Pilate stood and shouted over the fray, Which of the two do you all want me to pardon and set free to you? Bar Abbas? Pilate bit out his name with a look of contempt, or Jesus who is called Christ? The comparison was obvious: Did they still want to free a villainous murderer, or would they take the nobler option of freeing this gentle holy man who had been falsely accused?
Gospel of John: He is a Galilean
Caiaphas waited expectantly. He had been forceful in his insistence that Jesus was an agitator, inciting trouble all over Judea, having started his insurgency in the northernmost reaches of Jewish territory and bringing subversion all the way down to Jerusalem.
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Gospel of John: What is Truth?
Jesus’s spiritual kingdom of truth apparently had borders that extended far beyond Judea and even Rome. His kingdom had no borders, because every person who wanted to know the truth would listen to Jesus and become a citizen in his kingdom.
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Gospel of John: Pilate’s Palace
God had prepared a day of reckoning that Pilate had no idea was coming. For him it was just another Friday. But he was instead going to experience the greatest crisis of his life, coerced into making a life-or-death decision of incalculable proportion and consequence.
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Gospel of John: Lamb of God Judged
If God did not judge sin it would mean that God was indifferent to the existence of right and wrong, good and evil. But the Lord is not indifferent. God's wrath, grief, and intense pain over sin is the necessary and only right response.
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Gospel of John: Blasphemy!
“And you all will see the Son of Humanity sitting at the right side of the Almighty, then coming with the clouds of heaven.”
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Gospel of John: Annas and Caiaphas
This is commentary written in story form, in an experiment mixing narrative criticism in a creative nonfiction writing style.
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Gospel of John: Pretrial
Before diving into the events of Jesus's trials, it makes sense to review the adjudicators, timeline, and setting,
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Gospel of John: The Arrest
It fascinates me that in the moments before Jesus was bound and led away, he healed one of his captors. What does loving one's enemies look like? Well, like that, probably.
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Gospel of John: Prayer in Gethsemane
Jesus was in full command of all that would happen. It was by the plan of redemption, written before the foundations of the earth, that Judas stood there now, and that Jesus would step forward.
