“And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.” I have listened to numerous Easter cantatas and watched many Easter dramas, but none have ever mentioned Alexander and Rufus....

All of the ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark end with these words: “Entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was...

Some years ago, a U.S. Naval officer was aboard a ship engaged in a training exercise involving battleships performing maneuvers during several days of heavy weather. On one particularly foggy night he was stationed on the bridge of the ship, as was the commanding...

When I was a young father on a warm summer’s night, I called for my twin boys, who were about a year-old, to come out on the front porch. I wanted to show them a huge toad that I had spied on our front steps. Ironically, the boys were wearing night-shirts that...

Jesus had come home. He had been on a triumphant journey around the surrounding countryside, granting sight to the blind, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the paralytics, and challenging religious authorities as he preached penetrating messages and...

When we catch our first glimpse of John Mark, we may have seen all there is to see. Scholars have conjectured that the young man mentioned in Mark 14:51, who fled away naked into the night, was none other than John Mark. Scholars surmise that perhaps John Mark,...

Listen! Jesus says to his hearers. Listen! There once was a sower who went out to sow. However, this sower either had an impossibly high regard for the potency of these seeds, or he didn’t seem to care about what he was doing. This sower seems more like Mr. Magoo than...

The great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.” Not long after writing these words, he was arrested by the Nazi Gestapo and discovered amidst great...

When I counsel couples preparing for marriage I make a statement they generally find agreeable. I tell them, “Marriage is a process where you say an extraordinary Yes to each other.” This sounds perfectly reasonable to them. But then I add an observation they find...

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when people bowl together in unity!” That is not exactly what Psalms 133:1 says, but it is a good paraphrase. What Psalm 133:1 exactly says is, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when people live together in unity,” but what...