Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. One of the persistent questions we ask when we approach the Passion story is “why?” Why did Jesus have to endure the pain, the suffering, the abuse,...

Now the men who were holding Jesus began to mock him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” They kept heaping many other insults on him. The irony is that we have just been privy to a prophecy of Jesus’ coming to pass. Only...

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you,...

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. In these brief two verses we learn of Paul’s dearest hope, deepest motivation, and greatest joy. It’s a...

And this is God’s doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well— since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. One way to read Paul’s affirmation that “this is God’s...

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will...

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and...

Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, “Hail, King of...