The bottom line.......

"Jesus reveals to us who God has always been. God has always suffered with those who suffer, God has always intimately known our condition. God has always been close to the broken-hearted. The cross does not change God at all, but it demonstrates very vividly who God is and always was. It shows us his shocking nearness, his scandalous love for us. It is a window to heaven that gives us a glimpse of God's radical love sacrificing for us and conquering death. It is a vision of grace in action. If you want to know what God is like, then look at the human Jesus. Watch him as he kneels beside the empty faces and touches the broken, watch as he himself is broken. See the man dragging a half ton cross through spit and mud, and stick your fingers in the scars on his hands. That is what God is like. God was on that cross."