A recently unearthed Easter sermon from the Austin pastor who serves as a spiritual mentor to Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is drawing fresh scrutiny after the pastor openly questioned the physical resurrection of Jesus, calling it a possibility rather than a certainty that believers should build their lives on.
According to reporting by Breitbart, Rev. Jim Rigby of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Austin delivered the 2023 Easter message in which he framed the resurrection as a mystery that humans try to shrink into something controllable. In the sermon, Rigby suggested that Jesus rising from the dead was “possible” — but so were alternative explanations, including that the disciples or the Romans removed the body.
A ‘Maybe’ Not Worth Betting On
Rigby walked his congregation through the competing possibilities surrounding the empty tomb. He said it was possible that the disciples stole the body to keep the Romans from getting hold of it, and possible that the Romans took it out of fear of a resurrection on the third day. He then asked the congregation whether they wanted to live their lives based on a “maybe,” or whether the symbols of the faith were instead calling them toward a deeper understanding of the human condition.
He went further, telling listeners that “light is not stronger than darkness” and that darkness is essential to understanding life. His conclusion, as quoted in the report: “Maybe Jesus rose from the dead, but maybe not.”
The sermon language reflects a broader theological outlook Rigby has articulated over the years. In a 2018 post addressing critics, he stated that he affirms the resurrection only as “a positive affirmation of the life recess, not as a historical claim about what happened to Jesus’ physical body.”
Rigby also urged his congregation to see the sacred in all beings, including animals and plants, and suggested that religious symbols, when healthy, are not markers of something that happened but of the principles by which everything happens. He added that if there is an eternity, it has already begun, and that living fully in the present moment is as close to heaven as one needs to get.
Talarico’s Own Religious Views Under Scrutiny
The pastor’s words matter politically because of his relationship with Talarico, who has presented himself as a Christian while running for statewide office in Texas. Breitbart’s report describes Rigby as a mentor to the Democrat, and argues that the pastor’s skepticism about the resurrection helps explain some of Talarico’s own controversial statements on faith.
The report points to Talarico’s public denial that Jesus is the only way to truth, his assertion that people can reach truth through pagan gods and other religions, and a state House invocation in which he offered a prayer to multiple gods. It also cites his description of God as “non-binary,” his claim that there are six biological sexes, and his characterization of efforts to protect children from certain leftist ideological goals as a “Christofascism movement.”
Mainstream Christian teaching holds that the resurrection is the central claim of the faith — that God sent His Son to live a sinless life, die, and rise again to reconcile humanity to Himself. Rigby’s framing of that event as one possibility among several is at odds with that tradition, and the Breitbart report casts it as a rejection of the Gospel’s cornerstone.
The report also notes that Rigby has described himself as being on the same team as atheists, a detail the outlet uses to argue that his unorthodox views are consistent with his broader public identity.
Why It’s Landing Now
The timing of the report places the pastor’s Easter message back into circulation as Talarico campaigns for the Senate, where his religious identity and public statements on faith are likely to face continued examination. For supporters, the pastor’s role may be framed as a private spiritual relationship; for critics, the unearthed sermon offers a window into the theological influences that shaped the candidate’s own rhetoric.
Either way, the sermon’s central line — “maybe Jesus rose from the dead, but maybe not” — is now part of the public record surrounding the race, delivered from a pulpit on Easter Sunday by a man the candidate counts as a mentor.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/23/james-talaricos-pastor-and-mentor-doubts-resurrection-of-jesus-in-easter-message-maybe-jesus-rose-from-the-dead-but-maybe-not/