In the Shadow of the Cross

GOLDEN TEXT: “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.” —John 10:17,18

MATTHEW 26:6-13, 26-30

IT SHALL “be told for a memorial of her,” said Jesus concerning the woman who anointed his body with the precious ointment while at a feast in Bethany. This has been true, for those who know anything at all about the life of Jesus and his teachings are acquainted with this story of the great devotion of Mary to her Lord, a devotion which prompted her to lavish the best that she had upon his person as a token of her love.

The disciples called this outpouring of costly ointment a waste. It could have been sold, they said, and the money given to the poor. But Jesus saw it differently. Jesus saw in this a similar devotion to that which was manifested by the widow who cast her mite into the treasury of the temple. In both cases it was the wholehearted, unpretentious spirit of sacrifice which Jesus admired and commended. Both did all they could to show their love, and that was the important consideration.

Jesus used the incident as an opportunity to inform his disciples that he expected soon to die. “She did it for my burial,” he explained. Not that Mary necessarily had this in mind, for she probably entertained the same hope as the disciples; namely, that Jesus was to become a powerful ruler in Israel and deliver the nation from the Roman yoke; and that his kingdom, beginning at Jerusalem, would extend its sphere of influence until it embraced the whole earth. Jesus knew that they were to be disappointed, so gradually, and with understanding, he endeavored to prepare them for the shock of his death which was so near at hand.

The disciples seemingly made no reply to Jesus’ explanation of the purpose that would be served by the precious ointment which Mary had poured upon him. It is doubtful if they understood clearly its full implication. The record does say that Judas went out from them and made contact with the chief priests and bargained with them for the betrayal of Jesus into their hands. This might indicate that Judas grasped the meaning of Jesus’ statement, and reasoned that if he were to die in any event he might as well profit by it.

Shortly after this Jesus was with his disciples in the upper room, partaking of the passover supper. Jesus knew that he was about to die as the antitypical passover Lamb, and that this would be the last time he would eat the typical supper with his disciples. So he took advantage of the occasion to institute one of the only two ceremonials enjoined upon his followers; that is, partaking of the emblems which symbolize his shed blood and his broken body. The other ceremony is water baptism, which symbolizes the burial of the Christian’s will into the will of God through Christ, and his rising to walk in newness of life.

The “bread,” Jesus said, represented his body, and the “cup” symbolized his shed blood. Partaking of these emblems indicates that we have accepted Jesus as our Redeemer and Savior, and that we recognize in order to have life we must appropriate to ourselves the merit of his shed blood and broken body.

The Apostle Paul gives us a further thought concerning the significance of these emblems. (I Cor. 10:16,17) He explains that they also represent our “communion” or, as the Greek text indicates, our “partnership” in the broken body and shed blood of Christ. Many scriptures reveal that as followers of Jesus we have the privilege of suffering and dying with him, of being “planted together in the likeness of his death.” (Rom. 6:3-8) When we partake of the memorial emblems we should have this thought also in mind.

What is the “likeness” of Jesus’ death in which it is our privilege to share? Our Golden Text answers this question. In it Jesus explains that his death was a voluntary one, that no man could take his life from him, that he laid it down of himself. This is not true of mankind in general. Their life is taken away because of sin. They die under condemnation, and because the “wages of sin is death.”—Rom. 6:23

But Jesus was not a sinner. Being “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” he had a right to live. (Heb. 7:26) But he chose not to live, but to die for the sins of the world. The Heavenly Father loved him for this, and so do we.

In the next age those who accept Christ will not die at all. But the plan of God for believers during this age is that they die sacrificially with Jesus. No one is compelled to do this. It is voluntary, and like Jesus’ death, sacrificial, our offering being made acceptable through the merit of his blood.

QUESTIONS

Why was Jesus so pleased with Mary’s act of kindness?

What is represented by the “bread” and the “cup”?

How do we share in the suffering and death of Jesus?

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