“The only universal language that survived the great tongue-twisting of Babel was the language of suffering. It is our native tongue. All creatures who suffer understand it. ”
Nobody signs up to dive headfirst or, for that matter, even dip his toe into the boiling cauldron of suffering unless they are insane or something important outweighs the high cost of suffering. All creatures who suffer understand this. Suffering is our native tongue. We understand that suffering is a price we only willingly pay for something that is extremely dear to us. Jesus paid the price because we are extremely dear to Him. Moreover, he paid the price not from his limitless divine resources but from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else. From the exorbitant price he paid for us we can deduce our value to him.
“Because suffering has the power to destroy that which passes through it, anything that survives the passage through suffering is extraordinary and attracts our attention. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us.
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“The infliction of suffering tends to piss its recipient off. It tends to trigger the reflex to revenge, retaliation and retribution. It tends to extinguish the fire of love that burns in the heart. Therefore, when it does not, we bear witness to abnormality. We bear witness to the strange. We bear witness to the paranormal.”