The Way Of The Cross
THE WAY OF THE CROSS
“From that time began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jesusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
“Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”—S. Matt. 16:21, 24.
The Cross came into full view at Caesarea Philippi. How long it had been present to the consciousness of Jesus before that is a matter of controversy. Some contend that the ultimate issue of His ministry was known to Him from the beginning; others that it was forced upon Him by the failure of His Mission, and never definitely accepted till the Caesarean crisis. There can hardly be any doubt, however, that it was known to Him from the hour of His Baptism. His words on that occasion show that He was not ignorant of the Messianic teaching of the Prophets, and that He understood the far-reaching significance of that symbolic act.
Whatever Christ’s previous consciousness may have been, there can be no doubt as to the significance of this crisis. It marks a new departure. There is another tone in His speech, a marked straitening of soul, and a distinct focussing of interest and activity. From this point He moved with a set face toward Calvary. The Cross was His one theme, and the accomplishment of its Sacrifice His supreme passion. He was girded for its Baptism. The occasion of the crisis is instructive. There is often a commentary in a map and an exposition in a date. The expression, “From that time” marks the two great divisions of S. Matthew’s Gospel. In chapter 4:17 we read, “From that time began Jesus to preach.” The text tells us, “From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer … and be killed, and the third day be raised up.” In each, the time marks both an end and a beginning. The first marks the end of a preparation and testing, and the beginning of the preaching ministry of Christ; the second marks the end of the preaching, and the beginning of the end.
The chapters from 4:17 to 16:20 contain the record of Christ’s preaching of the Kingdom. Its principles are stated, expounded, and applied; its operations explained and illustrated; and its promises set forth, in parable, miracle, argument, and instruction. At Cæsarea He tested the result of His teaching. He inquired of His disciples: “Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the Prophets.” Then came the direct question, “But who say ye that I am?” Peter, speaking for the rest, said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Then came the gracious benediction explaining the confession to its confessors, forecasting their commission and power, and a charge that they should tell no man that He was the Christ. “From that time!” The work of the preaching is accomplished; they have received His message and discovered in Him the Messiah. The theme changes from the Messiah and the Kingdom to the Christ and the Cross. The preaching is over, and the propitiation begins. From that time the Cross is His theme. Having discovered the Messiah, they must now learn the necessity for His suffering and death, and their own partnership in His Cross of shame. The Cross He must bear, and it is as necessary for the disciples as for their Lord.
I. The Cross is the one Condition of Christian Discipleship
The reference is not now to the Cross as an object of faith, but as an experience of the soul. Not that the Atonement is forgotten, or its necessity overlooked; but the Cross which is received by faith becomes a saving power only as it is realised in the life. Just as the Cross was the Christ’s only way to the Eternal priesthood, so it is the disciples’ only way to realised salvation. The Master’s rebuke of Peter brings out the startling truth that the Cross is the central and universal condition of the Kingdom. The Apostle besought Jesus to spare Himself, to escape, to turn aside from suffering and death. Christ flung the suggestion from Him. In it He saw the essence of worldliness and a temptation of the devil. The wisdom of the world is self-sparing, self-shielding, self-seeking. Spare thyself is the sum of its philosophy and its invariable policy. The doctrine of the Kingdom is not spare, but sacrifice. To shirk the Cross is to miss the Kingdom. Not only must Jesus go up to Jerusalem and be killed, but every man that would come after Him must also take up the Cross. The must is as imperative in the one as in the other. Mediatorially the Cross of Christ stands alone, but experimentally it is shared by all who enter into life.
The principle is not exceptional. It is true of all life. To spare is to die. Sacrifice is essential to life. “Whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.” The life lost is the life found. The peculiarity of the Christian life is that this principle is symbolised in the Cross. Elsewhere it is called death, and is the inevitable condition of development. Here it is the Cross, and it is important that the significance of the Cross in discipleship should be clearly defined and realised.
What does the Cross stand for?
It is to be feared that to many the Cross means nothing more than reluctant obedience to disagreeable duties, or the grudging denial of some pleasant habit. They imagine themselves bearing the cross when prodded at the point of conscience, or abstaining from things earnestly desired. Such people turn their cross into a weapon with which to afflict other people. They are apt to parade their own virtue, and impose their own cross upon others. Such conceptions of cross-bearing are as Pharisaic as they are false, and as mischievous as they are erroneous. In the New Testament the Cross stands for definite realities which embody the essential features of the Christian Kingdom. It is the sign of reproach, the altar of sacrifice, and the expression of vicarious service.
The Cross stands first of all for the Reproach and Condemnation of an Alien Power. The Cross was not Jewish; it was Roman. The sting of its suffering was its shame. The physical agony was great, but that does not account for its abhorrence. It was hated because it was the imposition of a foreign power, the ultimate assertion of a pagan authority, and the condemnation of a despised and hated conqueror. Crucifixion to the Jew was the lowest depth of humiliation and shame. It was an alien judgement pursuing him even unto death. The disciple of Christ bears a Cross. He stands condemned by the power of an alien. The world hated Christ and killed Him. They are still in antagonism. He who would be with Christ must come out from the world and share His reproach and condemnation. If the world crucified Christ, it will not be more tolerant of His followers. He warned us to expect for ourselves the treatment it gave to Him. Hence the first condition is the Cross.
From “that time” He drove home this truth. Upon all who came to Him He laid the burden of the Cross. Three candidates presented themselves for discipleship. The first said, “I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” Jesus said unto him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.” He would have the volunteer count the cost, and the hardship was not the heaviest part of it. What would the world say about the sanity of a man who followed an impoverished, unpopular, and homeless leader? Reflections cast upon the balance of our mental powers are harder to bear than pillows of stone. To a second who begged that he might first go and bury his father He said, “Let the dead bury their dead, follow thou Me.” What would be the world’s judgement upon such conduct? How many of the kinsfolk and neighbours would understand the motive of such lack of filial devotion? Would they not rather upbraid him with vanity, neglect, and indifference? The reproaches of the living are sometimes harder to bear than the loss of the dead. To a third who wished to go and say farewell to those at home, He said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” The wrench of home ties is hard to sensitive and affectionate natures, but harder still is the suspicion of having slighted love and despised friends. The reproach of the world! The follower of Christ knows the burden of the Cross. The world doubts his sanity, impugns his motives, scorns his wisdom, and mocks his sacrifice.
It was here the rich young Ruler found his Cross. The Lord laid upon him the stern and apparently prohibitive condition: “If thou wouldst be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me. But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sorrowful for he was one that had great possessions.” Much has been made, and not too much, of the hardship of parting with great possessions; but the greatest obstacle was not in parting with his wealth. A soul afire with zeal would not be captured by love of ease and the power of wealth. What would his compeers say of such a course? Wealth and rank make men sensitive of the opinion of others. For the sake of them that sit at meat with him, many a Herod stifles his conscience and beheads the prophet. How could he sell his possessions at the bidding of a homeless peasant and face the world? That was his Cross, and he, shrinking, spared himself, and was lost to the Kingdom. So it is with us all. “Whosoever doth not bear his own Cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” The Cross is inevitable. No man can love the world and follow Christ.
The Cross stands for a life voluntarily surrendered to the will of God. From the standpoint of the world the death of Christ was a murder, in its eternal aspect it was a Divine appointment, in the act of Christ it was a voluntary sacrifice. He Himself said, “I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” The Apostle Peter, speaking of the event on the Day of Pentecost, said, “Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay.” He was a voluntary offering, not a helpless victim. The death of the Cross was the last demand upon His obedience. In its agony He endured sin’s utmost penalty, sounded the deepest depths of human sorrow, and experienced the heartbreak of silent mystery. Never before had He turned to the Father with a Why? But, God-forsaken though He was, He still called Him “My God,” and proved His trust in the darkness by commending His Spirit into His hands. He is our Exemplar. The obedience of the Christian must be as the obedience of Christ—voluntary, continuous, faithful. If obedience involve suffering, loss, mystery, then, like his Lord, he will not flinch in the darkness nor be afraid in the silence, but commit all things to the keeping and responsibility of the Eternal Father. This is the meaning of the Cross: consecration, obedience, trust.
The Cross stands for Vicarious Service and Suffering. “Christ died for us.” He “bare our sins in His body upon the tree.” “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows … He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” That is the explanation of the Cross. In the burden of sin-bearing the Saviour trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was no man with Him; and yet the disciple is called to the fellowship even of His Cross. The mind that inspired the sacrifice is imparted to His followers, and is imparted to inspire. The logic of Calvary is this, “Because He laid down His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Trust in the death of Christ implies more than a recumbency upon His merit. Belief involves practice, and the man who believes in Christ accepts His principle of life and follows His example. Hence, practical compassion is the proof of faith as of love. Faith without works is dead. The salvation believed for is realised in vicarious ministry. If we love as He loved, we shall live as He lived.
If we are called to the fellowship of His suffering, as well as to partnership in His service, the essential features of motive and work must be the same in us as in Him. What does that mean in practical life? It means that the man who takes up the Cross and follows Christ lives in the will of God for the service of man. As the Son of God placed all the resources of His glory at the disposal of man’s need, so every disciple abandons all to God for the blessing of man. He is God’s steward, and the sphere of his stewardship is in the sin and sorrow of the world. He becomes a co-worker with God in Christ Jesus. The experience of salvation leads to co-operation in the work of salvation. Acceptance of the Cross is a proclamation that its bearer stands in the midst of a sinful and burdened world in Christ’s stead. The Cross calls to itself the weary and heavy laden, and pledges its bearer to lift their burdens and lead them into the way of rest. The Christian undertakes to be as Christ in the world, to do His work, to minister in His Spirit, and for this he lays all at the feet of his Lord.
This is bearing the Cross; sorrowing over the world’s sin, bearing the world’s burden, carrying the world’s shame, ministering to the world’s need, laying down our life for the world’s salvation. This is the badge and test of discipleship. Have we taken up the Cross? Have we dared to come out from the world, antagonised ourselves to it, and borne its reproach? Are we surrendered in all things to the will of God? Has all been placed at His disposal and consecrated to His saving purpose among men? Have we returned to the world as Christ came to it? Do we weep over it, pray for it, live for it, die for it? It is for these the Cross stands, and without the Cross we cannot be Christ’s disciples.
II. The Cross is the One Way to the Highest in the Kingdom of God
After Cæsarea came the Holy Mount. Jesus took with Him Peter, and James, and John into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. Moses and Elias talked with the transfigured Lord, and their theme was the exodus to be accomplished at Jerusalem. They talked about the Cross. Peter the confessor and tempter at Cæsarea was the spokesman in the Mount, and He begged that they might build tabernacles for their Lord and His visitants. Then came the voice of the Father, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” As they came down from the Mount He charged them to tell no man of the vision till He was risen from the dead, as He had charged them at Cæsarea to tell no man that He was the Christ.
The Cross was the centre in that scene of glory. As they descended He told them again how the Son of Man must suffer and be killed, and no rebuke fell from the lips of Peter. In the Mount of Glory they had seen the interpretation of the Cross of shame. For six days they had brooded in the darkness of its shadow. For six days Peter had felt the sting of the terrible rebuke. For six days they had dwelt in sorrowful silence, full of perplexity and dread. Then came the vision in which they beheld their Lord resplendent, radiant, glorious, and the contrast between the vision and their forebodings startled them into speech. This was what they desired for their Master; not death, but glory; not a Cross, but a Kingdom. It is the old impulse to spare that prompts the desire to stay. They all speak of the Cross. After Peter, Moses and Elijah; and after Moses and Elijah, God! The representatives of law and prophecy talk of the Cross which Peter despised, and God bids the Apostles hear His Son. The Cross over which earth sighed, Heaven sang. Rejected of men it is chosen of God for the highest expression of His glory.
The Cross is the centre of Heaven’s glory as well as the sinner’s hope. The New Jerusalem centres in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Vicariousness is Heaven’s highest law. The principle of the Cross is not contingent upon man’s sin, though its highest manifestation is in the sacrifice for sin. It is the eternal law of life, and blessedness, and glory. Moses and Elijah speak of the Cross as an “Exodus”; a way out of limitation and bondage into the liberty of the infinite. Beneath its rugged weight men rise, behind its stern expression they find the secret of peace, and through its agony they enter into bliss. Men lie down to die and awake to life; they clasp a Cross and find a crown. If any man would ascend to the heights of true blessedness and fulness of glory, he must take up his Cross, and bearing it follow Christ, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” There is no way to the throne but by way of the Cross.
How steadily Christ kept this before His disciples as He journeyed from the Mount to the grave! When He might have claimed exemption from the Temple tax, He waived His right and meekly paid, driving the Cross straight through the spirit that grasps its right. He answered the question as to who should be greatest by placing a little child in their midst, and telling them that in the Kingdom of the Highest the least is the greatest. To those who had left all and followed Him He promised that they should sit on the throne of His glory; in the present life there should be given them a hundredfold, and the inheritance of eternal life. The conditions of these thrones He set before the sons of Zebedee, who came seeking to secure those of greatest distinction. Their request was not denied, but they were shown the only way it could be granted. Thrones lie on the other side of Christ’s cup and baptism. They who would sit on the throne must drink His cup, and be baptised with His baptism. What are they? Vicarious service in lowly humility for others, and a life freely poured forth as a ransom for many. The Cross! It is always the Cross. Living to serve and dying to save, that is the way to thrones in His Kingdom. His last instruction was a lesson in the principle of the Cross. In the night in which He was betrayed He took bread, and when He had given thanks He brake it and said, “This is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the New Covenant in My blood; this do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of Me.” Supper ended, John tells us how the Saviour rose, and girding Himself with a towel, He washed the feet of His disciples. His own explanation of the act is that He had given them an example of how the lordly should serve the lowly. It was a practical demonstration of the doctrine of the Cross, and an illustration of how that doctrine should be applied in brotherly service. It is always the same central theme. The Cross is not simply an initial condition: it is the one continuous, all-inclusive law. It is laid upon the candidate and borne by the follower. It is the only way, but by it the soul finds life, distinction and glory. It is the one way to true privilege, it is the one way to true greatness, it is the one way to true power, and it is the one way to true brotherhood.
III. The Cross is the One Way of Christianity’s Propagation in the World
The third scene, of which the anticipated Cross is the centre, is in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover within three days of the end. Nothing ever stirred the soul of Jesus like the coming of the Greeks at the close of that eventful day. Their presence opened to view the great harvest of souls He had come to gather. The hour of His glorification was at hand. Then there fell over His exultant soul the chill shadow of the Cross which lay between Him and the great soul-harvest. His soul was exceedingly troubled, the conflict of Gethsemane was upon Him, and in His sorrow He spake with Himself rather than to those around Him. Such speech is always self-revealing. What did He say in His soliloquy? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.… Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. (This is what I will say), Father, glorify Thy Name. There came, therefore, a voice out of Heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.… Jesus answered and said, This voice hath not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now is the judgement of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.”
By the Cross He judged the world and conquered the devil, and by the Cross He will draw all men unto Himself. To explain the necessity of the Cross for the salvation of the world He takes the parable of a grain of wheat, and in the profound mystery of its death and resurrection finds the similitude of Himself and His work of Redemption. Without death there can be no fruit. Only by laying down its life can the seed realise and propagate itself. He Himself is the Great Reality of the parable. Like the seed, He must die to bring forth others like Himself, and impart to them the quality of His own life. While unsown He abode alone, but from His grave there came forth others possessed of His spirit and quickened with His life. In Him was the life of men, but that life could only be given to men when He surrendered His own life for them.
The Cross supplies both the weapon and the method for the conversion of the world to Christ. Because Christianity is life it cannot be imposed; it can only be imparted. Life can only extend by propagation. Every soul has to be begotten. Souls born of God are begotten of the Spirit and of the Word, and the vehicle of quickening truth is found in living souls. It is of a travailing Zion the children of God are born. Soul begets soul. Living saints bring dead sinners to life. The conquest of revival waits on a quickened Church. Where there is defectiveness of organisation or deficiency of vitality, the Church is barren and the work of God is hindered. When the Church is passionless the world is indifferent, but an indifferent world is impossible where the Church is impassioned. So once again, it is the Gospel of the Cross, the Cross in experience, and not the Cross of orthodox but lifeless creeds. There is no salvation but by blood. The heart’s blood of the follower is needed as well as the blood of the Lord. Silver and gold cannot save. The Soul must be poured out if souls are to be saved. We too must die if we would not abide alone. Every true revival begins with a revived realisation of the Cross. Churches that are worldly, ease-loving, and self-centred are never Missionary. The Missionary spirit is born at Calvary. It is at the Cross the Evangel is born, and by the Cross it prevails.
There is only one Gospel for all peoples. The one Cross draws all men. It appeals to the humanity which is deeper than the distinctions of race. The Cross draws the cultured Greek, conquers the Roman warrior, and allures the Hebrew to itself. All nations are made of one blood, and need the one Gospel which reveals the love of God, and brings to men eternal life and delivering power. There is no saving power in the Cross without the power that is the outcome of its realisation in the heart, and there is no realisation without the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Cross is the way to Pentecost. The Spirit was not given till the Cross was accomplished and the Son of Man was glorified. The disciple must die with Christ to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The Cross! The Cross! Always the Cross! It is the way to God. In it, through it, by it, is everything that saves, sanctifies, and glorifies the soul of man. It is the way to purity, it is the way to power, it is the way to Pentecost, it is the way to service, it is the way to glory.