What kind of God, instead of rescuing us out of trouble, rescues us by entering into the trouble with us ?
What kind of God, instead of helping us to avoid pain and heal us from our pain, enters into extreme pain with us ?
What kind of God, instead of fixing things for us, addresses them by becoming weak with us in our weakness ?
– Will Willimon, Sojourners Magazine, August 2007
After He had done so, He invited us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him in the same footsteps.
Such a message of Christ dying on the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.
So the modern day carnal believer modify the message to satisfy themselves – that Christ will carry their cross on their behalf, rescue them from trouble, helping them to avoid pain and to fix every wrong thing for them.
But through history, the true believer walk in the same way in which He had walked – entering into the trouble with his neighbor, entering into pain with his neighbor, and becoming weak with his neighbor…1 John 2:6.