Don’t Pass By

By the time Christ reached the cross local authorities despised him. His friends had deserted him. Previously adoring crowds rejected him. Soldiers played dress-up with him, brutalized him, and then knelt at his feet in mock worship. Even the louts hanging on the neighbouring crosses ridiculed him. As if that weren’t enough, Mark notes, “Those who passed by hurled insults at him" (v 29). That last bit brings me to a full stop.

“People passing by . . .” Clearly, they saw Christ. But other than hurling insults, they refused to pause long enough to consider deeply his story, the weight of his life, and its meaning. They had somewhere to go, something to do, someone to meet, perhaps. And what a choice tale to report: that the once-popular rabbi had finally been dealt with, once and for all.

Surely, that act of “passing by” was as clear a rejection as their deliberate insults.

How ironic. Because if anything characterizes our Saviour, it is his consistent refusal to “pass by.” As the Human One, Jesus stopped at (to mention just a few) the blind, the lepers, the hungry, the dead, the despised, the set-up, the child, the women, the misled, and the ill.

As the Sacrificial Lamb, he refused to bypass his own crucifixion.

As the Resurrected One, he still refuses to “pass by.” Instead he stands by. Forgives, redeems, embraces, strengthens, and equips—and so much more.

And as the soon-to-be Returning One, he will not pass by our needy, rotting world. Instead, he can be trusted to keep his promise of eternal grace to the redeemed and eternal justice to those who refused that grace.

You there. Passing by. Stop at the cross. See him. Know him: Son of God, High King of Heaven, who died for one and all, in order that the tyrant’s grip on tiny earth could be dealt with, once and for all.

Respond in Prayer

Father, this is me. At least, I want it to be me. Fully stopped. Unable to pass by your brokenness. Break my heart, Lord, with the things that break yours. Oh, Jesus, keep me near the cross.

Kathleen Gibson