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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It’s easy to understand the allure of the shroud. In a skeptical age, a physical relic that appears to bear the imprint of the risen Christ seems like proof positive of the faith.
Albrech Dürer is said to have brought the Renaissance north of the Alps and perfected the mass production and distribution of images.
Despite the mathematical incongruity, the church confesses that Christ is one hundred percent human and one hundred percent divine.
Jesus refreshes you with the promises of the gospel, wrapped in the words of Scripture, drawn in the pictures of the sacraments.
Polycarp’s faith, life, writings, and even his death revealed the fruit of faith and love grafted into his heart by Christ the Vine.
Jesus is very difficult to bring down. That’s the power of it.
"When God has his say, have confidence that his Word and sacraments bestow precisely what he says."
We now are the magi: we worship Christ because of who he is, but also because of what he has done for us and what he continues to do in his gift-giving to us.
Epiphany continues the work done at Christmas, bringing light and life to a dying world desperate for hope.
This is an excerpt from Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi (1517 Publishing, 2024), pgs. 24-27
Christ is the beating heart of Christian faith and its only object.
Instead of a “how-to” manual, the Bible is a “what-you-didn’t-do” story.