Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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Hannah’s story is the story of God’s great reversal.
The proclamation of Christ's coming is for all people, at all times.
Many of us have experienced what it feels like to wait and to remain patient this year. This Advent, we are reminded of how the saints before us experienced similar feelings of uncertainty, need, and hopeful expectation as they awaited - both faithfully and unfaithfully - for God to fulfill his promises.
To a world enslaved to time (because it has no future), the Church's disregard for clocks and calendars is ridiculous.
We are given, so we give thanks, and we give thanks by giving.
Like Luther and like Hannah, we also receive God’s promise.
Jesus desires for us to watch. The question, however, is, “How do we watch for the return of Jesus?”
God is holy, nothing I say or do or pray is going to make God any more or less holy. So what are we praying when we say, “hallowed be your name”?
Life will not go as planned nor as we would hope, but "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
Heaven is Miller Time. Heaven is the party in the streaming sunlight of the world’s final afternoon.
What does the return of the Lord Jesus in judgment mean for me now in the face of all the real-life verdicts that I have to face?
In this context where death looms large, Jesus reveals a kingdom where life looms even larger.