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"When I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride."
Isaac Watts.
Christians see Calvary as holy ground. But how holy was it
to those who were there when Christ was crucified for ".....
sitting down they watched Him there." Matthew 27:36
People have always been attracted by the spectacular and
especially by the most horrifying of spectacles. We are reminded
by "The Tale of Two Cities" when Dickens writes
of the mob who gathered to watch the aristocrats being guillotined
by the French revolutionaries. The killings lasted for several
days and each day the mob gathered to chatter, to knit, to
mock but never to mourn.
There were sightseers on Calvary's Hill as Jesus and the
two convicted criminals were crucified. There, too, were the
Roman soldiers who had the gruesome task of seeing the sentence
against Jesus carried out.
Some of them must have been repelled and angry as they watched
Him there. And fearful too, after many days of rumours of
Jewish revolution, for the trials of Jesus had been noisy
affairs and with the promise of danger for them. They hated
this place anyway.
Like all Romans they regarded a posting there as to be avoided.
They were puzzled, too, for Jesus had been spoken of as a
Jewish benefactor a wise, good man,bhealer with many miracles.
How could they put such a man on a cross? At His death their
centurian claimed "Truly this was the Son of God."
The priests and Levites were there to see the judgement carried
out. They had sought this ending because they feared this
man and His teaching would undermine their influence and the
benefits it brought them. Their selfish interests meant that
they ignored the tolerance, honesty and decency of the teaching
of their own religion.
Many were there who had hoped that He would have led them
out of their Roman bondage. But He had refused them for His
clearly stated reasons. They abandoned Him in their disappointment
and joined with the others who had cried"Give us Barabbas
and crucify Jesus". Disillusionment had turned to spite.
Those who dearly loved Him were there in utter despair at
the treatment He had received. All they could do in their
shared grief was to mourn. So among those who watched Him
there was uncertainty, the Romans; satisfaction, the priests
and Levites; disillusionment, the Jewish nationalists; deep
grief, and the men and women who believed in Him.
A contemplation of the Cross produces different reactions
still and with the questions, "Why did He have to die
and to what purpose?" The basic answer to the question
is "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures."
1 Cor 15:3. He sacrificed Himself to remove the estrangement
of God and people, the atonement, at-one-ment, the bringing
of God and people into proper relationship, for God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
"In Him the invisible became visible, the incomprehensible
became comprehensible." Iranaeas.
"He was made a sharer in our mortality. He made us
sharers in His deity." Augustine.
The Cross was the irrefutable evidence that God loves us
to the uttermost. When He took human form in the person of
Jesus to comfort, advise, feed, heal and forgive, to love
and live for people He was saying God loves you like that.
We see God in Jesus Christ.
The Cross tells us
"Jesus' love is love unbounded.
Without measure, without end.
Human thought is here confounded.
'Tis too vast to comprehend.
Praise the Saviour.
Magnify the sinner's Friend."
Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long
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