Every year, as Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent begin, some voices claim that these practices have pagan roots—specifically linking them to the ancient Babylonian ritual of Weeping for Tammuz, which God condemns in Ezekiel 8:14. Others go...
Most people in the western world today know that Jesus died on a cross. The question is, why did he die? Most Christians would respond to that question with a theological answer. That is, they would say that Jesus died in order to take away the sin...
Yesterday was Palm Sunday. We decided to visit a dear friend’s church in rural Haiti (Grisen-Garde, outside of Cap-Haitian). It was one of the rare Sundays that I wasn’t supposed to preach (ah, finally a respite). But before we walked into the...
There is a high level of irony at work in the moments of Christ’s death at Calvary. To fully understand the irony, we must grasp that it is the moment of Christ painful death on the cross that Jesus’s Messiahship comes to a head. This is the moment...