Christ is the Bridge

Christ is the bridge on which we cross

Out of our soul's apartedness;

Christ is the cross by which we bridge

Our gulf of empty-heartedness.

James Dillet Freeman, What God Is Like, Unity

Books:Unity Village,Missouri, 1973, p.20

~~~

It is this paradox which is so baffling, this combination of the self-

centredness of his teaching and the unself-centredness of his

behaviour. In thought he put himself first; in deed last. He exhibited

both the greatest self-esteem and the greatest self-sacrifice.

John Stott, Basic Christianity, London:Inter-

Varsity Press, 1974, pp.43,44

~~~

Then the Gospels themselves make it clear that Jesus and his

contemporaries were at cross-purposes when they spoke of the

Messiah. To the Jews, the Messiah was to be a political king. For

Jesus, being the Messiah meant humble service and obedience to

God's will. And for him to have spoken openly of being the

Messiah would have concealed the real meaning of his coming , and

brought about an early encounter with the Romans...Jesus did not

use the word 'Messiah' of himself because he knew that it would

suggest to his hearers an earthly king and a new political state. Jesus

certainly had no intention of being that kind of 'Messiah'. He had

already decisively rejected the idea in the temptations. So he cast his

whole ministry in a mould that would conceal his claim to be

Messiah from those who did not want to understand it in the same

way as he did, but that would reveal his true identity to those who

really wanted to know.

John Drane, Jesus and the Four

Gospels,Tring,Herts:Lion Publishing, 1979,

pp.49,50