This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon. 

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No one is better prepared to die than Jesus. As the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), the eternal Son of God collaborates with the Father and the Holy Spirit before creation to plan their joint redemptive work. The incarnate Christ declares that he has come to seek and save the lost, a mission requiring his death (Matt. 16:21; Luke 19:10). After Peter’s remarkable declaration of Jesus as Messiah, Son of the living God, Jesus tells his disciples he must go to Jerusalem, where he is to suffer, die, and rise again – over Peter’s objection, which Christ condemns as Satanic (Matt. 16:16-23). 

Jesus’ willingness to lay down his life reveals a divine sense of purpose, humility,  submission to the Father’s will, and keen insight into what his death is accomplishing. There’s even a sense of anticipatory mirth. As the writer of Hebrews notes, “For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

Despite his followers’ best efforts to keep Jesus out of harm’s way, the Lamb of God walks deliberately into the slaughterhouse. In the Garden of Gethsemane, a mob with swords and clubs sets upon Jesus. Peter rushes to Jesus’ defense, lopping off the ear of the high priest’s servant with a sword. 

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