The Failure of Jesus by Jorge Mario Bergoglio

ALL THESE REFLECTIONS are concerned with the Christian theology of hope and failure, and any such theology must begin with consideration of the passion and death of Jesus.19 What is more, the historical failure of Jesus and the frustration of the hopes of so many people ("We had hoped. " [Luke 24: 21]) are the royal road for Christian hope, for they are the way God reveals himself to us in Christ as he works out our salvation. Jesus himself foretold it: "Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (Luke 9: 24; Mark 8: 35). The possible failure of the work of salvation was already apparent, in a partial and less intense way, when the Israelites left Egypt in search of the promised land. Moses must certainly have feared failure when he was standing on the banks of the Reed Sea, in the midst of an unruly people with the Egyptians on their heels. He was left with few options: surrendering to the Egyptians, working out a deal with them, committing suicide, or trusting God. He opted for the last, and God made himself powerfully present there in the midst of total human incapacity. The situation was similar later on, when the Israelites were murmuring because they lacked food and water. God made them understand how helpless they were at the human level, and then he intervened to save them.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. (Luke 24: 21)