(The substance of the last address of a brother beloved.)
They led Him out to crucify Him.
Mark 15:20.
These are solemn words. They were written as the climax to the world's rejection of the Son of God. Israel's leaders had plotted the death of Jesus, covenanting with Judas Iscariot for His betrayal; and when He allowed Himself to be taken by them, they heaped upon His holy head every indignity their wicked hearts were capable of devising. He had been betrayed by a kiss and falsely accused; and on confessing that He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, and the Son of Man, He was spit upon, buffeted and mocked. How awful was the treatment of the creature to his creator come in flesh. How horrified must the angels have been on beholding man's dark rebellion, profanity and presumption, and how mystified at their Lord's meek submission to all the dishonour.
Added to the insults of the leaders of Israel was the mockery of Herod and his men of war, as recorded in Luke's Gospel; and after the false king had returned Jesus to the representative of the Roman power, He was condemned by Pilate who knew and proclaimed Him to be innocent; then He was cruelly scourged, derided, mocked, smitten and spit upon; and having gratified their evil hearts in all this vile abuse, "they took off the purple from Him, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him."
Here was the thorough exposure of the heart of man. It was their answer to God and to His Son for all the rich grace and goodness manifested in a life of devotion to God's will for the blessing of men. Their hatred was the answer to God's love; their evil the reply to the perfection of God's goodness revealed in Jesus. The thick darkness in which man lay could not be dispelled by the shining of the heavenly light in the eternal Son become flesh. Instead of welcoming the Divine Messenger from heaven, they conspire with the powers of darkness to get rid of Him.
What an awful harvest of judgment was sown that day! Israel has already reaped in part for their cry. "His blood be upon us, and on our children." The full harvest will be reaped when the Lord returns, and when His judgment is completed for Israel, and poured upon a guilty world.
Luke 24:50.
How great is the contrast between what the Spirit of God brings before us in this verse and that already considered. In the rejection of Jesus there is a background of darkness, evil and hatred; but in the resurrection of Jesus, His actions are seen in the light of the love manifested in His death. If what the Son passed through at the hands of men brings to them a harvest of judgment; what He suffered for sin at the hands of God brings to men infinite and eternal blessing. And this is indicated to us as the blessed Lord leads out His disciples as far as Bethany, for "He lifted up His hands and blessed them." The Son of God returned to heaven in the attitude of blessing; and they, with hearts filled with the sense of the blessing, "Worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God."
Not all the evil and malignity of men could affect the great love of God, or turn the Son of God from the cross upon which the blessing of His own depended: and as soon as the great work of atonement is completed, and the Scriptures fulfilled concerning Him, it is His joy to speak to His own of the rich blessing His death has procured for them. How wonderful, and how blessed for us, that the love of the Father and the Son rises above all man's evil, not only to procure forgiveness for the sinner, but to bring men into blessing that God had purposed for them before the ages of time.