Good Friday's Most Famous Quotation

Entire theological treatises have probably been written on the last words of Christ, uttered as he was dying on the cross.  Crucifixion causes asphyia, which makes inhaling air to speak difficult.  Thus, it is not surprising that the words actually uttered were short.  

Matthew 27:46 records that Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"   In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus is quoted in Aramaic, shouting this phrase only and then cries out wordlessly before dying.  Is this not a surprising utterance, coming from one who proclaimed to be "one with the Father?"  Is this not proof that Jesus felt forsaken and abandoned by God?  

Liberation

Chag Pesach Sameah

Happy Passover to my Jewish friends. 

May we all celebrate liberation from bondage into freedom.

The painting is "Splitting of the Red Sea" by Dr. Lidia Kozenitzky

On Loving One's Enemies

[W]e know it is possible to love our enemies. Otherwise why would Christ in the Sermon on the Mount ask that we so love? . . . Are we to make Christ a liar? If we do not think it possible to love our enemies, then we should plainly say Jesus is not the Messiah.

 (Quote from Stanley Hauerwas)

Karoly Ferenczy, Sermon on the Mountain (1896)