A Necessary Death

Road Trip ~ eastern Sierras or eastern Jerusalem ~ Death Valley

We're almost there.  Our ultimate destination.  Death Valley.  Just a left-hand turn off hgwy 395 and an hour's drive ahead of us, and we will have reached our goal.  The road looks flat and inviting but we know that a serpentine, steep mountain pass lies ahead. 

Again, on this Easter weekend, I can't help but think of Christ's journey down off the hill from the garden, through the valley of the tombs and up the hill on the other side to His trials toward the cross.  Unlike my husband and I who are traveling into Death Valley together, Christ's was a solo journey.

Jesus was alone at the last Passover supper where the disciples did not understand that their beloved rabbit would soon be put to death.  They did not understand His words, "I eagerly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.  I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."  Instead a dispute arose among them over who was the greatest disciple.  In His heart, Jesus knew that He would be betrayed or denied by not one, but two, of His beloved followers, a knowledge that weighed heavily upon Him as He spent their final hours together.

Jesus was alone when they retreated to the garden to pray.  His crucifixion and extreme suffering was imminent, but without burdening them further, He were merely asked them to stay awake and pray.  As Christ retreated in solitude His agonizing prayer acknowledged the difficult task ahead, "Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will but Yours be done."  It was a cup that ONLY Christ could bear, alone and misunderstood.

Jesus was alone when He stood before His accusers.  Six trials. Six chances for someone to come to His defense.  Six times He bore the accusations alone, knowing full well He had 72,000 angels at His command to stop this travesty but also knowing that it was not a command He could give.

Jesus endured great torture, both physical and verbal, at the hands of the soldiers who would put him to death by crucifixion.  Not even one legal or military authority stepped up and said, "Enough!"  Alone, Christ bore the the full brunt of human savagery and depravity.

Jesus was alone when He hung and died on that cross.  Oh sure, He was surrounded by a crowd of both believers and taunters, but He alone endured a death that was the culmination of all the human deaths that had gone before and would follow thereafter ~ a death that bore every sin that everyone had ever committed or would commit against a most Holy God.  And even at the point of death, He was separated from the one thing that was the most crushing of all ~ He was separated from the Father.  "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?  (My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?)"  Literally and figuratively alone.  A necessary aloneness that only He could endure.  A necessary death that only He was designed to participate in from the very beginning before time.

A necessary walk through the Valley of Death so that we would not have to bear an eternity alone, separated from the love of the very God who created us.

Thank You, Jesus, for faithfully following Your original plan.  Thank You, God, for sacrificing Your only Son for me.  I don't deserve it.  I don't understand it.  But I am on my knees, grateful for Your amazing grace and infinite love.