RELIGIOUS FAILURE AT THE CROSS

RELIGIOUS FAILURE AT THE CROSS

Notice yet again earth's RELIGIOUS FAILURE as represented by the high priests and the Sanhedrim. What a terrible picture this is of the priestly cast. These men were rejoicing in the Cross because it had secured power to them by destroying Jesus. Is this sufficiently realized? Do we always remember why the priest encompassed the death of Christ? Watch carefully the history, and notice that their trouble was that they were losing power, and their constant question was, what shall we do? The people were slipping away from their grip, but at last they have but an end to His influence they have Him now nailed to a Cross, and by His destruction they secure their own power. O blind men, infatuated men! While they gloat over their fancied victory, God rends the veil of the temple in twain, and forever more does away with the priest. Just as they thought they had ensured their dominance of humanity by crucifying Him, He by His dying spoiled their power, rent the veil, and by abolishing the priest created the priesthood of all believers; we now being the priestly cast.

Turn for one moment and look at the Sanhedrim as rep­resented by the scribes, the elders, the rulers. How are they occupied in the presence of the Cross? They are in­dulging in diabolical pleasantry. They are laughing at the dying Man. They say, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save." (Matt. 27:42) They are making merriment over the fact that the Cross is the evidence of His madness. He Who had been saving men, and calling men to the pathway of sal­vation, is unable to save Himself. How can any really save others who are not able to save themselves? Such is the wisdom of the world, and the world's wisdom laughs at the craziness of the Cross. It has never ceased laughing at the Cross! It is doing so still! In this new century the trouble is that not the world only makes mock of the Cross. The laughter has invaded the so-called Church of Jesus. I have heard a man, claiming to be in the ministry of Jesus, who objected to sing “There is a fountain filled with blood."

What gain it would be for the Church and the world if these men would be honest and go outside the Church. The man who has lost his sense of the need of blood-cleansing from sin has no right to stand and call himself a messenger of Christ. The Sanhedrin laughed at the Cross. And yet in that Cross there is being shown forth before the gaze of heaven and in the presence of men, so sadly blinded that they cannot understand, the wisdom of God. In the foolishness of Christ's Cross there flames out the glory of the Eternal Wisdom for what man has never been able to do will be done through that Cross. And the very people who have become brutalized, and degraded, and wrapped in the grave clothes of ritualism, by the Sanhedrin and the priests; will cast aside their grave clothes, and pass into nobler life by the way of that Cross of shame.

WORLDLY GOVERNMENT AT THE CROSS

WORLDLY GOVERNMENT AT THE CROSS

But now turn abruptly to another group, the REPRESENTA­TIVES OF WORLDLY GOVERNMENT, the centurion, the soldiers, and the crucified criminals. Look at each of them for a moment, for the Cross is to the fact of worldly govern­ment, just what the fact of worldly government is to the Cross.

The centurion was a representative of discipline and duty. It is worthy of passing notice that every centurion mentioned in the New Testament was a good man. It was a centurion who said to Jesus: "I also am a man set under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh." (Luke 7:8) In that statement there is contained a re­markable philosophy of authority and discipline. I am under authority, I obey; therefore I have authority, I command others to obey. The true philosophy of human government lies within that. The man who has a right to rule is the man who knows how to be ruled. The only man fit to issue orders is the man accustomed to obey orders. “I am under authority, I have authority." This centurion in the presence of the Cross was a man of authority, and he had soldiers under him. He was a man of law, of order, of discipline, of duty, and from that standpoint of life he had watched the dying man until at last he said, “Truly this was a Son of God." (Matt. 27:54) To properly appreciate this statement we must understand the Roman thought rather than the Hebrew in the phrase "a Son of God." I believe the centurion meant that He was one of the sons of the gods. The Roman idea of God was that of heroic, courageous manhood, magnified in all its powers, and looking upon this man in His suffering, the heroism, the courage and the discipline manifested in submission, appealed to him as being Godlike.

And yet he said another thing, "Certainly this was a righteous Man." (Luke 23:47) This was the conviction of one who was himself a man of duty. To this Roman soldier the one governing principle of life was that of duty. He lived in the midst of a system. He marched in rhythm and time. He obeyed and insisted upon obedience with inflexible regularity. Rightness was the one word of value to him, at least in the sphere of his soldier hood. He saw in the Man upon the Cross One evidently acting in the realm of order, submissive to authority, and there­fore authoritative, keeping time with eternal principles in the quiet majesty of His submission, “a righteous Man." The centurion as a man of duty discovered order in the Cross, and as a man who worshipped high ideals, saw the Son of God crucified.

What did the Cross do for the centurion? We have no record of his after life, but this much at least is certain, that it commanded the respect and the confession of that which was highest in human government. And if we may follow the story along imaginative lines, it is more than probable that the King upon Whose brow the cen­turion placed the diadem of his loyalty, crowned him with the realization of his own highest ideals of life.

We look at the soldiers with pity rather than anger. They were brutalized men, and yet brutalized by the sys­tem in the midst of which they found themselves. We watch them as gathered around the Cross upon which they have nailed the Son of God, they gambled for His gar­ments and immediately one of their number pierced His side with a spear. As we have seen in the former consideration that spear thrust was the ultimate expression of man's rebellion against God. So far as the man was concerned who thrust it in His side, I am never quite sure that the action was not prompted by pity. How brutalized and vulgarized these men were, is evident from the fact that they cast lots for His garments under the shadow of the Cross, and their only idea of help, granting that to have been the motive, was that of the thrust of the spear.

One wonders if these soldiers ever saw the true vision. Did they ever understand that the seamless robe, of which they sought to gain possession by gambling, was the prophecy of the new robing being provided for men in the mystery of that Cross? Did they ever discover that the flowing blood which answered their spear thrust was for the putting away of sin? I do not know. Personally I expect to meet some of those men in heaven. It is cer­tain that the Master prayed for them, and I cannot forget that on the Day of Pentecost thousands were swept into the kingdom of God and in all probability among the number some of the Roman soldiery, and, perhaps, the men also who nailed Him to the Cross.

Look for one moment at the criminals, and there we have sin on the one side persisted in, and on the other, turned from. The crucified criminals both express the uttermost that human government has ever been able to do with sin. It can but punish. Both these men are in the presence of the Cross. One in that presence persisted in his sin, and added to it. For him the Cross was the penalty which deepened into the darker death that lay be­yond it. One turning from his sin, flung himself upon the tender notice of the King, Who was passing over the pathway of His exodus, and for Him the Cross was the gate of Paradise, and just beyond this darkness flamed the splendor of the light of the presence and companionship of the Lord, which makes unnecessary the light of sun, or moon, or stars, or candle. To these things no words need be added. Sin in the presence of the Cross, on the one hand, persisting in rebellion, goes down into the unutterable and awful and inexpressible darkness. Sin on the other hand, turning to Him, confessing, believing, passes triumphantly with Him through the darkness of the Cross to the light of Paradise.

HUMAN SORROW AT THE CROSS

HUMAN SORROW AT THE CROSS

See, first, HUMAN SORROW as represented in the women, noticing the groups as we have them in John, taking first the women who are named, and then the women known but unnamed.

Of the former, the principal figure attracting attention is that of Mary Magdalene, for we know very little concern­ing Mary of Clopas, except that she was the mother of James the less and of Joses. The sorrow of Mary Magdalene must have been very profound. I would that it were in my power to redeem this woman from a popular and terrible misconception concerning her. For some reason almost without explanation the term Magdalene has become a syn­onym for impurity. There is absolutely no warrant in Scripture for the idea. Mary Magdalene simply means Mary of Magdala. That was her city, and the title is used undoubtedly by the evangelists, simply to distinguish her from other women who bore the name of Mary. She had been delivered from seven demons. This phrase was certainly sometimes used by Jewish writers as descriptive of some terrible form of sin, such as drunkenness or impurity, but it was as often used to describe different forms of dis­ease, such as epilepsy. Attempts have been made to link her with the woman that was a sinner, but the case has never been proven, and in the absence of positive proof we have no right forever to link her memory with the sin of un-chastity. We prefer to believe that the demons pos­sessing her had afflicted her as they did the son of the man who met Jesus at the foot of the mount of transfiguration, seeing that we have no positive proof of impurity. This woman was present at His Cross, watching the cruel cruci­fixion and fearful death of the One Who had forever endeared Himself to her, and proved His power, by that marvelous deliverance that He had wrought. By the way of that Cross she had lost her Deliverer. How her heart must have been wrung with anguish.

Yet in the clearer understanding of the Cross which has come to us, we see how in it she recovered her Leader, and by it He gained possession of her forever, as the One Who in the mystery of its darkness, conquered and dispossessed the devil and all demons of their power over human lives. So that while hers was the sorrow of a lost Leader, a dead Deliverer, it was in process of time transformed into the joy of a Leader that cannot be lost nor will suffer those He loves to be lost, of a Deliverer Who has conquered death and will deliver those who trust Him, even from death it­self. Thus for Mary of Magdala the Cross was the proc­ess by which her greatest sorrow was transmuted into her highest joy.

Notice next the second pair of women, Salome the mother of James and John, and the Lord's own mother Mary.

Concerning Salome may it not be said that she stood be­fore the Cross disappointed in the emotions of mother­hood? Her sons had left their fishing, and had gone to follow Jesus. With the true instinct of motherhood she had been anxious that they should succeed. One can im­agine that she did not feel perfectly in harmony with their action. If I may use an expression of the present day in application to her attitude, I should say that she had questioned the wisdom of their giving up a certainty for an uncertainty. When, however, they had left their nets and followed Him, she endeavored to use her influence with Him on their behalf. Expecting the possibility of His at last coming into power, she had asked that in that event her sons. His cousins, James and John, might sit one on His right hand, and one on His left. And now the silliness of their action is revealed in His evident failure. I see in this woman the sorrow of disappointed motherhood. It may be objected that this is placing her sorrow on a low level. Is it not true that most human sorrow is sorrow on a level that is certainly not high? I do not question for a moment that this woman sorrowed in sympathy with Him in His defeat and awful pain, but her previous action makes it more than probable that she thought of her own sons in the presence of the crucified Jesus. And yet what did that Cross do for this woman? It was by it that James and John found their thrones of power. They passed out into the ages crowned men, seeing that He permitted them to drink of His cup, and to be baptized with His baptism, as He said that He would. And so by the way of that Cross her motherhood was crowned with gladness, and she found her joy just where she had seemed to lose it.

Who shall speak of the sorrow of His own mother? Let us describe it by the words in which it was foretold in those early days in which her heart was glad at the birth of Jesus. The sword had pierced through her own soul. What anguish of spirit, what heart-break Mary passed through, perhaps only motherhood can ever perfectly com­prehend? And yet she also found her salvation there, and is known today as most highly favored among women, be­cause she was the mother of Him Who was crucified for the redemption of man: blessed virgin in very deed. It is absolutely certain that we of the Protestant faith have in our rebound from the worship of this woman gone to another extreme, utterly unwarranted by Scripture. We have relegated Mary into the improper position of obscurity. We need to remember that an angel addressed her, saying, “Hail, thou that art highly favored," (Luke 1:28) and this we should all be prepared to say of her, as a recognition of her exalted position, having in it not the slightest suspicion of worship rendered. In Mary all womanhood was crowned and ele­vated, and yet she found her way into heaven, not because of the honor bestowed upon her, but by the way of that Cross and passion, which for the moment was a sword piercing her soul also.

Thus sorrow is seen at the Cross where sorrow is always seen at its deepest, in the wounded, stricken, smitten heart of womanhood; and yet in each case by the Cross the sor­row was turned into joy. Upon the dark cloud there flashed the great light, until the very cloud became a sea of glory. Oh, rough and rugged Cross of Calvary! We gather round your stern high value of suffering with our own hearts’ agony, and find heart's ease. We come to you with faces stained with tears, and in the strength of His victory our tears are wiped away; our sorrow is turned into joy.

CONDITIONS OF THE CROWD EXAMINED

CONDITIONS OF THE CROWD EXAMINED

Let us now look at these crowds in another way. We will attempt an analysis of the multitude, not so much with reference to the persons as to the conditions represented at the Cross, illustrating the fact by an examination of the people.

SORROW was absolutely represented by the presence of the women; WORLDLY GOVERNMENT by the centurion, the soldiers, and the malefactors; RELIGIOUS FAILURE by the chief priests and the Sanhedrim. The GREAT SHEPHERD LESS CROWD over which Christ had so often mourned, and in the presence of which His heart had ever been moved with compassion, was largely represented in the great multitude of which Luke speaks. Familiarity with Jesus had its representation in the presence before the Cross of HIS FAMILY AND ACQUAINTANCES. DISCIPLESHIP was there, in the person of His own, and particularly of John.

MIXED MULTITUDE AT THE CROSS

MIXED MULTITUDE AT THE CROSS

All the writers in some way refer to the presence of the women. Matthew speaks of the women from Galilee, and of these he names "Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee." (Matt. 27:46) Mark mentions these same three women, "Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome," (Mark 15:40) the wife of Zebedee, and therefore the mother of James and of John, the sons of Zebedee. Luke gives no names, but he declares the fact of the presence of the women in the words, "there fol­lowed Him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented Him." (Luke 23:27) John names the three referred to by Matthew and Mark, but adds another. It is he who declares the presence of the mother of the Lord. There has been some difference of opinion concerning John's account of the women present, which reads, "But there were standing by the Cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." (John 19:25) Some interpret that verse as referring to three women. In that case it is understood that His mother's sister was Mary the wife of Clopas. My own conviction is that John mentions four women, that Mary of Clopas was not the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. To tabulate the statement of John, you would write:

“His mother."

"His mother's sister."

"Mary the wife of Clopas."

"Mary Magdalene."

The only difference between this account, and those of Matthew and Mark, is the addition of the mention of Mary the mother of the Lord. In that case her sister was Salome, the wife of Zebedee, and mother of James and John. It is interesting to note in passing, the effect that this understanding of the passage has upon certain facts in the Gospel history. The woman who came to the Lord, and asked that her sons might sit, one on His right hand and one on His left hand, was according to the flesh, related to Him, being His mother's sister, and these men for whom the advantage was asked were His own cousins. This gives some clue to what otherwise appears as a very strange request. If it be granted that Salome was His mother's sister, we have at any rate some explanation of her request in the fact that she suggested to Him that when He came into the place of power He should find prefer­ment for His family relations.

We take it then for granted that four women are men­tioned as being present at the crucifixion of the Lord. In John we see two pairs, the unnamed women, the mother of the Lord and her sister; and the two women who are named, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. As Luke records, there were many other women, but these stand prominently out, as having been most closely associated with Him.

All the evangelists speak of the presence of the soldiers, and of the two malefactors crucified one on either side of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke draw special attention to the centurion in charge of the carrying out of the crucifixion, and they give some account of how he was impressed in the presence of the Crucified. According to Matthew he said, "Truly this was a Son of God"; Matt. 27:54 (margin) according to Mark, “Truly this Man was a Son of God "; Mark 15:39 (margin) according to Luke, "Certainly this was a right­eous Man." Luke 23:47 Let me at once say that there is no contradiction between Matthew and Mark on the one hand, and Luke on the other. It is almost certain that the cen­turion said both of these things. It is certainly conceiv­able that as this man watched Jesus on the Cross, he gave utterance to more than one sentence, and we believe there­fore that while Matthew and Mark record the statement which impressed them, Luke reported what appealed to him, and was in perfect harmony with his whole scheme of teaching. The accounts are rather complementary than contradictory.

The presence of the chief priests is recorded by Mat­thew, Mark, and John, Luke making no reference to them. Matthew, Mark, and Luke refer to the scribes, elders, or rulers, comprising the Sanhedrim, while John ignores their presence.

Luke, the burden of whose Gospel is that of the uni­versality of the work and relation of Jesus, declares the presence of great multitudes of the people.

John alone tells us that the disciples were also there, and he only, moreover, refers to the fact of his own presence, and this in order that he may record Christ's committal of His mother to his care. Standing back and gazing out upon that MIXED MULTITUDE, we notice the women, the soldiers, the criminals, the centurion, the chief priests, the members of the Sanhedrim, the group of His own dis­ciples, and in addition to these, the vast multitudes of peo­ple from the whole surrounding country. All  sorts and  conditions of men are gathered to the Cross, REPRESENTATIVE CROWDS, the whole scene being a picture and a prophecy of how, through all the  centuries, every sort  and condition would be gathered to the uplifted Cross of the Son of man.

THE REPRESENTATIVE CROWDS

THE REPRESENTATIVE CROWDS

The Cross was the outworking in history of the re­demptive purposes of God. In it the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, was slain in view of those for whom His passion and death provided redemption and life; healing and perfecting. It would seem as though all the facts and forces of human life appeared in the presence of the desire (Passion) of the Son of God. What the Cross was to those composing this assem­bly, depended upon the attitude of mind and heart in which they gathered around it. To some it was the evangel of hope. To others it was a sentence of doom. In the present article we shall attempt to look at those gathered to the Cross, and to ask what the Cross meant to them.

In an examination of the records of the crucifixion pre­served for us by the four evangelists, we shall be able to fill in for ourselves a picture of that Cross with the per­sons surrounding it. As we have been intent upon the vision of the suffering Savior, we now turn to look at those who are round about Him, and at once are arrested by the strange mixture, and representative character of the MULTITUDE gathered to the mount called Calvary.

Let us first state without reference to classification, the persons mentioned in the Gospels, and then proceed to separate them into groups, and consider the suggestiveness in each case in the following articles.

THE KING AND HIS FOLLOWERS

THE KING AND HIS FOLLOWERS

 

A unusually beautiful illustration of the truth is supplied in the story of the criminal on the cross beside Him. Carefully note the setting of that story in the Gospel of Luke. Immediately preceding it is the account of the superscription over His cross, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS." (Luke 23:38) Immediately following it is the declaration: "It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the land until the ninth hour, the sun's light failing, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst." (Luke 23:44-45)

The superscription expressed the fact that the Hebrew nation did not believe this truth. So far as Pilate was concerned it was undoubtedly an expression of his contempt for the men who had embraced the death of Jesus. These are the human elements. The Divine fact is that the superscription was written with the finger of God even though Pilate all unconsciously was His penman. As of old He restrained Cyrus, though he did not know Him, so He inspired Pilate who was all unconscious. The Jewish nation in the purpose of God was a revelation of His GOV­ERNMENT, a theocracy through which He would express the benefits of His rule to the nations of the world that they might all share in them by submission. In the economy of God, therefore, the King of the Jews was the Holy One set upon the hill of Zion, King of the whole earth. The Hebrew people had their exodus from bondage long centuries before, but it had never been completed. The letter to the Hebrews makes this perfectly clear. They passed over the sea, and yet died in the wilderness. The God-appointed King, talking with Moses who had led that o1d-time exodus and yet who himself had failed as the people had failed spoke of an exodus which He would ac­complish. The other exodus was never accomplished. It was begun but not finished. He had come to accomplish, to finish the exodus, and the superscription marks Him as the King Who is leading His people, and all people who bow to His scepter in that exodus which is perfect freedom from the bondage of false authority.

At last the hours of darkness are ended, and then it is written, "the veil of the temple was rent in the midst." (Luke 23:45) The torn veil was the sign that the exodus so far as the King was concerned, was accomplished. This exodus which has been considered as a going out of, liberation from the bondage is now seen as an introduction to RELA­TIONSHIP WITH GOD.

Between this declaration concerning the superscription, and the account of the rent veil, there is the story of the criminal, and his coming into association with the King, in the process of the exodus. That dying man is a super­lative illustration of the SLAVERY OF SIN. He is suffering the penalty of death, which is the issue of the paralysis of ruined character. In that hopeless condition he becomes conscious of his nearness to the King. There is, as it seems to me, no record of faith in the New Testament as wonderful as that of the dying criminal. In the very moment of the defeat of Jesus to all  human thinking, in the presence of the sign and symbol of His casting out, this man recognizes the King moving towards a Kingdom, and he appeals to Him before the exodus is accomplished, before the crowning is reached. His cry is the cry of con­scious need as it casts itself in all its helplessness at the feet of ultimate authority. "Jesus, remember me when Thou come in Thy kingdom." (Luke 23:42) What did the King say to such an appeal? He was on His way from Egypt to the land of liberty. He was at the moment grappling with the bonds that bound the race. He, whelmed in the billows of the sea, was yet in infinite power dividing a pathway through its waters, and without hesitation, in a great consciousness of the coming victory, He said, "To­day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) We care noth­ing for the moment as to discussions concerning the Para­dise: "With Me." That is the word of value. Explain the Paradise as you will. Let it mean for the moment, if you so please, simply the abiding place of disembodied spirits. Those spirits are in need of a temporary body to function and that the King will furnish until the resurrection of their body of this earth and its final perfecting; healed and perfected. What does that matter? The fact remains that the sin-slaved and ruined man is in that abode to be with the King. Abandonment to Him will issue in identification with Him. If that issue is His defeat, then also will abide the defeat of the man. Yet this is a suggestion ventured only by way of contrast to the glorious fact. The King really said to him, I am going on My exodus, you come with Me. I am passing to the depth of this slavery. I am breaking these bonds. I am liberating the prisoners. Come with Me. From that moment until this He has been leading souls who have trusted Him through the path­way of His passion with all its values, into the place of His victory with all its virtues.

Thus the presence and the plea of the dying criminal reveals the Cross as the condemnation and death of re­bellion and unbelief, and the commendation and life power of loyalty and faith.

So comes the kingdom of God! The King has accom­plished the exodus! Are we living in the bondage, or in freedom? The answer to this question will be found in the answer to another. Have we yet come into the place of trusting identification with Him in His Cross? If so, then for us

"Bars are riven, Foes are driven"

and our bondage is at an end.

The King accomplished the exodus for all such as put their trust in Him, and these have already passed with Him from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom, from death to life. May the King be followed and obeyed in deed.