A ROMANCE OF THE CROSS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25564, 17 June 1944, Page 3

A ROMANCE OF THE CROSS

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller

I can imagine some of you saying that the Cross was a terrible tragedy, and that to speak of romance in connection with it is to use words lightly. I agree that the Cross was a terrible tragedy, but I can never think of God permitting tragedy to have the last word. To me, God is always busy retrieving things that are lost, bringing the good out of evil conditions, and even the Cross was not permitted to “ black-out ” His designs. The romance that I see connected with the Cross lies in Mark xv, 21: “And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them,, that he might bear his cross.” On that awful morning a black man from North Africa was made to do a hateful thing, but out of it there blossomed such blessing for himself and wife and family as he never dreamed possible. Simon was a convert to the Jewish religion, and was in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion. On the morning Jesus was taken to Calvary, Simon was probably on his way to the temple. He was held up by the procession and, while he looked to see what was happening, he felt a tap on his shoulder and heard .a voice ordering him to step out and carry the Cross of one of the three prisoners. Simon knew there was no good in protesting; it was Roman law, though his heart boiled within him. He carried the Cross of Jesus. He saw the Crucifixion. He turned away. But was that all? No. When once the Cross touches you something happens—to you. Do you think Jesus allowed this black man to do this thing for Him without giving him a word, a look, of thanks? . Between Jesus and this black African a bridge was built. Something lodged in Simon’s heart—a disquiet, a longing for something he could not quite express, a feeling that this uncomplaining Man of the Cross had come into his life for ever. I do not know when Simon was converted from Judaism to Christianity; probably it was at Pentecost, when thousands stepped out of darkness into light. But that he was converted—and his family, too—there ,is no doubt whatever. Thirty Years Afterwards

Listen to this! Thirty years after the Crucifixion a letter came to the Christian Church at Rome written by a great and gallant missionary by the name of Paul. This letter, known to us as the Epistle to the Romans, finished with a page of names of friends to whom the missionary sent loving greetings. Now look at Romans xvi: 13. “ Salute Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.” I like Moffatt’s translation: “ Salute that choice Christian, Rufus; also his mother, who has been a mother to me.” The Rufus to whom Paul refers is the same Rufus whom Mark mentions in the story of the Crucifixion. Now, when did Paul receive this kindness? Probably at Antioch, to which city many Cyrenians (blackskinned Africans) fled wnen persecution broke out in Jerusalem. Paul was often a sick man, and I think this black woman, the wife of Simon, who carried the Cross, and the mother of Rufus, to whom Paul refers, nursed him when he was ill on one occasion. The family must then have removed to Rome, and when Paul wrote his letter he recalled with gratitude how much his old friends had meant to him. A few years after this letter, we get the Gospel of Mark, and by this time Rufus and his brother Alexander are well-known Christians in the Church at Rome, and Mark, in telling the story of how their father had helped Jesus on the day He was led out to die, mentions the fact that Rufus and Alexander are his sons. If this story is not romance then I do not know what romance is.

Something Starts

There is something about the Cross that never dies. Of course, it is not the Cross as two pieces of wood that matters, it is the Man on the Cross Who has made the Cross’ the sign not of the end of life but as its new beginning. If you look back on your life and trace the way you have travelled I think you will say that on the day the significance of the Cross dawned upon you something happened inside you. And that “something” grew until you had to take notice of it. T 6 some people the Cross has meant immediate change, to others it has been a gradual unfolding. But no matter how the new life emerged, it would be true to say that no one is ever the same again who has ever looked upon the Cross. It is possible to shut the Cross out, as far as your outward attitude is concerned and as other people see you, but there is something inside that never quite dies in spite of your denials. Simon never thought for a moment that he, a black man, and his wife and two boys, would one day be mentioned in the greatest Book the world has ever known, and that something of their story would be read by millions of people nearly 2000 years afterwards. Wjth God there is no time. He lives in the eternal Present. So what He does to men and women through the Cross cannot die. There is no romance like the romance that begins in your life when you meet the Man of the Cross.