That the image of a benign Jesus has universal appeal should come as no surprise. That most of the world cannot accept the Jesus of the cross should not surprise, either. Well, he has it almost right. Yes, the Cross is, as Paul writes, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but it is more fundamentally the Resurrection which defines the Christian Faith. For it is in the Resurrection that God acts decisively to confirm the truth of who Jesus was and what Jesus did.
Death is universal.
Only the Resurrection is unique. And that is Easter Day. It is God who acts to raise the crucified Christ, and it is God who acts to enter our own earthly lives with that same promise of resurrection. The Resurrection is God s final answer to all of our questions about who Jesus is. It is God s story.