The women at the tomb were surprised by Easter. Amazed and filled with wonder at Jesus' Easter eucatastrophe. And so are we.
This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.

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The thrill of God’s grace fades and the slow march toward the cross dulls the heart. At such times, the former life beckons. Temptations to return grow strong. Which makes Lent such an important annual exercise.
In our preaching it is important to decide how to understand this. Are we going to preach the “now” or the “not yet”? As the people of Israel are living in their “now,” are they hearing the words of Isaiah as the “not yet” or, the “not yet of the not yet”?
This is a difficult time, but Ezekiel is giving great hope in our text for today. In spite of the circumstances, the Gospel predominates.
The vinedresser refused to give up on his unfruitful tree. He put himself between it and the judgment it deserved, serving as mediator and caretaker.
The promise is rooted in the fact that the only way we can endure any ounce of suffering in this life is because Jesus Christ is tending the soil of our lives.
In a world where absolutely everything seems to be in flux, indeed, we are all looking for a place to stand.
God is still faithful. There are still the covenantal promises. There is still the preservation of the Messianic line because He who promised, He who covenanted, must be faithful.
Jesus' course led from death into life, as He had promised. And He promises to lead us on that same course from death to life, from lament to joy.
The Promise Land's true value is in the gift of Jesus who will provide His blood and very life to endow all people with forgiveness and everlasting life for His children.
Nearly two thousand years after Paul scribbled out these lines, the only reason “we” are here, reading Paul’s magnum opus together, is that we are inheritors of the promise Paul sees in the paradox.
As the greater and more faithful Son of God, Jesus did what the Israelites could not do. Neither can we.
The LORD God shows His favor and presence with Joshua in the parting of the Jordan and other signs which suggest Joshua is the new Moses… but he is not!