The love that held him there
Upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
And by his bruises we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
Read John 19:16-30
This night I think upon the cross. I think upon its necessity. If only there was some way for Jesus to avoid it and to still carry through the purpose of God to love the world into eternal life. He prayed in deep agony, in grief, to avoid it, but there was no avoiding it. This that I think upon tonight had to be. It had to be if God was to love me through to my own redemption out of death. It had to be if that redemption was to be complete, if my sin and its ruinous effect were to be fully and completely covered, forgiven, no longer the power that determined my life and my eternity. So the cross had to be. In that sense it was inevitable. Yet Jesus had to choose it. He had freedom not to. This was his great temptation. In that sense the cross was free love. It was not inevitable. In utter freedom he chose this for me. In pure love. I am the outcome of pure love.
Prayer
Dear Lord, you suffered under Governor Pilate, wounded for my transgressions. Surely you bore my sorrows. You chose this. You refused the powerful voice, your own voice, that called you to avoid this suffering. You rejected the voice of Peter, pleading with you to avoid Jerusalem and the suffering inflicted by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and, especially, the outcome in death. That urging, even when Peter, dear Peter, spoke it, you recognised as the voice of satan,[1] who had wrestled with you from the start.[2] You knew the voices of satan. From all directions these voices came. I only live because you did not obey those voices. In love, instead, you heard my voice, the cry of my need, though I hardly knew it and hardly called it out. And before and beyond that you heard the loving call of the Father. So you were lifted up on the cross, and you have drawn me to yourself. Dear Lord, thank you. Thank you
[1] Mark 8:33
[2] Matthew 4:1—11