HIS
CRUCIAL DEATH

Topics: Cross; Death of Christ; Redeemer; Savior

References: Mark 10:45; Romans 6:3–9; 1 John 5:6–12

Of the biographies I have read—including biographies of men like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, who died violent and politically significant deaths—few devote more than 10 percent of their pages to the subject’s death. The Gospels, though, devote nearly a third of their length to the climactic last week of Jesus’ life. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John saw death as the central mystery of Jesus.

—Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Zondervan, 1995)