Best of the Program | Guest: Billy Hallowell | 4/18/25

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Commercial Insurance.

Business owners meet Progressive Insurance.

They make it easy to get discounts on commercial auto insurance and find coverages to grow with your business.

Quote in as little as six minutes at progressivecommercial.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, coverage provided and serviced by affiliated and third-party insurers.

Discounts and coverage selections not available in all states or situations.

We've got an amazing Good Friday show for you, an update on the Carmelo Anthony situation.

Why would his family not

allow Austin Metcalfe's dad to be present for the press conference?

There's real evil that is happening in the country.

That's why we wanted to talk to Billy Holliwell, who has just done a documentary on miracles.

And we discuss Passover, crucifixion, and resurrection, what all of it means on today's podcast.

Have you ever tried to sprint with a backpack full of bricks?

Yeah.

That's what it feels like.

I mean, not that I've done it.

If you're in debt, I have been there.

Especially high interest debt.

It feels like you're running hard, but you're not getting anywhere.

Now, imagine somebody comes along, opens up that backpack, and just starts pulling bricks out one by one.

That's what it's like working with American Financing, because they'll actually sit down and look at your whole financial picture.

What you make, what you owe, and what your goals are.

Then they'll help you build a plan that works for you, not for the bank.

I've seen it happen over and over again.

You can start planning.

You can have the right tools and live the life that

you need to live, you want to live.

Take down the bag of bricks, put it down.

Call American Financing today.

They're not here to sell you anything, they're here to help you.

They work for you.

AmericanFinancing.net.

AmericanFinancing.net.

It's 1-800-906-2440.

Hello, America.

You know we've been fighting every single day.

We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you.

We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it.

But to keep this fight going, we need you.

Right now, would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast?

Give us five stars and lead a comment because every single review helps us break through big tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth.

This isn't a podcast.

This is a movement, and you're part of it, a big part of it.

So, if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top.

Rate, review, share.

Together, we'll make a difference.

And thanks for standing with us.

Now, let's get to work.

You're listening to

the best of the Blenbeck program.

Well, we've got a lot going on in

just a ton to tell you about.

You know, there's that story.

There's a story that

comes out of the Dallas, Texas area

where this kid comes in.

They're at a track meet, and he's a kid sitting, you know, where he's not supposed to sit.

He's sitting underneath a tent where only the people who are on the track team are supposed to sit.

So a member of the track team and his brother come in and they say, Hey, dude, you got to move.

This is just for the track team.

And he says, I'm not moving.

And he's like, dude,

you got to move.

This is where the track team sits.

There's an exchange.

All of a sudden, he says, Hey,

you try to move me, and you'll see what's happening.

He pulls a knife.

He stabs the kid in the chest, just from zero to 60, just stabs him in the chest.

He dies in his brother's arms.

Okay.

This is an open and shut case.

This is really quite simple.

Witnesses were there.

Everybody knows exactly what's going on.

However, there is a Dallas-based

Defund the Police activist and social justice leader that is now involved with the family.

And

there was a press conference yesterday.

And I want you to hear what this social justice leader said.

And all I'm going to say, so it don't be asked later,

is that was disrespectful

and just shows you all

the character

who is not invited.

He knows that it's inappropriate to be near this family.

Hey, stop.

So what is he talking about here?

What is this press conference about?

I thought this press conference was to defend the kid that stabbed the other kid for no reason.

Well, no, it turned in because the kid whose son had died showed up at the press conference

and he's excoriated for showing up.

You weren't invited.

Who are you?

Get out.

Who are you to show up here?

It is wholly inappropriate.

You know you're not supposed to be around this family.

Excuse me?

I'm sorry.

What?

Now, let me tell you who this guy is.

He's the guy he has been trying to,

you know, rally a defense for Carmelo Anthony.

That's the teenager.

He's 17 years old.

He's already gotten him, you know, gotten his bail reduced by a great deal.

And he said, hey, I want to sincerely thank everybody for the overwhelming support you've shown.

This is just the beginning of a long legal journey, and we'll continue to stand strong in defense of his rights.

He has rights, but how are you defending him just stabbing another kid?

When he hosted the press conference, disrespect for the dignity, disrespect.

His dad shows up to the press conference uninvited.

Uninvited.

It was disrespectful and just shows all of you the character.

The character of what?

The character of the dad showing up?

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I would think I would show up.

I want my son, I want my son's killer to go to jail.

I might show up.

So it goes viral, and that's when everybody online starts to be a little detective, and they find out some things about him.

This guy's ex and his Facebook account reveal that he's played a pivotal role in helping mobilize on behalf of Corey Bush's winning campaigns in 2020 and 2022.

Bush praised Alexander and his group for their perseverance and dedication.

And their commitment to this work is just unmatched.

Okay.

In 2021, Alexander said it was truly an honor to join Bush as she was sworn into Congress.

So

this guy that held the press conference, it said, that just shows the character of the dead boy's dad.

chose a photo.

We have a photo now of her, Corey Bush, and Alexander at her swearing in.

So he attends her swearing in.

This is going to get good.

Hang on, buckle up.

He said, I had the honor of seeing history in the making by seeing this beautiful black queen, Corey Bush, elected to Congress.

I don't know if you know this.

We don't have queens.

So anyway,

he says

in another post,

He said, I am so proud of her as an actual frontline protester.

We saw her yesterday sacrifice for millions facing eviction in America, our movement,

our congresswoman.

Okay, so she's part of the standing up for the eviction of, I'm sorry, millions facing eviction.

Yeah, no, they were here illegally.

He goes on, he does all kinds of pro-Bush

posts.

He then says in a 2024 post, we live in a country that doesn't want to address white supremacy.

He wants reparations.

So you're getting to know who he is, right?

You know, he's a radical revolutionary.

But wait, this time, there's more.

Apparently, he's also a career criminal.

NBC5 here in Dallas reported that he had an arrest warrant in 2019.

Arrest warrant affidavits stated that Alexander's longtime partner had reported to police that he had shoved her and tried to strangle her.

Now,

she declined after she called police to file charges because the police, they just,

you can't trust the police.

Oh, oh, okay.

All right.

He also served two days in jail after pleading guilty to a felony theft case in 2021.

Remember, that's just a couple years ago.

After four years of this hanging over my head, I decided to avoid a jury trial in Trump County that wouldn't have given me a fair shot at all.

Okay.

He was sentenced to two years in prison, also for repeatedly violating his probation.

2009, a local report details how Alexander was arrested for abusive, sorry, allegedly causing serious head injuries to his then-girlfriend's two-year-old son while he was babysitting.

So now we're getting into

abuse, babysitting a child.

Two years old, he takes this kid into the hospital.

He says, no,

mom and I and the baby, we're on the couch, and he just rolled off the couch.

Unfortunately, the doctor said, yeah, that's not possible.

We're looking at the injuries here.

And

this is trauma and more consistent with abusive head trauma and child physical abuse.

Okay, so we got that going for us as well.

Not long after he was arrested for injury to a child causing severe bodily harm, he got into trouble for forging a check, leading police on a high-speed chase, stealing a car, and then claiming that

his car that was stolen was his car.

It wasn't his car.

It was a stolen car.

Anyway,

so he brought a couple of character witnesses with him to trial.

It didn't work out well.

One of them had just met him, and the other one didn't have any idea that he was

on probation or breaking his probation.

The judge is like, and you know, Brody is, no, no, I didn't know that.

He never told me that.

He's been in trouble.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So he's got all kinds of other things like he praises Louis Farrakhan.

And if you see in that press meeting, you see the guy with the bow tie.

That's Louis Farrakhan's people.

And so,

you know, he's supported the nation of Islam despite the comments that Jews are termites and, you know, they're wicked termites.

I mean, I don't know what kind of other termites you have, I mean, other than wicked termites, but I generally, you know, generally don't praise Louis Farrakhan and those kinds of comments, but he does.

Okay, so that's what we have going on in Dallas.

Notice how dark things are getting.

Okay.

Notice what people are standing up for.

They're standing up to burn down Tesla.

They're standing up to defend the guy who killed the

healthcare CEO and saying, well, it was kind of justified, really, because, you know, I'll tell you how violent things are.

You know,

health insurance is violence right now.

So don't talk to me about violence.

Okay, all right.

So we have that going for us.

We also have

people that are refusing to speak out against any kind of violence on their side, including

the burning down of Teslas, the hassling of Tesla owners, the doxing of people,

and

the killing of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

We showed you yesterday, it's over 50% now.

If you're on the left, even if you say you're slightly liberal,

it's over 50% of that population believes that it is fine to kill Donald Trump.

And Elon Musk.

Okay.

Last night I found another story.

This is an op-ed.

This is one last night when I read it, I sent it directly to Cash Patel.

Said, FBI might want to investigate this one.

By Nicholas Decker.

The story on Substack is when we must kill them.

Evil has come to America.

The present administration is engaged in barbarism.

It has arbitrarily imprisoned its opponents,

revoked the visas of thousands of students, imposed taxes on us without our consent, and seeks to destroy the institution which opposes it.

Its leaders have threatened those who produce unfavorable coverage and suggested that their license be revoked.

It has deprived us in many cases of trial by jury.

It has subjected us to jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution.

And it has transported us beyond seas to be imprisoned for pretend offenses.

It has scorned the orders of the courts and it threatens to alter fundamentally our form of government.

It has pardoned its thugs and extorted the lawyers who defended its opponents.

Unbelievable.

If these actions become normal, the government could arrest anyone and deport them to prison in foreign land without any hope of redress and for no reason.

It is nothing less than the total abdication of the rule of law in this country.

There is no guard or protection against it.

If this theory prevails, then it is the end of America as a free nation.

Now, first of all, if you were saying this maybe four years ago, you might have some credibility because I can look at both sides and say, hey, you know, there's some real things that are disturbing here, but you have no credibility on this.

None.

And your conclusion is disturbing, even if it were all true.

I do not wish for this essay to be a mere catalog of outrages.

The conduct of

the present administration is well known to you as it is by myself and can be understood understood by any sensible person.

On it, no further comment is ventured.

What remains for us is to decide when we fight.

If the present administration wills it, it could sweep away the courts, it could sweep away democracy, it could sweep away freedom.

Again, where were you four years ago?

Protest is useful only insofar as it can affect action.

Our words might sway the hearts of men, but not the beasts.

If the present administration chooses this course, then

the question question of the day can be settled, not with legislation, but with blood and iron.

In short, we all must now decide when we must kill them.

None of us wish for war, but if the present administration wishes to destroy the nation, I would accept war rather than see it perish.

I hope you would choose the same, but what to do?

The rot of our present administration runs deeper than one man.

The sacrifice of a hero is insufficient to save our nation and a gust of wind on a summer day would not have saved us.

For let us make no mistake, the problem is not one man but a whole class of people.

If one head is cut off, the other will take its place.

Violence only makes sense as part of a coordinated strategy.

This is why protests are important, not as a way of changing the present administration's actions, but as a way to coordinate a group.

There may come a time when we shall have no guarantee of freedom, but the one which we make for ourselves.

If it comes, I tell you there is no greater honor than he who lays down his life for his friends.

Until then, we must wait.

And when is that time?

Well, your threshold may differ from mine, but you have to have one.

If the present administration should cancel elections, if it should engage in fraud in the electoral process, if it should suppress the speech of its opponents, jail its political adversaries, if it ignores the will of Congress, if it should directly spurn the orders of the court, all of these are reasons for revolution.

It may be the best to stave off and wait for elections to throw out this scourge, but if we should threaten the ability to remove it, we shall have no choice.

We will have to do the right thing.

We will have to prepare ourselves to die.

I hope that we should conduct ourselves first with such courage that it will be our finest hour.

I expect that we shall do our duty.

While we wait, we must not be like sheep to the slaughter.

We cannot cooperate.

We must

hide those who are persecuted.

We must foil the aims of their agents.

The state and local governments, which we control, can litigate the actions of the present administration.

Their police can refuse to share information or be deputized to do the work of the evil ones.

If war is politics by other means, then politics is war by other means.

There can be no surrender, for surrender means oppression of us all.

These are exceptional times.

We have not faced such a threat in many, many years.

I wish it had not come.

It is the sorrow of the world that these times have come, and we shall have to bring woe unto those whom it came.

The future is not certain.

It may be the present administration should flinch and turn back in the face of lighter action.

I fondly hope that may be the case, but if it comes, we must awaken from this ignorant dream.

This evil will not pass without blood, sweat, and toil, and tears.

So harden your hearts and prepare to die.

Like I said, I sent that one to the FBI when I saw it yesterday.

That's from the left.

If anybody is.

Any comments?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Bueller?

Anybody?

Any comments on who we're dealing with?

Again, let me go back.

The activist I just told you about that

is defending a kid that for no reason

stabbed another kid to death in the bleachers in front of witnesses.

You have Taylor Lorenz refusing to condemn Luigi Mangion.

Huh.

We are witnessing a transformation of the left now.

We are not seeing just these far right or far left radicals in Portland.

They are starting to seep through everywhere.

And Democrats, you must distance yourself from them.

You must distance yourself.

So pain doesn't wait until it's convenient for

you to appear, you know.

It just shows up at the the gym, at your job,

when you're getting out of bed, trying to spend some time with your family.

And when it sticks around, it starts picking things from you, your energy, your independence.

It even chips away at your patience.

But it doesn't have to.

This is where Relief Factor can really make all the difference in the world.

It's not a drug, and there's four key ingredients, botanical and fish oil-based.

They're designed to help your body fight inflammation the natural way, reduce pain, reclaim control of your body.

It's something your body already wants to do it just needs some support millions have tried relief factor many feel results within the first three weeks some in less and the best part they're getting their lives back one by one so here's a question what would you do tomorrow if the pain wasn't in charge Find out with Relief Factor.

Just try it.

1995, try Relief Factor's three-week quick start.

It's less than a dollar a day at 800-4 Relief.

That's 1-800-4 Relief.

The number 4, Relief.

ReliefFactor.com.

Go there now.

Three-week quick start.

ReliefFactor.com.

Now, back to the podcast.

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

You know, I have, when we started the Blaze, we started with a bunch of people that were really unknowns.

And we have seen so many people leave here and go on to...

unbelievable things.

I mean, most people don't know.

Will Kane,

he started his career here.

Pete Hagseth began his career at the Blaze.

Buck Sexton started his career at the Blaze.

And Billy Hollowell.

Billy worked with

Dan Andros, who used to be a writer of mine.

He was our head writer for a long time.

Just fantastic writer.

All those years at Fox, it was Dan that was writing all of those things, and he left to go to CBN.

Oh, Christ needs me.

Whatever.

And Billy Hollowell used to work at the Blaze and he did the same thing.

Oh, I got to go.

Christ needs me.

And so he's working at CBN now as well.

You can find what he's going to be talking about at cbn.com slash supernatural.

Billy, welcome to the program.

Glad to have you here.

Glad to be here.

Thanks for having me.

You bet.

All right.

So why did you do this?

And what did you find?

You know, it's crazy.

We went around the entire country looking for stories of crazy miracles, not just minor miracles, but claims that tumors disappeared, paralysis disappear.

And really, the why was this feeling, you know, there's a lot of people out there who don't think miracles still happen, right?

There's even people who are Christians who will say, eh, I don't know if I think God is moving.

And so we wanted to go out and test that.

And we wanted to see, are miracles still happening?

And I'll tell you, what we found really blew my mind.

When we went into this project, I thought okay we're gonna go into this we're gonna do this and you know it's gonna inspire me it's not gonna change me i walked away and you know this glenn i'm a christian i've been a christian my whole life but i walked away completely transformed and challenged by the insane things that we encountered okay so first let's just define what a miracle is

Okay, so miracles, there's a wide range of things that miracles can qualify as, right?

You have the small miracles, the things that we, you know, as Christians or as people of faith, feel God doing in our lives, right?

Those could be miracles, but you can't really prove them.

Then you have the big miracles, the things like, hey, this guy was dead for 40 minutes and somehow came back to life, which by the way, that's one of the stories, and we could talk about it that we encountered along the way.

You know, we were looking at miracles in this documentary that were 30,000-foot huge things, things that have scientific backing, that have doctors involved, that have really evidence, right?

And so miracles, again, they could be a wide range, but we wanted to look at those big ones and we could say, okay, is there proof?

How close can we get to actually proving that these things happen?

And by the way, you know, we went into these stories skeptically because I don't think any of us should just go out and say, oh, yeah, you know, whatever you say, we believe.

We really wanted to provide the evidence along the way.

Okay, so tell me some of the things that you found.

All right, so let's talk about the guy who was dead for 40 minutes.

This story, when it came across our desk, we did a ton of research, dug into it.

Jeff Markin is a guy who, you know, he wasn't feeling well, went to the hospital.

He has a heart attack.

He dies, essentially, inside the hospital.

They call a doctor, an emergency room doctor, and they're trying to revive him.

They spend 40 minutes on this guy, trying to revive him.

They pronounce him dead.

So this guy is now on the gurney, on his way to the morgue.

Dr.

Chauncey Crandall, who was the doctor in the room that day, He leaves the room.

He assumes, well, this is over.

The guy died.

He's going to move on with his day.

As he's walking in the hallway, this doctor feels God say to him, go back and pray over that body.

Go back into the room.

And he ignores it because he thinks that's insane.

He feels the prompt again, go back into that room.

And so he's like, well, I'm a Christian.

I better listen to this.

So he goes into the room.

And you can imagine the nurse and the doctors, they're thinking this guy's nuts.

He's going to come in and pray over this dead body that we've already declared dead.

And so he starts praying over the guy.

And all of a sudden, he says to the other doctors, shock him one more time.

And they're like, look, there's no way we're shocking him again because we've tried for 40 minutes and he's dead.

And so they end up doing it because he tells them to do it.

And immediately this guy gets a perfect heartbeat back.

Again, they tried for 40 minutes and got nothing.

And now the nurse is saying to the doctor, what are you doing?

Like now he's going to be brain dead after this.

What's so crazy about this story, this man, Jeff Markin, had a near-death experience, which I'll hold off on that.

You can watch it in the film while this was going on.

But he ends up two days later waking up completely fine.

We interviewed him in this film.

And so it's those kinds of stories.

I mean, there's multiple miracles in there.

And again, these are not just claims.

We've got medical documentation.

So that's the kind of stuff we were dealing with in this documentary.

So, you know, Billy, the amazing thing is we all have these, we all think that, you know, God doesn't talk to us.

He doesn't talk to me.

I don't hear him.

But he does.

And it's those little things that usually, like that doctor, we dismiss.

That's crazy.

And you just dismiss them because you think it's you.

And if you obey them enough times and then you realize, oh, wow, that was amazing.

Why I turned around and did that because I was told to.

And that turned out to be an amazing thing.

I mean, not as amazing as that usually, but

you start to discipline yourself to listen, and it happens more and more often.

Or maybe you just notice it more.

But he does speak to us.

And it requires us to not dismiss it as our stupid little voice in our head saying, you know, go back and pray over him.

What?

That's stupid.

Now, why would I?

Right?

And being open to it.

Well, being open to it, because the thing that struck me in all of this, right?

And after we finished investigating the supernatural miracles and we were looking at the stories, All of these people, they had to fight for miracles.

Like the other three stories that we cover in this film, none of them went to a prayer event and got healed on the first try.

It was 10 years years of praying and struggling.

And that opens a lot of interesting theological questions, which we do deal with.

We deal with not getting the miracle.

Because look, we all die eventually, right?

Even Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, he died again.

So eventually the miracles run out.

But to your point, I mean, I'll even share for me, and I think this was a miracle.

I was really upset about a diagnosis my daughter had of scoliosis.

I was in my car and

I'm driving and I'm thinking, God, I'm like crying out to God.

What are we going to do?

Give me a sign that this is going to be okay.

And, Glenn, you know, I live in New York.

There aren't a lot of trucks that have Bible verses on them.

I literally look up as I'm praying, and the truck in front of me has a verse speaking about God, you know, comforting us and how it will be okay.

In that very moment, I would say that's a miracle.

And I think that's more like what most of us deal with in the day in and day out.

And that is how God will often communicate to us.

Let me be real.

Let me ask you something, Billy.

This is a very personal thing.

I have been praying really hard

over my children.

And

there are some things that

just

don't understand.

And I'll pray.

I'll see no result.

And it has really hurt my faith.

At weak points, it has hurt my faith because I've thought, and I haven't thought about him.

I've thought about me.

I'm just not

in sync with him enough.

I'm not worthy enough for, you know what I mean?

Have you ever felt that way?

Absolutely.

I think in all of this, especially when we're not getting an answer,

I saw this in the film.

I've seen it in my own life.

There is this tension that we have to live in.

And I think this is really hard because we're human beings, right?

This tension of, I'm going to trust God that I believe the day I die, if I'm terminally ill or if my kid is struggling with something, you know, I'm going to believe for healing or for better decisions or for whatever the issue is because I believe it's possible and God could do anything.

And I'm going to believe that till the very last minute while at the same time, and this is where it gets hard, having the trust that if that thing does not happen, if the healing doesn't happen on this side of eternity, that I'm going to trust God and be okay with whatever that plan is.

Those two things are really tough.

Really tough.

Really hard.

Really tough.

But that's the death to self.

That's the death to self that we're called to kind of live in.

And that, I struggle with that all the time.

I think we all do.

And by the way, I mean, because I think this actually helps, that doctor in that emergency room who brought that, who prayed over that body, his son died of leukemia a couple of years before that.

And he fought for a miracle and didn't get it for him.

And now this guy is living.

He's able to have those two things, right?

That radical trust.

And so that really helped me actually seeing this guy who didn't get a miracle for his kid and yet still believes it's possible.

It is remarkable when you see people who

can actually live with this.

My daughter, you know,

she's been to all kinds of doctors.

She's had brain surgery and everything else.

And

I have prayed over her so many times to get her seizures to stop.

They just don't.

And they're relentless.

And

she'll say to me, Dad, I'm not worried about it.

I'm not worried about it.

And she's really tired of them.

I'm not worried about it.

Lord's going to heal me when I'm in heaven.

He's going to heal me.

And that faith is just remarkable.

Just remarkable.

Profound.

Yeah, it is.

Wow.

It is.

Go ahead.

You know, as a parent, you know, and something like that, you know, scoliosis, you know, I mentioned with my daughter, that is not a terminal illness.

And I kept saying, you know, thank God it's, it's not not something worse.

You know, but the struggle, you know, watching your kid go.

And by the way, you know, we were going through this as this film was going on.

And a lot of this, as I've been talking about it and promoting it, has dawned on me of how good God was in this particular circumstance.

But just watching your kid struggle and suffer.

You know, my daughter went from a normal six-year-old playing to being in a brace 21 hours a day, you know, and not being able to do certain things.

And you watch your kids suffer.

And it is a profound challenge to faith.

And that is where we have to rest in that trust, right?

And believing that the miracles are possible, but knowing again that we may not get them.

In the case of my daughter, you know, she's out of her brace and they can barely detect scoliosis right now.

Like we had a real miracle, honestly, you know, and I've been so grateful for that, but recognizing that there are other things that we haven't had that in our lives.

And it is tough.

It is really tough.

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck podcast.

Hear more of this interview and others with the full show podcast available wherever you get podcasts.

So last night, Jews all over the world gathered for Passover.

So I want you to picture Jerusalem 2,000 years ago at Passover, and the air is heavy with the aroma of unleavened bread, and the streets are buzzing because people have come from all over Israel to be there.

The sun sinks.

It's casting a golden glow.

But a shadow is hanging over one man because he knows what's coming, Jesus.

What must the weight

of last night have been like for the man, Jesus?

Because he knows what's ahead, the nails, the thorns, all of it.

Yet he presses on.

Why?

Because that's the deal he made.

He loves us.

He was the one that could bring us back home.

That's tremendous love.

And a love so relentless that it defies death itself.

So it's Thursday night, Passover meal.

Jesus gathers his twelve disciples in an upper room.

Oil lamps are flickering, casting long shadows.

They eat, they laugh.

They're unaware of the betrayal that is sitting at the same table with them.

And Jesus breaks the bread.

His hands aren't shaky.

His voice is steady.

His eyes are heavy.

And he says something that must have been very odd.

This is my body broken for you.

They each have some of the bread.

Then he lifts the wine.

This is my blood

shed for you.

What was going through their mind?

Remember,

they're looking for the Messiah.

Some of them believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.

You know,

I can't speak for Judas, but

they're expecting a warrior.

And they're not expecting this.

They're waiting for something big to happen.

Not this.

The weight of it must have been crushing to him.

being there alone, nobody understands.

So he goes to Gethsemane.

It's an olive grove, and it's right on top of the hill that overlooks the temple mount.

And he leaves the apostles, just, he says, pray with me.

And he leaves them, and he goes off himself, and he collapses to his knees under the twisted branches of these trees.

And the moon is hanging low by now,

the night, silent,

except perhaps for his silent and ragged breathing.

And that's when he says, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

You know, it says that

blood came out of every pore.

And I never understood that.

I thought maybe it was a metaphor or something when I was younger.

It's actually, it's not a metaphor.

It's a real, very rare condition.

Where extreme stress will rupture all of the capillaries right underneath your skin, so you actually sweat blood.

That's the pressure he was under.

His body had to have been trembling and racked with anguish and pain.

He's not just sweating, he's bleeding all of us clean.

He begs for escape, and then he knows.

And he says, Your will, not mine.

Why?

Because he knew we were going to need it.

And here we are with our secrets, our shame.

He saw us,

and he chooses the cross.

And Judas slinks in his kiss.

He knew.

He said somebody earlier,

the one person at this table is going to betray me tonight.

So the soldiers swarm him.

Torches are blazing.

Swords are drawn.

Peter grabs one of the swords and he actually cuts the ear off of one of the soldiers.

And Jesus stops him.

Stop it.

That's

not my path.

And he picks up the ear and he hears, he heals the soldier.

They bind him.

They drag him through the streets.

Sanhedrin's trials, just total farce.

False witnesses, you know, spit, fists, everything else.

Caliphus sneers, are you the son of God?

And Jesus says something that seals his fate.

You have said it yourself.

Truth, not blasphemy.

Truth that saves us, not him.

So by dawn, he's before Pilate, bloodied and silent.

This happens to go back and forth until about this time of day,

and the crowd is beginning to gather, and they're screaming, crucify him.

And Pilate washes his hands, but no water erases that stain.

Jesus is then scourged, whips, studded

with

metal,

just shred his skin.

I'm on my way in two weeks to see the shroud of Turin,

the actual shroud of Turin.

And

I believe that to be actually the burial cloth.

After you study it a little bit, just even a little bit, and you see what has been done to prove or disprove, and the best they can say is,

you know,

on the negative side, is, I don't know.

I don't know how it happens.

They mock him.

They drape him in a purple robe.

His back is just shredded.

His legs on both sides, his chest.

They jam a crown of thorns into his scalp.

And these aren't little like roses.

These are, I think they're called

Bethlehem thorns.

And they're like three, four inches.

And they just push it into his scalp.

Blood is streaming streaming down his face now,

but he still has burning eyes, purpose for you.

The cross, part of the cross, is laid across his shoulders, splintered, it's heavy, he stumbles.

Every single step is a testament to love.

Somebody's pulled out of the crowd.

Simon is pulled out of the crowd, is forced to carry it, but

Jesus is still bearing all the weight of what's coming.

At Golgotha, the place of the skull, nails are actually put through his wrists and then through his

feet.

Can you imagine what that felt like to just have

the vibration of that hammering?

And I've always seen when they slide the cross into the ground and

it settles.

You know, his shoulder was dislocated, they think, in the streets.

So, you know, the only way you breathe on a cross is you have to force yourself to stand up straight as much as you can, because once you start to sag down, your lungs start to collapse.

And so, with a dislocated shoulder, he's pulling himself up so he can breathe.

Jeez.

Sky is darkening now.

He's executed with two thieves, one on each side.

One mocks him, the other one says, Remember me.

And at that moment,

Jesus is offering grace.

Can you imagine?

Today you'll be with me in paradise.

He's dying and he's saving.

He sees his mom standing below.

John is beside her.

Grace again

Jesus looks down and says, Woman, behold your son.

Love, even in

agony.

The crowd jeers.

Save yourself.

Save yourself.

If you're God, save yourself.

He doesn't because of us,

because

of me, because of you.

He saw us.

He knew we were going to need this.

He takes it.

For him to really

be man and suffer, he had to be separated from God at this point.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus.

God didn't turn away from him.

He turned from the sin that he was bearing, our sin.

And at the ninth hour,

he just says, it is finished.

Victory.

not defeat.

The debt is paid.

The temple veil tears.

God's presence is unleashed.

The earth quakes, rocks split.

A centurion stands at the foot and says, surely this was the Son of God.

They pierce his side just to make sure that he's dead.

Joseph of Arimathea lays him in a tomb, and

they

sealed him up.

sealing hope away.

The disciples have no idea what's going on.

No idea.

They're They're hunted now.

Are we going to die like that?

I thought he was the Savior.

What is happening?

Now he's dead.

Nothing more humiliating than being crucified to a tree.

That was the most humiliating thing that could happen.

That's clearly not the Savior.

The disciples scatter, broken.

The world falls silent.

Is this the end?

No.

So imagine just on Easter, I mean, on Palm Sunday, he's riding in triumphant and everybody's so high and everybody's like, wow, this is going to be great.

And now he's dead.

Now he's in a tomb.

Now it's sealed.

It's silent.

The apostles are like, what just happened?

It's only been 24 hours.

Disciples are,

they hide.

Hope buried with Jesus.

Mary Magdalene weeps.

Her heart is just raw.

Her world now feels empty.

But there's a pulse in the air.

There is a pulse in the air.

Mary has been sleepless, broken.

She walks to the tomb since pre-dawn.

She has spices in her hand to anoint his body.

Final act of love.

And the ground quakes as she gets close.

She falters.

Her breath catches.

What is...

And the stone is rolled back.

Now the tomb's mouth is gaping open and her heart lurches.

Oh, God, grave robbers.

She runs to Peter and John.

She says they've taken him.

They race.

John outruns Peter.

Peers inside the linen cloth, folded, the headcloth, separate, but empty.

Peter barrels in, baffled.

The tomb is hollow.

No trace of Jesus anywhere.

They leave, dazed.

Mary is just stunned.

She just stays there.

She doesn't know.

She can't abandon him.

Where is he?

She's sobbing, and the sobs are echoing off the stone.

And then there was movement.

Two radiant figures are sitting where Jesus was supposed to be laying.

Woman, why are you weeping?

She turns.

She thinks it's a gardener.

She says, Sir, if you have moved him, just tell me where.

It's not a gardener.

It's Jesus, and he just says one word: Mary.

Soft, alive.

Her breath stops.

Those eyes, that voice, it's Jesus.

Rabbi,

teacher.

He's alive, flesh and bone, scars and all.

He says, go tell the others.

She runs, bursting.

I've seen him.

The disciples disciples have locked themselves away, fear choking them.

Suddenly,

you know, Jesus is amongst them.

He shows them the hands and feet.

The nail marks remain, proof of his love.

How could he live?

This is a very rough and short telling of probably the most important story, not probably the most important story in all of human history.

But it's our story.

It's the only story, probably, that matters.

He's already done all the hard work.

He bled literally from every pore, carried our sin, faced the cross, shattered the tomb.

Death couldn't hold him.

Nothing can.

And just like

he said, Mary,

he's calling your name.

I don't need it.

I'm fine.

And perhaps maybe that's true for you right now, but there will come a time in all of our lives where despair will overtake us, where our mistakes will just seem to be just too overwhelming.

Lay it down.

Lay down all the lies that you now believe about yourself, that you're not enough, that your mistakes define you, that that your pain and loneliness are yours forever because that's who you are, really.

They're not with you forever.

It is the strangest thing.

Everything true with God is usually the opposite.

Don't fight.

Surrender.

Surrender.

It's hard to let go of the shame that you've carried your whole life or the new, the wounds you've nursed, the voices that you whisper to yourself because that's that's at least it was in my life.

That's all you know.

They've probably been with you for so long that you believe that that's all you are.

And without them, what are you?

Nothing.

There's nothing else inside.

I'm not good enough.

There is nothing else good inside.

I'm just this.

Lies.

This Easter.

I just want to leave you with this message.

I've made that awful, awful journey, and it is not easy.

But it is so worth it.

This weekend, I encourage you to listen to hear his voice, soft as it was for Mary,

fierce as it was on the cross.

Let it go.

Come to me.

Step out of the shadows.

Lay down the weight.

It's not about being perfect.

It's about being his.

And he's already paid the price.

He's fought the battle, won the victory.

Now all you have to do is surrender.

Because he is alive.

He is waiting, scars and all.

Open arms.

Come to him.

Give it all up and walk away.

Surrender and live.