Sermon Illustrations

KEEPING JESUS IN A CRADLE

The World prefers to keep Jesus in a cradle where He is innocent and powerless. the dare not allow Him to be Lord and God much less our suffering servant.

When the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci went to China in the 16th century, he brought samples of religious art to illustrate the Christian story. The Chinese readily adopted portraits of the nativity and baby Jesus but when he produced paintings of the crucifixion and tried to explain to them that the God-child had grown up and was executed, the people reacted with revulsion and horror. They preferred the baby Jesus to the crucified God.

(“The Jesus I Never Knew”, Philip Yancey, p. 33)

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