A Jewish son, heir to his father’s significant wealth, runs out of that wealth and then hires himself out – sells himself to another – to feed … pigs. Pigs! A Jewish man enslaves himself to feed an unclean animal that he himself cannot eat. This is a truly pathetic state.

Jesus, the new Moses, stretched out His hands, not over a body of water, but over the kingdom of Death, over the very grave of the one man through whom Death had entered so long ago. And just as the Red Sea was torn in two, the kingdom of Death was split asunder, forever losing its tyranny on our race; and the strong man who deceived our first parents in Eden and held our race captive ever since, was bound by the stronger One

The Holy Land is often referred to as “the fifth Gospel,” as it forever changes the way a person reads the Bible. For those who have never been there, when the Bible is read or proclaimed, it can sound like a fairy tale. But to be there and to see where everything happened makes it all come alive.

For many of us, as we begin Lent today, and turn our minds and hearts to repentance and conversion, the biggest obstacle to holiness, healing, becoming spiritually mature, looking more like Jesus, is our unwillingness to forgive.