This question came up in church last week:

How much did Jesus know about the cross? How much did he know about what would happen when he arrived in Jerusalem? Did he know about all the events that would take place between Palm Sunday and Easter, or did he just have a general knowledge that he was going to suffer and die?

The person asking the question felt that Jesus’ determination to walk the road to Jerusalem would mean that much more to us if we could say with confidence that Jesus knew everything that lay ahead for him.

It is an interesting question, and theologically delves into the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became fully man without ceasing at the same time to be fully God. Jesus possessed both a divine nature and human nature in one person. So how does one reconcile Jesus’ omniscience as God with his growth and development as a human being?

The Scriptures indicate that Jesus retained his divine omniscience even in the incarnation but chose not to exercise it at certain times. So where did Jesus get his knowledge of things to come? Some of his knowledge of future events may have come through his personal study of Scripture, some by direct revelation from the Father in prayer, and some by his divine attribute of omniscience. We find examples of all three of these avenues in Jesus’ life, and it may be that various combinations of the three contributed to his knowledge at different times.

As Jesus made his way toward Jerusalem and the cross, the Scriptures tell us that he knew many details of what lay ahead for him. He knew that he must suffer and be rejected, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (Luke 9:22) He knew that he would be betrayed. (Luke 9:44) He knew that he would be handed over to the Gentiles and that they would mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. (Luke 18:31)

Many of these things Jesus could have known simply from his study of the Scriptures. But Jesus also knew other details that would have required a different type of knowledge. For example, Jesus knew from the beginning who would not believe and who would betray him. (John 6:64) Jesus knew in advance that Peter would deny him three times. (John 13:38) And when the soldiers came for him in the garden, John tells us that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. (John 18:4) He could only have known such things by direct revelation from the Father or by drawing on his omniscience as the Son of God.

So, how much did Jesus know about the cross as he walked toward Jerusalem? Did he know every single detail that would take place that week? Possibly, but we cannot say for sure. It is all part of the mystery of the incarnation.

But if we step back further in time, before his incarnation, Jesus most certainly knew every detail that would take place leading up to the cross. Drawing fully from his omniscience in his pre-incarnate state, Jesus knew everything that he would suffer in Jerusalem. Yet he still chose to come and die for lost sinners like you and me. He is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) How much did Jesus know about the cross? We may rest assured that when Jesus left the glories of heaven to come to earth, he did so with full knowledge of the cross and all that it would entail.

“The Messiah” is a new movie from Iran depicting the life of Jesus from an Islamic perspective. Unfortunately, the Islamic perspective changes some crucial details concerning the person and work of Christ. Here are some excerpts from an interview between ABC’s Lara Setrakian and Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh:

LS: What are the key differences between Jesus through Islam’s eyes and Jesus through the traditional Christian perspective?

NT: We are talking about the same beautiful man, the same beautiful prophet, the same divine person sent from heaven. In the Koran, it emphasizes maybe three main points: about the birth, about the fact that he was not the son of God, and then, that he was not crucified. The rest is [the same] Jesus … the sermons, and the miracles, and the political situation …

LS: While production on this movie was happening, Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ” came out. What did you learn from watching that film?

NT: We were almost finished filming when Mel Gibson started shooting. I saw the film, and it’s the first time the Gospel of John has ever been depicted. It was nice. But it was the wrong story. In my film, I respect that common belief with all the good intentions the Christians have … according to what Islam says. Yet, Jesus, at the night of the last supper, ascends to heaven [without being crucified]. A beautiful man, a beautiful prophet. Why should he be bloodied that way?

LS: What kind of response have you gotten from Christians? What kind of feedback and interchange has there been since the movie was released?

NT: Many thought this film is a good step for serious inter-religious dialogue. Many of them liked it — seeing the Koran-based ending. And I was very happy that the practicing Christians were very happy with the film. I have never found one case among practicing Christians who are offended [by the movie].

I am amazed that Talebzadeh says he did not find one practicing Christian who was offended by his movie that denies two of the most central beliefs of Christianity: that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died on the cross for sin. Perhaps he needs to ask around a bit more.

HT: Neatorama

I have been following Darrell Bock’s posts on the book, The Jesus Puzzle, by Earl Doherty. Doherty argues in his book that Jesus never really existed as an historical person. Dr. Bock, who is Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, responds to Doherty’s points one at a time.

This set of posts provides a great resource for those interested in learning more about the historicity of Jesus. You will also find some lively interchange between Bock and his commenters in the comments section on each post.

• Point 1: Jesus of Nazareth and the Gospel Story
• Point 2: The Josephus Citation about Jesus
  The Debated Josephus Text – Antiquities 18.63-64
• Point 3: Paul and the Epistles
• Point 4: The Roots of Resurrection
• Point 5: The Ancient Greco-Roman Dualism of Platonism
• Point 6: Mystery Religions and Christianity
• Point 7: Paul, the Intermediary Son, Wisdom and Logos
• Point 8: Gospel Roots
• Point 9: The Nature of the Gospels — Midrash?
• Point 10: “Q”
• Point 11: The Early Christian Movement
• Point 12: The Human Jesus

Bock closes out his series with these words:

What we have seen in our look at all twelve of these points is how problematic they are. There is little of credible historical judgment here that says Jesus never existed. The origin Doherty posits cannot explain the documentary evidence we possess or the form of the earliest Christianity to which that evidence gives witness. There is no puzzle put together in this book; only pieces unrelated to the real Jesus or the emergence of what became Christianity.

I am grateful to Biblical scholars like Darrell Bock who take the time not only to make valuable information like this accessible on their blogs but also to interact with their commenters in such a gracious manner.

WWJB – What would Jesus believe? J. P. Moreland offers the following helpful discussion on what Jesus believed about Scripture.

First, Jesus held that Scripture’s assertions are true. This is nicely illustrated in two texts. John 10: 35 says “the Scripture cannot be broken.” In context this means that it cannot be found to assert a falsehood … Similarly, Jesus taught that all (each and every) things taught about him had to happen (Luke 18:31; 24:44). Why all of them and why did they have to happen? The underlying assumption is that everything Scripture asserts is true. Thus, Jesus can simply claim, “Thy word is truth” (John 17:3).

Second, Jesus held that inspiration characterizes Scripture down to … the smallest units of language that convey meaning … Thus, inspiration is not a mere feature of paragraphs, sentences, or the general drift of a passage. Within the proper framework of interpretation, the very words themselves (in the original Hebrew and Greek texts) were inspired. In the heat of theological debate, Jesus defended views in which his entire case turned on an implicit tense of a verb (Matthew 22:32) or the choice of a single word (Matthew 22:43-45). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that even the smallest letter or stroke of God’s Word would be fulfilled (found to be true) …

Finally, Jesus held a plenary view of inspiration, i.e., that all the components of the Old Testament were equally inspired. This set him apart from some (e.g., the Sadducees) who accepted only the inspiration of the Books of Moses and others who held that the Law was more inspired than, say, the prophets. Not so for Jesus. In Luke 24:44 Jesus uses a widely employed threefold division to refer to the inspired canon of Scripture—“the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms”—a canon that includes the thirty-nine books of the Protestant Bible and excludes Intertestamental writings. However, in Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus uses an odd, lesser used phrase to refer to the same canon—“the Law or (not and) the Prophets.” In so doing, Jesus means to place the “Prophets” (the rest of the Old Testament) on an equal footing with the Books of Moses.

You can read the full article for Moreland’s explanation and defense of the above points.

Here is a poem I wrote for Easter a number of years ago. I hope you enjoy it, and I wish you a very happy Easter!

“EASTER” – by Ray Fowler

Weave a crown of thorns; spit on love incarnate;
Stretch his flesh against the splintered surface and
Strike the nail’s head. Crushed for our sins,
The Savior breathes ever slower.

Breath of Spirit pierces the tomb’s dark chamber;
Blinding flash illumines the corpse now rising,
Standing, dancing, joyfully living love for
Those who had slain him.

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Click here for technical notes on the poem “Easter.”
Click here for more poems by Ray Fowler.

“Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.” (Matthew 27:59-60)

Today is Holy Saturday. It is a day when Christians around the world find themselves caught between remembering the crucifixion on Good Friday and celebrating the resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is a day of mixed emotions. It is a day of waiting and anticipation.

It is good to remember that we are merely caught between the observances of these two days. On that first Holy Saturday, Jesus’ followers were caught between the actual events of Good Friday and Easter. They had to go through the full day with Jesus their Lord and Master crucifed, dead and buried. On Easter we celebrate the empty tomb. But on that holy and sacred day the tomb of Jesus was woefully full.

Jesus’ followers did not know that Easter was coming (although they should have!). We do, and that makes all the difference. We live on this side of the resurrection. On this Holy Saturday and every Holy Saturday we serve a risen Savior.

So let us rejoice in Christ who died and rose again. But let us also remember this day when Jesus’ body lay buried in the tomb. Let us feel for the disciples whose hope was buried along with him. And let us marvel at the incongruent wonder of God in the ground.

Fred Sanders has an interesting post at the Scriptorium today on Narnia and Holy Saturday. First he draws the comparison between Aslan’s delayed arrival to help Peter and the Narnian army in their battle against the White Witch to the disciples’ waiting for Christ’s resurrection on Saturday.

One of the most interesting decisions Lewis makes in establishing the chronology of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the way he keeps Aslan out of the picture long enough that the armies of Narnia have to face the White Witch in his absence. The film adaptation handles this very well, I think. Dramatically speaking, it makes for a great story to have the heroes bravely fight against overwhelming odds with no hope of rescue. They give their all and face real martyrdom, before the risen Aslan comes over the hilltop at the last possible second, leading a re-animated army he has gathered from the dungeon of the Witch.

Then he goes on to compare the waiting of the disciples on Holy Saturday to our waiting in the present for Christ’s return.

Since Jesus ascended into heaven and left us waiting for his return, we are in a position strikingly similar to the disciples: for them, Jesus had descended into the earth and left them waiting for his return. The two returns of Jesus –from the grave and from the Father’s right hand– are different. But the waiting should feel familiar. Welcome to the meantime, where we have God’s promise and live by faith that Christ will be back, keeping all God’s promises. Welcome to Holy Saturday in Narnia.

As a big Narnia fan, I really enjoyed this one. You can read the full article here.

Click here for more Narnia related posts.
Click here for Narnia sermon series.

Here is a poem for Good Friday.

“GOOD FRIDAY” – by Christina G. Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky.
A horror of great darkness at broad noon –
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

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(Note: Christina Rossetti is perhaps best known for her Christmas poem, “In the Bleak Midwinter”.)

Click here for Good Friday Poems by George Herbert.
Click here for A Wintry Sonnet by Christina Rossetti.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

Here is an excerpt on human suffering and the cross from John Stott’s landmark book, The Cross of Christ:

I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross’. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after awhile I have had to turn away. And in imagination, I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through his hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ … is God’s only self justification in such a world’ as ours.¹ (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, pp. 335-336)

¹ P.T. Forsyth, Justification of God, p. 32.

The following is excerpted from A. W. Tozer’s essay, “The Cross is a Radical Thing,” found in his book, The Root of the Righteous. I trust you will find it a meaningful meditation on the cross for this Good Friday.
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“The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.

“The cross of the Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took him down six hours later …

“After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to preach His message, and what they preached was the cross … The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and changed him from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and an apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental outlook of the Western world.

“All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted to remain what it had been originally, a cross. Its power departed when it was changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty. When men made of it a symbol, hung it around their necks as an ornament … then it became at best a weak emblem … As such it is revered today by millions who know absolutely nothing about its power …

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When I first saw Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ back in 2004, I was intrigued by the character of Veronica. As Jesus struggles with the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, a young woman approaches him and wipes his face with a cloth. The scene is almost surreal as she walks bravely through the midst of the soldiers to Christ and then back again. As Jesus and the soldiers continue on their way, she stands holding the cloth which seems to bear an imprint of Jesus’ face on it.

I found this a very touching scene, and yet I also remember thinking, “What was that all about? I don’t remember that in the Bible.” Well, three years have passed, and I guess I was never curious enough to do the research myself, but John Mark Reynolds over at The Scriptorium has come to my aid today with a fascinating article called: Women of Holy Week: Veronica and Legends that Capture the Truth.

In the article Reynolds explains the origins of the Veronica legend and even the origin of her name. (Her name, “veron ika” means “very image” and corresponds to the image of Christ’s face on the cloth.) After affirming the historical truth of the gospel accounts and revealing the Veronica account as clearly legend and myth, Reynolds goes on to show how we can still learn something from the Veronica story today.

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I found today’s reading in Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening especially encouraging. The following meditation is from 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Mourning Christian! Why do you weep? Are you mourning over your own corruptions? Look to your perfect Lord, and remember, you are complete in him; you are in God’s sight as perfect as if you had never sinned; nay, more than that, the Lord our Righteousness has put a divine garment upon you, so that you have more than the righteousness of man – you have the righteousness of God . . . Your standing is not in yourself – it is in Christ; your acceptance is not in yourself, but in your Lord; you are as much accepted of God today, with all your sinfulness, as you will be when you stand before his throne, free from all corruption . . . and all this because the divine Lord “was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

You can access Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening daily devotional online here.