Matthew 26:36–27:66; Mark 14:32–15:47; Luke 22:39–23:56; John 18:1–19:42

So many events took place in the early hours of Good Friday.  Jesus was arrested, tried, convicted, beaten, whipped, mocked, and eventually hung on a cross to die.  Before all of this happened, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  Jesus prayed this prayer because He was human, just like you and me, and the prospect of suffering through this event was enough to make Him look for another way out.  Yet in His faithfulness, He says, “not as I will, but as you will.”  In His humanity, He recognized that what was about to happen to Him would be excruciating. 

It wasn’t just Jesus’ humanity that went to the cross; His divinity was also completely present.  When He was arrested, John’s gospel says, “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Who do you seek?’  They answered him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, I am he…When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell on the ground.”  The Roman soldiers who came to arrest Him were trained to fight and did not go down easily, yet at Jesus’ words, they fell to the ground.  In that moment, a picture of Jesus’ divinity was on display.  His power and His might could overwhelm them in an instant and He could go free. 

But because of His divinity, Jesus knew what needed to be done.  He knew that the cross was unavoidable if He was to rescue us from sin, and so He held back His ability to fight and allowed Himself to be arrested.  He allowed himself to be tried, convicted, beaten, whipped, mocked, and hung on the cross to die.  He allowed this all for our sake, so that our sin might be removed from us and that we could be reunited with the Father again.

Take time today to remember again that Christ gave up everything for you.