Easter
The parting of the sea: God makes a way
Exod 14:5-31; Rom 6:1-7 In the church where I came to faith, the cross loomed so large in the teaching about redemption through Jesus’ death that the resurrection seemed almost an afterthought. It took me a few years to appreciate…
The meaning of the Passover: Christ our Passover Lamb
Exod 12:1-13; Matt 26:17-19, 26-29 Increasingly today, family members no longer eat together but consume their meals in their different corners, watching television or being absorbed by their phones. There is something so sad about this, as gathering around a…
How can we know God’s power in us? (Eph 1:18-23; Psalm 110)
Eph 1:18-23; Ps 110:1-7 A common greeting at Easter is the jubilant little exchange of ‘He is risen!’ answered with ‘He is risen indeed!’. But why does the resurrection matter at all? Is not the cross and atonement for sin…
The need for cleansing: Healing our blind spots
Matt 21:12-17 Some years ago, Transport for London put out a short ad for their awareness test, a humorous whodunnit, to alert drivers to the dangers of not noticing what they do not expect to see. I won’t give the…
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem: The unexpected way of salvation
Matt 21:1-11 As I mentioned elsewhere on this blog, my father was barred from entering university by the Communist regime back in 1950s’ Hungary. Every year for fifteen years, he sat the entrance exam with success but failed in the…
Who is Messiah: Jewish and Christian expectations
Isa 9:2-7; Zech 9:8-10 As we are approaching Easter, I am interrupting our study of Habakkuk to engage with questions relating to what Jesus came to achieve and the various expectations around it. As Christians, we look to Jesus as…
How to understand the sign of Jonah (Matt 12:38-42)
Matt 12:38-42 Knowing that I believed in God, a classmate in school challenged me, ‘Tell God to appear to me and I will believe in Him’. God, however, is not at our beck-and-call to come running, as if we were…
The path to life (Psalm 16)
Psalm 16:1-11 This psalm is used both by Peter at Pentecost and Paul later (Acts 2:27-33; 13:34-39) to support the idea that Messiah had to die and be raised to life again, thus it is an appropriate passage to reflect…
Remember what He told you! (Luke 24:1-12)
Luke 24:1-12 A girl in my youth group wished she had lived in Jesus’ time and could have met Him in the flesh. I suspect we can all relate to that desire. How much better it would be if we…
Where do we stand? What do we see? (Luke 23:44-49)
Luke 23:44-49 If one googles ‘optical illusions’, there is usually a drawing of a woman among the images. Some see her as young with her head turned away, others as old and in profile. Most notice one or other of…