The Incarnate Lord (7)

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2.2

The vision of Christ crucified
No Christian can think of the crucifixion of Jesus and not see some image of that gruesome but glorious event. We see Jesus on the cross. He is in agony, but at peace. He is suffering, but victorious. Like a lamb, He is silent before His slaughterers, but He speaks important words through His pain.

What do we see as we consider Jesus, hanging on the cross? I can’t help but recall the words of that great hymn by Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”:

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.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Watts’ emphasis is on what we see of Jesus: the blood of Jesus, His head and hands and feet, the crown of thorns. I have no doubt that these are vivid and easily brought to mind by sincere believers in Jesus Christ.

But we recall that Jesus also spoke from the cross. And each of those brief words from Jesus conveys a feeling, an attitude, and a frame of mind, which we ought to be able to see on His face. It’s the image of Jesus in His suffering, reflected in these last words, that I want us to consider in this final segment of our consideration of Jesus during His earthly sojourn.

Seven words, seven expressions
Jesus’ first words from the cross are words of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Lk. 23.34). Amid His excruciating pain and suffering, we hear a tenderness in His voice, and we see the compassion of Jesus, seeking grace for even the worst of His enemies, even you and me.

Next, Jesus offers that compassion to one of the thieves crucified with Him: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Lk. 23.43). Did their eyes meet as Jesus spoke? Did the dying thief see that compassionate look? That resolute visage, confident amid suffering of the victory to be realized in three short days?

The compassion and love on Jesus’ face was next turned to His mother and the beloved disciple: “He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ (Jn. 19.26, 27) Here is the Good Shepherd, taking care of His most precious sheep, lovingly attending to their needs as His own life began to drain away.

Before long, the reality of what was actually happening to Him caught up with the pain Jesus experienced. He was bearing the world’s sin in His own body, and we can see the anguish of our sin on His face as His Father turns away from Him for the first and only time: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matt. 27.26)

All alone now, the judgment of God against our sin bearing down on Him with the eternal pain of separation from God, the Man of Sorrows whispered, “I thirst!” (Jn. 19.28) What weariness and sadness over our sins, coupled with the hope and joy set down before Him, must he have seen who held that sponge of sour wine up to the Savior’s lips.

Then, having tasted the bitterness He was feeling throughout His soul and body, Jesus said, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19.30), and the relief and resignation on His face must have been slowly giving way to joy as He realized that His work of redemption was done, and the promise of salvation for all who believed in Him was about to be sprung in the world.

Finally, quoting from Psalm 31, Jesus restfully sighed, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Lk. 23.46), as He died in peace.

Consider Jesus
As we consider Jesus hanging on the cross, we can see in His face, at one time or another, all those familiar looks that we saw throughout His earthly sojourn: welcoming a sinner into heaven, strong to bear the world’s sin, compassionate toward those He loves, resolute, even poetic in drawing on Scripture to focus on His plight, and anguished – as in the garden – at the experience of being separated from His Father.

Our meditations on Christ, all our times considering Him with the eyes of our heart, must see in His crucifixion the fullness both of His deity and His humanity, the truest, fullest, most complete manifestation to us of the One Who died that we might live. Here the God/Man did what only God could do in cancelling the debt of our sin by becoming sin for us, for the whole world, and by bearing the infinite wrath of God in His own body. But as we survey the wondrous cross, and Jesus on it, let us also see Him seeing the joy that was set down before Him, and let us enter that joy with thanks and praise for our crucified but glorious, risen Savior and Lord.

For reflection or discussion
1.  Is it your practice frequently to contemplate Jesus on the cross? Should it be?

2.  As you think about Jesus on the cross, what do you most see in His face? Explain.

3.  Using the last words of Jesus, write a prayer in response to each one. Use this prayer to meditate on Jesus and how you see Him in His suffering.

Next steps – Transformation: Take the words of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” with you today, and sing part of it as often as the Lord prompts you to do so.

T. M. Moore

At the website
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.