Devotional: He Was Led

So, what did Pilate, Herod, and the Jewish religious leaders do after exhausting their questions and accusations?

Take the bruised, bloodied, and tattered Man, remove the beautiful purple robe and replace his own humble garments, then lead him out for crucifixion.

And that itself should give one pause.

He was led.

He went willingly.

Why would He do this? Why? I’ve asked this question here, before. We know it was for love. Love of fallen humanity.

“And He, bearing His cross ...” (John 19:17)

Wait a minute. We see in the other three accounts, as they came out, Jesus must have faltered. The Roman soldiers seized a man who was there “from the country,” a Jew from Cyrene, a city in eastern Libya, to carry the cross for Jesus. A stranger who was just in town for the great feast of the Passover, co-opted to carry the instrument of death for the ultimate sacrifice.

Did he know anything about what had been going on with this Jesus dude? Or was he just caught in the press, in the wrong place at the wrong time?

He too was led away.

Did he watch the bloody footprints of this man whose face was more marred than anyone else’s had ever been, and wonder if he’d be crucified as well? Did he feel a sense of relief when it turned out he wasn’t?

Do we all only feel a sense of relief when we escape some terrible fate?

I wonder too, are we willing to walk the road to the Cross, regardless of what awaits us at the end?

⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53)

²⁰ And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him. (Mark 15, all NKJV)

(This post first appeared March 30, 2014)