1362 Jesus' death on the cross....

March 30, 1940: Book 23

Imagining Jesus' death on the cross with all inwardness is so infinitely blessed for the soul that strives for the heights. It was the moment of greatest physical weakness and spiritual strength. Jesus saw His end coming and His spirit was already with the father, but the greatest pain still forced the body to earth and the soul suffered torment in excess because of the darkness of those who were responsible for His death. The suffering of the dying man on the cross was unspeakable, and only a deeply feeling soul can even begin to imagine the humiliations that increased His soul's suffering. He heard the most bitter reproaches from the depths of hell, His body was ostracized.... the whole world was dark and lightless, and the greatness of the guilt of sin lay as a tremendous burden on His shoulders.... He bore this burden and sent up the words: "Father, forgive them...." His soul was love, the most ardent, self-sacrificing love for all these people who were to blame for His unspeakable suffering. He drank the cup to the brim, His body grew weaker, until at last His soul parted and soared up to the father.... Jesus' death on the cross is of such incomprehensible significance for people, and yet this greatest work of love and mercy receives so little attention.... Only the person who is in love is able to measure the greatness of it, but for people without love Jesus' death is meaningless, because they lack any feeling for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made in immense love. For the divinity of Jesus.... the fullness of God's spirit in Him, withdrew from Him at the hour of death and the man Jesus accomplished this deed to redeem people from all guilt of sin. Consequently, the human being suffered, the hour of death was tasted by him without any relief, the body and the soul suffered unimaginable pain.... for only in this way could the work of redemption be accomplished so that humanity's suffering would diminish.... only in this way could all guilt of sin be cancelled, so that excessive love bore the suffering that this guilt of sin inevitably entailed. The world no longer has any understanding for this greatest work of love of a human being, it passes it by carelessly, indeed it seeks to devalue it by attaching no more importance to it than to the act of an idealist whose motives were only later justified in the way that christian doctrine does today. But it is precisely the redemption of man that is called into question, the idea of redemption is rejected and thus Jesus Christ is only regocnized as a world-historical person, but a spiritual connection with the whole of humanity is denied after His death. And this completely wrong thinking of people has made it necessary for the lord to take pity on people again, to convey the pure truth to them so that faith in the redemption through Jesus Christ will not be lost among people but will come alive in them again....

Amen

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