Samara’s Reviews > Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life's Biggest Questions > Status Update
Samara
is on page 80 of 213
Ch4Q: how things can be put right in the world…how did Jesus come to do it?
Answer (summarized): By taking our shame and the brokenness around us, cleansing by His own substitutionary shame and death, and giving us access to abundant joy and life. The miracle of water to wine was a foreshadowing - in order to have the feast of celebration (wedding), He had to wash us clean (ceremonial jars) by His blood (wine).
— Jul 04, 2026 12:54PM
Answer (summarized): By taking our shame and the brokenness around us, cleansing by His own substitutionary shame and death, and giving us access to abundant joy and life. The miracle of water to wine was a foreshadowing - in order to have the feast of celebration (wedding), He had to wash us clean (ceremonial jars) by His blood (wine).
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Samara’s Previous Updates
Samara
is on page 80 of 213
Dr. Clowney put it something like this: "Jesus sat amidst all the joy of the wedding feast sipping the coming sorrow so that today you and I who believe in him can sit amidst all this world's sorrow sipping the coming joy."
— Jul 04, 2026 12:48PM
Samara
is on page 80 of 213
Could it be that he loves his own like that? That he delights in you like that?
Yes, he does. How different would your life be if you lived in moment-by-moment existential awareness of that?
— Jul 04, 2026 12:48PM
Yes, he does. How different would your life be if you lived in moment-by-moment existential awareness of that?
Samara
is on page 79 of 213
…every time God chooses a metaphor to help us see him better, it also shows us how he sees us. If he is like our bridegroom, then if you give yourself to Jesus in faith, it means he must really delight in us.
— Jul 04, 2026 12:47PM
Samara
is on page 78 of 213
God cannot just wish away the debt, and it's not because he doesn't love you enough. Actually, it's quite the opposite. God is so holy he had to come in the form of Jesus Christ and die to pay the debt, but he is so loving he was glad to come and die for you.
— Jul 04, 2026 12:43PM
Samara
is on page 75 of 213
He came to die, to shed his blood, to take the cup of curse and punishment so we can raise the cup of blessing and love.
— Jul 04, 2026 12:40PM
Samara
is on page 75 of 213
He did not come primarily to be a good example. And I'm glad he didn't. Do you know why? …Anyone who really, seriously, seeks to make him a life model, who pays attention to the details of his character and practice, will despair. He is infinitely beyond us, and comparing yourself to him will only grind your genuine aspirations to moral excellence into hopelessness.
— Jul 04, 2026 12:39PM
Samara
is on page 75 of 213
How is Jesus going to bring us our joy? By losing all of his.
— Jul 04, 2026 12:37PM
Samara
is on page 74 of 213
Maybe he is thinking of his own wedding, with infinite joy and utter horror at the same time. And so let's paraphrase what he is saying one more time: "Mother…For my people to drink the cup of joy and festival blessing, I'm going to have to drink the cup of justice and punishment and death."
— Jul 04, 2026 12:37PM
Samara
is on page 74 of 213
And this is how history ends; this is what Jesus came to accomplish. We, the bride, the people Jesus has loved, will finally be united with him. The most rapturous love of a wedded couple on earth is just the dimmest hint and echo of that cosmic future reality.
— Jul 04, 2026 12:35PM
Samara
is on page 71 of 213
So it would actually be more honest to say, "I'm somehow the same as those who have done terrible things. I am made of the same human stuff. There must be something down deep in me that is capable of great ... And Jesus came to cleanse us of this, to purify us from what is spiritually wrong with us.
— Jul 02, 2026 01:41PM
