“I Know What it’s like”

“…For thousands of years Christians have found the cross to be so central to life.  It speaks to us of God’s suffering, God’s pain, God’s broken heart.  It’s God making the first move and then waiting for our response.

If you have ever given yourself to someone and had your hreat broken, you know how god feels.

If you have ever given yourself to someone and found yourself waiting for their response, exposed and vulnerable, left hanging in the balance, you know how God feels.

If you have ever given yourself to someone and they responded, they reciprocated with love of their own, you know how God feels.

The cross is God’s way of saying, “I know what it’s like.”

Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God.  To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, “God, you don’t know what it’s like! You don’t understand! You have no idea what I’m going through.  You don’t have a clue how much this hurts.

The cross is God’s way of taking away all of our accusations, excusses, and arguments.

The cross is God taking on flesh and blood and saying, “me too.”

…This is the God who holds out his hands and askes, “would you like to see the holes where the nails went?  Would that help?

It’s the place where we find out we’re not alone, where we find strength to go on.  Not a strenght that comes from whithin ourselves but a strength that comes from God. The God who keeps going.  Who keeps offereing.  Who keeps loving.  Who keeps risking.

A God who knows what it’s like.”

–Rob Bell, Sex God, pp. 105-107.

 

 

 

~ by ryanmcbride on April 19, 2007.