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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God sent his Son down into the hidden places of our dark and dirty world to find us, and to the cross to wipe away our sins forever. That is what this story is all about.
We stand before God with a unique set of problems, diseases, and sins. The comforting truth of the Incarnation is that Jesus took my flesh. All of it.
When we genuinely measure ourselves, we will find ourselves dreadfully lacking.
We are given the peace to know that all our sin is forgiven by our gracious God. We enjoy the comfort of knowing that our ways are watched over and protected by the Lord...
The only reason we're aware of our old self is in baptism, God created a new self for us.
The Lord who stood before her seemed reckless in His love. Her sin didn't deter Him. Rather, it was the reason He came.
In spiritual matters, the Scriptures teach us that freedom is tied to slavery and bondage.
The gospel fires up within us the gratitude, joy, and love to pull off what the law never could get us to do.
Cyprian actually rejected the accusation that he believed in rebaptism because he considered only the baptism within the church to be a valid or true baptism.
The fact that baptism specifically unites me to Christ in his death means that I share in his sufferings in my identity, not in my activity.
Your prayers are not what make you acceptable in his sight. You have already been made acceptable through the blood of Christ.
He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters, even as we curse and yell at him for not pleasing us with our pettish wishes.