pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of
angels? But then how could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen
thus?” (Matthew 26:52-54)
No, there was no “death with dignity” for Him, because He knew it was
necessary for events to unfold as they did. The Scriptures must be fulfilled, the
Word must be obeyed. “It was for this cause that I came into the world.” He
came – not just to die, though that was the ultimate act required to complete
His mission – but to submit absolutely and completely to the Divine order
which He had come into the world to embody and represent for all people.
The Word had been treated spiritually just as the prophets who proclaimed
it had been treated physically, and as He, the Word made flesh, the prophet of
all prophets, was now to be treated.
Like a lamb led to slaughter, He submitted. He refused to put His Human
will above the Divine will. The Lord inwardly was God, and could thus “play
God” without playing, but He refused to do this, for the sake of what His
suffering and death, and then resurrection, represented.
The Lord’s crucifixion itself was extremely contrary to the larger order of
human life – surely it was not God’s will – and yet it had to be permitted for the
sake of preserving that very order, and thus the human race.
The Lord had demonstrated His power over death at the tomb of
Lazarus. His refusal to use that power prematurely (before His glorification
was complete) to escape crucifixion was an act of supernatural heroism. That
submission of the Human to the Divine, that trust in Divine providence that
He held onto even through His final agony, gave His death infinitely more
dignity than if He had refused to drink from the bitter cup that had been
placed before Him.
But what of us? The fate of mankind does not rest with us. Or does it?
In a certain sense it does. Our choices certainly affect ѡ