He Wouldn’t Save Himself

42 “He saved others, but he cannot save himself!” Matthew 27:42a

The religious leaders meant it as mockery. Matthew lets us hear it as one of the clearest pictures of the gospel.

“He saved others.”

He had.

“But he cannot save himself.”

Not because He lacked the power. Jesus had already said He could have called a ton of angels. In one sense He could have stepped down from the cross at any moment. In another sense He could not. The Father’s will and His love for sinners held Him there.

The cross never proved that Jesus couldn’t leave. It proved He wouldn’t.

He would not save Himself, so that He could save you.

I don’t want to rush past that.

Some truths aren’t meant to be mastered. They are meant to be waited in, lived with, until they draw us into quiet wonder.

Lord, keep drawing my eyes back to the cross until I see, more clearly than ever, the beauty of the Savior who willingly stayed for me.