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It’s Easter Sunday and you get to choose from: a) John 20, in which Mary Magdalene is called by name by the risen Lord, b) Acts 10, in which Peter summarizes in a mere ten (...)

Borne out of a gut-wrenching anguish, Psalm 22 is the cry of one who knows what it is to be bullied by his enemies, rejected by his community, and abandoned by God.1 The threat for (...)

There were many in the early Jesus movement who identified the “servant” in Isaiah 52:13—53:12 (hereafter Isaiah 53) with Jesus; that much is certain (for example, Matthew 8:17; John 12:38; Romans 15:21; 1 Peter 2:22). (...)

Jesus’ words in Luke 23:46, incorporating the words of Psalm 31:5, “Into your hands I commit my spirit,” forever tie the psalm, along with Psalms 22 and 69, to the passion narratives of Jesus of (...)

A repeated refrain throughout scripture is that those who should listen to prophets frequently do not. Kings are perhaps the most obvious offenders (for example, 1 Kings 11:37-39, 14:7-14; Amos 7:10-13; Jeremiah 36:20-26; 2 Chronicles (...)

Resurrection leads to commissioning, for Jesus’ resurrection is not the end of his mission, but rather inaugurates a fuller realization of it. For his disciples, this means that, as much as they failed Jesus during (...)

Since Matthew 16:21, Jesus has predicted a final confrontation with Roman power in Jerusalem that will result in his death. In Matthew 19-20 he travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. Conflicts with the Rome-sanctioned Judean leaders (...)

There’s an inherent incongruity in the juxtaposition of this lengthy report of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion and the procession of the palms that may accompany its reading. [If you are looking for a commentary on (...)

After a one-week break, the Fifth Sunday in Lent returns to the book of Romans. In Romans 8, we have been brought into the courtroom to await a verdict from the judge. But instead of (...)

This is not the norm everywhere in scripture. Jesus is the best among us—the living God in our skin—and he turned out homeless and abandoned and tortured to death—that divine skin shredded.1 Job, both God (...)