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Scandalous truth from the cross
Incomprehension is the normal reaction towards a God dying at the cross. Incomprehension
also as the Son of God questions His Father: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
Incomprehension about that Friday, about the cross, about Christianity! “A stumbling
block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”, writes the Apostle Paul.
But already five hundred years before Jesus there was a growing foreboding that only a
servant could save human kind. The Bible reports how a minister of finance of the Queen Candace
from Ethiopia was struggling with this word from Isaiah about the servant of God. He knows
that just the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most able have a chance at the courts
and in the centers of power. How an ugly servant could become God’s hero to save us humans
remains beyond him. Philip, one of the disciples, was able to
explain him the incomprehensible. Because this Jesus descended into the deepest depths
he was raised by God to the highest heights. The one who allows the depth within -yes,
even crosses through it -is truly worthy of the height. The one who has conquered his
ugliness possesses true beauty. The one who doesn’t shy away from death earns full life.
As paradoxical as it may sound: God’s true greatness rests in that He became also small,
weak and defenseless! God in His love turns the human value order
upside down. The dominion over life and love begins in the valleys of suffering and death.
Therefore the doleful Friday is indeed a day of joy. No longer is anyone kept alone in
his suffering. Since Good Friday God and His complete blessedness are with him!
Through this men gains strength thanks to God’s weakness! How else should men gain
understanding of the abysm if not in Him who descended into the realm of the dead? How
else could men be set free if not through the One who made Himself servant of all? He
is the living secret of the opposite which amounts to the deepest character of love.
The Servant of God is Lord of all the earth and as Christ He is seated at the right hand
of the Father.