Daily Devotionals

Devotional: March 31st

THE BLESSEDNESS OF CONTACT WITH THE SUFFERING CHRIST

The fellowship of His sufferings. - Philippians 3:10

Simon the Cyrenean apparently knew nothing about Jesus Christ when the Cross was laid on his shoulders. He would be reluctant to undertake the humiliating task, and would plod along behind Him for a while, sullen and discontented, but by degrees be touched by more of sympathy and get closer and closer to the Sufferer. And if he stood by the Cross when it was fixed, and saw all that transpired there, no wonder if, after a longer or a shorter examination, he came to understand who He was that he had helped, and to yield himself to Him wholly.

Yes! Christ’s great saying, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me," began to be fulfilled when He began to be lifted up. The centurion, the thief, Simon of Cyrene, by looking on the Cross, learned the Crucified.

And it is the only way by which any of us will ever learn the true mystery and miracle of Christ’s great and loving Being and work. I beseech you, take your places there behind Him, near His Cross, gazing upon Him till your hearts melt, and you, too, learn that He is your Lord, and your Saviour, and your God. The Cross of Jesus Christ divides men into classes, as the Last Day will. It, too, parts men - sheep to the right hand, goats to the left. If there was a penitent, there was an impenitent, thief; if there was a convinced centurion, there were gambling soldiers; if there were hearts touched with compassion, there were mockers who took His very agonies and flung them in His face as a refutation of His claims. On the day that Cross was reared on Calvary it began to be what it has been ever since, and is at this moment to every soul that reads this, "a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death." Contact with the suffering Christ will either bind you to His service, and fill you with His Spirit, or it will harden your hearts, and make you tenfold more selfish - that is to say, tenfold more a child of hell than you were before you saw and touched and handled that Divine meekness of the suffering Christ. Look to Him, I beseech you, who bears what none can help Him to carry, the burden of the world’s sin. Let Him bear yours, and yield to Him your grateful obedience, and then take up your cross daily and bear the light burden of self-denying service to Him who has borne the heavy load of sin for you and all mankind.

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