Every action, therefore, and performance of miracles by Christ are most great and divine and marvellous: but the most marvellous of all is His precious Cross. For no other thing has subdued death, expiated the sin of the first parent, despoiled Hades, bestowed the resurrection, granted the power to us of contemning the present and even death itself, prepared the return to our former blessedness, opened the gates of Paradise, given our nature a seat at the right hand of God, and made us the children and heirs of God, save the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For by the Cross all things have been made right.
John of Damascus, 676-754 AD, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, Chapter XI (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol IX, Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, translated by S. D. F. Salmond, T & T Clark and Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1997, p. 80)
How significant is it that Christ accomplished His greatest work, not through blatant wonders, but through suffering? What implication does that have for us today?
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