King's Cross Order Printed Copy

Author: Keller Timothy
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About the Book

"King's Cross" by Timothy Keller explores the story of Jesus' life and ministry through the lens of the Gospel of Mark. Keller delves into the significance of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection, and how it impacts the lives of believers today. The book challenges readers to reflect on their own faith and the implications of following Jesus.

St. Patrick

St. Patrick, (flourished 5th century, Britain and Ireland; feast day March 17), patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and probably responsible in part for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians. Patrick was born in Britain of a Romanized family. At age 16 he was torn by Irish raiders from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried into slavery in Ireland. He spent six bleak years there as a herdsman, during which he turned with fervour to his faith. Upon dreaming that the ship in which he was to escape was ready, he fled his master and found passage to Britain. There he came near to starvation and suffered a second brief captivity before he was reunited with his family. Thereafter, he may have paid a short visit to the Continent. The best known passage in the Confessio tells of a dream, after his return to Britain, in which one Victoricus delivered him a letter headed “The Voice of the Irish.” As he read it, he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. “Deeply moved,” he says, “I could read no more.” Nevertheless, because of the shortcomings of his education, he was reluctant for a long time to respond to the call. Even on the eve of reembarkation for Ireland he was beset by doubts of his fitness for the task. Once in the field, however, his hesitations vanished. Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. In diplomatic fashion he brought gifts to a kinglet here and a lawgiver there but accepted none from any. On at least one occasion, he was cast into chains. On another, he addressed with lyrical pathos a last farewell to his converts who had been slain or kidnapped by the soldiers of Coroticus. Careful to deal fairly with the non-Christian Irish, he nevertheless lived in constant danger of martyrdom. The evocation of such incidents of what he called his “laborious episcopate” was his reply to a charge, to his great grief endorsed by his ecclesiastical superiors in Britain, that he had originally sought office for the sake of office. In point of fact, he was a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped “idols and unclean things” had become “the people of God.” The phenomenal success of Patrick’s mission is not, however, the full measure of his personality. Since his writings have come to be better understood, it is increasingly recognized that, despite their occasional incoherence, they mirror a truth and a simplicity of the rarest quality. Not since St. Augustine of Hippo had any religious diarist bared his inmost soul as Patrick did in his writings. As D.A. Binchy, the most austerely critical of Patrician (i.e., of Patrick) scholars, put it, “The moral and spiritual greatness of the man shines through every stumbling sentence of his ‘rustic’ Latin.” It is not possible to say with any assurance when Patrick was born. There are, however, a number of pointers to his missionary career having lain within the second half of the 5th century. In the Coroticus letter, his mention of the Franks as still “heathen” indicates that the letter must have been written between 451, the date generally accepted as that of the Franks’ irruption into Gaul as far as the Somme River, and 496, when they were baptized en masse. Patrick, who speaks of himself as having evangelized heathen Ireland, is not to be confused with Palladius, sent by Pope Celestine I in 431 as “first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.” Toward the end of his life, he retired to Saul, where he may have written his Confessio. It is said that an angel conveyed to him that he was to die at Saul, the site of his first church, despite his wishes to die within the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland. His last rites were administered by St. Tussach (also spelled Tassach or Tassac). Legends Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared. Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

the courage you need in life’s uncertainty

“Jump! I’ll catch you!” When my son was young, getting him from the side of the pool into the water was difficult. His eyes darted side to side, quickly losing confidence, as his imagination surmised all the horrors associated with jumping. Only when I could get him to fix his attention on me would he find the confidence to bend his knees and spring off the side of the pool. Like my son, we are regularly confronted with situations that are overwhelming, unknown, or threatening. What does it look like for us to spring with confidence into every situation that the Lord brings into our lives? Four Ways to Walk in Faith Isaiah 7 tells the story of a king in crisis. When the Judean King Ahaz heard that Syria and Israel created an alliance to withstand the advancing Assyrian threat, his heart shook with fear (Isaiah 7:2). Seeking to strengthen their hand against Assyria, the Syro-Ephraimite coalition intended to use military force to depose Ahaz and coerce Judah to join them, as well. Ahaz responded to the imminent threat like a good king. He inspected the city’s water supply. How long can the city withstand a siege? Ahaz had been conditioned to believe that military threats require military responses. Yet, God responds to Ahaz by sending the prophet Isaiah, who relayed four commands from the Lord, each of which recalls other parts of the Old Testament: be careful, be quiet, do not fear, do not let your heart be faint. These four commands echo down the halls of Israel’s collective memory with the intention of reminding Ahaz of the provisions of faith. These commands are helpful for us too as we fight for faith amidst the challenges of our lives. 1. Be Mindful Moses instructed the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land: they will live in houses they did not build, drink wine from vineyards they did not plant, eat until they are full. But, Moses warns them in Deuteronomy 6:12, “take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” At the moment of crisis, God acknowledged that Ahaz’s battle was not just outside the city walls, but also in his mind. It was essential for Ahaz to remember who he was and the history he had with God. In the same way, during times of uncertainty, cultivating memory and identity as those who are in Christ is essential for accessing the resources of faith to respond to present challenges. 2. Be Quiet This is an important theme in Isaiah. In Isaiah 30:15, God says, “In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Quietness in Isaiah does not mean the absence of noise, but the absence of agitation. In fact, peace and joyful shouting are themes that merge together in Isaiah 14:7 and 55:12. At the moment of crisis, Ahaz needed to find calm and certain confidence in God — something his water supply could never fully provide. 3. Do Not Fear The phrase recalls God’s providence, promises, and purposes. God uses these words when he appears to Abram, Moses, Joshua, and Elijah. It may seem trite to tell Ahaz not to fear. But the rationale is implicit: God was with him, for him, and had made promises to him. Ahaz, then, needed to respond on the basis of that conviction. Similarly, I need to recalibrate my perspective around God when faced with uncertain circumstances. John Oswalt summarizes, “If we can believe that the transcendent One is really immanent, and the immanent One truly transcendent, then there is reason to live courageously and unselfishly” ( Isaiah, 211). 4. Do Not Faint This is an exact quotation from Deuteronomy 20:3–4, where Moses prepares the Israelites for facing their enemies in battle. The priest was to come to the front of the line of soldiers and say, “let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you.” At the moment of crisis, with a mind that remembers, a soul free from agitation, and a renewed conviction that God is for me and with me, I can respond with courageous faith. A Picture of Courageous Faith In southwest Rwanda, along the shores of Lake Kivu, is a peninsula, where missionaries from the region have gathered annually since 1942 for spiritual renewal. On the far end of the peninsula is a cliff, into which thrill-seeking missionaries from a previous generation lodged a long, rigid, slab of wood — called “the plank” — thirty feet off the surface of the water. I have approached the plank many times. I stand looking, hearing my children behind me. “Come on, Dad!” “He won’t jump!” I am distracted by local children gathering in canoes to watch. I think about others who have jumped — and hurt themselves. I feel certain that I will fall off the cliff by even getting near the plank! I have never jumped. I have a friend named Jeff, who does not blink at the threats imposed by the plank. He steps onto the plank, walks a few paces, pulls himself up into an overhanging tree, climbs even higher, turns backward, and launches into a backflip as he springs out over the water. This is a picture of how I want to live — not carelessly, but confidently — springing with confidence into every situation that the Lord brings into my life — not simply conditioned to respond according to my own resources, but convinced that the provisions of faith provide all that I need to respond with confidence in any situation.