I am a Methodist. This is a common analogy for anyone going through dark times no matter what they are....especially under the circumstances. If you pastor isn’t using this, you really need another pastor. Jesus was hailed as a hero on Palm Sunday. A few days later the crowd wants his head. People can turn on a dime. I am sure the folks who were watching those events were crushed when their King was hung on a cross to die.
Of course I believe both events were orchestrated by a loving God for a purpose. I don’t think the pastor is saying Trump is like hell and more than when Trump says the Russians should look for Hillary’s emails that he is colluding with Putin.
“This is a common analogy for anyone going through dark times no matter what they are....”
And therein lies the troubling problem: Jesus’ dark times were unutterably dark and entirely unique in the entire span of human history. NOBODY should presume to blithely compare the troubles of ANYBODY to the ordeal of Jesus of Nazareth. Nobody. Not ever.
Jesus asked St. Peter, “Can you drink the cup I am about to drink?” Peter answered, “I can.” Jesus went on to affirm that Peter would, indeed suffer and be martyred for his faith. Yet we know from history that Peter so understood the unique magnitude of the suffering of Christ that he, himself, refused to be crucified as Jesus had been; choosing, rather, to be crucified upside down so that his own ordeal would not be comparable to that of Messiah.
Why did Peter refuse to allow his murderers to make his suffering appear remotely the same as Jesus’ suffering?
Why ought we not do likewise?
Why are we so ready to elevate our trials to the level of Jesus’ own?
What insufferable hubris!
Scripture affirms that Jesus suffered more than any man, but many had been beaten, flogged and crucified before and many more were after Jesus. Our issue is that we wrongly limit the suffering to the physical realm when, in fact, Jesus’ greatest suffering was spiritual: the Divine and Holy being MADE SIN.
No suffering of ANY human being in all human history before Christ, nor after him; has approached, or ever will remotely approach, the depths of darkness that Christ suffered on our behalf. To even verbalize a comparison borders on damnable blasphemy.
Just...do not.
If your pastor IS using this, as Hillary’s did, you REALLY need another pastor. Perhaps another church entirely.