But as we look at this scene of the dying we feel that the powers of evil are working their uttermost, they are driving their slaves to incredible sins.  One feels the tremendous power that evil is as one looks at these human beings who are body and soul wholly under its dominion.  The Power of Darkness appears utterly in control of the world of humanity; but we know that this moment in which its triumph seems most complete is in fact the moment in which its defeat is at hand.  The victory that is being won is the victory of the Vanquished:  and the moment when the victory of evil seems assured by the dying of Jesus, is in fact the moment when the chains of the slaves of sin are broken, and men who will to be free are henceforth free indeed.  From that moment a new freedom is within the reach of men, the freedom which comes to them through their participation in the redemption wrought for them by God.  Presently S. John will announce the great message of freedom to the Church, a message that he will tell in his own wonderful simplicity, a simplicity which almost deceives us as to its unfathomable depth of love and mystery:  “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:  and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith....  We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not:  but He that was begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not.  And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.  And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God, and eternal life.”

This is what the dying of Jesus achieved for us, that we should be free as men had never been free, and that we should be strong as men had never been strong.

On their crosses the thieves agonise in the realisation of the sin that has brought them there; but our Lord, Who is free from sin, looks out on the scene before Him in a wonderful detachment from His personal suffering.  Being without sin our Lord is without egotism, and never treats life from that purely personal standpoint that we are constantly tempted to adopt.  Our own needs, our own interests, occupy the foreground and determine the judgment; and we are rarely able to see in dealing with the concrete case that our own interests are ultimately indentical with the interests of the whole Body.  The lesson that if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, that we are partners in joy and sorrow alike, is almost impossible of assimilation by the radical individualists that we are.  Our theories break down before the test of actuality.  But our Lord was not an individualist.  He, in His relations with men, is the Head of the Body; and He admits no division of interests between His members.  He therefore can think of the needs of others while He Himself is undergoing the last torture of death.  He can impartially judge the separate cases of His members; He can attend to the spiritual welfare of a needy soul; He can think of His own death as an act of sacrifice willed by God, and not as a matter concerning Himself alone; and in doing these things He teaches us a much-needed lesson of the handling of life.