It was Passover—one of the major feast celebrations of Israel when the people turned their attention back to how God had rescued His people from captivity, thanks to the blood of an unblemished lamb. As Jesus made His way into Jerusalem, a city that was overflowing with pilgrims for the celebration, the people greeted Him as king by chanting,...

The Lord specializes in “hopeless” causes. When Jesus got to Lazarus’ grave, there was already a stench. The Lord, it seemed, was four days late. Lazarus was dead. He was deader than dead. In the hands of anyone else, this case would have been hopeless, impossible. But our God is the God of the “impossible.” He holds the keys...

The raising of Lazarus is one of my (many) favorite passages in Scripture. For some reason, it has always connected with me. As teachers, this story is either a dream because there are so many wonderful details to explore or a nightmare because there are so many wonderful details to cover. I choose to be an optimist. Just look...

One oddly encouraging thing about the Gospels is seeing just how confused Jesus’ disciples were. When Jesus was being literal, they took Him metaphorically. When He was being metaphorical, they took Him literally. They always seemed to be a few steps behind. Even after the miracle in John 6 when He fed the five thousand, there was a subsequent...

Like many parents, my wife, Tara, and I are in this odd season of playing the role of teacher for our three kids who are distance learning for a quarter of school. While Tara is carrying most of the weight of this task, from time to time I am called on to help with a problem one of my...

What Jesus proposed in this passage—no, in fact, commanded—is a fundamentally and wholly different way of looking at outsiders and the unsaved than we are accustomed to and inclined toward. Think of the daily outrage about “the culture” featured in evangelical social media feeds. We are offended, shocked, and often driven to attack by what should be an utterly unsurprising...