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BROUGHT TOGETHER THROUGH

JESUS

7 Easter Reflections on Reconciliation with GOD AND ONE ANOTHER

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BROUGHT TOGETHER THROUGH

JESUS

7 Easter Reflections on Reconciliation with GOD AND ONE ANOTHER

Cover Design Hailey C. Smith Cover Image MikhailPopov via Shutterstock, Texture background wall via Shutterstock Interior Design Michael J. Williams Editorial Team Paul Brinkerhoff, Brianna De Man, Tom Felten, Tim Gustafson, Regie Keller, Monica La Rose, and Peggy Willison Acknowledgments Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015

by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.

All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked cev are taken from the Contemporary English Version Copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Scripture quotations marked niv are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used with permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com © 2026 Our Daily Bread Ministries® • All rights reserved. Printed in Hong Kong.

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INTRODUCTION

A DRAMATIC INTERVENTION God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.

I

2 CORINTHIANS 5:19

still recall the image the teacher posted in our Sunday school class thirty years ago. A large poster showed two mountains, one on each side of the artwork. One mountain was labeled “God”; the other “humanity.” In the middle of the sketch was a vast, empty pit resembling a quarry. The students were asked to place a strip with Jesus’ name on it between the two objects. The strip symbolized a bridge—a connection between God and His people.

Staring at the simple black-and-white drawing, I got it. Jesus is our bridge, our connection to God. Without Him, we humans are separated from God like the two mountains in the picture. A bottomless pit lies between our holy God and broken humanity.

Humanity is complicated. Despite all our wonderful complexity, we’re bursting with selfishness, greed, pride, evil desires, and idols that can lead us away from God. As good as we try to be, we’re deeply flawed because of our sin. This separates us from our holy God. God is perfectly holy, so sin stands in opposition

to who He is. Without a dramatic intervention, sin would keep us eternally separated from God. Thanks be to God, He provided that dramatic inter­ vention through the work of His Son Jesus. We see hints of that intervention in some of the earliest parts of the Bible, written over a thousand years before Jesus entered our world.

The Old Testament book of Leviticus may seem a strange place to find some of those hints. It often reads like a bunch of rules and guidelines for a people long departed. But the book contains God’s instructions to His people for how they were to live. And these instructions point to Jesus.

God told Moses what the high priest was to do to atone for the sins of Israel. The high priest was to take two goats and “slaughter the first goat as a sin offering for the people” (LEVITICUS 16:15). Then he was to perform a ceremony with the second goat. “He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat” (V. 21). The second goat was then driven into the wilderness, to “carry all the peo­ ple’s sins upon itself into a desolate land” (V. 22).

Both goats provide a picture of what Jesus would do for us one day. The Son of God became human to take on the sins of the world. We no longer need to bring sacrifices regularly to have our sins blotted out. It’s been taken care of through Jesus. Though He was without sin, He became sin for you and for me. He brought humanity back to our holy God, and He continues to do the work of reconciliation each time a new believer confesses faith in Him.

The work of the cross is about reconciliation. Jesus is the bridge over the chasm of sin that makes it possible for us to go to our God boldly (HEBREWS 4:14-16).

Nothing we can do could ever repay God for such a gift as Jesus, for such a divine reconnection. But we can live our lives in joyful thanksgiving, remembering God’s gift and Jesus’ sacrifice. We can make even greater efforts to reconcile with those who’ve left us broken. In honor of the bridge that joins us to God, we too can be a bridge, connecting broken parts of this world together with our love and service. May the image of Jesus as our bridge remind us to be a bridge, connecting what separates.

Reconciliation is about rejoining, recasting, connecting, and forgiving. It’s the bridge that stretches across the chasm, the gulf, the separation. Reconciliation restores us fully, mending broken hearts and broken lives. Reconcil­ iation is joy and peace and wholeness.

This Easter, may you see the beauty of reconciliation made possible because of God’s gift of Jesus Christ. And may you reflect on the gulf that separated you from God and the blessed bridge that reconnects you to your Savior.

Katara Patton, Our Daily Bread author

o 2 CO R I N T H I A N S 5:19

God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.

DAY

1

CRIMES OF THE PAST

T

an had a blended family, with children from two marriages.

The two mothers hated each other and banned their children from meeting. Then Tan passed away. At his funeral, his now grown children reached out to each other tentatively—and were pleasantly surprised to discover that most of them were now believers in Jesus. “Let’s forget the past,” said one of the sons to his siblings. “Whatever has happened was from the past generation.”

Reconciliation is hard, and forgiveness may seem impossible until the source of dissension is taken away. That’s what happened when human beings sinned. Our wrongdoing marred our relationship with God, who is holy and must address sin.

So God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross, “reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 CORINTHIANS 5:19). On the cross, Christ’s atoning death not only removed our guilt and spared us the punishment that we deserved, but also made us acceptable to God, allowing us to be reconciled with Him. Now, we can come into His presence freely and joyfully, completely forgiven. Jesus’ resurrection makes us a “new person” (V. 17) who is no longer tainted with the crimes of the past. How amazing, that God tells us: “Forget the past, you will be with Me forever!”

LESLIE KOH What does being reconciled with God mean to you? How does it change the way you live and relate to others?

Father God, thank You for sending Your Son to die on the cross for us, so that we can be fully forgiven, accepted, and loved by You.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

| 2 CO R I N T H I A N S 5:16-21

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human

point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

o E Z E K I E L 33:16

None of their past sins will be brought up again.

DAY

2

THE GIFT OF FORGIVENESS

W

hen a civil war broke out in Burundi, Theo’s world turned upside down. Out of spite he stole a chicken from his neighbor Jeane, who belonged to the ruling ethnic group. But after escaping to Tanzania, Theo’s actions weighed on his conscience. Despite risks, he returned to Burundi to make it right.

When Theo found Jeane, he asked her to forgive him, offering some money for restitution. She was stunned. “Forgive me and my family too!” she said. We “stole the iron sheets from the roof of your father’s house!” In hindsight, Theo said, “I believed God had set me up to be part of a wonderful exchange of repentance and forgiveness.”

God’s story throughout the Bible is one of forgiveness from sins. As God promised through the prophet Ezekiel, He would not hold His people’s sins against them: if “they turn from their sins and do what is just and right” (EZEKIEL 33:14). God said that if they would “return what they have stolen, and obey my lifegiving laws . . . . then they will surely live and not die” (V. 15).

God extends this same release to us today. Through the power of Christ’s Spirit, He will help us to repent of our wrongdoing.

And because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we’ll be released from our sins. We, like Theo and Jeane, will be washed clean.

AMY BOUCHER PYE How have you experienced God’s gift of forgiveness?

What might the Spirit be convicting you of today?

Forgiving God, thank You for giving me the greatest gift ever—Jesus’ love and sacrifice.

Please help me to live out Your love and grace.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

| E Z E K I E L 33:1, 10-16

1 Once again a message came to [the prophet Ezekiel]

from the Lord: . . . .

10 “Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: You are saying, ‘Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?’ 11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel!

Why should you die?

12 “Son of man, give your people this message: The righteous behavior of righteous people will not save them if they turn to sin, nor will the wicked behavior of wicked people destroy them if they repent and turn from their sins. 13 When I tell righteous people that they will live, but then they sin, expecting their past righteousness to save them, then none of their righteous acts will be remembered. I will destroy them for their sins. 14 And suppose I tell some wicked people that they will surely die, but then they turn from their sins and do what is just and right. 15 For instance, they might give back a debtor’s security, return what they have stolen, and obey my life-giving laws, no longer doing what is evil. If they do this, then they will surely live and not die.

16 None of their past sins will be brought up again, for they have done what is just and right, and they will surely live.”

ONE MAN, COUNTLESS SEEDS OF FAITH

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ost people know Our Daily Bread devotionals as the little booklets you find in churches, hospitals, or coffee shops. What many don’t realize is that behind each copy is a network of faithful Ambassadors— ordinary people who intentionally place these booklets where God can use them to touch lives.

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o L U K E 23:43

I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.

DAY

6

THE POWER OF MERCY

A

merican WWII pilot Charles Brown was returning from a mission. His B-17 had been damaged and was faltering over the skies of Germany. Brown looked out his window and froze. A German fighter plane was just three feet off their wingtip, poised for a kill. “This is a nightmare,” Brown’s co-pilot said. Brown saw the eyes of the German pilot. What happened next was remarkable: the German pilot did not pull his trigger. He nodded at Brown and proceeded to escort his B-17 through German skies, protecting it from anti-aircraft guns.

Years later, Brown set out to find the German who had spared him. Remarkably, he found the man of mercy, Franz Stigler. When the two men met, they hugged and cried.

Life-saving mercy is what the thief on the cross experienced too. This man knew he would die but understood Jesus could offer him eternal mercy for his sins: “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom” (LUKE 23:42). Jesus extended that mercy to him: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (V. 43). We who believe in Jesus know we’re likewise saved by God’s loving mercy.

But do we show mercy to others? The power of mercy stems from what Jesus did on the cross. Ephesians advises us to be “merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave [us] because of Christ” (EPHESIANS 4:32 CEV). May God help us extend mercy to others today.

KEN PETERSEN What relationships in your life need the power of mercy? How can you be merciful toward someone who wronged you?

Dear God, because I received mercy through Your Son’s death on the cross, may I imitate You and show mercy to others.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

| L U K E 23:32-43

32 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed

with him. 33 When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.

34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

35 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”

39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”

40 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The number one problem in our world is alienation . . . .

But Christ came to bring about reconciliation and peace.

—BILLY GRAHAM

God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

—2 CORINTHIANS 5:21

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Hope, Healing, and a New Beginning through Jesus Easter is more than a moment in history. It’s the turning point for all of humanity. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus became the bridge between a broken world and a holy God, offering restoration, healing, and peace. This 7-day devotional invites you to reflect on the power of Christ’s sacrifice— not only to reconcile us to God, but also to heal our relationships with others. Whether you’re exploring faith or have followed Jesus for years, Brought Together through Jesus offers hope for anyone longing for peace, forgiveness, and a new beginning.

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