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Posts in "Quotes and Notes"

From Bonhoeffer on the command to love our neighbor and enemy. This was from a talk he gave to a student organization at the end of 1932.

I am really bad at this. I need to grow.

I am still processing this quote from my reading last night. This is part of Bonhoeffer’s conclusion on a talk on the prayer, “Thy kingdom come.”

Too often the American Church has derided struggle as a sign of not keeping “in step with the Spirit.”

Yet, as we read the Scripture we see over and over again that struggle is central to inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

This is a quotation from Bonhoeffer’s catechism. It strikes me as very timely.

Finished reading: Following Jesus by N. T. Wright 📚

I’m excited to share some quotes and notes from this little book. It is an excellent read!

"Yes, there was a whiff of triumph on Palm Sunday, but not the kind of triumph that might impress Rome and not the kind that impressed crowds in Jerusalem for long either. What manner of king was this?"

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

This week, let us consider the different manner of king that Jesus was.

Jesus himself had mixed feelings during the clamorous parade. Luke reports that as he approached the city he began to weep. He knew how easily a mob could turn. Voices who shout “Hosanna!” one week can shriek “Crucify him!” the next.

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

As we step into holy week this quote has been on my mind. Particularly, “how easily a mob could turn.”

Would I have turned?

Would I have shouted “Hosanna!” and then shrieked, “Crucify!”?

I know of no more poignant contrast between two human destinies than that of Peter and Judas. Both assumed leadership within the group of Jesus’ disciples. Both saw and heard wondrous things. Both went through the same dithery cycle of hope, fear, and disillusionment. As the stakes increased, both denied their Master.

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

If this isn’t a “but by the grace of God go I,” I don’t know what is.

Jesus’ response to suffering people and to “nobodies” provides a glimpse into the heart of God. God is not the unmoved Absolute, but rather the Loving One who draws near.
from: [The Jesus I Never Knew](https://micro.blog/books/9780310295815) by Philip Yancey 📚

This might be one of the most challenging concepts for many American Christians to wrap our minds around. We have been told for so long that God is non-emotional. Yet, in the person of Jesus, we see God draw near in love. This is the consistent response of Jesus in the Gospels to the people who are on the “outside.”

Indeed, the kingdom of God will grow on earth as the church creates an alternative society demonstrating what the world is not, but one day will be: Barth’s prescription of “a new sign which is radically dissimilar to [the world’s] own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise.”
From: [The Jesus I Never Knew](https://micro.blog/books/9780310295815) by Philip Yancey 📚

I imagine this alternative society would look vastly different from what we see today.

Jesus had but to give a nod of agreement and he could have constructed Christendom, not on four shaky Gospels and a defeated man nailed on a Cross, but on a basis of sound socioeconomic planning and principles. . . . Every utopia could have been brought to pass, every hope have been realized and every dream been made to come true. What a benefactor, then, Jesus would have been. Acclaimed, equally, in the London School of Economics and the Harvard Business School; a statue in Parliament Square, and an even bigger one on Capitol Hill and in the Red Square. . . . Instead, he turned the offer down on the ground that only God should be worshipped.

The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

Jesus: “Nah, I don’t want Christendom.”

The American Church: “Hold my grape juice.”

As I look back on the three temptations, I see that Satan proposed an enticing improvement. He tempted Jesus toward the good parts of being human without the bad: to savor the taste of bread without being subject to the fixed rules of hunger and of agriculture, to confront risk with no real danger, to enjoy fame and power without the prospect of painful rejection—in short, to wear a crown but not a cross.

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

As I continue to consider this, I am confronted with my own desire to wear a crown and not a cross.

In Jesus, God found a way of relating to human beings that did not involve fear.

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

I think this might be one of the most significant and under appreciated aspects of the personhood of Jesus. If we are leveraging fear with regards to Jesus then we have missed a central piece of the gospel story.