Matthew 27:40 · World English Bible
Matthew 27:40 Meaning And Saying
and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”
What does Matthew 27:40 mean?
The mockery at the foot of the cross is the oldest temptation returning at the worst possible moment. Save yourself, they jeer, prove your standing by escaping the suffering.
From the Clinical Psychology reading below.
Matthew 27:40 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Clinical Psychology
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Clinical Psychology
The mockery at the foot of the cross is the oldest temptation returning at the worst possible moment. Save yourself, they jeer, prove your standing by escaping the suffering. Every fiber of the natural man agrees with them, because the ego measures worth by its power to avoid pain and demands a sign that spares it the ordeal.
The refusal to come down is everything. To descend would be to choose the self over the sacrifice, to buy comfort at the cost of the redemptive act, and that trade unravels everything. The deepest strength shows itself as the willingness to remain on the cross when climbing off is possible. A person becomes who he is meant to be by bearing what he could have dodged. What the crowd calls proof of divinity is really the demand that he betray it.
Clinical Psychology lensGo deeper in the app
Clinical Psychology lens
Live Matthew 27:40 today
- When a hard task gets uncomfortable and your hand reaches for your phone, leave the phone face down and stay with the task five more minutes.
- When someone is crying or angry and you want to fix it fast so it ends, stay quiet and stay in the room instead.
- In the conversation where walking out would feel like winning, stay and keep your voice level until it is actually finished.
What am I trying to prove by getting out of this early?
The same truth in other traditions
Bhagavad Gita 2
Do what is yours to do without clutching at the reward or fleeing the cost. The escape hatch is not the proof of strength.
Stoicism · Epictetus
You cannot both keep your integrity and keep every comfort. Decide early which one you are willing to lose.
Zen
The hard practice is not finding a place without difficulty, it is staying seated when the body wants to move.
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