For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. -Colossians 1:19-20

The question “Who is God?” is most clearly answered by a deepened knowledge of Jesus. This was the conclusion of our previous post. How, then, do we get to know Jesus?

Like those Westerners who seek a greater understanding of God through popular books, many who seek to know Jesus follow the same strategy. Again, far too many of these writers are searching, not for God, not for Jesus, but to validate their views by retelling the story of Jesus in a way that supports their own interests and ideas. It would be far better to find a scholar who begins with the content of the gospels and draws out key themes. This would prepare us for a deeper reading of the earliest sources contemporary with Jesus’ life: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

That is what Dr. Richard Bauckham, senior scholar of theology and New Testament at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, does in his book “Jesus: A Very Short Introduction”. Bauckham himself tells us that his approach to Jesus is a contextual telling of the story of Jesus, interpreting the Gospels as ancient history. The gospels offer us insight into the ways Jesus was experienced by his contemporaries and how their lives were affected by him.

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There are many insights about Jesus in his book, but let’s look at two key questions of Bauckham:

1. How would you summarize Jesus’ message for humanity?

2. How did Jesus bring this message to us?

Let’s look at what the Bible says in response to the first question. (Next week we will go deeper with Jesus by focusing on the second question.)

We’ll focus on the biblical answer to the first question. Then, next week we will continue to go deeper with Jesus by shifting to the gospel’s answer to the second question.

Here are several ways you could sum up his message according to the Scriptures:

a) One of the parables, for example, the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)1

b) Jesus’ boiling down the law to love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:35a-40) 2

c) Jesus died for us. (John 3:16-17)3

d) Something else?

Bauckham’s response, in one word, is “kingdom.” Jesus brought the kingdom to humanity.

Jesus lived in a time when “kingdom” was the central institution of power, not the stuff of Cinderella stories. In fact, his people were under the oppressive kingdom of the mighty Roman Empire. The Romans offended the Jewish people daily with their actions, including:

• violating the sanctity of the Temple,

• taxing the people of Israel in a system primarily beneficial to Romans and the local Jewish elites who supported them,

• believing the success of the empire was due to their pagan gods.

Sure, Israel had a half-Jewish king, but Herod was little more than a Roman stooge. They could remember the freedom and pride of their own Davidic Kingdom, and they longed for its return. Not only this, but they had a long-running promise that God would use them, someday, to acknowledge the God of Israel as the true and only God. It seemed obvious to many that the next step in fulfilling their purpose was to overthrow their oppressors and regain their independent kingdom.

Yet none of these political and religious struggles swayed Jesus from his own calling. He, like John the Baptist, paid little attention to Roman rule. But he did speak often of the Kingdom. In fact, both Mark and Matthew summarize Jesus’ preaching in the phrase “The kingdom…has come near.”

So, let’s dive a bit deeper into the concept of the Kingdom of God. The term, used by Jesus, is not about a castle surrounded by a moat and accessed by a drawbridge. It wasn’t synonymous with the physical kingdom of Israel. It wasn’t really about a physical location at all. Instead, as Bauckham reminds us, the activity of God in the gospels is a way of life; a way of life that has broken into human life:

• Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ -Mark 1:14b-15

If it isn’t physical, then how do we recognize it when we see it?

• Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, - Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ - because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” -Luke 17:20-21

It isn’t something we look for in the future. It is already here.

• From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ -Matthew 4:17

Not only that, but Jesus himself experienced it. And it energized and guided his ministry. For example:

• At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. -Luke 10:21.

• People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. -Mark 10:13-14.

Is there, then, a place for us in this kingdom? It seems so. This kingdom’s surprising population is not just children. Speaking to church leaders, Jesus said:

• Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. -Matthew 21:31

So, how do we enter this kingdom? We can enter when we are ready to radically change our lives.

• Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. -John 3:3

• “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” -John 3:4-8

With just this focus on the kingdom of God other passages and parables come together. Jesus’ teaching on the Good Samaritan has that radical inclusion that his words about children, tax collectors, and prostitutes in the kingdom have. John 3:16 speaks of God’s ultimate act, through Jesus, to give us entry into the kingdom. And Jesus’ summary of the law defines what matters most to the kingdom.

As the two commands of loving God and neighbor are the backbone of the law upon which all the others hang, so the theme of the kingdom, a new way of life available to us in Jesus, is the backbone upon which Jesus’ other teachings come together.

Next week we will look at this new way of life in more detail and discuss what gave Jesus the right to proclaim such a radical thing during his ministry on earth.

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…. -Hebrews 1:1-2a

Who is God?

Some turn to scholarly authors for answers. Many of these writers try to answer the question of God by synthesizing opinions of various religions. This is a real challenge given the incredible variety of responses given by the world’s religions. For example:

• Muslims refer to God by the name Allah when asserting that God is tawhid, or radically one and cannot be divided.

• For Hindus, the ultimate reality is an impersonal force underlying all things. The gods, like Vishnu, Parvati, and Shiva, are a pantheon representing ultimate reality, which they call Brahman.

• Buddhism shifts the question completely as the search for a creator God becomes a search for personal enlightenment and the escape from human suffering.

Pulling such disparate ideas together into one definition of God seems insurmountable. Indeed, every writer I have heard of fails. Rather than offering their reader a helpful answer to the question, they provide a retelling of the story of God which promotes their own modern, secular opinion on the matter. It is far better to seek our answer by diving deeper into one of the many answers.

Christianity offers an answer to the question is different from all of the options above.

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Christianity acknowledges the challenge of understanding the true nature of God. Unlike Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or secular opinion, however, Christianity tells us to turn to Jesus if we want to know more about God.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. -John 1:18

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. -Hebrews 1:3a

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. -1 John 1:3

For Christians, then, the question of God is most clearly answered by a deepened knowledge of Jesus.

Richard Bauckham, senior scholar of theology and New Testament at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, argues that the four gospels of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are “substantially reliable sources for knowing quite a lot about Jesus.”1 The four gospels give us “…more than one angle on a complex figure.”2 Despite being thousands of years old, these ancient texts give insight into the way that Jesus’ contemporaries experienced him. They also illustrate how knowing him affected their lives. Dr. Bauckham’s book “Jesus: A Very Short Introduction” 3 is not a story of Bauckham’s view of God. It is an overview of the meaning and interpretation of the people who knew Jesus in the first century. His approach is so helpful to a deepened understanding of Jesus that I am preparing a summary of the book in next week’s Substack post.

Here are some introductory statements from Bauckham’s book to get us started:

• Jesus is “…undoubtedly the best known and most influential human person in world history.”4

• Jesus is unique in his crossing of countries and cultures. “…no other figure has so extensively crossed the cultural divisions of humanity and found a place in so many diverse cultural contexts.”5

• Jesus has crossed the boundaries of religion. He is found in the Quran and is interpreted favorably in Hinduism and Buddhism.

• Jesus crosses the genres of media: “No other figure has inspired so much art, literature, music and even film.” 6

• Jesus is the focus of two billion of our contemporaries’ relationship with God and an essential guide to their way of life.

Given such facts then, says Dr. Bauckham, learning about Jesus from the four gospels of the Bible “…seems to me a kind of knowledge of Jesus that is well worth having, whatever we choose to do with it.”7

More next week!

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6b

I thought I knew what naan was. The perfect complement to an Indian meal, an unleavened flat bread whose impact can be heightened with a wonderful zing of garlic. But when I ordered naan as an appetizer at the Otium, a Los Angeles restaurant, I experienced the next level. This naan had no garlic option - no extra zing was needed. It was soft, puffy, buttery, and flavorful in a way that is difficult to explain. It looked like the naan I was used to eating. But it was something more.

I don’t have the words to describe it to you, and calling it naan doesn’t do it justice. The best I can do is to tell you that it was like naan, only better.

This delightful confusion awaits us on our journey with Jesus.

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The word “like” is used more than 50 times in the book of Revelation. The author of this book of the Bible is trying to share his vision of the future. When it comes to describing the destination that awaits us in our journey with Jesus, he doesn’t have the words. The experience was more than anything he had experienced in life. So the best he could do is to compare the future world of humanity to things that he and his reader have experienced.

He hears voices guiding the transition from our present to the future that sound like trumpets, rushing waters, thunder, and the roar of a lion. He experiences the fall of the old way of life with the sun turning black “like a sackcloth made of goat hair.” The deconstruction of dysfunctional institutions looks “something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, being thrown into the sea.” All of these likes prepare for his vision of the new home where we will live with God forever.

…the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

-Revelation 15: 10b-11

His descriptions are vivid and beautiful. Yet when we see it for ourselves, it will far outshine anything we have seen or tasted. No additional zing will be necessary.

Yet there are next levels we can experience in our present lives as well. The naan I had been used to eating was good. Many of us are satisfied with the experience of faith we have today. But, just as there was next-level naan waiting for me right in my own hometown of Los Angeles, there are vibrant new levels of faith within our reach in the here and now.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows…this man was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

-Romans 12:2, 3b-4

In the passage above, Paul uses the third person to share his experience of next-level spirituality. Surely such experiences aren’t meant for Paul alone. There are new spiritual experiences available to all of us. We simply need to put ourselves in a position to experience them.

I didn’t expect to experience next-level naan at Otium. It was a surprise. But I had to position myself to find it by going to the restaurant and ordering it. In the same way, Jesus-followers have to put themselves in a position to experience the next level of their spiritual life. Daily prayer, worship, and Bible reading are core practices in this regard. Go deeper with each of these in your own life. But that’s not all. There are many other practices that Christians, over the 2,000 years since Jesus, have also found helpful. If you want to explore these, you can begin with Richard Foster’s book “A Celebration of Discipline.” Look through his descriptions and pick a practice that catches your eye. Try it regularly over a few months while praying that God would take you to the next level that God has in store for you.

The author of Revelation has shown us the beauty that awaits us at the end of our journey with Jesus. Paul has shown us that we don’t have to wait to experience more now. There is an “Otium naan” waiting for each one of us. Let’s go deeper with Jesus and find out what our next level is all about!

The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. -Proverbs 4:18

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. -Acts 7:54-58

The quote above is a rather inauspicious beginning to the Biblical biography of the Apostle Paul. With the zeal common to young people everywhere, he seeks to excel in life. Using his given name, Saul, he shows himself to be a competitive, type-A personality. He is going to do everything he can to get as far as he possibly can in the institutional religion of his day. He witnessed his religious leader peers violently killing the unarmed Stephen, and he saw the path forward. As it says in Acts 8:1: And Saul approved of their killing him. In a radicalization all too common across the ideological spectrum, he chose the radical assertion of power as his profession of faith.

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. -Acts 8:1-3

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Saul was successful. He made his name far and wide and word spread among the early Jesus-followers. One such follower of Christ, a man named Ananias, testified to their fear in a prayer to the Lord:

“Lord…I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” -Acts 9:13-14

It isn’t just the author of Acts who reports the young Saul’s radical violence. The more mature man himself, radicalized and matured by love, recounts how he once wielded power, inflicting suffering on those who did not share his beliefs.

For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. -Galatians 1:13-14

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. -Philippians 3:4-6

Yet this radicalized man was radically changed by an encounter as he traveled to persecute Christians in Damascus.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. -Act 9:1-9

This was the moment when God called Ananias to offer hospitality and healing to a newly radicalized Saul. God responded to the concern of Ananias’ prayers by making it clear that Saul himself would suffer because of his misguided actions.

…Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’ -Acts 9:15-16

Saul’s new life was not your run-of-the-mill political radicalism. He transformed so completely that his name changed from Saul to Paul. His entire resume (began in Philippians 3:4-6) has a completely different set of life goals.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. -Phil. 3:7-1

The new man, Paul, lived by a completely different vision. After years of pursuing not the common radicalization of his youth but a truly radical agenda in his maturity, Paul testified that God’s word to Ananias was true.

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

-2 Corinthians 11:24-27

This new way of life, however, taught Paul something deeper, something truly radical. Suffering, for a follower of Christ, isn’t simply the result of past bad actions - a kind of karma in common parlance. Like everything else in the Christian life, suffering is redeemed. When followers of Jesus experience suffering, it is put to a means to an end. Our pain in this life is no longer meaningless. It now has the potential to deepen our relationship with Christ. This puts the radical Christian light years beyond any radicalization that wields power to make things go our way. Listen to the beauty of this approach to suffering:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. -Romans 8:17-18

The experience of suffering is not something to fear. Though painful, it will lead us to comfort and a deeper ability to comfort others.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. -2 Corinthians 1:3-7

The world regularly breeds radicals like Saul; radicals trained to wield power over those who do not think like them. This wide path, followed by so many people who think themselves virtuous and courageous, does not make good happen.

The true radical makes the shift from Saul to Paul. Our relationship with Christ redeems everything in life, including the suffering we experience. Our radical transformation with Jesus shapes us into people willing to sacrifice for others, whether or not they share our beliefs. We become the strongest and best human beings, and our lives make good happen.

This is the narrow path that leads to life. If we seek it, we will find it.

“Jesus Christ.”

Christianity is too familiar to Westerners. The above quote is common among English speakers. The meaning, however, depends entirely on context. First, it can refer to the person who lived in the first century. Second, when used in songs of worship, it expresses love and commitment. Finally, though few dare criticize Jesus himself, another all-too-common usage of this phrase is as an expression of frustration.

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Other well-known religious figures are not used in this trinity of meaning. No one uses “Muhammad” or “Buddha” to express frustration. No one says “Joseph Smith!” or “Sun Myung Moon!” or even “L. Ron Hubbard!” And though Moses has been used in a similar way in the past he has never been worshipped as Jesus has. Whether speaking English or another of the 7,170 languages around the world, these two words name a man who lived thousands of years ago and yet is, arguably, the most famous person who has ever lived.

Yet, after more than 20 years as a pastor in Los Angeles, I discovered a problem. Many people cannot see the real Jesus clearly.

Dan finally came to the church I pastored after years of knowing him. I saw him tear up as we worshipped. I was excited as he made a point to greet me as he left the church. But he said, “The service was wonderful! Thank you. But I need to tell you that I won’t be coming back. I’m just not a church-kind-of-guy.”

This was only one example of what I experienced again and again. So many English speakers demonstrate this confusion:

• We refuse to disrespect Jesus as a person.

• At the same time, we have the habit of using his name in anger and frustration.

• While being unwilling to consider Jesus for who he said he was.

And to make things even stranger, the church often adds to our confusion.

I know many who’ve been hurt by the church. I know others who, despite having spent significant time in church, never really grasped what following Christ is really about. I have known others, like Dan, who see participation in Christianity as something for certain personality types. Something about the way we do church is a barrier to many people giving honest consideration to following Christ.

It isn’t because people aren’t familiar with the church. After all, in the year 2000, 84% of the United States population self-identified as Christian. But that number has been in decline since the early 1960s. In 2026, only 65% consider themselves followers of Christ.

I have spent years working on the renewal and redevelopment of many congregations many states. I have studied works of apologetics, theology, and philosophy. I have attended conferences and tried out numerous fresh approaches to teaching the faith. They all aimed, in one way or another, to make the church more palatable to contemporary Westerners. But they haven’t worked. The decline continues.

It was when I came across the title of a book entitled "The Word Made Strange,” that I found my approach. The method of my madness flows from the idea that Christianity is too familiar to us. I need to present Christianity in a way that will again capture the Western imagination. But how?

Pilgrim’s Progress, published in 1678, has sold over 250 million copies worldwide. This Christian allegory1 has been translated into 200 languages and released in more than 1,300 editions.

The Divine Comedy, an epic narrative poem 2 completed in 1321, has been a source of inspiration for artists through almost seven centuries. Franz Liszt was one of many composers to write works based on the Divine Comedy. In sculpture, Auguste Rodin includes themes from Dante. On the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, Timothy Schmalz created a series of 100 sculptures, one for each section of the work. There have also even been references to the Divine Comedy in cinema, television, comics and video games.

I knew I had found my approach when a mentor of mine said she had become a Christian because of C.S. Lewis’s famous work of Christian fiction, The Narnia Chronicles. As a child, she read all seven volumes of the series, written between 1950 and 1956, and the seeds of the faith were planted in her imagination and in her heart. To date, Lewis’s books have sold over 120 million copies. Three of his books have become Disney films.

I am excited to “make the word strange” by writing a work of historical fiction. It will chronicle the experience of a young pastor who flies into Los Angeles with hope and ambition. But based largely on my experience, the main character finds that following Jesus is different from what he expected. Join me in praying that I can write this story in a way that stirs the imagination of many in the West to reconsider Jesus. My prayer is that they would find the incredible riches I have experienced by walking with Jesus throughout my entire life.

• what catches your attention

• what confuses you

• what needs to be clarified

• any grammatical issues or word choice issues

• and, of course, anything else that you think of.

Your challenge is that these posts are scenes rather than chapters. Also, they won’t be in book order. But you guys are sharp! So, here is the first post. Enjoy!

Her dream ended with a start. Maria sat up in bed, inhaling deeply of the cool morning air as her mystical journey faded. A gust of wind was the culprit. It had started at the far end of Main Street, swirling and blowing the chaff away as it journeyed toward her home. The sound had woken Maria, and as she opened her eyes she proclaimed, with words well beyond her age: “¡Admirable es el Señor en la redondez de la tierra, en crearla, en la providencia y orden que con ella tiene!”1

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Her unexpected cry of adoration called Catalina de Arana to attention. Sitting up in the bed she shared with Maria’s father, Fancisco Coronel, Maria’s mother was staring in the direction of Mount Moncayo. She was ready to protect her child. Not one of the brown bears that protected their cubs on the ranges beyond that mountain could compete with Catalina’s fierce vigilance for her teenage daughter. Anxiously, persistently, she listened for her, but she only heard the northwind leaving Main Street and blowing through the archway of their home.

As if in response to Maria’s exalted words, the sustained gust began to whirl and spin like a dancing dervish across the sand-colored stonework of the courtyard. Then, without formal invitation, it presented itself at the bedroom where Maria was cloistered.

When it entered the room, the draft transformed itself into an impish child, drawing circles in the dust it unsettled, while hopping, skipping, and jumping across the room. When Catalina heard the mischief, she ran into the room. When she knelt beside Maria’s bed, the wind took its curtain call: a final gust, a departing whistle, and a self-adulatory rattle of shutters in its unhindered escape from the home. Catalina ran her fingers through Maria’s dark hair and asked, “¿Estás bien, mi amor?”

Before Maria could reply, the rising sun joined a rooster drawing its breath, and together they chased the darkness away. In the light of day, Catalina’s fear for her daughter transformed to surprise. For she saw, in Maria’s face, an expression of deep gratitude and joy.

Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts below.

Have you ever thought about your soul, can it be saved? Or perhaps you think that when you are dead, you just stay in your grave. Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you? Is Christ just a name that you read in the book when you were in school?

-Black Sabbath

It was the last place I expected to find a song urging people to think about Jesus. It turns out that Geezer Butler, the bassist of Black Sabbath, was raised Catholic. Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne was a practicing member of the Church of England who prayed before each show, and guitarist Tommy Iommi believes in God but has not attended church since childhood. In 2017, he wrote a choral work called "How Good It Is, with lyrics inspired by Psalm 133.

By 1971, the band was tired of being called Satanists. Butler wrote, and Black Sabbath recorded, After Forever, described as a pro-Christian song calling for people to be open-minded and consider the possibility of God’s existence.

“Who’da thunk it?” The band called Black Sabbath encouraging fans to consider God.

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The truth is often more complicated than we assume. It made me think of a trio of other counter-intuitive things I have learned over the years.

One:

The first books of the New Testament are the stories of Jesus’ life. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are followed chronologically by the book of Acts, which follows the disciples taking the news of Jesus’ death and resurrection from Jerusalem to Rome. Then there are a series of letters written by Paul to churches in various towns and cities in the Roman Empire. So, it seems obvious that the gospels were written first, then Acts, and then Paul’s letters.

But that is not what we find when we look at the dates! The gospels were written between 75 and 100 A.D. while Paul’s letters were written one to two decades earlier.

AD. 70-75: Mark’s gospel, according to the majority of scholars.

A.D. 75-90: The Gospel of Matthew.

A.D. 80-90: The Gospel of Luke

A.D. 90-100: The Gospel of John

By contrast:

About 50 AD: Paul’s first letter to the people of Thessaloniki. (1 Thessalonians)

Approximately 55 AD: Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia.

Around 55 AD: Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church.

Autumn 57 AD: Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.

Winter 57 AD: Paul’s letter to Romans Christians.

Around 61-63 AD: Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi.

These counter-intuitive facts put a bit of a wrench in the skeptical idea that Paul took Jesus’ religion and created something different. How could that be if Paul wrote his letters 20 years before the published sources that tell us about Jesus’ teachings?

Two:

Oftentimes, the older something is, the more venerable it is. Thus, the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, published in 1611, is worthy of greater respect among many Christians than a more modern version such as the New International Version (NIV), published in 1978.

But…

The New Testament translation of the NIV is derived from, among other sources, the fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus, one of the earliest complete manuscripts of the New Testament. It wasn’t discovered until the mid-19th century.

The New Testament translation of the KJV, on the other hand, was derived primarily from the Textus Receptus, first compiled in 1516.

With the translation of ancient manuscripts, the closer the source text is to the events described the more it can be trusted as a reliable translation. Counter-intuitively, then, the NIV is more reliable in this sense than is the KJV.

Three:

While skeptics doubt the reliability of the Bible, they accept without question the reliability of the writings of Homer, Plato or Julius Caesar. However, a closer look at the facts regarding the historical reliability of these ancient texts offers us a counter-intuitive thought.

Two key data points in this regard are:

(1) The number of surviving manuscripts. This allows earlier manuscripts to be compared with later ones to see how accurately they were transmitted across time. The number also proves how widely they were used and valued by various communities, providing an additional safeguard against one group altering the text to their tastes without others noticing.

(2) The number of years that have passed between the composition of the text and the first manuscript copies that were made. Of course the fewer years that have passed between them the more we can trust the copy as reliable.

With that in mind, let’s look at some numbers.

• The New Testament boasts over 24,000 manuscripts in various languages, including Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic, while most ancient works survive in fewer than a dozen. Even works by well-known classical authors like Homer or Plato have around 1,500 and 200 manuscripts, respectively.

• The earliest New Testament manuscripts in existence date from 100 to 300 years after the original writings. That may sound like a lot. But compared to the writings of other historical figures, like Julius Caesar, it isn’t. Many of the earliest manuscript copies were made 1,000 years after their time.

• We have 20 copies of the works of Tacitus, a Roman historian and politician born around the time Paul was writing his second letter to the Corinthians. The earliest copy of his work was produced by the Benedictine Abbey of Fulda in Germany. Entitled The Annals, it dates from 1,000 A.D.

• The dialogues of Plato were written around 399-347 BC. In 895 A.D. John the Calligrapher of Constantinople copied about 1/2 of those dialogues for Arethas of Patrae, later Bishop of Caesarea. His copy, known as the Clarke Plato, is the oldest surviving work of Plato. Today there are about 250 ancient copies of Plato’s dialogues.

When we compare ancient manuscripts using historical data, we find that the Bible is reliable! Even compared to other ancient texts we never think to doubt.

We are awash in information that affects what we trust and what we fear in everyday life. I find it incredibly liberating to test common views and opinions with data that could lead me to a counterintuitive idea. What opinions affecting your life need to be tested by data?

Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Jesus chose to cite the Psalms for his final words on the cross. In Luke 23:46, he shouts a phrase from Psalm 31:5, which he must have read and recited over and over, which expressed his life, not just his death: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

The Psalms have been a central expression of the deep relationship between humans and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for millennia. This collection of songs, hymns and prayers, flowing from the Torah (especially Genesis and Exodus) and the Prophets (especially Isaiah), has been shaped and molded over generations, reflecting the ongoing dialogue, the conversations of the heart of people who live their lives in reliance upon the God who promised to bless the whole world.

We have been given such powerful help in our own prayers. Not only by joining the “great cloud of witnesses”1 by praying these prayers, but by allowing the Psalms to guide us in shaping and molding our own prayers.

The experiences of Abraham’s extended family were developed with the help of poetry. It was a very common type of poetry in their day in which two lines expressed the same essential idea:2

Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,

‘Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.’ -Psalm 2:1-3

Jesus cited the Psalms 11 times in the gospels.3 For example, the famous phrase from the Servant on the Mount, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” 4comes from Psalm 37: “A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.” The New Testament as a whole cites the Psalms more than 70 times. The influence of the Psalms doesn’t end there.

The Psalms are often the first book of the Old Testament translated into a new language. The Gospels with the Psalms are frequently made available for reading before other books of the OT and the NT have been translated. Today they are a model for our own dialogue with God as we walk through the ups and downs of daily life.

Reading the Psalms helps us to express and deepen our relationship with God. But there is another way to work with the Psalms that can take us even deeper in our conversation with God. We are free to translate the Psalms into our own lives.

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Isaac Watts lived in a time when church worship was a bit tired, singing the words of the Psalms as they appear in Scripture. He set himself the following challenge: “…to improve singing and encourage frequency in public assemblies and private families with more honor and delight.” He sought to fulfill his goal by drawing together the Old Testament Psalms and what we learned about God’s purposes in the New Testament and expressing the result in the poetry and language of his day.5 For example, he offers three versions of Psalm 2, the same Psalm we quote above, using the poetic methods of Short Metre, Common Metre, and Long Metre:

The first verse of his Short Metre version (four lines with 6,6,8, and 6 syllables) is:

Why did the Gentiles rage,

and Jews with one accord,

Bend all their counsel to destroy

Th’ anointed of the Lord?

The first verse of his Common Metre poem, that is, four lives 8 syllables and 6 syllables alternately is:

Why did the nations join to slay

The Lord’s anointed Son?

Why did they cast his laws away,

And tread his gospel down?

And the first verse of his hymn based upon Long Metre (4 lines, 8 syllables each) is as follows:

Why did the Jews proclaim their rage?

The Romans why their swords employ,

Against the Lord their powers engage

His dear Anointed to destroy?

Watts achieved his goal. He wrote over 750 hymns, many of which (“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, “Joy to the World”, and “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”) are still known to churchgoers centuries later. Today he is known as the “Godfather of English Hymnody.”

Church hymnody, however, was not his only goal. He also aimed to write hymns that would support private devotion; as he puts it, “devout pleasure and holy meditations.”

We are free to follow Watts in three steps. First, we need to read the Psalms as our own prayers. Second, we should read the prayers and songs of others, like Isaac Watts, who’ve written poetry based on the Psalms. Third, we can draw together our experiences with God and the Psalms of the Bible into the poetry and language of our own time.

How to begin? Following Watts’ suggestion for the use of his book, with a few adaptations of our own, is helpful :

• find a Psalm that fit our situation and needs,

• memorize it,

• write our own version, using our own language and situation,

• run your version by family members to help you sharpen your work,

• share them with friends.

Isaac Watts quotes Pliny the Younger’s descriptions of Christians in a letter to the Roman Emperor Trajan at the beginning of his hymnal. “They were accustomed to come together and to sing hymns to Christ as God.”

The Psalms are an abundant feast for us; a means by which every follower of Jesus can give voice to their faith in every moment of life. Enjoy!

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. -John 1:14

Have you ever wondered why Michelangelo’s Moses has horns on his head? Why do some Biblical manuscripts feature unicorns? And why does Matthew 27:46 quote words of Jesus in Aramaic, then tell us what they mean in Greek, with that explanation then translated into English in our Bibles? All of these questions are the result of something unique to Christianity.

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Judaism tells us, in the original Hebrew, that the world began with language: יְהִי אוֹר (Let there be light!) Muslims believe that the final and perfect medium for divine revelation is the original Arabic of the Quran. But Christianity tells us that God has related to us, not through a particular language, but through the translation of speech itself into a human life. When God in Christ became man, Divinity was translated into humanity, saying, “This is what God is like.”

At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. -Matthew 11: 25-26

Judaism has struggled with the validity of the 2nd century translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, the Septuagint. Muslim scholars debate whether the Arabic of the Quran is eternal or the ideas they convey. Some Christians have also sought security in a particular language or translation of the Bible. But the authority given to the Quran in Islam is, in Christianity, given to Christ, not to the Bible. This gives followers of “the Word made flesh” a particular challenge.

Jesus became a particular person, living in a certain context and a particular time. He was a first-century Jewish man who grew up in Nazareth and spoke the Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek of his time. The sense and meaning of God was translated into humanity under very specific cultural conditions. Yet Jesus is global grace promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:

‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’

In Acts 15, Early Jewish Christians argued over the way God’s blessing spreads. Some argued that the promise spread when the non-Jewish convert became culturally Jewish like them. Others argued that the good news spread as followers of Christ translated their relationship with Jesus into the existing language and culture of their own time. We are the result of their discernment that God’s promise would spread as Christ was translated into the culturally specific communities of every culture and language.

This complex translation process resulted in some challenges. The sculpture of Moses with horns is based upon a translation, or a mistranslation, by St. Jerome. The Latin Vulgate Translation of Exodus 34: 29, 30 and 35 was Jerome’s effort to faithfully translate the difficult, original Hebrew text, which uses the term קָרַן‎ or qāran based on the root word, קֶרֶן‎ or qeren, which often means “horn”); the term in these passages is now interpreted to mean “shining” or “emitting rays” (somewhat like horns).

The King James Version of the Bible, specifically Numbers 23:22 and 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9-10, Psalm 22:21 and 29:6, as well as Isaiah 34:7, translates the Hebrew “rame,” as unicorn. The unicorn was chosen because, like the Hebrew word, it speaks of strength and power. The Unicorn, traditionally depicted as a horse-like creature with a single spiral horn, has deep historical and cultural significance. It represents not only beauty and grace but also serves as a symbol of protection and chivalry in medieval contexts. In more recent translations, however, the unicorn is replaced by a wild ox or a similar powerful animal.

More personally, however, this translation process means that we, as present-day followers of Christ, have work to do. It isn’t enough to give a friend a Bible to read, even in their own language. It isn’t even enough to dress up and go to church on particular days of the week. As followers of Jesus, we are responsible for showing everyone we meet, in word and in deed, what God is like. They need to see Jesus translated into our everyday life.

The biblical book of Colossians tells us to “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you…”1 Peter tells us to Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”2

Our language shouldn’t be run-of-the-mill but surprising and interesting. When we speak of Jesus with others, we should move beyond the “Christianese” we speak amongst ourselves to words of wit and wisdom. That is what “seasoned with salt” means.

This is quite a challenge. As Andrew Walls puts it:

“Politics is the art of the possible; translation is the art of the impossible. Exact transmission of meaning from one linguistic medium to another is continually hampered not only by structural and cultural difference, the words of the receptor language are pre-loaded, and the old cargo drags the new into areas uncharted in the source language. In the end the translator has simply to do his best and take risks in a high risk business.”

We don’t have the responsibility of translating the Scriptures from one language to another. We have been entrusted, instead, with a greater work: translating the heart of God, as lived out in the life of a first-century man named Jesus, to those around us in our context and our time.

God has entrusted us to with this task. Let’s have fun with it!

And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. …

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The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. -Proverbs 4:7

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“...the ‘strange world’ within the Bible is indeed a ‘strange new world,’ seemingly far outdated and yet peculiarly fresh, arresting, and life-giving.” -Karl Barth 1

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“Christianity summoned proud pagans to face torture and death out of loyalty to a Jewish villager who had been executed by Rome.”1

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The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. -Proverbs 4:7

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Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

-Psalm 1:1-2

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Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.

-Ludwig Wittgenstein1

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…free yourself a while for God and rest a while in him. -Anselm of Canterbury

Almost a thousand years ago, an Italian child was born with the same malady we moderns have. As he grew in stature and faith, he found it difficult to slow his thoughts and spend time with God. However, Anselm of Canterbury developed a prayer to help him slow his …

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Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ -Joshua 5:13

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Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, (they are) driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. -From Isaiah 17:13

I dreamt I was walking past cobwebs, down basement stairs, and into the darkness of forgotten days. When I reached the landing, I turned on my cell…

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