Nothing Left to Hide: An Easter Poem
And so he swept away sin’s tide; / Demons, death denied; / Came back to win his bride.
And so he swept away sin’s tide; / Demons, death denied; / Came back to win his bride.
“It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.” (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit) In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins must enter the cave, confront a dragon, and meet his fate by discovering the ring. As is often the case in a hero’s quest, he must confront his own fear before confronting the enemy itself. Indeed, the confrontation...
The vast majority of churches celebrate a meal variously called “the Lord’s Supper”, “Holy Communion” or “the Eucharist”. Having in the previous article made a study of the Last Supper, what bearing might this have on our understanding of the Lord’s Supper? Covenant Renewal Many of the debates around the Lord’s Supper focus on the question of elements themselves.[1] Is the bread and the wine really the body and blood of Jesus? If not, then in what does it mean to say “This is my body”? Spiritual language? Symbolic language? A mere aid to memory? It can end up sounding...
“This is my body, which is for you”—Jesus on the death of Jesus Ty Treadwell’s book The Last Supper is a record of the final meals chosen by inmates on death row. Victor Fugeur (hung 1963) chose for his last meal a single olive. John Wayne Gacy (executed 1994) choose a bucket of Original Recipe KFC, deep-fried prawns, chips, and a punnet of strawberries. Ronnie Lee Gardener (executed 2010) ordered steak, Lobster tail, ice-cream, apple pie and ate it whilst watching the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings. The book is macabre but fascinating. And it reflects something...
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (1 Corinthians 1:22-23) The crucifixion of Jesus didn’t come to Jew or Greek as an empty vessel, waiting to be filled with meaning. It meant something already. For the Jews, said Paul, the cross was “a stumbling block.” For the Greeks, it was “foolish.” The Jews, says Paul, looked for “signs.” At the time of Jesus, Israel faced a very emotionally and spiritually taxing reality. They faced, if I can put it this way, a huge and painful...