“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matthew 26:38
Think of Jesus’ complete honesty in prayer. What drives you to such a desperate time of prayer?
“Friend, do what you came here to do.” Matthew 26:50
The son of God was betrayed by a friend. The son of God was betrayed by his creation.
“Shall I crucify your king?” pilate asked. “We have no king but caesar,” the chief priests answered. John 19:15
Jesus submits quietly and peacefully. Jesus is condemned by religious leaders. What was their fear?
“But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” John 18:23
These soldiers brutalize Jesus. Possibly their common response to Jewish prisoners. Imagine the Son of God being brutalized by men.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that
everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” John 3:14-15
Imagine carrying the wood of the cross… up the hill to your eventual slow and public death.
“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24
Imagine Jesus experiencing weakness and distress in a public setting with nowhere to hide.
Imagine the exhaustion of the last 24 hours.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
Imagine being pulled from the crowd and carrying this man’s device of death. What is it like to walk alongside Jesus in this?
“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes
by casting lots. Luke 23:34
Romans crucified criminals naked. Reflect on the shame of nakedness in the Garden of Eden. And the shame of nakedness in this moment.
“When you have lifted up the Son of Man then you will know that I am the one I claim to be….” John 8:28
The long physical pain of crucifixion was excruciating. In fact, the word excruciating is derived
from crucifixion.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
“It is finished.” John 19:30 “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke 23:46
Our greatest fear is death. And He was not insulated from that fear. His friends watched Him die.
“When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.” Matthew 26:12
Have you ever buried a loved one? Imagine doing that with the one you believed was going to
change the world and bring ultimate justice and healing.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for his sheep.” John 10:11
“Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the son of man has been raised from the dead.” Matthew 17:9
Consider the other side of our greatest fear. Jesus shows us that there is something beyond death.
