On Easter Sunday at Paris Church of the Nazarene, Pastor Curtis Hight built an entire message around one honest question: Why?

The same question the disciples asked Jesus over and over again. The same question people still whisper in the dark today. Why did he have to die? Why does it matter that he came back? And why should any of this change anything about your actual life?

Pastor Curtis answers the question head-on — drawing from the history of Old Testament prophecy, the eyewitness testimony of the disciples, a remarkable detail about a hyssop plant at the cross, and one of the most grace-filled moments in all of Scripture: when Jesus said Peter's name.

Pastor Curtis opened the message with a story. A young woman is having the worst day of her life — the baby won't eat, the washing machine broke, she's sprained her ankle, the house is a mess, and company is coming for dinner. Then the phone rings.

The Story"Oh, darling," said the voice. "Sit down and relax. I'll be over in half an hour. I'll do your shopping. I'll clean up the house, cook your dinner, feed the baby, and call a repairman for the washing machine. I'll even call your husband at the office and tell him to come home and help out for once."

The young woman said, "Who's George?"

"Why — your husband. Is this 22374?"

"No, this is 22375. I'm sorry — you have the wrong number."

A short pause. Then the young woman asked: "Does this mean you're not coming over?"

Why would it matter? The circumstances were identical. The mother was willing to help. But the details changed everything — and the young woman knew it instantly.

That hyssop plant. That empty tomb. That angel who said a specific name. None of these are throwaway details. They are the whole story.

If you've ever questioned God — about what's happened in your life, about why things didn't go the way you expected — you are in very good company. The men and women who walked with Jesus in the flesh asked why constantly.

• Why #1Why couldn't they cast out a certain kind of demon when they had been casting out demons before?
• Why #2Why were people born blind or crippled — was it because of sin?
• Why #3Why did Jesus have to die? They hadn't signed up for this.
• Why #4Why buy a sword if you're not supposed to use it? (Jesus told them to buy one, then told Peter to put his away in Gethsemane.)
• Why #5Why does Easter matter anyway — why the death, why the resurrection, what is the point?

Pastor Curtis Hight"If you're here today asking yourself why any of this matters — you need to know that you are in really good company. Because the disciples, those men and women who were closest to Jesus for three years, often asked the very same question."

To understand why everything happened the way it did, you have to study the Old Testament — the prophecies written hundreds of years before Jesus was born that describe his life, death, and resurrection in stunning detail.

A mathematician named Peter Stoner famously calculated the probability of any one person fulfilling just eight of those prophecies by chance. His answer: 1 in 100 quadrillion — a number that is practically impossible to comprehend, let alone achieve accidentally.

Jesus fulfilled them all.

The Watergate ComparisonIn the 1970s, 12 powerful, motivated politicians with every reason in the world to keep their story together couldn't do it for more than three weeks before the whole thing collapsed. The disciples kept their testimony — the resurrection of Jesus — until the day they died. Every one of them. And they had far more to lose than those politicians did.

They didn't. Every one of them — except John, who died naturally in old age — was martyred. They weren't dying for a theological idea. They were dying for something they had seen with their own eyes and refused to deny.

You know the answer. So does everyone in that room. None of us are perfect. We have all done things we knew we weren't supposed to do. And no matter how hard we try, there is no way to fully fix what we've done wrong.

We are more than our physical bodies. We are also spirit. And one day, our spirit will be face to face with the Spirit of God — and we'll have to give an account for the choices we made here on earth.

Romans 6:23"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The price we owe for our sins is eternal death. And there is nothing we could ever do to make up for it. We are never going to be good enough on our own.

John 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Why did he have to be crucified? Because there was no other way. He died for every sin that has ever been committed by every person who has ever lived. Including yours. Including mine.

He came back to life because it proves he conquered both sin and death. He didn't just die for our sins — he rose again to bring us new life.

There have been great people throughout history who said important things and led others in positive directions. Confucius. Buddha. Muhammad. All said things worth reading. But there is one indisputable fact about every one of those men and women: they stayed dead.

1 Corinthians 15:55–57"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God — he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

You have a choice. You can choose to follow the good advice of good men and women and do your best to live a good life. Or you can choose to put your trust in Jesus — the one who tells you you'll never be good enough on your own, but that it won't matter because he paid the price for everything. The only one who ever came back to prove he could.

A Small Detail Most People Skip Right Past

John, writing in chapter 19, records a moment near the very end of the crucifixion:

John 19:28–30"Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus's lips."

Most people who read that verse focus on the thirst. What they miss is the plant.

Hyssop was not a random detail. In the Old Testament, hyssop was the plant used during Passover to apply the lamb's blood to the doorposts of every Israelite home — so that the angel of death would pass over them. It was also used in purification rituals for cleansing from sin. King David prayed in Psalm 51: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."

On the morning of the resurrection, when the women arrived at the empty tomb, an angel appeared with a message to deliver. Simple enough: go tell the disciples that Jesus has risen.

But the angel added two words that have echoed through two thousand years of church history.

Mark 16:7"Go, tell his disciples — and Peter — that he is going ahead of you into Galilee."

And Peter. Jesus specifically said his name — through an angel, after the resurrection — calling out by name the one who had denied him three times. The one who had sworn he would follow him to the ends of the earth, and then couldn't hold it together in a courtyard when a servant girl asked if he knew him.

From the video shown in-service"You said my name."

"That's grace. What I did on the cross was meant to take what is unforgivable and make it forgivable. That's my grace. It's not about you. It's always about me."