This dark problem of unmerited suffering lights up as we see what happened at the cross. Jesus did not bear the Cross – He used it. The Cross was sin, and He turned it into the healing of sin; the Cross was hate, and He turned it into a manifestation of the love of God. The Cross showed man at his worst, and there Jesus shows God at His redemptive best. The cruelest, darkest word that life ever spoke was at the Cross, and Jesus took all that cruelty and darkness and turned it into pure love and pure light… What a light it sheds upon the tragedy of life to find such a fact at the center of our faith.
— E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973), Missionar
Topics: Suffering & the Question of God, Grace & Redemption, Love
Occasions: For Reflection, Comfort
E. Stanley Jones
Eli Stanley Jones (1884–1973) war ein US-amerikanischer methodistischer Theologe, Missionar und Autor, der den Großteil seines Lebens in Indien wirkte. Bekannt wurde er durch die christliche Ashram-Bewegung sowie seinen Ansatz, das Evangelium von westlich-kolonialen Prägungen zu lösen, weshalb ihm theologische Kritiker Synkretismus vorwarfen. Für heutige Bibelleser steht sein Werk für eine christuszentrierte Spiritualität, die persönliche Nachfolge mit sozialer Verantwortung, Dialog und Gewaltfreiheit verbindet.
All quotes by E. Stanley Jones (7)
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
C.S. Lewis
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
Henri Nouwen
He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Etty Hillesum
God writes straight even on crooked lines.
Paul Claudel
God lets us walk no path that he himself has not walked, and on which he does not go ahead of us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer