The gospels don’t hide the fact that Jesus came to a broken world.
Religious leaders who were supposed to be guarding and guiding God’s people were instead protecting positions of power and leading others astray.
The masses were beaten down-helpless under the burden of Roman occupation and hopeless that they could ever “measure up” under the system of customs and laws that had been imposed by the Pharisees.
Jesus spoke truth to this reality, He didn’t deny it.
Jesus looked brokenness in the face and promised redemption and restoration.
But He admitted that in THIS world, the one we walked on, there would be tribulation. He didn’t promise a pain-free existence, He promised His Presence in the midst of pain.
And that is the power of the cross-that an instrument of torture became a symbol of hope.
What the enemy meant for evil, God used for good.
When we try to soft-pedal the struggles of life, when we try to shape our stories into victorious narratives with tidy endings, when we deny the presence of pain, we diminish the power of the cross.
Read more here: denial
So good. Thank you.
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