The Final Steps

by JARVIS, A. | Category: The Road To Calvary | Sept 1996

John tells us that Jesus 'went out bearing the Cross for Himself. In His incarnation He first emptied Himself, then humbled Himself; and ultimately He carried His own Cross. When Abraham and Isaac went off alone to climb Mount Moriah we read that Abraham took the knife and the fire himself but 'took his son' (Gen. 22:6). What a wonderful picture this provides of the final steps of Christ's journey up Mount Calvary, bearing Himself the wood for the burnt offering. 'Once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26).

We don't know how far it was from Gabbatha to Golgotha. It was the normal practice in the Roman Empire for the condemned to be taken to the place of execution by a circuitous route so as to maximize the deterrent value of capital punishment; for the same reason, they were required to wear around their necks a superscription, bearing their name and their crime. One label - 'Barabbas Murder and Insurrection' - had thus been replaced by another: 'Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews'. So He left Jerusalem as He had entered the city a week earlier, as a King 'having salvation'.

How far He walked before the weight of the Cross became too much for His cruelly beaten body we don't know. But there was an unwilling helper at hand: Simon of Cyrene. One minute, he was an uninvolved bystander, a tourist up from the country to see the sights of the big city at Passover time; the next, he was part of an execution procession en route to Calvary, totally involved whether he liked it or not.

What happened to Simon, one wonders? We are not told explicitly, although Mark records the names of his sons Alexander and Rufus; and in the R.V. margin the question of a possible connection with the Church of God in Rome is raised: 'Salute Rufus the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine' (Rom. 16:13). Is it too fanciful to imagine that carrying the Cross after Jesus, left not only a temporary imprint upon his shoulder, but also a permanent one upon his heart? Could he possibly have just put down the Cross and walked away? I am sure he must have wanted to! But is it not more likely that he would have waited, if only out of curiosity, to see how the One whose Cross he had carried, eventually met His end? Is it not possible that he was chosen, not only by a Roman soldier to follow Jesus as His cross-bearer, but also 'in the Lord' to take up his own cross and follow his Master for the rest of his life? No one else has ever been called upon to follow Jesus carrying His Cross. But He does require each one of us to take up our own cross and follow: there is no such thing as a disciple without obligations to his Master!

And so they led Him away to crucify Him: the long road to Calvary was at an end. Patiently - 'as a lamb that is led to the slaughter and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; yea He opened not His mouth' - He waited while the Roman execution detail made their final preparations; no cry of protest escaped His

lips as the nails were hammered into His hands and feet; or when the rough cross-piece was raised up and rammed into its socket. As in life, so in death, His concerns were always for others:

'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do': 'Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise'; 'Woman, behold, thy son!'; (son) 'Behold, thy mother!' Nothing changes: Jesus Christ is the same today as yesterday; His concerns are still for others; for us - those so unworthy for whom He died.

As we, like the women who followed Him down from Galilee, try to keep vigil while He suffers, our view is cut off by that great darkness that descended over the whole land. At the start of His life, a star had shone brightly over Bethlehem's stable: a created heavenly body lighting the spot of its Creator's birth. But now, as that life ended, the sun, brightest visible object of His creation, refused to shed its light on Calvary's hill, scene of its Creator's death. And so, with that great shout 'It is finished' He commended His spirit to His God and Father and 'yielded up His spirit'. He had completed the work He had left heaven to accomplish; He had drunk the cup that His Father had given Him to its bitterest dregs; and thus, 'when He made purification of sins (He) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high'. Back at God's right hand; the Victor of Calvary.

JARVIS, A. | Sept 1996
The Road To Calvary