STANDING BY THE CROSS OF JESUS
Jim T Brown
There were those that passed by the cross of Jesus, passers-by of the cross on which the Lord of glory suffered, uttering ridicule as they passed. But there were those too who stood by the cross of Jesus, silent in their adoration of the One they so dearly loved, uttering no words of ridicule, but absorbed in the contemplation of that awful scene. Their names are recorded, how lustrously they will shine in the annals of heaven as having stood by the cross of Jesus, no doubt with the Master’s own accolade: ‘You stood by My cross in My day of sorrow’. The names of those that passed by are not recorded, but surely they will be called to account when the divine assessments are made: ‘You passed by My cross, in My day of anguish’. So two distinguishable groups emerge, those who passed by the cross and those who stood by it. This verse says, “standing by”, not just near it but “by” it, identifying themselves with the cross and the One who hung on it, the precious Saviour. How important the cross is! It has been described as “the centre of the history of eternity’, JND Synopsis Matthew-John p360. It was no impromptu matter, no inadvertent occurrence in the history of time, for the Lord Jesus was “given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”, Acts 2: 23. But He was crucified “by the hand of lawless men”; so men cannot escape their own responsibility.
So, we are challenged as to where we stand. Are we standing by the cross of Jesus or passing it by? I do not mean in the sense of the passers-by in the verses read but perhaps our affections for the One who hung there have waned a little, and are not quite so fervent as once they were. The Lord Jesus in that address to Laodicea described them as being “lukewarm” (Rev 3: 16), and He says, “I counsel thee” - think of the Lord Jesus counselling us - “to buy of me gold purified by fire”, v 18. The Lord Jesus has borne the fire so that what pertains to the gold might be enjoyed by us - the outshining of His grace, His mercy, His love, in order that we might be brought into these glorious relationships about which we were speaking this afternoon. So, how do we stand in relation to the cross of Jesus? What sufferings He bore. It is refreshing, stimulating, and challenging too, to occupy ourselves with them. Mr Darby’s pamphlet ’The Sufferings of Christ’ (Collected Writings vol 7) is ever edifying, ever convicting, ever stimulating, and it is edifying to read it often. The sufferings of Christ should become more precious to us, His sufferings on the cross pre-eminently, but ere He was on the cross, He suffered too, suffered at the hands of men, and suffered on account of righteousness.
We were speaking a little at our reading on Wednesday about Judas, who betrayed the Lord Jesus. Judas was at supper with the Lord Jesus, and it says, “Having therefore received the morsel, he went out immediately; and it was night”, John 13: 30. How dark was the night when Judas went out to parley with the chief priests about a valuation of Jesus! Can you think of that, men seeking to place a monetary value on the worth of Jesus? Dark were the footsteps that took Judas there, and they settled on thirty pieces of silver. How do we value the Lord Jesus? Do we see Him “despised, and we esteemed him not”, as it says in Isaiah 53: 3? His worth is not to be reckoned in monetary terms. See them count! - twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty pieces of silver - ‘Not a penny more’, you might hear them say. Such was the callousness of men that they valued the Lord of life and glory at thirty pieces of silver, “the price of him that was set a price on, whom they who were of the sons of Israel had set a price on”, Matt 27: 9. So Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ, His own “familiar friend”. It says in the Psalms,
But it was thou, a man mine equal, mine intimate, my familiar friend …
We who held sweet intercourse together. To the house of God we walked
amid the throng, Ps 55: 13, 14.
Then Judas led a band to Jesus to take Him captive. It is profitable to compare incidents in Scripture as described by the different gospel writers. We were noticing one in Grangemouth the other Lord’s day. So it is interesting that Luke is the only gospel writer to refer to “a sinner” (in the singular) or “the sinner” or a “repenting sinner”. All the other gospel writers refer to sinners collectively, but Luke makes that distinction, perhaps bringing out his particular love for individual souls.
Another distinction in relation to the betrayal of the Lord Jesus is set out in John’s gospel. The synoptic gospels describe Judas leading the band to the Lord Jesus “with swords and sticks” to take Him captive, but John uniquely says, “having got the band … comes there with lanterns and torches and weapons”. “Lanterns and torches”: it is perverse in its contradiction. They brought “lanterns and torches” as if to seek to dispel the moral darkness which shrouded that sorrowful scene, and to illuminate it with artificial light, when before them was the One who is “the light of life”. Indeed “the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”, John 1: 5. So sunk in moral darkness were they, that they were unable to apprehend that before them was the One who was “the light of men”. He Himself says, “he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12. How great the depravity of men, their absolute rejection of the Lord Jesus, and their hostility to Him, that they would come to take Him with such implements.
Then, having taken and bound Jesus He was subjected to the most ignominious, shameful sufferings. They buffeted Him; they spat upon Him - surely the nadir of human behaviour to spit upon anyone, far less the Originator of Life, the Creator of the world! Yet that is what they did to Him. Then “one of the officers who stood by gave a blow on the face to Jesus”, John 18: 22. In Micah it says, “they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek” (chap 5: 1), insolence so great that the Holy Spirit intervenes immediately to identify the glory of the One on whom they were inflicting such things: “And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me who is to be Ruler in Israel: whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity”, v 2. Such was the One they dared to smite, and then, too, to strike Him with a reed to His head, Mark 15: 19. And on that head they placed a crown of thorns, which they had plaited. One of the gospel writers says, in one place, “the crown of thorn” (John 19: 5); others say, “a crown of thorns”, Mark 15: 17. The singular reference to “the crown of thorn “ is perhaps to emphasise how men were at one in their rejection and humiliation of the precious Saviour. And yet without resistance, He accepted it all. He did not accord such treatment to the actions of men; He accepted it all as from God, “who, when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously”, 1 Pet 2: 23.
Then He was crucified. Scripture is largely silent on the details of the actual act of crucifixion, when men in their cruelty and malice took nails and drove them into the hands and feet of the Redeemer; and we can but ponder and marvel at the perfection of One, so great in His own Person, that allowed Himself to be maligned in such a way. We had Psalm 22 in the reading. It says, “Many bulls have encompassed me; Bashan’s strong ones have beset me round”, v 12. There was the pressure of the religious elements bearing in upon Him. Then it says, “For dogs have encompassed me”, v 16. Dogs, the Gentile soldiers mocking Him, molesting and ridiculing Him. O the sufferings of Jesus! For Him, there was ‘the violation of every delicacy which a perfectly attuned mind could feel’, JND vol 7 p172. Every delicacy! Not a single human feeling - and Christ was perfect in them all - that was not violated in His sufferings. How men despised the Lord of life and glory!
Yet, to bear the malice and reproach of men was not sufficient to secure redemption and make atonement for sins. He must bear the judgment and the wrath of God, during these three awful hours on the cross. He cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Ps 22: 1. What it must have meant to the Lord Jesus to be deprived of His God and Father’s love. What it must have meant for God that His love could not be enjoyed by Jesus! What it must have meant to His heart! Words could never fully express the feelings of the Lord Jesus as He endured in His soul the consciousness of the privation of God. ‘Love has no place in wrath against sin’, JND vol 7 p190. Love could not sweeten, could not mitigate, wrath. All that God was in His nature was against sin, and Christ was made sin. Consider the awfulness of that, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Cor 5: 21. How awful to think of what the Lord Jesus endured in order that we might be saved and come to the enjoyment of every spiritual blessing that heaven could bestow upon us. It says, “he has been crucified in weakness” (2 Cor 13: 4): just to read it affects the soul. Then, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is become like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels”, Ps 22: 14. Solemn it is to consider the horrible nature of crucifixion, the physical pain, and the anguish, which He suffered as “crucified in weakness”. No one ever knew weakness like Jesus: ‘One who was weaker than any other ever was’, JBS vol 3 p125. What a comfort therefore when we feel weak, that we can have the sympathy of One who was weaker than we could ever be. But it has to be said, of course, that the Lord Jesus did not die from exhaustion. He died in the power of life, and “he lives by God’s power”, 2 Cor 13: 4.
Then, finished all, in meekness
Thou to Thy Father’s hand
(Perfect Thy strength in weakness)
Thy spirit dost commend. (JND Spiritual Songs, p37)
He had power - or authority - to lay down His life and to take it again, John 10: 18. It is wonderful to think of the Lord Jesus now beyond the cross, beyond all that men did to Him, the reproaches and the judgment that He bore.
These things are calculated to affect us. How much has been accomplished by the cross. By the Lord Jesus, all things are to be reconciled to the Godhead, “having made peace by the blood of his cross”, Col 1: 20. Think of the distortion, the disturbance and disquiet in the world today, nation rising up against nation, enmity existing among men, yet He has “made peace by the blood of his cross”. The whole universe - things in the heavens and on the earth - is to be reconciled, and the basis of it all is the work of Jesus on the cross. Then, too, “by the cross” He has “slain the enmity”, Eph 2: 16. How much hostility is abroad, antisemitism and so on, but the work of Jesus on the cross has provided the basis for Jew and gentile, as believing on Jesus, to be reconciled in one body to God. How wonderful to think of that!
So, what effect does the cross have on us? We think of our histories. We think of all that was involved at the cross, what Jesus did, and all that attaches to the old man done away with there. My sins, my state, addressed by the work of Jesus on the cross! What do I give in return?
The cross shall meet its sure reward (Hymn 399).
I think these five persons who stood by the cross just exemplify that. See them standing there, no doubt themselves bearing reproach as they stood there. As the passers-by reviled the Saviour, they too would not have gone unnoticed. Some of them had come from Galilee, and there they stood by the cross, resolute in their devotion, and in their contemplation of that shameful scene. They would see how the Lord Jesus had been treated. So close to the cross were they that they might have heard Him say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23: 34. They might have heard Him cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt 27: 46. They might have heard His words, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”, Luke 23: 46. There they stood, in principle, in “the fellowship of his sufferings” (Phil 3: 10), where we ourselves are called to be, that is, into a bond of suffering with Him. It is said that suffering with Him is greater than suffering for Him. What a challenge that is, and how far short we come. Of course, He suffered uniquely; His cross is distinctive, but we are required to take up our cross: “If any one desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”, Matt 16: 24. Things come into our lives; pressures bear in upon us like a cross; but we are exhorted to endure all, as following Him, and accepting everything from His own hand. Thus we take up our cross and follow Him.
Paul could say, “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”, Gal 2: 20. His heart was so full of love and affection for Christ he was unreservedly committed to the service of the One who had saved him, and who had commissioned him in such a distinctive and unique way. His heart was filled with Christ. Christ was living in Paul to the exclusion of everything else. He could also say, “But far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”, Gal 6: 14.
May the consideration of these things have a fresh impact on each of us as taking up our cross and following Him, and as affected by all that Christ suffered on our behalf. The challenge is that we should do something for Him. We do that every week as we commit ourselves in fidelity to Him in the breaking of bread, and follow Him in the light of that. What a reward there is in so doing. These five persons had their reward. Think of Mary of Magdala! What a reward was hers to be assigned such a message, “go to my brethren”, John 20: 17. What recompense for standing at the cross of Jesus! Then too John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was entrusted by the Lord Jesus with the care of Mary, His mother. What a privilege for him, and he was designated too to write the Revelation. And of Mary, the Lord’s mother, it was said that even, a sword would go through her own soul, Luke 2: 35. What pain, what anguish for her! She would never see the Lord Jesus in such a condition again, never know Him again in flesh and blood, but she would see Him during these forty days in another condition, in a different relationship, as numbered among His brethren. What a recompense for her! So, indeed,
The cross shall meet its sure reward.
So may we be exercised to have regard to the cross of Jesus, not to be among the passers-by, but to stand resolutely by it, and to prove the blessings of so doing, for His Name’s sake!
Linlithgow
11th January 2025