Jesus, how difficult is it?
When he heard his play had been accepted, he had "20 seconds of joy and then absolute fear … I left the building and thought, I've got to write a play for Upstairs … Jesus, that's difficult".
When Dan DeMatte, a 21-year-old youth minister in Ohio, announces his intention to build a cross and carry it more than 20 miles, in imitation of Jesus, it's difficult not to question whether he would have even thought of this project if it weren't going to be on television.
And that balance is difficult: Jesus' great reforming work consisted of reminding pious, conservative Jews that their fasting and charity amounted to nothing if they were just done for external show, without the proper spirit.
Nor is this to say anything about the historicity of "Jesus" himself (another difficult question, though the "Judas" puzzle most likely points the way towards solving this one as well) or another, largely literary or fictional character very much now - in view of women's issues - in vogue, "Jesus"' alleged consort and the supposed mother of his only child, "Mary Magdalene".
I wish I had never worn... Jesus, that is a difficult one.
In much of Protestantism, the concentration of the 19th century upon the teachings of Jesus had made it difficult to speak of more than the prophetic office.
Jesus' birth comes at difficult time along the human timeline.
And, as Mark reports, in the face of this fatigue, it is difficult for Jesus to find some time away.
Jesus knew it would be difficult for us to accept his guidance from another source.
"I find it difficult to see Jesus in Puritanism at all, or vice versa," said Andrew McGowan, dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. "They didn't want Christmas.
