If indeed there had been anything better and more beneficial to man's salvation than suffering, Christ certainly would have showed it by word and example.My point here from this very long chapter in The Imitation, is that this meditation on suffering comes down to this notion that Jesus showed us the path to salvation through suffering...and nothing else. Embracing our cross, picking up our cross and following Him ( like the infantry soldier from earlier this week) is the path.
For He manfully exhorts both the disciples who followed Him, and all who desire to follow Him, to bear their cross, and saying, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me (Luke 9, v.23)."
We'd all have liked it if Jesus had said, "no, folks, I made a mistake. You really don't have to endure trials and tribulations. You can have it all. Here, let's go to Starbucks and then on to Wal-Mart, for that is where salvation truly lies...aisle 7, I believe."
But of course, that's not what he said or did. Prosperity theology at its worst.
Which is not to say that comfort, or Starbucks for that matter, are bad....but not the Way to Heaven.
In this week of Epiphany, while thinking of the magi and their efforts to find the king, and, upon finding Him, were warned in a dream to return home by another [W]ay (Matt 2:12), I am reminded that the journey to Bethlehem probably was no picnic. So going home, dealing with Herod's spies and co-conspirators, finding a new route, was likely even more difficult than the original trip. These pagan magi denied themselves by turning away from Herod. Being open to the Spirit, they embraced the new Way.
Isn't it interesting that Scripture regularly uses the non-believer's faith to demonstrate to us the profound desire to fill the God-sized void in our lives?
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