And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” - Matthew 27:39-43
If I was going to count the number of times I’ve heard one of the Gospel’s account of Jesus’ last days, it would be at least several times the number of years I’ve been alive.
And yet, it wasn’t until this last Sunday as we heard the Passion story read again in church for Palm Sunday that I realized that Jesus’ ministry was bookended by temptation. He was tempted after being in the desert 40 days at the start of his ministry. But how many times do we start out some endeavor, full of hope and passion and energy that can carry us through hard times? Piece of cake. We can stand this. Perhaps his temptations could be written off as being overcome with zeal for his mission.
But the final temptations as Jesus is hanging on the cross? Those are the ones that resonate. The hardest, darkest of times. Abandoned. Hurting. When we’re at the lowest of our lows, we know that temptations are nearly impossible to say no to. We repeatedly choose self over others to drive away the pain, even temporarily.
So when Jesus chooses to remain on the cross, even though those on the ground tell him that they’ll believe he’s the Messiah if he comes down and saves himself? That is the deepest evidence of his love. He refuses to save himself in order that he might save us. He knows the fleeting and fickle nature of those who mock him. He knows that their belief would quickly waiver without indisputable proof of who he is and his power over death. Simply coming down from the cross wouldn’t be enough.
They (and we) often don’t get it. We don’t want to walk through the darkness. Remembering the sacrifice that allows us a relationship with God is hard. But salvation doesn’t come in a brilliant display on Good Friday. That was the passage that salvation had to take in order to prove that God has the ultimate power over death.
Yes, Holy Week’s slow darkening leads up to the ultimate darkness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. But we are resurrection people, and we know that this is not the end of the story. And so we walk that path of remembrance in faith, knowing that even in Jesus’ hardest, darkest of times, he still overcame temptation and chose us over himself.