"A Redemption Day Sermon" is a mini-story that is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series.
The Story[]
This took place about 50 years after the Smurfs and Smurfettes were married, when the Smurfs were gathered together for the annual Redemption Day sermon that was being preached by Tapper, who at the time was going by the name of Pastor Nevin, who was the main pastor of the Smurfette Island Village Chapel. They all sat together at the Smurf Village Theater as Pastor Nevin preached the sermon that he had long wanted to preach ever since Empath had lost his life and later risen again to life in the Pool of Souls.
"Aye, my dear Smurfs, pull up a chair, warm your hands, and listen close—for this is a truth that took this old tavern-keeper far too long to learn. There was a time when we believed that innocence had to be proven. Once a year, we wrote our faults on scrolls. Once a year, we fasted. Once a year, we stepped into the Pool of Souls, holding our breath, hoping the water would be kind. And if we came out alive, we called that 'forgiveness'. But I stand before you now to say this plainly: The Pool never forgave anyone. It only tested who could survive fear.
"So let smurf you the first point: The Pool of Souls Was Never Finished. The Pool demanded something every year. More fear. More confession. More proof. You had to enter again. And again. And again. That’s how you know a work is unfinished. If innocence can be lost next year, then it was never truly secured. If forgiveness must be renewed by ordeal, then forgiveness has not yet been given. The Pool asked, 'Can you endure?' But it never asked, 'Are you healed?' This was like the sacrifices offered by the ancient Israelites every year for the atonement of their sins. Every year there was a reminder that they had to offer the same sacrifices over and over again, because the blood of bulls and calves could never take away sins.
"Which smurfs to my second point: The Cross Does Not Ask You to Prove Anything. Now let me tell you about another place of water and wood—not a pool, but a cross. When Jesus Christ cried out, 'It is finished,' He did not mean, 'You may try again next year.' He meant: No more proving, no more trials by fear, no more innocence balanced on breath and strength, no more guilt mistaken for righteousness. The Cross does not ask whether you can survive it. The Cross declares that you already have.
"So now here's my third point: The Pool Tested the Innocent, The Cross Saves the Guilty. That’s the difference that shatters every false ritual. The Pool of Souls drowned the frightened. The Cross was carried by the willing. The Pool punished weakness. The Cross embraced it. The Pool confused trauma with guilt. The Cross names sin honestly—and heals the wounded. Jesus did not say, 'Swim to Me and prove you are worthy.' He said, 'Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.' Rest, my friends. Not survival.
"Point number four: The Pool Required Silence, The Cross Welcomes Confession Without Fear. At the Pool, confession came with terror: 'What if I don’t come back up?' At the Cross, confession comes with promise: 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive.' No breath held. No judgment outsourced to water. No mercy dependent on strength. Only grace—undeserved, unearned, and unrepeatable.
"Point number five: Innocence Is Not Preserved by Fear; It Is Replaced by Righteousness. Here is the hardest truth of all: You do not keep your innocence. You lose it—to time, to pain, to failure, to choices you never wanted to make. And the gospel does not deny that. Instead, it says something far more hopeful: Christ does not restore your innocence. He gives you His righteousness. Something stronger than innocence. Something that cannot drown.
"So here's point number six: Why the Pool Had to End. The Pool taught us to fear judgment. The Cross teaches us to trust mercy. The Pool asked us to survive. The Cross asks us to believe. The Pool made us watch each other sink. The Cross was God Himself going under—so that none of us ever would again. That is why I can never return to the Pool. And why I can never preach it as good news.
"So, the Final Word. If you are still trying to prove you are clean—lay down the towel. If you are still holding your breath— breathe. If you are still afraid that one day you won’t come back up—look to the Cross. Because there, at long last, the work is finished. Amen."
After the sermon, the Smurfs sang together the song, "Goodness Of God", before they were dismissed.
Empath and Papa Smurf came to Pastor Nevin after the service was over. "That was a good sermon you preached today, Nevin," Empath said. "This smurf is curious as to how you came to smurf those words about the Pool of Souls?"
"It smurfed by a revelation of the Lord, my fellow Empath, as I'm sure it was also confirmed by Papa Smurf himself," Nevin said. "I always felt uncomfortable by the mention of the Pool of Souls judging our souls for our innocence, but sometime after that day in the year we almost lost you, the Lord smurfed to me and said that the time of the Pool of Souls is over, that the Lord has offered a far better redemption plan than any of us have ever smurfed, that we only need to smurf to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Papa Smurf has smurfed that he had received the same revelation, and that is why there is no need for the Pool of Souls to judge us on Redemption Day."
"I admit, Nevin, that I did feel humbled and ashamed that I have let Redemption Day continue for too long in the Smurf Village," Papa Smurf said. "It was a long tradition that needed to be smurfed to rest, and I'm glad that we no longer have to be judged every year, as much painful as it was to smurf through it for the sake of tradition."
"Which makes me wonder what will happen to the Pool of Souls now that it's no longer our judge," Empath said.
"I'm sure the souls of that pool will smurf a much needed rest from their role as judges, Empath," Papa Smurf said. "I sure wouldn't want to smurf myself as the eternal judge of everyone's innocence, and I don't think that I would even be well smurfed for the role as one."
"There's only One above us who is our Judge, Papa Smurf, and we will have to answer to Him when our time is smurfed upon this earth," Nevin said. "Right now, His Spirit is smurfing through all the earth, smurfing out to souls that will smurf the call unto the Lord of Hosts to be part of His bride."
Papa Smurf chuckled. "I'm sure there is. You continue to pray for all the Smurfs and Smurfettes that they will receive Him as their Lord and Savior."
"As I will continue to do the same for you and Empath, Papa Smurf," Nevin said, smiling.