The Culture Of The Cross
Jesus Himself remains for ever the convincing illustration of the culture of the Cross. His rejection by a wicked generation and the outrages heaped upon Him seemed an unredeemed calamity to His disciples. His undeserved and accumulated trials were at times a burden almost too great for Jesus’ own soul. But He entered into their meaning before the end, because they were bringing His humanity to the fulness of perfection. Without His cross Jesus had been poorer in the world this day and might have been unloved. It was suffering that wrought in Him that beauty of holiness, sweetness of patience, wealth of sympathy, and grace of compassion, which constitute His divine attraction, and are seating Him on His throne.
Once when the cloud fell on Him, He cried, “Father, save me from this hour”; when the cloud lifted, Jesus saw of the travail of His soul—” I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” In the upper room Jesus was cast down for an instant; then Iscariot went out to arrange for the arrest, and Jesus revived at the sight of the cross: ” Now is the Son of Man glorified.” Two disciples are speaking of the great tragedy as they walk to Emmaus, when the Lord joins them and reads the riddle of His life. It was not a disaster: it was a design. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” The perfection of Jesus was the fruit of the cross.
“Thou must go without, go without—that is the everlasting song which every hour all our life through hoarsely sings to us”—is the profound utterance of a great teacher; but Jesus has said it better in His commandment of self-abnegation and His offer of the cross.
Jesus nowhere commanded that one cling to His cross, He everywhere commanded that one carry His cross, and out of this daily crucifixion has been born the most beautiful sainthood from St. Paul to St. Francis, from a Kempis to George Herbert. For there is no salvation of the soul nor hope of everlasting life but in the cross.
—John Watson.
Alternate Reading: Acts 28:1-16.