Happy Holy Week! Starting yesterday, we celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. Of course, we know that he is alive and reigning every day. There is nothing about this week that changes our status with God, but it is an opportunity to spend a bit more time and think more about Christ’s sacrifice for sinners; his death to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
On Thursday, we’ll be running Terry Feix’s Maundy Thursday message on the podcast. It’s one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard and it will totally change the way you think about communion, Passover, the last supper, and following Jesus if you haven’t heard it before. If you want to see it live, head to Crossings in Oklahoma City at 12pm or 6pm. I’ll be posting our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday services on the Carlton Landing Community Church podcast as well.
Whatever you do this week, make a goal of setting aside an intentional time to reflect and pray about the resurrection. Thank God for his Son, take a spiritual inventory in your heart, and praise God for the gift of resurrection and eternal life.
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The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem | Photo: Noel Vera
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Best Reads:
“How a Cancer Diagnosis Makes Jesus’ Death and Resurrection Mean More” - Tish Harrison Warren with Tim Keller, The New York Times
“It’s one thing to believe God loves you, another thing to actually feel his love. It’s one thing to believe he’s present with you. It’s another to actually experience his presence.” Tim Keller has stage IV pancreatic cancer and he’s been going through chemo for a few years now, but that’s not the main story of this interview. Warren asks, how does terminal cancer shape the way you experience Easter? How much does that influence the way you view the resurrection?
Here’s Keller’s hopeful answer; “If the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened, then ultimately, God is going to put everything right. Suffering is going to go away. Evil is going to go away. Death is going to go away. Aging is going to go away. Pancreatic cancer is going to go away.” This will be one of the best things you read to prepare your heart for Easter.
“Who Is an Evangelical?” - Andrew Walker, World Opinions
As we’ve discussed on the podcast recently, defining the term “evangelical” in today’s world is more difficult than you’d expect. Political affiliations have become a surer guide than theological commitments, which as Andrew Walker argues here, is completely backward. What is an evangelical? Here’s Walker’s definition, “In my view, an evangelical Christian is a historic Protestant who believes in the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Savior and as the bodily resurrected Son of God. We believe in the inspiration and authority of Scripture and the necessity of living for Jesus Christ in every dimension of life. Evangelicals aim to see others converted to the faith, experience the new birth, and under normal circumstances attend church services every Sunday.”
“Securing Academic Freedom” - James Hankins, Law & Liberty
There’s a debate in progress over academic freedom in American universities. In the Ivy League and among other elite universities, progressive ideologies have all but stamped out many of the viewpoints popular just a generation ago. As a consequence, certain groups of academics have wondered if the principles of liberalism like free speech and free inquiry in the classroom are enough to stem the tide (the new University of Austin) or if something more is required (The Postliberal Order).
Hankins is a tenured professor of history at Harvard and a committed advocate for academic freedom. Beyond that, he’s one of the most insightful and classically minded commentators writing today. Here, he observes, “In the current climate, when universities increasingly see their role as training social justice warriors, environmental activists, or advocates for radical gender ideology, the likelihood that persons with traditional beliefs will be treated fairly or even tolerated at all has declined.” The question is what to do. Hankins splits the difference between the two main factions, arguing that religious schools should be overtly religious and schools supposedly committed to academic freedom should double down on those commitments. Secular research institutions should return to the marketplace of ideas, considering ideas on their merits, entertaining different points of view and weighing the arguments, and resisting the pressure of progressive dogmatism.
“The Cold War Never Ended” - Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs
Historians often make great commentators because they bring a virtue all but extinct in today’s news coverage: perspective. They’ve seen it before. In the case of Russia and Ukraine, Kotkin has seen it many times before, and he’s able to provide some perspective to guide the way we understand the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In his view, the Cold War never really ended, and the belief that Russia now is fundamentally different than the USSR then has led to several unfortunate policy decisions in the last 30 years. “The three ancient civilizations of Eurasia—China, Iran, and Russia—did not suddenly vanish, and by the 1990s, their elites had clearly demonstrated that they had no intention of participating in one-worldism on Western terms.”
The second half of the essay shifts to a discussion of Richard Overy’s new book Blood and Ruins, an account that Kotkin is critical of, but the discussion yields some gems for the current geopolitical moment, particularly as it pertains to China.
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