“Mark tells us this story not merely as background to the crucifixion, but as a window into its meaning. And the longer we look through that window, the more we recognize ourselves in it.”
Barabbas: The First Substitution of the Cross (Mark 15:6–15)
Jesus’ death
The Cry of Dereliction (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) | Tom McCall
What should make of Jesus’s cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Does this signal a rapture in the Trinitarian relationship between Father and Son? Does it reflect the Son’s experience of the Father’s wrath? Or do these read more into the text than is actually there? And how does Jesus’s quotation of Psalm 22 inform his words?
Tom McCall joins me on What in the Word? to discuss.
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The Role of Jesus’ Death in Luke’s Gospel
“Some describe the Gospels as accounts of Jesus’s death with really long introductions. Statements like this can downplay the bulk of the Gospels’ narratives, as though Jesus’s death were the only point of importance and everything else is just preliminary bonus material.
From another vantage point, however, this statement rightly communicates that nothing within the Gospels can be disconnected or properly understood apart from their climactic event: the death and resurrection of Christ. Everything that precedes leads up to the cross and occurs in its shadow.
But is this the case for the Gospel of Luke?”
The Cross of Christ by John Stott (Book Recommendation)
The meaning of the cross speaks to our deepest human need and its purpose unveils the heart of what we as Christians cling to. In his classic work, The Cross of Christ, the late John Stott unpacks what the cross achieved, how it meets contemporary cultural assumptions and questions, and its practical significance for Christian living.
The ABI’s of God’s Kingdom, Pt. 3 (How to Read the Bible, Ep. 13)
If we are to read each portion of scripture in view of the broader story of scripture, then what is that bigger story? What is the overarching storyline of the Bible? In this episode, we cover the next three epochs of that overarching story: Jesus’ arrival, the church and her mission, and Christ’s second coming.
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
See all other content in this series.
Kirk E. Miller 