Episode 33: Redeemed in Chaos

“Redeemed in Chaos” dives into a year already marked by protests, war, and cultural turmoil, and reframes it through the lens of Good Friday and Easter, showing how Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection bring unshakable hope in the middle of political unrest, personal anxiety, and generational despair. Reagan unpacks the brutal historical context of Rome, the meaning of Jesus as Messiah, the silence of Saturday, and the miracle of Sunday to remind listeners that God still redeems, still restores, and still calls each of us to a radical purpose in a dark, cynical world.

Transcript

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What's up guys, and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. Now, I don't know about you, but the start of this year has just felt so chaotic, so anxiety-invoking, so divisive, and to a certain degree, so hopeless. I mean, we're only at the start of April, and just think about what we've already gone through this year. We started the year with pro-Venezuela protests and anti-ice riots. Then we woke up one morning to the news of the U.S. bombing Iran and realizing that we are now in a new war, a new season of war, something that many people haven't even experienced, or the last time they experienced it might have been 2001 after the 9-11 attacks. Now we're seeing another shutdown with the Department of Homeland Security, where thousands of people aren't getting paid, and they're also feeling hopeless. They're also feeling afraid, and they just want to support their families. They just want to be able to exist and have a home and have food. Just last weekend, we saw the No Kings protest, a massive demonstration with over 8 million people across the entire country, and a real testament to just how hard the left will fight. With that, we saw that an actual communist socialist movement is afoot in this beautiful nation. It's really scary. It seems hopeless, and honestly, we don't even know what to do about it. We're all a little paralyzed and afraid and just disappointed, but hope is not lost. This is a week for reframing, for regrouping, and for gathering a renewed sense of hope, energy, and life. This, guys, is Easter week. This is the week that changed the entire course of human history. This is the week that God sacrificed His one and His only Son for you, for me, and for the entire world, the entire history of humankind post the year like A.D. 30 or 33. It is the week that allowed us to have this personal relationship with Him and to have everlasting, eternal relationship in His presence. Easter also reminds us of how much can change in just a single week. Jesus went from humbly riding on a donkey into Jerusalem and being praised by His followers and then proclaiming that He is the Messiah, that He is the Son of God, to dying like a criminal, dying like a insurrectionist or a treasonous in the Roman Empire, to literally defying science, defying history, and rising up from the dead. When you feel hopeless, when you think that you've had an awful week or a terrible day, when you feel like there's nothing ahead of you, we just have to remember how much can change in the span of just seven days. You can go from experiencing the literal worst day of your life to seeing the most magnificent miracle take place right in front of you. Good Friday is the day that started the amazing story of Jesus's ultimate sacrifice and our ultimate salvation, but before we can look at the story of hope, before we can look at the story of salvation and redemption, we need to actually dive into the historical context of what was happening during Jesus's life and during this specific time period. As you know, Judea, which encompassed ancient Israel and the kind of the land portion of Judea would today encompass parts of modern-day Israel, modern-day Palestine, was under the control of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was not kind, they were not relaxed, they did not have the amazing freedoms that we in America have today. They were deeply feared, they were brutal, I mean wildly brutal, and we can really characterize this empire with super, super high taxes, a crazy heavy military presence, brutal punishments, and the executions of enemies, criminals, and political adversaries, and a distinct lack of tolerance for uprising or any type of speech or dissent that may yield a mass movement or perhaps even a revolt. Jesus's story took place during one of the most political, brutal military empires in all of human history. The Pharisees and Sadducees, they were the religious leaders at the time, very different. A lot of people group the Pharisees and the Sadducees together, they are very different, but we're not gonna dive into their specific differences today, but they actually held a deep contempt for each other. The Pharisees and Sadducees literally hated each other, but they kind of formed this unity, this kind of partnership, I guess you could say, with each other because they hated Jesus and they hated the Christian movement that Jesus was creating more than they hated each other. They held a deep difference of opinion, aside from the differences in opinion that they held between each other, they held an even greater difference of opinion over what Jesus's teaching were versus those compared to the canonical teachings of the Old Testament. They believed that they had to follow the law, they had to follow the written Word of God, and they did not agree with Jesus's teachings because obviously Jesus was bringing in a, he was bringing in the New Testament, he was bringing new laws, new rules because of his sacrifice. The Pharisees did not agree with that, they said that we needed to abide strictly by the Old Testament law. Now we also have to look at Jesus's title of Messiah. Now we take it to mean anointed one or chosen one, but in Jesus's period it was actually extremely politically charged. They took it to mean, that is, the Romans took it to mean a liberator, a king, or even somebody that is sent to overthrow their oppressors. Now Jesus was all of this, but in a very different context than what the Romans believed. He was here to overthrow and liberate us from sin and from evil, to bring the kingdom of God here to earth, not to destroy any certain political ideology or a certain empire or anything like that. He was obviously not there to go and create an insurrection within the Roman Empire. But Rome did not understand Scripture, they didn't understand Jesus's teaching, so they saw him as a literal political threat. They saw him as somebody who could lead a mass movement, a revolt, or even an attempted insurrection, and they were afraid of that. Now we also have to look at the historical context of Passover. Passover is the celebration of Israel's liberation and freedom from the slavery of the Egyptian people back in Moses's day. So we think about how Jesus came into Jerusalem at the start of Passover, all these things are happening during Passover. As Jesus's movement was growing, he was attracting new followers and as more people devoted their life to him, the Romans became afraid. They became afraid of the likelihood of something like a mass movement actually starting among Jesus's followers. Now Passover was an especially emotionally charged time, specifically in this period, because the Jews were celebrating their freedom and their liberation from slavery and from the Egyptians as they were under extreme oppression from the Roman Empire. So they're thinking about how God liberated them, they were thinking about how they were supposed to be this free people, how they were supposed to be, you know, out of slavery, and they were under just an absolutely oppressive empire, an absolutely oppressive political system. The Roman leaders were afraid that this presented the perfect opportunity for a revolt from the Jewish people, or an insurrection to begin, and that Jesus would literally choose this time to try to become quote-unquote king. They didn't understand the scripture. Like I said, they had no clue what Jesus was actually teaching. They heard him say he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that he was coming to put God's kingdom on earth. They heard all these things and they literally thought political kingdom, not in a sense of theology and religion and scripture and fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament. They didn't understand that he was saying that he was going to do this through peace, that he was calling for peace, that he was calling for forgiveness. They didn't understand why God sent him. Now also, Pontius Pilate did not actually want to kill Jesus. This is a really, really interesting piece of information and an insight into what Pontius Pilate's actual intentions were. He actually feared political persecution if he did nothing. Because of how brutal Rome was, he was afraid that he would either lose his position of political power or that something far worse would happen to him, that there would be force used upon him, maybe execution, maybe torture, something along those lines. That is why he gave the people a choice between Jesus and Barabbas. Historically, they would free like a prisoner or somebody during Passover. So he said, you have the choice between Jesus or Barabbas. And Barabbas was a murderous insurrectionist. He was not a good guy. He was a really bad guy and he really, really hated the Roman Empire. Well, the people ended up choosing Barabbas because they actually did want a revolution. They were politically charged. They did, in fact, hate the Roman Empire. They saw Barabbas as somebody that was ready for action, that was ready to do what it takes to free the Jewish people. He was prepared for revolt. He had already proven that he was murderous. He had already proven that he was a competent insurrectionist. And they preferred his methods of action and violence and force to those of Jesus where he was calling for peace and to love your enemies. Now, Rome actually used Jesus's brutal murder to drive home a very, very specific point, a very, very intentional point. No one is going to revolt against the Roman Empire. No one is going to question the authority of the Roman Empire, and no one is going to challenge the status quo, period. And they used the immense torture and just brutal, brutal treatment of Jesus to drive this point home to anybody that thought about continuing his mass movement. Now, this leads us to Good Friday, which is one of the most misunderstood days in all of human history. We see it as like this day of tragedy. We see it as a day that is just seeped in agony and in regret and in just despair and depression and sadness. But Jesus's death wasn't actually an accident. Jesus's death, he didn't get caught. It wasn't like he was doing this thing. He had his mission going. He was trying to start Christianity and get followers, and he just happened to get caught when he went into Jerusalem for Passover. What happened was completely intentional. It was set out in prophecy. It was set out by God. He volunteered to go through all of this, to endure this pain, to endure this agony, with the specific political context of the time, because he wanted to restore you, restore me, and restore the entire world. Good Friday is actually a day of pure, raw, unconditional love. It is a day where we're reflecting on what real sacrifice actually means, on what the point of salvation is, on what what the cost of salvation is, and on the real meanings of mercy and of grace. I saw a post the other day, and it was really interesting. It said something along the lines of, imagine that you are a prisoner, and you're in jail, you're in prison for doing something really bad. It was completely intentional. You did it on purpose. There's no weird context where it wasn't actually you, or you were framed, or anything. Like, you did the crime. You did the bad thing. It was completely intentional. And one day, you're in your cell, and some random guy walks in, and he has not done anything wrong. Not a criminal, never even stolen a candy bar, or anything like that. Just absolutely not on the radar. Never even had a speeding ticket. He walks in, and he takes your orange jumpsuit, and he takes your prisoner identification, and then he gives you some street clothes. And you walk out a free man, and he goes into your cell. He goes into solitary confinement, and he awaits his execution date. That is the story of Good Friday. It is a story of hope. It is a story of mercy, of grace, and of salvation. We live in a world that is wrought with cancel culture, wrought with judgment, wrought with the belief that you are just one choice, one post, one comment, or one statement away from destroying your career, or your ability to get into college, or your chances of advancing up the corporate ladder. But what Good Friday teaches us is that God doesn't operate on these premises. You are forgiven no matter what you've done. Jesus doesn't care, because he died and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can all be redeemed. Now, we're at Saturday. Jesus is dead. He has been whipped. He has been placed in a crown of thorns, which new historical evidence actually shows that the crown of thorns wasn't like this crown that we saw when we were growing up, and when we were in Bible study that was like all the different thorns kind of like knit together, I guess. It was literally like a helmet. Like imagine a kid with a bowl cut, and you take like the shape of his bowl cut, and you tie all the thorns together in that shape. Jesus was wearing a literal like helmet of thorns that cut the back of his head, like his entire skull. It was so much more brutal than what we see on different like religious shows, or what we saw in Sunday school, or during church. And then he carried his cross to his execution site. And if you don't know a lot about this, he carried the cross an estimated 0.4 to 0.6 miles with no help, and then he rounded out the rest of the journey, which was about a mile with the help of Simon, not Simon Peter, just a guy named Simon that stepped in and helped Jesus carry this cross. Now this cross is estimated to have weighed approximately 300 pounds total, with some historians theorizing that Jesus only carried the center beam, not the cross horizontal piece. So if that's the case, and he only carried this center beam, or the piece that stuck into the ground, that would have weighed about 125 pounds. So the disciples are waking up, his followers are waking up, his family is waking up, and they know that he's dead. They remember what happened. They just have those flashbacks. They probably didn't sleep much that night, and they just wake up, and they're like, what do I even do today? What has happened? If you've ever lost a loved one, it is that familiar feeling. But imagine having to sit and watch the scenes that his disciples and followers and family had to watch the day before. I'm sure it's a very traumatic experience to just sit and like re-watch all of that in the back of your head. They're recalling the events from the day before. They don't hear God. They don't see God. They don't feel God. They don't know what the future is like. His followers, they believe that the movement is over. They feel hopeless. They are probably fearful that Rome is going to come for them next, because they were supporters of Jesus's mass movement. They're confused and doubtful and afraid. They're thinking, if Jesus is who he said he is, why is he not here anymore? Why is the movement not moving forward? Why are we all alone and afraid and know that the Roman Empire is on our heels right now? And they don't know how this could have happened. They're in a period of silence, and they are in a period where they are feeling utterly and completely absent from the presence of God. This is the period before the ultimate miracle, and this is a reminder that sometimes God will isolate us, that he will be silent, even if we do everything right, even if we do follow him, even if we are just great little followers working towards his purpose that he has for us, that sometimes he'll isolate us. We won't feel him. We won't hear from him, because he is preparing a miracle for us that is better than anything we could have ever imagined. We're in a waiting period. Now, we're at Easter Sunday. Mary Magdalene, Jesus's mother Mary, and two other women named Salome and Joanna, they go to the tomb, and when they get there, they see the angel sitting on the rock. The rock is away from the door, and the tomb is empty, because Jesus has risen from the dead. He is alive. He is no longer dead. He has defeated death. He has defeated sin. He has defeated evil. Jesus made hope a new fact, because he is the deliverer of miracles. He offers new life through salvation. He offers new life to anybody who believes in him, who believes in his death and his resurrection, and who accepts his radical forgiveness. They will be eternally saved, and they will have an eternal personal relationship with God. Sunday is a day of redemption. This is like, you're sitting down, you're watching ESPN, you think that the game is over, there's no way they can come back, and they hit that buzzer, beat, or shot, and the game isn't over. That is what Easter Sunday is like. We live in a world of despair, of hopelessness, of sarcasm. Just look at our culture. It's not great out there, y'all. We live in a world where feelings trend. These are the feelings that trend, not the good feelings, not the puppy dog videos, the feelings that I just described, where you can engagement farm by rage baiting people, where that's the most productive way for you to get followers, and to get shares, and comments, and all of that. We live in a world where anger sells more than hope, and pointing out every single flaw, and every single issue in our world, is going to sell more than a message about redemption, or hope for our future. We live in a world of cynicism, of nihilism, where people say nothing matters, where people say that you don't need to get your hopes up, where people say that you can't expect to change everything, to change anything, or to change the world, and where they tell you that the world is evil, it's always been like this, and it's never going to get any better, so why even try? But Jesus, He says otherwise. Jesus says that there is hope and redemption in Him. Jesus says that He has a purpose for you, and that you have a purpose with Him, that He has created you to do something just unique to you, something that only you can do because of the talents and gifts that you were blessed with at your birth. He says that you were created for a specific reason, that He chose the date and the time of your birth and your death, so that your purpose can have the greatest impact for a story that He planned before the universe was even created. Jesus says that He can move mountains, and He can make the rocks praise Him. So in a culture of darkness, a culture of despair, a culture of disappointment, you can be a light of hope. You can be that person that says, here I am, Lord, send me. You can be somebody who wants to radically pursue the purpose for which God has created you. Jesus actually was a revolutionary. He was one of the, actually, He was the most radical figure in human history, and no, don't think I'm saying this in a bad way. Jesus was the ultimate revolutionary, the ultimate radical. He told us to fight our enemies with love. He told us to fight our wars on our knees. He told us to forgive those who hate you, who harm you, who want to see you fail, and yes, even those that want to see you unalived. He said, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the kingdom of God. He prayed for the sick, befriended the tax collectors, and gave hope to prostitutes. He offered Himself to the outcasts of society, something that nobody at this time ever did. He gave attention to people who were ignored, spat upon, and ostracized in society. He called out corruption. He rejected hypocrisy, and He flipped tables when the greedy adulterated the temple of God. He was just all for peace. He was a preacher of peace. He was slow to anger, and He never, ever, ever, ever, ever sinned. He changed the meaning of radical and revolutionary to mean radical love, radical forgiveness, radical peace, radical grace, and radical mercy. He changed revolution from the idea of a bloody revolt, or something like that, an insurrection, to a revolution of the heart, to a shift from what our world revolves around. We change our personal revolution to existing for God, solely and completely for God, instead of existing for ourselves and putting our own selves at the center of our own personal universe. This, if this isn't radical, if this isn't revolutionary, then honestly, I don't know what is, and it's probably time for me to get off the internet. This story happened over 2,000 years ago, very, very long time ago, but it is more relevant than ever today. For a generation struggling with unprecedented anxiety and depression, Jesus offers joy and peace. For a generation experiencing the highest rates of loneliness ever reported, Jesus offers His unwavering, everlasting, and eternal presence. For a generation obsessing over the next right thing, you just got to do the next right thing, wondering what they were made for, afraid that they aren't gonna get a job, afraid that they're not gonna get into college, Jesus offers a purpose for you that was uniquely created by God at this exact moment, just for you, before the universe was even created. You are here, at this time, for this purpose, because God knows best, because He wants you, because you aren't a mistake, because God is perfection, and He does not make mistakes. For a generation that's constantly comparing themselves to other people, whether this be on social media, I get really, really tired of people being like, oh, you live in compare culture, and you're constantly comparing yourselves to people on the internet, because a lot of people aren't. A lot of people aren't on social media comparing themselves to the models, or whoever is on social media, and trending at that particular moment, but for people who are comparing themselves to others on the internet, or even for people who are comparing themselves to friends that are getting better jobs, or to friends that might be getting into better colleges, or different colleges, or that got into your dream school, and you got wait-listed, or maybe you didn't even get in. To people who see others that are quote-unquote having it all figured out, and you just can't figure out how they got there, you can't figure out how they have this plan, and how they're just moving through life so seamlessly. Jesus offers an identity that is rooted in something unchangeable, and something that is everlasting. He offers you an identity that is rooted in something that can change the lives of every single person that is alive today, and he offers you an identity in something that will redeem the entire world, and make clean what is dirty and destroyed. For a generation that believes in institutional corruption, Jesus offers a personal relationship with him that is not contingent upon any certain institution, or being a member of any certain institution, or joining, or putting faith in any institution. It is a personal relationship with somebody that took human flesh form to die for you, to save you, so that you can be redeemed. No matter what society, or culture, or others tell you, the story is not over. You are not too far gone. You have not sinned too much. You have not fallen too short for God's grace to reach you. Jesus is reaching out his hand. He is ready to welcome you into his kingdom. He is ready to forgive you. He is ready to go out and help you complete your purpose. He is ready for you to say, here I am Lord, send me, and for you to accomplish the mission for which he personally created you for this exact point in time. Maybe you are a believer. You're in a period of silence, and you just can't hear God. Maybe you've drifted away from God, and you're still a believer, but you know that you aren't close to him right now. You haven't been going to church, or reading your Bible, and you just, you know that you've drifted. He's waiting for you to come back. He is waiting to bestow an unfathomable miracle upon you, if you're in that period of silence, but you are close to him. He is preparing a place by his side for you in heaven, where you can have eternal relationship with him. You are not alone. You are not forgotten, and most importantly, you are not abandoned, because God is waiting to give you the most amazing gift that you can imagine. He already told us how the story ends. It ends with the destruction of Satan's kingdom, Satan's reign over earth, and the ultimate and final destruction of death and evil. There will be no more death, no more separation from your loved ones. All of it will be wiped clean, because Jesus will reign victorious. He told us how it ends, peace and victory. He wants you to be on his winning side. He wants everybody to be on his winning side, but all you have to do is accept him. That's literally it. There's no special potion. There's no special message. You literally just have to accept him, believe him, and have a relationship with him. John 5 24 says, Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. Accept Jesus this Easter, and he will redeem your life with a purpose and a presence unlike anything you could ever imagine or have ever experienced. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Reagan Faulkner Show. Remember, if you want more, check us out on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook at The Reagan Faulkner Show and Instagram and Facebook at The Wilmington Standard. Also, remember to check us out at TheWilmingtonStandard.com or check out my sub stack at The Reagan Faulkner Show for exclusive content and four articles a week. And lastly, if you want coffee from a company that is ethically sourcing all of its products, all of its products are organic, and they give 10% of each sale to the pro-life movement, be sure to check out 7 Weeks Coffee and use my code REAGAN2026. That is all caps R-E-A-G-A-N 2026. Be sure to like and subscribe for more from me, and like leave us a comment on what you want us to see or what you want us to cover next. What topics you want to see, what topics are interested in, what you want me to research and tell you all about. Thank y'all so much, and I will see you on the next one, and have a very happy Easter.