The posture of pain and betrayal is defensive: back turned, shoulders hunched, head bowed, knees tucked in, arms crossed. We curl our skeleton around our soft core for its protection. The...

Life is not for the faint of heart. The stresses, insults, and injuries of the world splay our spirits and batter our flesh. We quickly pray the prayer that Jesus rejected:...

Death is coming. We notice it in the signs and stories of Lent. We feel it in the pleas of the psalms. We brace ourselves for it in the building drama...

Jesus enters Jerusalem in a triumphant procession and then cleans the Temple of those who have perverted it. Now it begins. Now we are at the beginning of the eight monumental...

The plot to kill Jesus, the Last Supper, travel to Gethsemane, betrayal, trial, denial, Pilate, crucifixion, death, burial. Reading these chapters of Mark may take more time than the usual reading...

Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (AP). I often express dismay that the Bible does not include musical notation for its many hymns and songs. My imagination wants...

“I trust in you, O LORD . . . My times are in your hand.” Psalm 31 is a psalm of lament, and we see the depth of that lamentation in...

The Lord helps the servant despite the effort by others to humiliate the servant. Christians see Jesus in the four Servant Songs. The third Servant Song begins by describing the servant...

The rejected stone is now the cornerstone. Let us rejoice! Imagine a group of pilgrims standing before the walled old city of Jerusalem singing, “Open to me the gates of righteousness,...

“The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.” Later in this chapter we read that Judas Iscariot went to these...