Weakly

Banner modified from Samuel Johnson’s The Rambler, a twice-weekly twopenny sheet published in London from 1750 to 1752). Last week I finished writing an essay (7k words) on the resurrection of Jesus. It’ll appear eventually in a multi-author book on reading the life of Jesus theologically. I got very interested in John 10:17-18, “I lay down my life in order that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.” There is so much going on there! I started into my exposition of it this way: In this dominical utterance, a distance seems to stretch open within the single speaker. Suddenly he-who-will-take-up (“I”) gazes across that vast inner space toward that-which-will-be-taken-up (“my life”). Yet there…