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Philip Yancey, in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, suggests that each temptation parallels the expectation of 1st century culture for the coming Messiah:
A People’s Messiah could feed the multitudes
A man who would be King not just of Israel but of the whole world
A King who is rooted in the Law, would find his home at the place of sacrifice
Ironically, Jesus, ultimately, did play each of these roles. Not as a result of temptation, but as a result of being obedient to God
Fritz Peterson, former New York Yankee, pictures Jesus as a baseball player. He says, “I firmly believe that if Jesus Christ was sliding into second base, he would knock the second baseman into left field to break up the double play. Christ might not throw a spitball but he would play hard within the rules.”
Not what, but Whom, I do believe, That, in my darkest hour of need,
Hath comfort that no mortal creed to mortal man may give;
Not what, but Whom!
For Christ is more than all the creeds, And His full life of gentle deeds
Shall all the creeds outlive.
Not what I do believe, but Whom!
Who walks beside me in the gloom?
Who shares the burden wearisome?
Who all the dim way doth illume,
And bids me look beyond the tomb
The larger life to live? But whom! Not what, But whom!
John Oxenham, the English poet
A Wise Mother And Christ’s Picture
A mother visited her boy at college. Upon entering his room, her eye swept across the walls, which were covered with more than a dozen suggestive pictures. Her heart was grieved, but she said nothing.
Several days later, the mailman delivered a package to the young man. It was a gift from his mother—a beautifully framed picture of the head of Christ.
Proudly the boy hung the picture on the wall above his desk. That night, before he went to bed, he removed the pin-up picture which hung closest to the face of Christ. The next day another picture was consigned to the wastebasket. Day after day the pictures began to disappear from t...
Steve Malone
Skip Gray in his book, The Way of The Cross says,
Tradition tells us that around the time when Jesus was a teenager, there was a rebellion near where he lived. The Roman army crushed the rebellion but they didn’t want it to happen again, so they crucified an Israelite every 10 meters along the road for a distance of 16 kilometers. The sight of some 1,700 people, dead or dying in agony, on crosses spaced every 30 feet for 10 miles must have made an incredible impression on the mind of a teenager.
In the first century, a 12-year-old would have been well along in their life since:
-a third of those born would have died by age 6;
-60% by their mid-teens;
-by their mid-twenties 75%;
-90% by their mid-forties; and
-maybe 3% reached their 60s.
Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992) 211.
I was watching a recent program on TV about trying to reconstruct the chariot’s of the Assyrian army. One of the many problems they discovered was getting the yoke for the horses just right. The yoke they built would hurt the horses and cause them to flinch and run into each other. The reconstructionalist could not duplicate the fearsome charge of the Assyrian Chariots depicted in many of the ancient drawings. I guess making a wooden yoke is not an easy task, but it takes a skilled carpenter to get it right.
(Based on program on TLC, written by Mike Murdock.)
THE HISTORICAL CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY
There exists no document from the ancient world, witnessed by so excellent a set of textual and historical testimonies . . . Skepticism regarding the historical credentials of Christianity is based upon an irrational bias.
~Clark Pinnock, Mcmaster University
SOURCE: "Evidence ...
In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancy talks about Norm Evans, a former Miami Dolphin lineman who wrote a book called, “On God’s Squad.” He said of Jesus, “I guarantee you Christ would be the toughest guy who ever played the game…if he were alive today I would picture him as a six foot, six inch, 260 pound defensive tackle who would always make the big plays and would be hard to keep out of the backfield.
The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
