Lent as a Sacred Space for Sorrow: The God of the Losing Side

The God revealed in the Scriptures is continually on the losing-side of history. This is foolishness and a stumbling block to those who are winning. Jesus didn't ride triumphantly into Jerusalem: the Resurrection isn't the victory following Friday's defeat. Jesus marched into Jerusalem - lowly and riding on a donkey to reveal a God who suffers, takes risks, opens Godself to vulnerability and always towards the most vulnerable. That might challenge our Greek notions of "omnipotence and omniscience" but you cannot love if you cannot lose and greater love has no other than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.