It's All About Easter - Yancey/M Scott Peck

Over time, it was the cross on the hill that changed the moral landscape of the world.

M. Scott Peck writes:

I cannot be any more specific about the methodology of love than to quote these words of an old priest: "There are dozens of ways to deal with evil and several ways to conquer it. All of them are facets of the truth that the only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered in a willing, living human being. When it is absorbed there like blood in a sponge or a spear into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further."

The healing of evil -- scientifically or otherwise -- can be accomplished only by the love of individuals. A willing sacrifice is required...I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does...Whenever this happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world.



The balance of power shifted more than slightly that day at Calvary because of who it was that absorbed the evil.

If Jesus of Nazareth had been one more innocent victim, like King, Mandela, Havel, and Solzhenitsyn, he would have made his mark in history and faded from the scene.

No religion would have sprung up around him.

What changed history was the disciples' dawning awareness (it took the Resurrection to convince them) that God Himself had chosen the way of weakness. The cross redefined God as One who was willing to relinquish power for the sake of love.

Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it.

In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced one for the sake of the other.

--From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey