Surely all these texts give some basis for the figure of the “smiling Christ,” which depicts Jesus in death entrusting himself into his Father’s loving hands. The centurion’s reaction to ...

In this case we might ask, “Was Jesus smiling when he spoke to the one (now former) leper who turned back to give thanks?” To answer that question we need to go back a bit. At the beginning of Luke’s ...

But this wasn’t Jesus’ way. Scripture never tells of Jesus smiling, though he certainly wept. Instead, Scripture calls Jesus “the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” Jesus—who knew ...