Resurrection: Beyond Ghosts and Ghouls

MORE THAN A fact or doctrine, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth embodies personal and historical hope. While reading a variety of viewpoints on the resurrection, I have been alternatively confused, comforted, restored and unexpectedly devastated by this theme. Internally and subjectively the resurrection is an encounter with the epicenter of meaning and significance. Without a living encounter and reliance on the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, spirituality amounts to little more than armchair speculation. This strikes at the root of my fears because my intellect hesitates to believe that a person whose bodily functions had ceased, whose tether to

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Who Am I?

As is my obsession, I read enormous selections, and some whole treatments of who Jesus could possibly be culturally, theologically and historically. There were loads of interesting but mostly disappointingly partial treatments. Nothing gave me anything like the assurance I needed to take the step toward saying who Jesus is for me.

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Eyes Are the Lamp of the Body

I ONCE SAID that we can always know whether or not we are on the path of discipleship or when we are about to make a drastic misstep. However, I learned from the author of Matthew that I was too quick to speak. I still stand by my conviction but found it's not exactly that simple; my truism definitely needs fine-tuning. I'll state it again with Matthew's proviso: We can discern whether we are obedient disciples when we view our lives through the sound eye of God's revelation accessible to us in Scripture and in

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Jesus' Ethics of Compassion in Luke

Luke 7, and its stories of Jesus' healing of the Centurion's servant and raising the widow's son, illustrate the ethic of compassion taught by Jesus in the previous chapter. Luke shows that Jesus doesn't buy into religious sensibilities; he lives by a different ethic, crossing barriers and pushing limits because he's listening to the voice of God. The Centurion's Story — Jesus Went with Them The Centurion's story illustrates how far Jesus will go in doing good. Appointed by Rome to oversee 80 to 100 soldiers, the Centurion was also a friend of the Jews as a benefactor of the

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Listening to Jesus in Luke

As his narrative turns from Jesus' healing & teaching ministry in the countryside of Galilee towards his long trek to Jerusalem in which he teaches his disciples about true discipleship, Luke is reminding his listeners that Jesus is no ordinary prophet. Luke is saying Jesus is not John the fiery preacher. Nor is he Moses the great law-giver or the larger-than-life prophet Elijah. Jesus, as Peter confesses first, is greater than all of these -- the very Messiah of God. He is the radiant Son of Man who has a profound connection to God. There is urgency to Luke's voice

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Matthew - A Good Story

Bev: So the literary device of Matthew - and this is really really summary stuff - we are let in on the story through direct speaking and being told about the characters. So we get to know the characters based on their traits and ultimately the story is woven through this telling of traits, i.e. Jesus' traits are described as obedient toward God and compassionate towards crowds. Jack Kingsbury talks about that there's round characters which is Jesus and the disciples. And what he means by that is that these characters have a variety of traits and sometimes they're conflictual.

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