2005-03-25

jesus
cimabue

today's chewable vitamin
"i could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. the only God i believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as "God on 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 and stood respectfully before the statue of buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing 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 turn away. and in imagination i have turned instead to that 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 in 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."
~john stott

christ at the pillar

caravaggio
image taken from

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