Despised and rejected
General Introduction
‘It will do you good to frequently review the closing scenes in the life of our Redeemer. Here, beset with temptations as He was, we may all learn lessons of the utmost importance to us. It would be well to spend a thoughtful hour each day reviewing the life of Christ from the manger to Calvary. We should take it point by point and let the imagination vividly grasp each scene, especially the closing ones of His earthly life. By thus contemplating His teachings and sufferings, and the infinite sacrifice made by Him for the redemption of the race, we may strengthen our faith, quicken our love, and become more deeply imbued with the spirit which sustained our Saviour.
If we would be saved at last we must all learn the lesson of penitence and faith at the foot of the cross. Christ suffered humiliation to save us from everlasting disgrace. He consented to have scorn, mockery, and abuse fall upon Him in order to shield us. It was our transgression that gathered the veil of darkness about His divine soul and extorted the cry from Him, as of one smitten and forsaken of God. He bore our sorrows; He was put to grief for our sins. He made Himself an offering for sin, that we might be justified before God through Him. Everything noble and generous in man will respond to the contemplation of Christ upon the cross.
The mighty argument of the cross will convict of sin. The divine love of God for sinners, expressed in the gift of His Son to suffer shame and death that they might be ennobled and endowed with everlasting life, is the study of a lifetime. I ask you to study anew the cross of Christ. If all the proud and vainglorious, whose hearts are panting for the applause of men and for distinction above their fellows, could rightly estimate the value of the highest earthly glory in contrast with the value of the Son of God, rejected, despised, spit upon, by the very ones whom He came to redeem, how insignificant would appear all the honour that finite man can bestow.
It requires a constant, earnest, and vigilant effort to watch and control self, to keep Jesus prominent and self out of sight.’
Lift Him Up, page 240.
Compiler’s Foreword: In these lessons, we will study the closing events of Christ’s life and ministry from the standpoint of many of those involved in these events. The old spiritual poses the question: ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ Perhaps, as we think of those who were there, we shall recognise something of ourselves in the way they thought and acted.
‘They were all there that day. The friends of Jesus and His enemies.
The ‘church people’, as well as those who never went to church.
The priests, the scribes, the greedy Sadducees, the hypocrites, and the proud Pharisees, they were all there.
The people who were always talking about the church and praying in public, they were there.
The unbelievers, the gamblers, the harlots and their customers, they were there.
Simon of Cyrene, and the soldiers, they were there.
Peter was there, and John, and Andrew, and the other disciples, they were all there.
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
When I think how they crucified my Lord.”
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
When we consider who were there, and when we are honest with ourselves, we know that we were there, and that we helped to put Jesus on His cross!
Every attitude present on that hilltop that day is present in our midst now!
Every emotion that tugged at human hearts then tugs at human hearts now.
Every face that was there is here too.
Every voice that shouted then is shouting still.
Every human being was represented on Calvary.
Every sin was in a nail, or a spear, or a thorn,
And pardon for them all in the blood that was shed.’
Peter Marshall, Mr Jones, Meet the Master, pages 114-116.