The Gospels Presentation of the Passion

As Creator of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus displayed not only unrestrained benevolence, but consummate wisdom.

Thus, this idea occupies a prominent place in the prophetic picture of the Messianic King and Servant of Yahweh. He appears as One on whom the spirit of wisdom and understanding should rest and to whom seekers should look for instruction:

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. Isaiah 11:2.

The wisdom of Jesus showed itself conspicuously in the choice of men who should be with Him and in the whole training to which He subjected them. The materials relating to this subject may be reckoned among the most certain of historical records in the Gospel. Only the most reckless skeptic could call into question either the choice or the training.

A Man with such irresistible attractions, and having so much to teach, could not fail to gather around Him disciples; and that from among those who followed Him occasionally, He choose a limited number to be His constant companions is intrinsically probable. That He made the number twelve simply meant that in His mind the choice had an important connection with the interests of the Kingdom. And surely it had in reality.

The miscellaneous activity among the people in evangelism and healing, however benevolent in spirit, would not by itself have amounted to much for the permanent riches of the Kingdom. For all movements that are to be of lasting character, and to take their place in the general history of the world, the thorough instruction and discipline of the few is of greater importance than the transient emotional excitements of the many.

Certainly such a One as Jesus may be credited with fully understanding this. Therefore we cannot hesitate to believe that He chose men into whose ear He might speak the things which it would be their business afterward to speak from the house-tops, as apostles well instructed in the mysteries of the Kingdom. In the Gospels we find the faithful record of the sayings of the Master, as repeated and reported by the men who had been with Him.

Jesus did much for the founding of the Kingdom during the years He spent in public ministry. Yet, strange as it may seem, He did even more for the Kingdom by His death.

People have often asked if Jesus foreknew His death and the answer, according to the Gospels, is yes. The evangelists record Him as alluding to a tragic termination of His career from an early period. Some months before the end, He spoke to His disciples in plain, terribly realistic, terms of His approaching death:

"Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!" Luke 13:32-33.

"He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again" Mark 8:31.

"Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, 'We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.' The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about" Luke 18:31-34.

We know Jesus was a Man of extraordinary, even unique, spiritual insight. He saw God and the most obscure laws of the moral world quite clearly. He penetrated to the very core of Old Testament prophecy, and grasped with unerring instinct its deepest essential meaning.

Jesus understood succinctly the most remarkable of Hebrew oracles concerning the suffering Servant of God. Actually, that the righteous Man must suffer may have been kind of a moral cliché to Him. He brought this conviction with Him from His quiet home in Nazareth to His public ministry. It was not long into His ministry before He began to gain greater insight into suffering from personal experience. How could it be otherwise with One so against the Pharisees and living in a community totally engulfed in Pharisaism?

That Jesus understood from the beginning that the righteous must suffer is evident. What is startling is the extreme value He placed upon suffering for righteousness. He regarded it not as a dismal fate, but with a sense of hopefulness, as the appointment of God, and the law of the moral world, ordained for glorious ends. Jesus answers the age old question of why the righteous suffer which for the Old Testament saints had been an insoluble problem. Jesus solved the problem first for Himself, then for all who bear His name. He said in essence, not only must I die for righteousness sake, but also my death will prove a tremendous benefit for the Kingdom of God.

The truth of the matter is that the words reported in the Gospels as relevant to the significance of Jesus’ death, are few. Nevertheless, the general importance of the few is that Jesus died for righteousness’ sake in accordance with God’s divine will.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:21.

His death would also have a redemptive value for sinners:

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28.

He therefore died willingly in the spirit of self-sacrifice:

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." John 10:18.

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.” John 10:17.

And finally, out of regard to His death, God would freely forgive the sins of all citizens of the divine kingdom:

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28.

Thus, these meaningful sayings of Jesus justified the great importance attached to His death in the Apostolic Church. The Gospels attest to how the death of our Lord Jesus occupied a central place in the minds of believers.

The Gospels presentation of the Passion saw in the cross, and everything surrounding it, a conflict between the sin of the world, the patient love of God, and victory of the sinner. For the early Church, it was not merely a matter of an innocent Man being killed. The narrators have risen above that indignation because what now occupies their thoughts is not man’s iniquity but rather, Christ’s humility. Their understanding had not yet developed to the theory of atonement, which doe not manifest until after the resurrection.

However, they see on Calvary the fact of Jesus, the Just One benignantly bearing indignities heaped upon Him by the unjust and graciously forgiving His killers. What they saw they said in simple terms without sentiment or reflection, leaving the story to speak for itself. And speak for itself it does. It has spoken, and continues to speak with power far beyond what the evangelists could have imagined.

If we stand by the cross with Jesus’ mother, we cannot help but come under the spell of the Crucified. From the cross emanates an influence we will never be able to put fully into words. But if you have been to the cross, you know what I am attempting to relate. It is the evangelistic story of the Passion itself that moves the heart. Nowhere more than at the cross do we appreciate the unspeakable value of the Gospels to the Christian faith and life. “Christ's love compels us,” writes Paul. He means the love of Christ in dying for sinners.

How sad we would have been if the history of the Passion had been withheld; how little we would have known about God’s unfathomable love.