Bearing the Cross

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: John 19:17

There is no incident in our Lord’s passion which, to a heart quickened with spiritual sensibility, is more replete with holy instruction, or more deeply, tenderly touching than this—Christ bearing to Calvary the cross upon which he was to suffer. It unveils such a profound abasement, and yet such a depth of love—it portrays a stoop of the Majesty of heaven to earth’s lowest degradation—so marvelous, and yet, is the measurement of grace, so vast, the fact stands out, amid the many marvels of our Lord’s death, one of the most touching and significant of all. To compel the criminal to bear the wood upon which he was to be impaled, was one of the severest elements of degradation in the Roman punishment of crucifixion. To this our Lord was subjected, “And he, bearing his cross, went forth.” Little did they dream, as they bound the fatal wood upon his shoulder, by whose power that tree was made to grow, and from whom the beings who bore Him to the death drew their existence. So completely was Jesus bent upon saving sinners by the sacrifice of himself, he created the tree upon which he was to die, and nurtured from infancy the men who were to nail him to the accursed wood. Oh, the depth of Jesus’s love to sinners! Lord! the universe in its accumulation presents no love like yours! Your love, eternal as your being, saw from everlasting the cross of Calvary, and yet you did not falter in your purpose, nor modify your plan of saving lost sinners by the sacrifice of yourself. You saved others, yourself you would not save!

Octavius Winslow, The Foot of the Cross, 1864