Category: Devotional

The empty tomb is at the very heart of the Jesus story and the Christian faith. It is evidence that Jesus was no mere mortal and is the completion of Jesus’ death on the cross for human sin. Scripture teaches that without Jesus’ resurrection we are still in our sins. And a dead Jesus is hardly worth following in life.

Neither life nor death would have given contemporaries the impression that Jesus would impact world history. After all, Jesus was born of a poor young mother in a smelly barn and executed as a criminal. In between, he preached about the justice of God’s Kingdom in the barrios and the ghettos of Palestine. In the end, he was arrested when a paid informant singled him out.

When Friday arrives each week, it is a common phrase in our household to say, “It’s finally Friday!” Many of us experience the work week as a sequence of days leading to a conclusion. If it has been a difficult week, we are grateful that it is over. If it has been an especially tumultuous time, we are even more grateful the week has come to an end.

In my profession as a clinical psychologist, there is much emphasis on self-awareness. Anyone who seriously attempts the pursuit of increased self-knowledge will ultimately realize the tendency toward self-deception. That is, we tend to deny, distort, and rationalize those less-than-virtuous parts of ourselves.

Hollywood has never really been able to get our heroes right. They are either too perfect and thus impossible to identify with (original Superman), or, more recently, too human and therefore undesirable to identify with (Hancock, Iron Man). But one human characteristic holds true in both types of heroes: they invariably pull through in virtue of something they discover within.

The events of Holy Week were no surprise to Jesus. As opposition intensified after his Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, he clearly saw himself as God’s Suffering Servant and tried to give his followers and opponents a hint by telling a story.

Self-sacrifice is among the noblest of virtues. We cheer for athletes who have committed themselves to a life of self-discipline and sacrifice in order to reach their goals.

That Palm Sunday, the King rode into Jerusalem to offer up his life on a cross. Throughout his time on earth—even as he fed, even as he healed—he knew all along that one day he would lay down his life so that his people may have life.

Fear is at the heart of the Christmas story.  This truth is a hidden gift to those who struggle with fear, anxiety, and stress at Christmastime. Fear is powerful, but the love of Jesus is more powerful.

In 1719, Isaac Watts composed the hymn “Joy to the World” as a reflection on that psalm from the perspective of the New Testament church. It is a hymn proclaiming that it is for the very coming of Jesus—Emmanuel, God with us—that we shout with joy.