In Roman culture– crucifixion was a slow, cruel, humiliation and death meant to publicly serve notice of what happens to those who challenge political power. Within the biblical storyline, the curse of being hung on a tree seems to have echoes of the law (Gal 3:13; Deut 21:23), and deeper still of the tragic consequences of what […]
Can you imagine Jesus living the way we do? What if his schedule wasn’t open enough to be spending time at the lakeshore with friends? What if he didn’t have time to be alone, to pray, or to even to talk so much about what was important to him? What if he had to do […]
King David’s great-grandmother was a Moabite by the name of Ruth. But who was his mother? She is referred to in the Bible (1Samuel 22:3-4), but not named. Only by a tradition of the Jewish Talmud are we told that David’s mother was an Israelite by the name of Nitzevet, the wife of Jesse, and […]
Laughter can be a wonderful gift… full of wonder, joy…sometimes foolish, sometimes cruel. In a dark season of life, Solomon sensed there is a time to laugh… Modern science and medicine might lead us to believe that, for all of the benefits observed and measured, we were made to laugh— for our own health, and the good […]
When Jesus was crucified, he suffered under signage that bothered the religious leaders of Israel. Pilate the Roman governor of Judea had written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” But when the chief priests saw the sign, they objected saying, “Don’t write King of the Jews, but instead, […]
I’ve been trying to immerse myself in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to see if I can get a sense of his frame of mind when writes the 13 verses of his 13th chapter. What I’m finding will not surprise you. Paul writes with a courage and clarity that lifts him above the superstitions, […]
The Bible’s first mention of a kingdom shows up in a reference to Babel and a strong man named Nimrod (Gen 10:10). In the clamor that followed Babel’s attempt to build its own greatness (Gen 11:1-9), competing regimes tried to enforce their will on one another. Eventually a new kind of nation was born out of bondage, nursed in a no man’s land, […]
Follow the money. The tomb was empty. The soldiers who had seen what happened were terrified. When the religious leaders who demanded Jesus’ death heard what happened, they paid off the guards to say that, while they were sleeping, grave-robbers had stolen Jesus body (Matt 28:11-15). Women told another story Meanwhile Mary of Magdala, with a […]
As we think together about how our Lord suffered in our behalf, let’s reflect again, as thoughtfully and reverently as we can, about what he was suffering. In Jesus’ sin offering and sacrificial death for us… as he drank the cup giving to him by his Father… do we know what was in the cup (Luke […]
We count on doctors to give us the right diagnosis and prescriptions for our illnesses, and are grateful when they do. The wrong answers and medications could either make our problems worse or just mask the illness by relieving our symptoms. Dr Mark Hyman is the Director the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He […]
