WERE YOU THERE

   "Ah, thou that destroyeth the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross."  (Mark 15: 29, 30)

   If Jesus had come down from the cross, He would have liked Himself more than He liked others, and He would have loved Himself more than He loved others.

   Strangely, but we often hear people saying those words today:

      You must like yourself

                      before you can like others.

         You must love yourself

                        before you can love others.

   Take care of self first.

   Let me be first in line, first to be seated, and first to be served.

   Let me go first and you can go second.

   Let me pick first and you can pick second.

   Let me have it because I saw it first.

   Save the last dance for me.

   Save the last piece of cake for me.

   Look out for numero uno because numero uno likes and loves the face in the mirror above all faces.

"...save thyself, and come down from the cross."

  Had Jesus come down from the cross, the New Testament of the Bible would have never been written, and Jesus would have not been known outside of Nazareth. 
  But because Jesus remained on the cross and died there, His name has been known worldwide more than any name in world history, for there is something about that name that God will not let people forget.

     "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:  and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

       Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:  yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

       But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

      All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."  (Isaiah 53: 3-6) 

"Were You There" by Tennessee Ernie Ford