Easter: Rated R

I recently found a journal that I kept for a month while I was at college.

As I remember it, my life at 19 was exciting, and I was interesting. But the evidence remembers it a bit differently. In truth, life was quite dull, and I was quite dim.

So 19-year-old Carl wakes up late because he went to sleep late simply because he couldn’t be bothered to go to bed, and then records that he is very tired and needs more sleep. He lazes around most days, and then one day a week records that he worked “extremely hard” (four hours in a single day) because a work deadline was looming. Then he writes that he must be more organized, before repeating the same timetable the week after.

And, apart from watching lots of sport (on a TV or from the substitutes’ bench), and spending a fair amount of money he didn’t have on things he didn’t need, that’s life. Quite dull, and fairly dim.

Not your average week

Most of our journals would be similar, I’d imagine. Things happen, life goes on its way, resolutions come and go, mistakes get made but not learned from… and then there’s the odd burst of great joy, or worry, or grief. That’s ordinary life—a large amount of mundane details, punctured by the odd life-changing event.

But every now and then, an ordinary person finds themselves at the centre of extraordinary events. The diary of someone who marched with Martin Luther King, or who lived in 1945 Berlin, or who worked for King Henry VIII, would be fascinating—not because of who the writer is, but because of what they saw, who they were with, and what they were part of.

Easter Uncut is about a journal. Thankfully for all of us, the journal is not mine. It’s the account of a man called John who lived in the first century, grew up as a fisherman, met someone who changed his life, and wrote down what happened next. And the part we focus on is a week in which John witnessed loyalty, arguments, betrayal, love, desertion and injustice; a week of great plans, shattered dreams, nightmare scenes and renewed hope.

It was not your average week. It was the week in history that we now call “Easter”.

Eggs or execution?

Easter is strange, when you think about it. On the one hand, there are fluffy bunnies and lots of eggs. On the other, there is a man being brutally executed. Since it’s hard to wrestle both those images into the same story, we tend to focus on the fluffy bits and cut out the execution part.

But Easter Uncut doesn’t. In fact, it ignores the bunnies. That’s because John is writing down what really happened in history—the version of Easter that comes with an R rating, and is much more interesting for it. In each chapter, you’ll read what really happened—what John saw.

But John’s journal doesn’t only tell us what happened in all its gripping twists and turns. It also shows us why it really matters. The man who changed John’s life was Jesus, a carpenter who claimed to be a king, and who still grabs the attention and draws the devotion of millions of people even today, 2,000 years later.

In each chapter, you’ll read one of John’s entries about this strangest, most disturbing and thrilling of weeks. And you’ll read about why those events back in distant history still live on—how they can change your own life and future.

Not many journals are very interesting—mine certainly isn’t. But this one is. Not many lives matter 2,000 years later—mine certainly won’t. But this one does.

Welcome to Easter—uncut.

During February we’re giving this brand new book away to you FOR FREE as an ebook—head over to our Facebook page to find out how. We think you’ll like it so much that you’ll want to give hard copies away to your friends, family and guests at church this Easter!