ON THE CROSS
‘Then were there two thieves crucified with Him.’
I. Christ crucified with man.—That there might be no doubt about the disgracefulness of the Saviour’s sufferings, He was hung between two thieves. The Saviour’s life entered into the life of humanity at its blackest. He had left behind heaven, He had left behind even the little heavenliness He had found on earth. All the disciples had forsaken Him and fled. The little flicker of sympathy which he had seen upon the face of Pilate He had lost now. He had come to the company of robbers. ‘There were two thieves crucified with Him.’
II. Man crucified with Christ.—A few short years passed away. The crucifixion of Jesus had been illuminated by the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Pentecost. It had become already, in the minds of hundreds of men and women, a dear and glorious event. Behind its shame and pain it had opened a heart of love and glory, and St. Paul, summing up his own life in its best privileges and holiest purposes, says,’ I am crucified with Christ.’ See how great the difference is. Before, when Christ was crucified with the two thieves, it was the Son of God brought down into the misery and shame of man. Now, when Paul was crucified with Jesus, it was man brought up into the glory of the Son of God. Evidently there must be another side, a side of privilege and delight, to the great tragedy, or else we should not hear a man cry with a tone of exultation, ‘Lo, I am crucified with Christ.’ As Christ, by His self-sacrifice, entered into the company of man, so there is a self-surrender by which man enters into the company of Christ. He came down to us and tasted on our cross the misery of sin. We may go up to His cross and taste, with Him, the glory and peace of perfect obedience and communion with God. There were two different elements at the Cross—one dreadful, and one beautiful. There was what Christ made for us, the victim, torn and tortured and distressed; and there was what Christ is in Himself, and what He wants to make us, the loving, peaceful Son of God. Christ surrendered Himself and became the first. We, if we can surrender ourselves, may become the second, and share the glory of His crucifixion.
(a) The truth of the Cross must have been Divinely and completely present with Him. That truth was the love of God.
(b) The consciousness of the Cross conveyed a clear and satisfying knowledge of His own position, and the consciousness of obedience. He was doing His Father’s will.
(c) The vision of the Cross was that He would draw all men unto Himself. When He was lifted up He must have seen them gathering.
—Bishop Phillips Brooks.
Illustration
‘One afternoon a man stood in Antwerp Cathedral gazing at Rubens’ “Descent from the Cross.” He was so absorbed in what he saw, that when the verger came and told him it was time to close the cathedral, he exclaimed, “No, no, not yet; wait until they get Him down.” ’