Posts Tagged ‘Christ’

During this season when many Christians have been observing Lent, I have been ruminating on Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal or Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32).  In this, I have been helped by Henri Nouwen’s, The Return of the Prodigal Son.   I have reached the conclusion that contemporary culture grossly, even fatally, has misunderstood the love of others as acceptance without forgiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

As far back as Irenaeus of Lyon (AD 120-202) and probably earlier, Christians have drawn parallels between the sin of man having come by means of eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and salvation being accomplished on the cross of Christ.[1]  Our two American Christmas poets tie in the tree of Genesis and the cross of Christ with the crib of the baby Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

            Have you ever been troubled by the fact that Christians fervently pray for a parking spot at a crowded mall on December 24^th but don’t pray for those suffering under oppression in North Korea?  Worse yet, maybe that describes your prayer life.  If so, Psalm 2 is for you. Read the rest of this entry »

            In the first of this series, “Recognizing the Risen Lord,” I argued that the earliest disciples recognized Jesus as the risen Lord by identifying him with the crucified Christ.  I concluded that the fact that the risen Lord is the crucified Christ is a truth so radical that it challenges human religion, reason and politics and thus calls for a change in the human heart that only can come about by God’s grace.  In this post I want to discuss the need for God’s grace to affirm that the risen Lord is the crucified Christ.  The discussion will again center on Luke 24. Read the rest of this entry »

            How did the first disciples of Jesus recognize him as the risen Lord?  The answer is by recognizing him as the crucified Christ.  The question is not an inconsequential detail of biblical trivia.  The devil is in the details and so, not infrequently, is the truth.  Nor is the answer so obvious that there is no need to mention it.  The profound is often hidden in the obvious.  Both question and answer lead us to the heart of the Christian faith and life. Read the rest of this entry »