try using a good modern translation that you haven’t used before, to jolt you into seeing things in new ways. In this book I have often simply used my own translation, with the same intent.

The task of the Church is to get on with implementing the victory of the cross; and if we grasped that vision and lived by it, we would be able at last to address some of the problems in the Church and the world that loom so large and seem so intractable. The battle has been won; let’s get on and implement it. Let us follow our victorious Lord

The Church must be prepared to stand between the warring factions, and, like a boxing referee, risk being knocked out by both simultaneously. The Church must be prepared to act symbolically, like Jesus, to show that there is a different way of living.

Perhaps you can now see that this combination of themes is precisely what Matthew has chosen as the framework for his Gospel. He brings before us, in his great Coronation Anthem, one who will save his people from their sins; and one who, precisely in doing so, will share the very throne of God; one who is ‘God with us’, God representing us, God

The letter to the Colossians is all about saying ‘thank you’. Paul begins by thanking God that there is a church in Colosse at all (1.3). His prayer for them focuses on their being able to give thanks to the Father (1.12). The central section of the letter begins with thanksgiving (2.7); and, when Paul sums up the whole long argument, this is how

The longer you look at Jesus, the more you will want to serve him in his world. That is, of course, if it’s the real Jesus you’re looking at. Plenty of people in the church and outside it have made up a ‘Jesus’ for themselves, and have found that this invented character makes few real demands on them.

In style, emphasis, structure — in all the things that make a book what it is — John stands out from the rest. With Paul we are in the seminar room: we are arguing the thing out, looking up references, taking notes, and then being pushed out into the world to preach the gospel to the nations. Matthew takes us into the synagogue, where the people of

Easter is all about the wiping away of tears. In our fear of terror and joy, we have forgotten the purpose of tears. We have become embarrassed by them — and with good reason, since they are a God-given reminder of the truth which our culture, as much as any communist propaganda, has done its best to make us forget: that we are neither naked apes

Jesus’ first option, then, was to lead the revolt. The other option was the quietist one, the option of retreat. He could have left Gethsemane, taken his disciples up and over the Mount of Olives, through Bethany, and down all the way to the Jordan. King David did it in a single night a thousand years before, fleeing from Absalom. He could have