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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

The Cross And Us

Article 3 ~ July 2006

"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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