In 1963, Stanley Milgram’s experiment asked anonymous participants to deliver increasingly severe electric shocks to subjects in the next room. Unbeknownst to the participants, the shocks were not real. But had they been, they may have been fatal. The great majority of participants delivered the shocks, even though there were screams of great pain from […]
The myth of violence powerfully shapes our view of the world. We imagine that force must be met with greater force if anything will be achieved. And of course we tell ourselves that the greater force is justified if it’s done in the name of some greater good. Most Hollywood blockbusters follows this storyline. Take, […]
It was the original poisoned chalice. Just minutes after pouring wine into a cup of blessing, Jesus prays to His Abba, Father regarding a very different cup: “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him […]
The mission of Christ’s life was His death. It was His ‘glory’, or His ‘hour’ as He kept calling it. And on the night before He died He instituted a meal to commemorate this central act of His coming. Incredibly, Jesus did not mainly set Himself forth as the Host of this meal (although He […]
Every Sunday for 2000 years ministers of the gospel have been repeating this phrase. All over the world, Christ’s people gather to eat the bread and drink the wine and they hear these words: And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and […]
War memorials the world over record these words from Jesus: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) In the context of a war memorial we might picture a brave soldier taking a bullet for another. Or perhaps throwing himself on a grenade, or […]
Perhaps this question seems to belong to another age, but it’s very worth asking: Where can sinners take shelter from the wrath of God? It might sound old fashioned and out of touch with today’s world. But if so, perhaps it’s we who are out of touch with reality. The word of God rouses us […]
In the Old Testament book of Zechariah there are two commands to rejoice. Once it says: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. 11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be […]
When you meet someone at a party what are the first two questions you ask? Usually it’s: Who are you? And what do you do? In John 10:11 Jesus answers both questions. Who are you? I am the Good Shepherd. To the Jews who were listening, this was a very significant title. The Old Testament […]
If we have been paying attention to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew chapters 16 and 17 we will expect a radical cross-shaped quality to those concepts. And that’s exactly what the Transfiguration reveals. In Matthew 16, Peter has just declared Jesus to be “the Son of the living God” and Jesus responds by declaring Himself to be […]
