The Messiah is telling us things we didn’t anticipate. This isn’t about subduing the enemy. This isn’t about being exalted and having the world serve us. This isn’t about the arrival of a paradise that grants us everything we think we’ve ever needed.

This is about dying for others. This is about giving your body so that others can live. And this is about accepting that sort of sacrifice from others on your behalf. Even when you don’t want it – or secretly – don’t believe you deserve it.

When things start to fall apart, God arrives but tells us something we didn’t expect – and expects us to do something we aren’t sure is going to work at all.

Do you really believe you can change the nightmare of so many people’s lives by loving your neighbor? Really change things? Or is that a pipe-dream? Nice words for the saints, perhaps the clergy, but not realistic at all.

People are people after all. They’ll do things in their own interest. You can’t depend on them to do the right things for others. We need deterrents and rules. We need to clear-eyed real politic.

But that’s not what God says. God says this will work. God says this is the way out of the maze, out of the trap, out of the fire.

When you’ve tried everything else, why not give this a shot?