They cried “Hosanna!” In doing so, they were quoting Psalm 118:25, which literally translates to “Give salvation now!”This psalm was sung daily during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, and when the congregation got to the point of the “Hosanna,” every male worshiper would wave a lulav or willow and myrtle tied with palm.“Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who ...  Read More

Does your dignity limit your adoration of Jesus? In today’s reading, we find an undignified moment that encapsulates the essence of devotion and the clash between appearances and true worship.Whenever Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, is in the spotlight in the gospels, she seems to emerge in some way that the dominant culture would have considered undignified; whether it was sitting at Jesu...  Read More

“Jesus called Lazarus by name, for otherwise every other dead body would have risen from the dead at his word! Such is the power of Christ that by a simple word, Lazarus comes back to life.”– Charles SpurgeonThe power of Christ’s words cannot be underestimated. In a single utterance, the Son of God shattered the chains of death that held Lazarus captive. It was not a complex incantation or an elab...  Read More

In 1972, Rosey Grier, a singer and former professional football player, wrote and sang a song that would become popular on children’s television, “It’s Alright To Cry.” In the song, Grier tells children that it’s alright to cry, but in John 11, Jesus goes a step further to show that it’s not just alright, it is right to cry!John 11:35 is a verse that many cling to in times of sorrow, “Jesus wept.”...  Read More

“If only…” Have you said those words before? “If only I would have bought that stock...If only I had asked that person out on a date… If only I had taken that job...” Sometimes our if onlys are more remorseful. “If only we had prioritized our health earlier...If only they knew how much I loved them.” It’s with this great remorse that Martha, the sister of Lazarus, cries out to Jesus, “If only you ...  Read More

Of all the times for people to ask if Jesus was "the Christ," the Feast of Dedication (Chanukah) made the most sense. You see, Chanukah was the celebration of the recapture and rededication of the temple after it had been defiled and occupied by the Greeks almost 200 years earlier.This temple siege was led by someone who many of the Jewish people believed was a messianic figure, named Judas “Macca...  Read More