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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Jesus is very difficult to bring down. That’s the power of it.
Christians don’t need a bucket list. We’ve got the whole bucket: the Word fulfilled, life fulfilled, and life in full.
Jesus, the true Bridegroom, erases that mistake by his own compassionate, saving act. Isn’t this also a picture of the gospel?
"When God has his say, have confidence that his Word and sacraments bestow precisely what he says."
Huff did not stop there, though. Towards the end of the interview, he asked Rogan, "What do you think of Jesus?"
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 the first article in a special three-part Advent series on how Jesus is our prophet, priest, and king.
The Lord did for Hannah what he loves to do: he shifted everything into reverse, making the bottom the top and the top the bottom.
The crucified and risen Christ comes to renew, restore, and build up.
Christ is the beating heart of Christian faith and its only object.
Christ is always the ultimate for God's children, but we sometimes struggle with things that come before.