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.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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The Messiah is exiled from God on the cross as Israel was. Forsaken as Israel was forsaken. Cast away from Yahweh as Israel was. Why?
Christ has come to make every last aspect of your life the object of his eternal, never-ending, always transitive grace.
The Savior wasn’t always forthright with his intentions behind using and relaying certain parabolic narratives.
Easter must be seen in light of the cross. It must never overshadow Good Friday. They are a packaged deal!
Jesus died for the people who put Him to death. Jesus rose for the people whose minds rejected the idea of a resurrection.
Jerusalem, temple, and king, all three bespoke of Yahweh’s kingship, as well as of His Kingdom and presence on earth and all the blessings bound up with it.
On Good Friday, poetic justice is satisfied. Poetic mercy is all which remains.
Simon carried the cross, but Jesus was carried by the cross to death.
Out there the instincts to protect yourself from embarrassment, ridicule, and rejection can easily overcome you as they did Peter. Our only hope is in Peter’s Lord.
Betrayed. It is a word which chills the soul and sickens the stomach. To be betrayed is to have a friend turn on you, treating you as an enemy.
Great things are contained in these seemingly unimportant words: "Behold, your king." Such boundless gifts are brought by this poor and despised king.
Scott Hall may not have been a theologian or a preacher but for me, at that moment he might as well have been.