful enough. When God saw this thing in creation that wasn’t good, he didn’t fix it by making the man smarter or more powerful. God fixed the problem by making the man another human to be with. The story said, it wasn’t good that the man was alone. Human connection and relationship was what truly made Adam and Eve whole. Human connection and relationship and connection and relationship with God were what made the humans whole.

So, when they chose getting what they wanted, when they chose power and knowledge, over honoring God and each other, being in good relationship, they broke with their own nature. They actually worked against themselves, and the result was shame, brokenness. They hid from each other and they hid from God.