Easter 2023
Eastertide 2023: Jesus, the Church, the Bible, and Christianity
May 21, 2023 • Brian Zahnd
Though Jesus, the Church, the Bible, and Christianity are obviously related and interconnected in some essential ways, they are far from the same thing; and when we confuse the critical distinctions between these four realities, we run into serious theological problems that have real-life consequences.
Eastertide 2023: The Way Home
May 7, 2023 • Brian Zahnd
It seems as though we’re all born a long way from home. Perhaps it doesn’t feel this way in the innocence of childhood, but as we move into adulthood we begin to feel like strangers in a strange land, and we have to find where we belong, where we can be at home. We can feel like strangers within creation because we feel a certain estrangement from our Creator—God can seem distant, remote, unknowable, or to some, even nonexistent. This is part of the human experience; this is our predicament. But there is good news, and the good news is that Jesus is the way home.
Eastertide 2023: When Do We Live?
April 30, 2023 • Brian Zahnd
About twenty years before Jesus began his ministry there was a series of militant charismatic leaders who rose up claiming to be the Jewish Messiah—that is they claimed to be the King of the Jews sent by God to liberate Israel from Roman domination and establish the Kingdom of God. These false and failed messiahs are the ones that Jesus describes as thieves and bandits who came only to steal, kill, and destroy. In contrast to these violent messiahs who only bring death and destruction, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who brings abundant life to the flock of humanity.
Eastertide 2023: A Lovely Coda
April 23, 2023 • Brian Zahnd
John the Evangelist originally concluded his Gospel with chapter twenty. But sometime later, perhaps to affirm the leadership of Peter and to dispel a rumor about himself, John wrote and additional chapter -- a chapter that can be described as a lovely coda.
Eastertide 2023: LEAP!
April 16, 2023 • Brian Zahnd
In a secular and cynical age, the only way to cross the abyss of infinite skepticism and its requisite sadness is with a leap. Do you want to believe? Then go ahead and jump! Will Jesus be there to catch you? Only those who take the leap will ever know.
Easter 2023: Mary Magdalene: The Easter Evangelist
April 9, 2023 • Brian Zahnd
When the Twelve Apostles had either betrayed, denied, or forsaken Jesus, four faithful women kept vigil at Jesus’ crucifixion and stood near his cross—these four women were his mother, his aunt, Mary Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. And the woman who is mentioned most in the New Testament, even more than the mother of Jesus, is Mary Magdalene—the most faithful of all Jesus’ disciples and the woman who would become the Easter Evangelist and the Apostle to the Apostles.