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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This petition is proof that the Christian life is not a practice in perfectionism. Rather, it is a life of dying and rising, lived under the cross of Christ, in the continual forgiveness of our sins.
This article is the second installment in an eight-part series inspired by the Lenten themes of catechesis, prayer, and repentance found in the Lord’s Prayer as Luther taught it in his Small Catechism.
The Church gathers around the Word and Sacrament in order to receive Christ and each other.
We can rejoice in our own need and the gift we receive through baptism given by the same one by whom John desired to be baptized.
We live in the strength of our baptism again and again and again, returning to it every day according to God's promise. 
From all accounts, everyone in Nazareth would have just thought of Jesus as a very good boy who obeyed his parents and worked hard with his father as a tekton’s apprentice in the family trade.
In chapter 41 the servant is identified as Israel, but chapter 42 is a different servant. In fact, Matthew 12:18-21 makes the ID clear—this Servant is Jesus!
This text explicates the Christian life in light of the reality of Christ’s lordship and the gift of the Holy Spirit amidst a world and a Church which has not experienced the fullness of redemption and recreation itself.
Jesus did not need to be baptized. But he did it. Why?
Is there ever a time when someone needs to be re-baptized? Not if we believe that God is the one who does the baptizing.
Christians are given a new name at baptism. We are given the Triune name of Father, Son, and Spirit.
God reveals Himself to us in Word and Sacrament but sometimes these revelations happen in unexpected ways.