I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).                          

He knew what was coming.  

There was no surprise.

He knew he would die to pay the price for our sins.  He also knew that more than death would be involved.   There would be pain, and humiliation, and loneliness.  The soldiers slapped him around. They laughed at him.  They dressed him up to look like a petty king, complete with crown of thorns.  They took his clothes. They spat on him.

And he took it.  For you.  For me.

The key to today is to remember that Jesus was not surprised by any of this.  He didn’t accidentally let his guard down.  He didn’t get caught up in circumstances beyond his control.  There are no circumstances beyond his control.  As he spent this day teaching in the temple, he was moving purposefully and steadily toward the pain that waited for him.   At any point along the way, Jesus could have ended this.  He chose to wait until he could say, “It is finished.”

The spiritual accomplishments of the Cross are so monumental that sometimes we forget about the physical agony Christ endured both after his arrest and on the Cross.  Remember it today, Beloved. Remember what he suffered, and why.  And don’t ever, in all the days ahead, wonder if you are worthy of any good thing.

You, Beloved, are worth dying for.

Happy Thursday