"And sitting down they watched him there" ~ Matthew 27:36
It is almost inconceivable to think that people like us sat down around the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ and just "watched him there." But that's what some of them did. How must they have looked to Jesus as He watched their ugly, amused, fiendish, upturned faces --- watching them through the blood running down into His own eyes. What must He have seen in
their eyes?
I [Eugenia Price, the author] carry around in my purse a picture of myself taken when I was only twenty-six years old and successful and "happy." It is a casual snapshot and it is a smiling picture, but cover up the mouth and the look in the eyes will force your attention to the foot of the Cross of Christ and those other eyes which "watched Him there." The look in my eyes holds nothing of a smile in it.
It is utterly selfish. It is utterly sinful.
It couldn't have been any other way because I was one of the sinners Jesus came to call. And when the picture was taken I hadn't even heard His voice. This verse is included among our "red stones" because it reminds me that the worse they treated Him that day as they sat there and watched Him die, the
more love he poured down upon them. Why? Because He could tell by the look in their eyes how much they
needed His love.
He knew they didn't know what they were doing. That they were in the prison of sin. Jesus knew this. And He also knew He had been anointed "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ..." That's why He could say as He poured down His love on those who watched Him there:
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
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