Faces About the Cross

FOR A FEW minutes let us look at the faces

about the cross. Our Saviour was cru-

cified near the gate of the city and there-
fore near a road, no doubt the main road
leading north out of Jerusalem. It was a
place where many passing by beheld Him.
(\1atthew 2.7:39.) And there were many
who stood by to see the sight, as we read
in Luke 23:48. There were also present the
rulers and priests, the four soldiers (John
19:23, 24), the two criminals, Simon of
Cyrene who carried the cross, many women,
including the mother of our Lord, His aunt,
Mary Magdalene, and Salome (Mark 15:-
40, 41), the apostle J 01111, and many of
Christ's acquaintances. (Luke 23:49.) Some-
one, speaking of these faces about the cross,
called them "cameos of Calvary." And so
they are-never-to-be-forgotten pictures. In
them we see reflected every attitude of man
toward Christ.
Just look at them! There they are-the
ones who hated Him and the ones who
loved Him, the ones who were ignorant and
the ones who didn't care, and then the mob
Faces About the Cross of curiosity seekers and those who swing
with the popular tide. So we may call
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these faces about the cross the hateful
watchers, the loving watchers, the blind
watchers, the careless watchers, and the
mob watchers. They were all looking at
J esus lifted up between earth and sky. That
was the world then, and it's the world now
as it gathers about the cross.
1. The Hateful Watchers.
Among the faces about the cross were
those who hated Him, especially the chief
priests and scribes and elders, as we read
in Matthew 27:41. Notice, they did not
stand up close to the cross and talk to Jesus.
They stood apart from the common people,
they despised and talked about Him. They
personified religion. They were acquainted
with the prophecies of Scripture and should
have welcomed Christ with joy. Our Sav-
iour once said to these scholars of sacred
things:
"Search the scriptures; for in them y~
think ye have eternal life: and they am they
which testify of me."-John 5:39.
It has been said that the worst is a cor-
ruption of the best. What is more kind and
merciful than true religion? And what is
more unkind and merciless than hatred
that calls itself religious? These men came
to witness the long-drawn-out agonies of
the One they had condemned. We hear
these dignified movers of the ignorant
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crowd talking among themselves and to
those within hearing. What do they say?
It is written here in Matthew 27 :42, 43:
"H e saced others; himself he cannot sace.
If he be the King of Israel, let him now
come down from the cross, and we will be-
lieve him.
"He trusted in God; let him deliver him
now, if he will have him: for he said, I am
the Son of God."
"He saved others." That is certain, and
these bitter enemies do not deny it. But
He did not save Himself. That is certain
too. "Himself he cannot save." In one
sense that word "cannot" is profoundly
true-e-true in a wav that their learned ig-
norance could not comprehend. lIe could
not save sinners and at the same time save
Himself from the cross. To be our substi-
tute, our sacrifice, our representative, lIe
must die; He must make the atonement for
the sins of the world.
But this "cannot" came not from lack of
power but from fullness of love. Our Sav-
iour did not save Himself from agony and
death because He would not. All through
the Scriptures, and especially in the four
Gospels, we find indications from our Lord's
own lips and from His acts that His suffer-
ings and death were voluntary. "No man
taketh it from me," He says about His life,
"but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take
it again." John 10: 18.
When blind Samson was called to make
mirth for his enemies in the temple of Da-
gon, he groped with both arms for the
pillars of the temple, and then bowing
himself brought the Philistines, their tem-
ple and idols, down in death and ruin. So
our great Saviour, with His arms spread out
upon the cross, grasping with one arm the
pillar of sin and with the other the pillar
of death-the two mighty supports of the
kingdom of Satan - bowed Himself in
death, and brought that kingdom of rebel-
lion down in hopeless ruin. He saved others,
but Himself He could not, would not, save.
The next words of these watchers show
that they held the same idea as many who
look at the cross today. "Let him come
down from the cross, and we will believe
him." They wanted a crossless Christ, a
bloodless gospel.· "Come down from the
cross" has been the creed of every man-
made philosophy from the day of the cru-
cifixion to this very hour. The words of
Annas and Caiaphas and the others there
were modern words: "Let us believe what
we want to believe and we will believe. vVe
will accept a leader, but we desire no Sav-
iour." But it was precisely because He did
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not come down from the cross that sad and
sorrowing and sinful hearts turn to Him
from the ends of the earth and cry:
"God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world."-Galatians 6:14.
When in 1825 Sir John Bowring, then
governor of Hong Kong, visited the Portu-
guese colony of Macao, he saw the ruins of
a great cathedral standing on the crest of a
hill. It was one of the first buildings erected
by the colonists. Under the assault of a
typhoon, it fell-all except the front wall.
It has never been rebuilt, and the heavy
facade has stood there for three hundred
years. On top is a great bronze cross which
had defied rain, lightning, and typhoon,
towering o'er the wreck of the past. It
had stood there over the ruins, silhouetted
against the sky, for more than a hundred
years before Bowring's time; and, when he
saw it he sat down and wrote:
"In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime."
The last comment of these particular
watchers about the cross which we will no-
tice is this:
"He trusted in God; let him deliver him
,..,
now, if He will have him: for he said, I
am the Son of Cod."-Matthew 27:43.
Isn't it strange that they quoted the very
words of the great prophetic "Psalm of
Sobs"? In this they fulfilled the prophecy
pointing to Jesus as the true 1essiah. Here
are the words of Psalm 22:7, 8, written by
inspiration about a thousand years before:
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
they shoot out the lip, they shake the head,
saying,
"H e trusted on the Lord that he would
delicer him: let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him."
Had the Father taken His Son down from
the cross, what would have been the result?
Redemption unaccomplished, salvation un-
done, the work of Christ unfinished. This
would not have been deliverance, but de-
feat. Our Saviour went on with His great
purpose of atonement and, having accom-
plished it, slept a while in the tomb, and
now has ascended to His throne in heaven.
God delivered Him. He came forth a vic-
tor over sin and death forevermore. And,
friend, He will deliver you from the guilt,
the penalty, and the power of sin if you
will have Christ. If you will have Him, He
will deliver you now.
2. The Loving Watchers.
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Among the faces about the cross we see
those who loved Jesus. It has been said,
"Fidelity, thy name is woman." And so it
might have been said of those four women
who were not far from the cross.
The mother of Jesus was there. Aided
by the disciple John, she makes her way
through the jeering crowd right to the
foot of the cross. ow she knows the
meaning of those strange words spoken by
Simeon when she took the Christ child to
the temple so long ago:
"Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy
own soul also."-Lukc 2:35.
o mother of Mine, forsake Me not!
To labor and die it is Mv lot;
But the day is dark, the'ail' is chill,
And the cross is raised on this lone hill.
There is never a one to take My part
While the sin and sorrow break My heart.
They have lifted Me up against the morn,
And the crown they gave has many a
thorn.
They pierced My hands and they pierced
My feet;
Gave hatred for love and gall for sweet.
Behold, 0 woman, this Son of thine-
Mother of Mine, 0 mother of Mine!
H.M.S.R.
And so the sword of sorrow pierced, but
Christ's mother was there by her Son in His
dying hour. Yes, she was there beside the
cross.
Salome, mother of James and John, was
at the cross too, and looked on with heart-
broken sympathy. Like Salome, Mary, the
wife of Cleopas, was the mother of two
of Christ's disciples-James, the less, and
Joses. Inspired by the faith of her sons,
she mourned His death on the cross. The
third Mary at the cross was the woman who
loved much because she had been forgiven
much.
Beside these four, there were other wom-
en present. (Matthew 27 :55.) The disciple
John was there close to the cross, as well
as other followers of Jesus, called "His ac-
quaintances" in Luke 23:49. Was Joseph
of Arimathaea among them?-and Nicode-
mus? Most likely. All these faces about the
cross were faces of love. These watchers
did not understand the terrible scene, but
they loved Jesus. Their faith was tested,
their hope was almost gone, but they loved
Him. "And the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13: 13. (A.R.V.)
3. The Blind 'Watchers were there.
Next among the faces about the cross we
notice those of the spiritually blind. Utterly
ignorant they were as they watched the
supreme event of the ages. To them it was
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just another execution. Some took part in
it-the four soldiers, no doubt heathen from
a foreign land, simply obeyed orders when
they drove the nails. Then, tired from their
exertions, they sat down and "watched Him
there." Matthew 27:36. The men who
caused the most physical agony to our Lord
were the least responsible because their
knowledge was so small. "Father, forgive
them;" He prayed, "for they know not what
they do." Luke 23:34. Men are responsible
for the light they have. In James 4:17 it is
written:
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin,"
In those uncomprehending faces about
the cross we see the millions who have
neither love, nor faith, nor hope. Today,
as then-
"The light shineth. in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not."-John 1:5.
But one heart there at the cross opened
to the light of heaven-and one the least
expected. Into one face came "the light
that never was on sea or land." The poor
thief said, "Lord, remember me when thou
com est into thy kingdom," and there and
then had the promise of a place with Christ
in Paradise. (Luke 23 :39-43.) The centurion
was busy with his official duties, but when
the darkness came down and the rocks rent
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and the Saviour cried out with the Scripture
on His lips, he saw the light too, and said,
"Truly this was the Son of God." Matthew
27:54. We come next to-
4. The Careless Watchers.
The Scripture calls them "They that
passed by." Matthew 27:39. They took a
look but did not stay long. They went on
about the little things of life-into the city
to buy and sell, into the country to work
or to visit. They were the passing throng.
Look at their faces. The interest of curiosi-
ty is there. Like Moses when he saw the
bush on fire, they seem to say, "I will now
turn aside, and see this great sight." Exodus
3:3.
Simon of Cyrene was just passing by
when he was "drafted" (that's the word in
the original), drafted against his own desire
to carry the cross. And what at first was a
burden became a blessing. Are you, friend,
just "passing by" now? Stop a moment and
look at your Saviour crucified for you.
One day early in the eighteenth century,
the artist Stenberg walked through the mar-
ket place and was attracted by the face of
a dancing gypsy girl. He invited her to his
studio where he used her as a model for
his painting, "The Dancing Gypsy Girl."
The little girl was much impressed with
what she saw there and watched with in-
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terest as the great artist worked on his
painting of the crucifixion. One day she
said to Stenberg, "He must have been a
very bad man to have been nailed to a
cross."
" 0," the artist said, "He was a good man
-the best man that ever lived. In fact, He
died for all men."
"Did He die for you?" asked the girl.
This pointed question pierced the artist's
heart, for he had not surrendered to Christ.
Soon after this he chanced to attend a meet-
ing of the Reformers, where the Scriptures
were opened to him and he was converted.
Then he went back to work on his painting
of the crucifixion, not only with the skill
of an artist but with the love of a believer
in Christ. When the masterpiece was com-
pleted, it was hung in the great art gallery
of Dusseldorf.
One day a young German count, wander-
ing through the gallery, paused before
Stenberg's "Crucifixion." He seemed froz-
en to the spot. He looked and looked again,
and what he saw moved him greatly. Then
he noticed the words written under the
painting: "All this 1 did for thee; what hast
thou done for Me?" A great change came
over the young nobleman, and Count Jic-
olaus Zinzendorf (for such it was) went
forth to found that noble missionary broth
I.'3
erhood of the Moravians, who have carried and who with loving-kindness draws us to
the gospel to many lands. Himself as we find ourselves ~mong those
5. The "f,[ob1,Vatchers. faces about the cross.

Last of all, we see other faces about the Have faith in God-
cross-angry, distorted faces, the faces of They stood there-gold and dross;
the mob-people who "follow a multitude
Have faith in God-
to do evil" (Exodus 23: 2) or to do good.
They are swayed by the spirit of the times Beyond all gain or loss;
or of the hour. About a week before the Have faith in God-
crowd had shouted, "Hosannah in the Faces about the cross.
highest," as Jesus rode triumphantly into Have faith, dear friend, in God.
Jerusalem. But now they cry, "Crucify
Him," and they mock Him upon the cross.
How often has it been sadly true that a
crowd, swayed by strong leaders, will do
what they would never do as individuals.
As you pray in these latter days, think of
those faces about the cross. Our whole
world was there. In those faces of hate, of
love, of blind indifference, of careless cur-
iosity, and of popular emotion, we behold
the attitude of everyone in this old world
as we all gather about the cross of Christ.
But where do we belong? What sort of
face is yours? What SOli of face is mine? Sate: All rights reserved. To reproduce any part
Jesus said: of this publication, please obtain permission from
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, THE VOICE OF PROPHECY
will draw all men unto me."-John 21:32. Box 55. Los Angeles .53, California

o friend, may God help us to respond to

the love of our Saviour who died for us
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