Isaiah 53

How does Isaiah's Suffering Servant compare to John’s Jesus?

Exiled Israel, the crucified Christ, and the thread that holds two interpretations together.

Exiled Israel, the crucified Christ, and the thread that holds two interpretations together.

Hans Boersma sees scripture as more open to imaginative reading than our modern methods permit. The key is faith in Christ.

Hans Boersma sees scripture as more open to imaginative reading than our modern methods permit. The key is faith in Christ.

On Good Friday we face conflicting urges, on multiple fronts.

On the one hand, I don't want to be one of the Christians who Gardner Taylor called "a Resurrection people, but not a Crucifixion people." I don't want to rescue Jesus from the cross--the weekly tendency of many preachers, and I think a poor interpretation of "bringing the good news." It is a reality: Jesus died.

David Carr rereads the familiar materials of the Bible in conversation with trauma theory. This opens the way for a fresh and suggestive interpretation.

Aristotle writes that we would never go to the theater to see terrible things happen to a good man through no fault of his. Yet here we gather, aching for a good man’s sorrows and turning to him to make sense of our own.

Fred Gaiser offers a sober, accessible review of the biblical materials pertinent to our thinking about healing.