And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him. Luke 23:27
"AMID the
rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there were some
gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and
lamentations—fit music to accompany that march of woe.
When my soul can,
in imagination, see the Savior bearing His cross to Calvary, she joins
the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause
for grief—cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought.
They
bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding,
meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause
to mourn.
My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed
shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried
"Crucify Him! crucify Him!" and laid the cross upon His gracious
shoulders.
Why those women
loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they could not have had
greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has.
Nain's widow saw
her son restored—but I myself have been raised to newness of life.
Peter's wife's mother was cured of the fever—but I of the greater plague
of sin.
Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast—but a whole legion out
of me.
Mary and Martha were favored with visits—but He dwells with me.
His mother bare His body—but He is formed in me the hope of glory.
In
nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be behind them in
gratitude or sorrow."
Charles Spurgeon