Viewing Catastrophe from the Foot of the Cross

“I myself could never believe in God were it not for the cross.  . . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?  I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile plays round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.

But each time, after a while I have had to look away.  And in imagination I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged into God-forsaken darkness.  That is the God for me!

He laid aside His immunity to pain.  He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.  He suffered for us.  Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His.  There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.  The cross of Christ is God’s only self-justification for such a world as ours.”  (John Stott, The Cross of Christ)