Jesus in Death.

Continued from the previous post...

Jesus, If Not Good - Not God.

On the cross Jesus gave utterance to words which reveal the inner character of his soul.

When a man has been lied about, falsified, his good evil spoken of and his reputation assailed (as was his before the Sanhedrin - in the mock trial given him there), when such a man has been hounded from one end of town to the other, spit upon and jibed at and, finally, nailed through hands and feet to a torturing cross; when such a man with his heart bursting ( because of impeded circulation, driving the surging, tumultuous blood back upon it), with the sun scorching his bare temples, a crown of thorns stabbing him at every helpless turn of his restless head; when such a man, under such circumstances, can rise above the wickedness, cowardice and cheap treason that have nailed him to the cross, and pray that his guilty murderers, villainous detractors and unscrupulous slanderers may be forgiven, that man bears witness that he has, at least, a heart of good.

And it was just such a prayer which came from the parched, dry, cracked lips of this man of Nazareth as he hung upon the cross and cried out,
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
Again he spoke from the cross.
There was standing near, a woman who had been chosen of God to give him birth. She was sobbing convulsively. She was realizing what had been foretold of her more than thirty years before - "a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also." Mary, the mother of Jesus, stood there brokenhearted. Jesus turned his head and looked at John bidding him take that weeping mother to his home, his heart and care, and be unto her a loving son.

Once more he spoke from the place of anguish - that moent on the edge of death. There is soul, rising from the depths of the overwhelming waves of agony cries:
"Father into your hands I commit my spirit."

He who in the hour of death can face God and eternity and commit himself to the hand of supreme justice as a confident child to the arms of a loving father, bears witness that in his soul there is no ghastly memory of sin, no sharp remember pang, no fear of offended law. Such a confidence and such a committal of triumphant calm bear witness that the heart is at rest with God, and is conscious of its own good.

To be continued...