The Paschal Trilogy – Part II/III – Holy Saturday Matthew 26:20, ‘When it was evening, He reclined at table…’ Considering Jesus’ final meal with His disciples, Irenaeus of Lyons makes the beautiful observation that ‘[Jesus] administered food to [His disciples] in a recumbent posture, indicating that those who were lying in the earth were they […]
Holy Saturday (2022) 2 Read More »
The Paschal Trilogy – Part I/III – Good Friday Leviticus 17:11, ‘…the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls…’ When YHWH spoke these words to Moses, the primary referent was the animal sacrifices that God provided to deal
Good Friday (2022) 2 Read More »
Hebrews 9:14, ‘Christ…through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God…’ This text is primarily about the superiority of Jesus’ death in relation to the sacrifices of the Old Covenant). However, what I’m focusing on in today’s visual exegesis is the absolutely reality-re-shaping implication that is tucked away inside the author’s main argument: Namely,
Matthew 1:21, ‘You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Already in the naming of our Lord, His divine identity is on display in at least two ways. First, who is able to save humanity from their sin except God Himself? Is not all sin ultimately an offense
Psalm 63:8, ‘My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.’ This short verse is a beautiful encapsulation of the Christian life. We cling to the Lord, we hold fast to Him, we strive to endure in the face of fear and sorrow and pain and doubt and cold affections and wayward longings –
Exodus 33:20, ‘…you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ Isaiah 50:6, ‘I hide not my face from disgrace and spitting.’ No human being can see the face of God and live. This is the reason that YHWH hides Moses in the cleft of the rock on Sinai when He
Exodus 33:20; Isaiah 50:6 Read More »
Matthew 2:2, ‘For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.’ John 12:12, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ The coming of the magi to worship the newborn Jesus is the first fruits of the eschatological in-gathering of the nations
Psalm 139:18, ‘I awake, and I am still with you.’ In context, this verse speaks of the Lord’s faithfulness to preserve His people through the night and waken them to His presence in the morning. However, bearing in mind the double meaning Scripture assigns to the concept of ‘sleep’—i.e., both the sleep of physical rest,
Here’s a new piece based on the Creation account in Genesis 1. The New Testament teaches us that all things were created in, are sustained by, exist for, and are communicative of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ (Col.1:15-17). I’ve tried to visually exegete that vision of cosmological origins in this image. I made this
The Days of Creation Read More »
Ecclesiastes 1:4-8, ‘A generation goes, a generation comes…the sun rises, and the sun goes down…around and around goes the wind…all streams run to the sea…All things are full of weariness…” According to these first verses of Ecclesiastes, the world is full of soul-numbing weariness, and this is exemplified in the cyclical nature of the world
Ecclesiastes 1:4-8 Read More »
Ephesians 5:20, [give] ‘thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…’ Consider that the Holy Spirit calls us to give thanks *always* and for *everything.* Of course, this is easy (though we still often forget) when our bodies are healthy and our loved ones are safe
Jonah 1:18, ‘So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.’ Mark (4:35-41) seems to model his account of Jesus’ stilling the storm of Galilee upon the account here in Jonah 1. One aspect of these paralleled accounts stood out to me this morning and I
In Colossians 2:2-3, Paul seeks for the Colossians to be “united in love, even unto all the riches of full assurance of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God, [which is] Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.” Paul labors for the Colossians to be united to
Proverbs 30:5, ‘Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.’ A number of things to note in this verse. First, see the wonderful hope (or terrifying certainty, depending on the posture of our soul toward Him) that every single word God speaks WILL prove true. Period.
Isaiah 57:15, ‘For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’’
1 John 3:5, ‘…He appeared in order to take away sins…’ Jesus appeared—the Word was made flesh—in order to take away sins. But what does it mean that He takes away sins? Certainly He bears them in Himself as the representative head of redeemed humanity (2 Cor.5:21); certainly He secures their forgiveness through the sacrifice
Numbers 23:8, 20, ‘How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom YHWH has not denounced?…He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.’ When Balaam was summoned to curse God’s chosen people, he responds by saying that he could not curse those whom God had blessed. These were the people
Matthew 13:44, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…’ In this picture, I wanted to focus on the ‘hiddenness’ of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God—the reign of the risen King—is a treasure, to be sure; it is a treasure worth all that we are and have. And yet, it is
Philippians 3:10-11, ‘That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.’ Jesus Christ is essentially and irreducibly the crucified and risen one, and so, to truly and intimately
Philippians 3:10-11 Read More »
Ephesians 4:15-16, ‘…grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.’ That is a complicated sentence,
