Dark days hover over Jesus. He sees it, an amorphic shadow, a writhing wraith with no shape or form. He wrestles with it in the Garden but can get no solid grip. Judas’ kiss makes it visible, but that betrayal and his disciples’ precipitous flight simply love-stabs his heart.

He hears Peter, aka Rocky, deny he ever knew him, but he’d anticipated that pain early on.

Perhaps the high mucky-mucks who spit on and slapped him brought shape to the wraith. Or the Roman soldiers who made great sport of “worshiping” this king of the Jews.

Stripped and flogged, losing control of bodily functions, was the real start.

How bad can humiliation get? 

Being dragged before Pilate and Herod provided brief interludes, as did his collapse and rescue while lugging his instrument of torture. But nails fastening hands and feet to the cross, which was then thunked into its hole, brought it back, full bore. Did he scream in pain? Did urine run down his legs? What flashed through his head during this long-foreseen agony for which he had been born?

Those dreadful hours of sagging under the gross weight of sin. This perfect, sacrificial Lamb, on the altar to atone for a planet wracked in wickedness.

Toward the end came his raspy but triumphant bellow,

FINISHED! 

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,but^]emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11, The Message)

Thank you, sacrificial Lamb, for wearing that heavy robe of humiliation—for ME.

This was a hard one—hard to read, hard to write. Please share your thoughts,either below (scroll down a bit) or on egus@me.com