The purpose of the Cross isn’t simply to overcome and redefine wisdom, evil, power, identity, suffering, ambition, and failure. Rather, the Cross does these things for the purpose of reconciling humanity both within itself and to God so that we may obtain the mystery of life eternal.
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Reconciliation / The Cross and Life, pt.1 Read More »
Through the Cross, our ambition is redirected from ourselves towards others and it is through the Cross that our failures, like Peters, are set aside and overcome.
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Ambition/The Cross and Failure, pt.2. Read More »
One of the points that Tomlin brings out in this chapter is that any discussion of Christ’s suffering on the cross must end with the Resurrection. There simply is no salvation in a Christ who only suffered and died for that would mean that death had ultimately triumphed.
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Suffering, pt.2 Read More »
At the Cross, we see a God who suffers as we suffer and a God who feels as abandoned as we do. We have a God who has assumed our human condition. In looking at the Cross, we know that God is with us because he has become one of us.
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Suffering, pt.1 Read More »
But can this new identity also be revealed by looking through the cross deeper into ourselves – not only externally but internally? Can Christ be found and make himself known not only from without but also from within?
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Identity, pt.2 Read More »
If we simply identify as “Christian” as a way of separating ourselves over and against the “ungodly” then, although our identity has changed, the nature of our identity as a means of exclusion remains. Unlike other identities, to identify as Christian means to identify with those who aren’t.
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Identity, pt.1 Read More »
In the Cross, however, we see a radical flattening of society so that even the difference in the power structures between slave and free disappear.
Looking Through the Cross – The Cross and Power, pt.1 Read More »
The appearance of the shepherds, therefore, brings to mind both Jesus’ earthly and heavenly origins. They also given confirmation to confirmation to Mary and those with her (e.g., her in-laws) that the child is who Gabriel said he was.
Luke’s Infancy Narrative – Luke 2, pt.2 Read More »
An alternative way of reading the encounter between the angelic hosts and the shepherds is that the army of God is making an announcement of war and rebellion against the powers of this world and specifically against Caesar Augustus.
Luke’s Infancy Narrative – Luke 2, pt.1 Read More »
Read through the concluding chapter of Luke’s gospel and see how Luke brings his opening full circle. Luke begins and ends in the Temple, and begins and ends with the understanding of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scriptures.
Luke’s Infancy Narrative – Luke 1, pt.2 Read More »
