[Mary Magdalene] turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (John 20:13-15)

Up until the 1500s, many parts of medieval Europe marked the beginning of the year not on January 1, but at Easter. Why? Because they believed the first Easter launched the ultimate new thing—God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven—a project God has called us to participate in with all the vigor we naturally feel at the start of a new year.

There’s a beautiful symbol of this buried in today’s passage in which Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus as a gardener that first Easter Sunday. Jesus had just risen from the dead. Clearly he could have chosen to be mistaken as anything vocationally: a carpenter, a king, a fisherman. So, why a gardener?

Some scholars suggest ...

As the soldiers led [Jesus] away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. (Luke 23:26)

We’re in a series exploring the vocations of some of the characters of the Easter narratives and what they can teach us about our own work today. There are two lessons we can glean from Scripture’s brief mentions of Simon of Cyrene.

First, choose to serve Christ in work you didn’t choose.

Simon didn’t volunteer to carry the cross; he was “seized” and forced into it. You may not face military force, but you might feel forced into a role by economic pressure or parental expectations. And even in a dream job, there are aspects of your work you didn’t ask for: angry customers, being "voluntold" for projects, and so on.

What are we to do with work we didn’t choose? Paul answered that question for us, writing to bond servants in Colossae who certainly weren’t thrilled about their working conditions: “Whatever yo...

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. (John 19:1-3)

God never intended for work to be painful and frustrating. According to Genesis 1 and 2, work was God’s first gift to humankind.

But when sin entered the world, the curse broke every part of creation, including the world of work. God told Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you” (see Genesis 3:17-18).

That backstory makes the Roman soldiers’ choice of a “crown of thorns” for Jesus all the more poetic. Knowingly or not, the Romans used a thorn—this symbol of the curse—to crown the One whose resurrection would overturn that curse. It is precisely because Christ allowed himself to be crowned with thorns...

[Pontius Pilate] took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” (Matthew 27:24)

Pilate wanted nothing to do with the prisoner, Jesus of Nazareth. So he tried to make him someone else’s problem, pawning him off on the Pharisees and Herod (see John 18:31 and Luke 23:6-7). But ultimately, Jesus wound up back at Pilate’s doorstep.

Exasperated, Pilate succumbed to political pressure and agreed to have Jesus crucified. But not before one final act of trying to absolve himself of responsibility. Today’s passage says that Pilate “washed his hands in front of the crowd” and said, "It is your responsibility." In other words, “This is not my problem.”

Just hours earlier, Jesus was doing a bit of washing himself. “He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet,” to clean their external filth as a symbolic act of the deeper internal filth he was about to wash clean on the cross (see John 13:1-1...

About an hour later [a third person] asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with [Jesus], for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. (Luke 22:59-60)

With Easter fast approaching, I want to spend the next few weeks focusing on five characters in the Easter narrative and what their work can teach us about our own work today. We will start with an overlooked character in today’s passage: the rooster. 

Now, before you roll your eyes at my assertion that the rooster had a job we can glean wisdom from, bear with me. I promise this will be a great encouragement to you today. But first, let’s set the scene.

At the Last Supper, Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed—a prophecy Peter vehemently rejected. But as the third denial left Peter’s lips, we see one of the most cinematic scenes in Scripture: “Just as [Peter] was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and look...