Scriptwriters know that a good story must have certain ‘pillars’ or turning points. One is ‘the doorway of no return’, where the hero turns towards the final battle. We don’t yet know the outcome, but the die is cast. Come grief or glory, this adventure won’t end without a fight.
This is the choice that Jesus makes in Matthew 26:36-46. He has eaten the passover meal with his disciples. In John’s account, he has washed their feet, modelling the pattern he wants them to follow. Now he moves out from their borrowed room, beyond the city to the Kidron valley. He climbs to Gethsemane, a grove on the Mount of Olives. He prays. His disciples fall asleep. Escape would be so easy. Bethany, where the home of Lazarus has always been open to him, is two miles away, on the other side of the same hill. It’s night. No-one is looking. A quick decision, a 40-minute walk, and he can hide away with those who love him.
The fact he doesn’t is a key to the events of Easter. Jesus was not ambushed by the cross. He wasn’t bulldozed into it. It was his choice. Just as he chose to wash his disciples’ feet, he chooses to give his life. One of the earliest songs of Christian worship known to us, cited by Paul in Philippians 2:6-11 beautifully weaves these two choices together:
'Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.'
As you prepare your heart for Easter, can you sense the power of this moment? Whatever pain and degradation Jesus will face tomorrow he chooses today, for your sake and mine, to see it through.
'Teach us God to understand the depths of sacrificial love. That you should choose to come to us, to live with us, to die: all-in for love at every turn. May we do likewise.'
