The cross of Jesus will forever remain a scandal and foolishness to discriminating disciples who seek a triumphal savior and a prosperity gospel. Their number is legion. They are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Jesus would have no other name by which he could be called were it not the name of the crucified ... His ministry was a seeming failure; his life appeared to have made no difference; he was a naked, murdered, ineffectual, losing God. But in that weakness and vulnerability, the world would come to know the love of the Abba and the Compassionate One.

(Brennan Manning, 1934-2013)