We have just been present at God's great ministry on Zion, that all-embracing world drama in which the example of a perfect man and the plan for the later history of the earth were displayed before the wondering eyes of the generations of two thousand years. After that we shall now remind ourselves of the details of those great events so that we may be more clearly conscious of them.
      In the first light of God's transcendent ministration we see a little child growing up in an environment far from rich. He lived in a uniquely intimate relationship with his heavenly Father, and he was so sensitive to the power and nature of the holy spirit that he, as an adult, was felt by his companions to be a source of warmth whose "living water" purified "lepers", a brilliant sun whose light penetrated even "blind" eyes, an inspiring fountain of love whose chief joy was to pardon "sins" and give absolution to his companions, a revelation of such an intensively penetrating feeling of the presence of God that "evil spirits" and malicious thoughts fled away, obscurity vanished and unfortunate people recovered their health. And he always gave the impression of a will so transcendent and divine that "even the winds obeyed him" on the ocean of human passions and the "boat", the earth and its culture with the faithful disciples of love, was steered by it into the large safe harbour of light. Like the Father he was close to all, rich and poor, large and small, kind and unkind; he associated with "publicans and sinners" and in every living thing he saw God and himself.
      But that conspicuous glowing existence was not, however, the furthest point in God's great ministry, it was only an unessential addition outside the core and kernel of the developing miracle, it was only the fresh air which is inevitably felt near the sea, and therefore it was not strong enough to be able to penetrate through the pitch black fog of barbarity and vindictiveness, which was the contemporary general conception of grandeur, majesty and divinity. If the Nazarene had had only that accessory virtue, he would have been considered a madman and he would have disappeared into the great tomb of oblivion. If the holy spirit in a still higher degree had not manifested itself through his actions, the effects of those actions would never have reached the distant generations of later centuries. But, although that part of his activity did not possess sufficient strength for a deep impression, it was however capable of creating so strong a reaction that with this as a dark background God's great ministry could appear in vivid clarity and all the details so finely outlined that even centuries later they are clearly visible to millions of men. Even now the eternal words from Golgotha ring out over all the continents and vibrate from pole to pole.
      On this dark background we see the luminous consciousness of God made Man sending out its penetrating radiance in different tones. There man on earth can study the model of his future brilliant existence when he and the Father "will be one". Looking at the cross of Golgotha one can see "the way, the truth, and the life". On the cross is shown that attitude to suffering which alone enables the "ascension" from animal to man.
      On Golgotha we see experienced every imaginable degree of the suffering which is known more or less by all everyday life on earth. The cruellest conspiracy of misunderstanding and envy, contempt and slander, mockery and vengeance, reaches its climax here where a naked man crowned with thorns hangs nailed to a cross, high over the heads of a hostile crowd. The fact that hands and feet are fixed by nails to the cross causes every movement, even the smallest, to produce further gashes in his flesh and nerves and to create immeasurable pain. His whole body is sweating hotly through fever. Streaks of blood are drawn from the barbed thorns round his head. As it is impossible for him to wipe away the blood, it enters his eyes. Through a mist of his own blood the Saviour sees a last picture of his tormentors, through that red mist he realises how men have appraised his love for them and his battle for truth: as the crimes of robbers and murderers. While fire is burning through his veins and thirst is suffocating him, his parched tongue whispers: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And then suddenly a higher contact is established between the heavenly Father and His chosen son. The holy spirit quivers through his tormented delicate nervous system. The red mist disappears, and a divine clearness replaces it. Now he sees in his tormentors only younger spiritually unexperienced brothers. With a last great wave of love he takes them to his heart. But at the same moment the earth shook to its foundations, the sun lost its light, and lightning struck the temple so that the curtain in front of the sanctuary was torn in two. A deadly fear attacked the rough executioners who had up to then been so sure of themselves, and many of them fell to their knees trembling before the cross. Through the darkness the rays of the holy spirit shone over those present, and from the lips of the "Son of Man" vibrated through space the words: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". Under this flood of heavenly light the earth turned in a new spiritual direction. A gospel of love, a God himself love, appeared where up to then only wrath, vengeance and retribution had seemed to reign. A close relationship between the Creator of the world and a creature of flesh and blood became real. Man on earth had received a message from his eternal Father. God's emissary turned his gaze towards the sky. As a fresh evening breeze tried to ease the pangs of the divine martyr a little, he uttered the eternal words: "It is finished" which, like a further halo of light, vibrated over the world.
      With a last effort the thorn-crowned Son of God opened his tired eyes once more to look at his beloved mankind at the foot of the cross; and with this last picture in his dying eyes God's emissary left the physical world behind him. As his pale lips breathed out: "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit", the passage of the Son of God from earth to the kingdom of light was made evident. And the cross became a symbol of light for all time.