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1 " By shattering my preconceptions and cultural stereotypes, what materialized was a massive personality who was astonishingly winsome yet gravely terrifying. A man whose breathtaking compassion would draw you in, but whose ferocious honesty could cut and slice like a razor. Someone who was the most controversial, confrontational, divisive, yet compellingly beautiful man who has ever lived. Which is precisely what we would expect if the Creator of the universe happened to invade our world. "
― , Crucify!: Why the Crowd Killed Jesus
2 " If Jesus was put to death by powerful elites protecting their turf, then the murder is only a historical or academic puzzle. But if those who knew Him best—His longtime admirers—were involved, everything changes. It suddenly becomes personal, for we are then forced to confront the more troubling questions: Would I have sided with the majority and cried out for His blood? Would you? "
3 " Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, far from being unreliable historians or merely clever inventors of myth and legend, reveal themselves to be the type of witnesses a lawyer dreams of. "
4 " Jesus is making a crucial point that provides insight into the dramatic reversal about to take place during the Passover. He wants the young man to know that if he is expressing his conviction that Jesus is merely an admirable teacher, then he is wrong. But if he is applying to Jesus the goodness that properly belongs only to God, then the description is accurate. Jesus wants it clearly understood: He did not come into the world to make an impression, to win a popularity contest, or to gain a superficial following. He is God, and as God He expects and commands allegiance, not admiration. "
5 " Jesus has again drawn a crucial distinction among His listeners. There are those who are lost and know they are sinners; these are the ones Jesus came to save. And there are those who mistakenly believe they are spiritually secure; these will remain lost. "
6 " These words reveal that those who watched and listened to Jesus were fascinated time and again by His incredible miracles and the irrefutable logic of His teaching. However, the impression He made on them was merely superficial. It did not bring about a true repentance marked by a new direction of life and an absolute loyalty to a new Lord. "
7 " This is precisely the opposite of what the disciples had been hoping to hear. Jesus further dampens their spirits by predicting His betrayal at the hand of one of those reclining with Him at the table (Mark 14:18). He wants Judas to know that cleverness, slyness, and secrecy will have nothing to do with His death. "
8 " A mission of exposure? Certainly. But it was much more than a mere revelation of darkness. It was about light and goodness and a blazing hope. And even more than that, it was about a terrible, formidable, majestic love that would offer a Son as a gracious gift for the forgiveness and life of the world. A love that would let the world do its worst in order that it might do its best. "
9 " With these last words, the Son offers a lifeline for all those who throughout the long centuries to come will be enveloped by similar dark nights of dreadful abandonment. Though brutally cruel circumstances will rob them of all good—including God Himself—by tenaciously entrusting themselves to Him as Father, they are assured of finding their way home. "
10 " The man began by asking a very Jewish question about duty. Jesus’s parable rejects that premise, for it shows that the nonobservant Samaritan is not only the neighbor but the model of what it means to be a neighbor. The obligation is not to law but love. "