All posts in Jesus

  • April 5, 2013

    The World After Easter

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    The World After Easter
    by Brian Zahnd

    He Who Sits Upon The Throne says, “Look here! I am making all things new!”

    This is the only time in Revelation where we hear the voice of Him Who Sits Upon The Throne.

    There are only three other times in the New Testament when we hear the voice of God the Father:

    At Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

    At the Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased — listen to him!”

    Before the Paschal Mystery: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

    These occurrences of the Voice of God emphasize that Jesus is the Word of God — the incarnation of the Logos/Logic/Love of God sent into the world to redeem humanity from the dominion of Sin and Death.

    When He Who Sits Upon The Throne says, Look here! I am making all things new! — he is doing it through his eternal Word, his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

    This is what was promised in Abraham.
    Foretold by the Prophets.
    Born at Bethlehem.
    Inaugurated on Easter.
    The making of all things new!

    God’s solution for a Creation marred by Sin and Death is not to abandon it, evacuate it, condemn it, or destroy it, but to remake it — to make it new again! This is what was inaugurated on Easter! Read more

    4 Comments / Christianity, Jesus, Peace, Resurrection /

  • March 28, 2013

    How Did Jesus Understand His Death?

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    How Did Jesus Understand His Own Death?
    Brian Zahnd

    A question for Good Friday:

    How did Jesus understand his own death?
    What meaning did Jesus give to his crucifixion?
    Did Jesus have a “theology of the cross”?

    Jesus repeatedly predicted his own death by crucifixion to his inner-circle of disciples, but did Jesus ever speak about what it meant?

    Yes.

    In Jerusalem a few days before Good Friday Jesus said this in reference to his impending crucifixion:

    Now is the judgment of the world.
    Now will the ruler of the world be cast out.
    And when I am lifted up from the earth—
    I will draw all people to myself.
    –John 12:31, 32

    Jesus says his crucifixion (seen in the light of resurrection) does three things…

    1. Judges the world.
    2. Reorganizes humanity.
    3. Drives out the satan.
    Read more

    12 Comments / Christianity, Death, Jesus, Theology, Violence /

  • March 18, 2013

    Betrayed By A Kiss

    cimabue - The Capture of Christ (detail). Date unknown. Fresco. Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi, Italy

    Betrayed By A Kiss
    Brian Zahnd

    “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?” –Jesus

    Kiss and betrayal. Betrayed by a kiss. The kiss of Judas. The kiss of death. That ignominious kiss from two thousand years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane has planted itself firmly in the Western imagination. Is there a more famous kiss in history? How many paintings and poems, songs and sermons has that one kiss inspired? Louis Armstrong sang, “a kiss is just a kiss.” But is it? Here’s an axiom you can live by: Things are more complicated than you think. And this is true of Judas and his infamous kiss.

    Albert Einstein is supposed to have said, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Yet we love simplifying things. Keep it simple, stupid. K.I.S.S. We especially like to simplify stories. Good guys and bad guys. White hats and black hats. Protagonist and antagonist. Conflict, climax, resolution. Followed by ten sequels. All with the same simple plot. But despite our penchant for simplification our stories remain complicated, because we are complicated. If we tell the story of Judas as just a bad guy who sold out Jesus to make a few bucks, that’s a simple story. Greedy thief. Thirty pieces of silver. Cut a deal with the priests. Kiss Jesus. Fade into the night. Simple. He did it for the money. It’s a simple story. Easy to comprehend. Plus, (and this is very important!) it has the advantage of being something we would never do. Betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver? We would never do that! So we have established a safe distance between ourselves and Judas Iscariot, the Son of Perdition.

    But it’s not that simple. Yes, it’s true Judas was a thief — the treasurer who was also an embezzler. Nevertheless, I insist that Judas story is far more complicated than that of a petty thief who betrays his rabbi for thirty coins. Judas’ story gets complicated when Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss. Why the kiss? Why this theatrical embellishment? Why this feigned affection that has so captured our imagination? If Judas is betraying Jesus for money, why not just point him out — that’s the guy! — take the money and run? Why this business with a kiss? If we can answer this question, I think we’ll find that we don’t have a simple story of a petty thief, but a complicated tragedy and a story that may leave us rather uncomfortable.

    Read more

    7 Comments / Jesus, Violence /

  • February 25, 2013

    How Do We Know Christianity Is True?

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    I was asked this question by a young man.

    Hello Pastor Zahnd. I have a question; I hope you can give me some input. I recently became friends with people of the Muslim practice. We exchanged what our beliefs were and how they differ. (In a friendly way.) But this thought has ached at me for months now. How do we know, as Christians, we are correct? How do we know our religion, our denomination, our practice is correct?

    S.

    Here is my answer
    Read more

    25 Comments / Apologetics, Christianity, Jesus, Skepticism, Theology /

  • February 21, 2013

    The Radical Alternative of the Gospel of Peace

    Christ Mocked by Soldiers

    The Radical Alternative of the Gospel of Peace
    by Brian Zahnd

    Christians call Jesus the “Prince of Peace.” But what does that mean? Is it just a Christmas card cliché? Does it merely mean some peace of mind in an anxiety-ridden world? Or might it mean something more substantial? Perhaps much more substantial. Might it mean that Jesus offers the world an alternative arrangement that could best be described as peace? This is what I have come to believe. Jesus is the savior of the world in a real, wonderful, and urgent way — the Prince of Peace who can lead humanity out of the madness of arranging our world around power, violence and war.

    I have my own story of how I moved beyond a misguided allegiance to that tired paradigm of violence by discovering the radical alternative of the gospel of peace. This was not an easy move, but it was worth it. And it’s a story worth telling.

    But I’m most interested in telling the story of Jesus of Nazareth and the revolutionary ideas he preached — especially his ideas about peace. This first century Jew from whose birth we date our common era, this one who became the heir of Isaiah’s ancient moniker of “Prince of Peace,” preached a new way of being human and an alternative arrangement of society that he called the reign or kingdom of God. It was (and is!) a peaceable kingdom. My claim, which I’m told is audacious by some and naïve by others is simply this: Jesus Christ and his peaceable kingdom are the hope of the world.
    Read more

    9 Comments / America, Christianity, Jesus, Kingdom, Peace, Violence /

  • December 5, 2012

    God Doesn’t Build His House By Violence

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    God Doesn’t Build His House By Violence
    Brian Zahnd

    The New Testament begins with these words: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Or more literally: “The bible of the genesis of Jesus…”

    Jesus doesn’t just pop into history out of nowhere—he arrives as the Seed of Abraham and the Son of David. He has a genealogy and that genealogy matters. The genealogy of Jesus is an essential part of the Big Story of the Gospel. If we don’t see how Jesus fits into the Big Story the Bible is telling we invariably reduce the gospel to postmortem hell avoidance. So how can we tell the Big Story of the Bible? It might go like this:
    Read more

    5 Comments / Jesus, Violence /

  • July 23, 2012

    Deganawida – “The Peacemaker”

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    Deganawida – “The Peacemaker”

    The Iroquois have a fascinating legend about a savior named Deganawida. The myth seems to have originated during the final decades of Pre-Columbian America. The story goes like this:
    During a time of pervasive fear and instability in the Iroquois world, a young virgin gave birth to a son. The virgin was told in a dream that “your child will be a messenger of the Creator and will bring peace and harmony to the people on earth.” The child was named Deganawida—“The Peacemaker.” When Deganawida had come of age he told his mother, “I shall now build my canoe from white stone, for the time has come for me to start my mission in this world. I know I must travel afar on lakes and rivers to seek out the council smoke of Nations beyond this lake. It is now time for me to go stop the shedding of blood among human beings.” Read more

    9 Comments / America, Christianity, Jesus, Violence /

  • July 12, 2012

    Oh Mercy

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    OH MERCY
    by Brian Zahnd

    Be perfect as your Father is perfect. —Jesus (Matthew 5:48)

    Be merciful as your Father is merciful. —Jesus (Luke 6:36)

    Let’s keep this short and sweet. To the point.

    The Gospel writers Matthew and Luke give us two different accounts of the Sermon on the Mount.

    In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says his disciples are to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, and love their enemies, and they are to do so for this reason: So they can be like their Father who is perfect/merciful.

    The Gospel writers use different words.

    What Jesus in Matthew calls perfection, Jesus in Luke calls mercy. Read more

    4 Comments / Christianity, Jesus /

  • June 10, 2012

    Cannonball Jesus

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    Cannonball Jesus
    by Brian Zahnd

     “You cannot bear to hear my word.” -Jesus (The Gospel of John)

    “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” -T.S. Eliot (The Four Quartets)

    “Ya can’t look at much, can ya man?”     -Bob Dylan (Visions of Johanna)

    It seems to me that what we really want is a tame Jesus, a domesticated Christ.

    We want a Jesus who will “save our soul” — not so much now, but later on.

    We want a Savior who tweaks the status quo, making slight improvements on the basic scheme of things.

    We want a divine “life coach” to make us winners in The Game. Read more

    6 Comments / Jesus, Kingdom /
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