It was the day after Good Friday, and a young district nurse, taking a brief holiday by the sea, sat talking quietly of the solemn service on the theme of the Lord’s death.
The thought seemed pressed in on her mind of how the reviling’s of the multitude round the cross must have pained Him who hung there. “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross.” “Oh,” said the young nurse, “I think if it had been me I must have come down at that!”
“But then,” she quickly added, with a serious, tender look in her dark eyes, “but if He had, where should I have been?” “Ah! where indeed?” seemed to echo in the heart of the friendly listener.
Have you thought it out, put just in that manner? The Lord Jesus could have “come down.” One call to the Father, and thousands of angels would have appeared at once to loose the nails and lift Him from the cruel cross. By His own act of will―indeed, without the help of angels―He could have “come down” and His “known and unknown agonies could have ended in a moment.
But, “if He had,” if He had “come down,” where would you and I have been?
There is but one answer. You and I must have taken the place of death, the place of God’s judgment on sin. None can imagine or attempt to tell what that would mean. How terrible the meaning was to the Son of God Himself we see, if we slowly and thoughtfully read the accounts of the suffering and death of Christ, as given us in the Gospels. The Son of God was crushed beneath it. What would become of you or me if we had to bear it? God will―He must―punish sin. He has said that He will do it; and we have sinned and therefore deserve the punishment. It was to take our place and die the death due to us that the Lord Jesus went up to Calvary and hung those long, weary hours upon the cross. “Let Him come down,” cried the mocking crowd. If He had there would have been no pardon, no salvation, no Easter joy, no opened gate of heaven. What was it that brought, and held Him to the cross? Do you say, “The nails”? Ah! no; not really―think again! A stronger power than that of the nails held Him there―strong and cruel as those nails were. The mightiest power in the world held Him―the power of Love.
Great things have been done and dared in the world by love: by the love of mothers; the love of friends; the love of lovers―but nothing has ever been done or suffered that can compare with the cross of Christ. It was love unto death, of the Highest for the lowest, by the most Loving for His enemies.
Have you thanked Him yet? Has His death brought life to you? If all would have been eternal loss to you, if Jesus had not died; because He did die, has all become eternal gain for you?
Margaret Esdaile.