Jesus comes among us, in our all division, not to instruct, comfort or inspire but to die. In doing so, He answers the sum of our self-regard, stupidity and cruelty.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that Jesus's presence is not for guidance or motivation but rather for the ultimate sacrifice, addressing human flaws.
Richard Coles emphasizes the profound nature of Jesus's sacrifice, interpreting it as a response to humanity's inherent flaws like self-centeredness and cruelty. Instead of merely providing comfort or guidance, Jesus's willingness to die signifies a deeper engagement with our moral shortcomings, serving as a poignant reminder of the weight of our collective actions.
In practice
During a sermon, when discussing the meaning of sacrifice and love for others.
Even through you and I are in different boats, you in your boat and we our canoe, we share the same river of life. What befalls me befalls you. And downstream, downstream in this river of life, our children will pay for our selfishness, for our greed, and for our lack of vision.
A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself.
One should always have one's boots on and be ready to leave.
The life function of [the local church] is to love the God who created it - to care for others out of obedience to Christ, to heal those who hurt, to take away fear, to restore community, to belong to one another, to proclaim the Good News while living it out. The church is the invisible made visible.
All mankind is one volume. When one man dies, a chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language. And every chapter must be translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice. But God's hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall live open to one another
The cynic says, "One man can't do anything". I say, "Only one man can do anything."
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