To God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all about- not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience.

Jesus is the ultimate Job, the only truly innocent sufferer.

God knows what it's like to lose a son.

The Son of God passed by the mansions and went down in a manger that He might sympathize with the lowly.

The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man.

There is little for the great part of the history of the world except the bitter tears of pity and the hot tears of wrath.

We do not follow a health and wealth savior. We follow a homeless and wounded Savior.

You feel like an outcast. You don't belong. You feel naked. While everyone else is walking around with their clothes on, you feel exposed and vulnerable. You are seen, and what others see is not pretty. You feel unclean. Something is wrong with you. You are dirty. Even worse, you are contaminated. There is a difference between being a bit muddy and harboring a deadly, contagious virus.

Though the cross and everything leading up to it violate our sensibilities and we are rightly aghast, the reality is that human beings have never liked God very much. At the cross, the nature of God was most fully revealed. As a result, human contempt was also most fully revealed and brought to a laser-like focus and intensity.

What is shame? God identifies it. God experienced it. You are not alone.

Shame is very much on display in Jesus' crucifixion. When he predicted his own death to his disciples, he made sure to explain that it would be infused with mocking, a public flogging, and spitting (Mark 10:33—34). Witness this hatred and rejection and it will change you.

In an African hospital, a pastor who had just witnessed another death was approached by a poor, elderly woman. "You know," she said, taking my [the pastor's] arm, "through many losses of family and friends and through much sorrow, the Lord has taught me one thing. Jesus Christ did not come to take away our pain and suffering, but to share in it."