“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I am,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
John 8
It is on the cross that Jesus is lifted up. And there in the hour of his crucifixion, we witness the truth of who God wants to be for us. For in his death and dying, he absorbs and transforms all the horror and contradiction of sin; he frees us from the sin that would otherwise hold us captive.
Christ Crucified, Diego Velázquez, c. 1632, oil on canvas, 248 × 169 cm, Prado Museum.
