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Luke 22 tells the passion of Jesus’ submission to arrest and ultimately to be crucified. As I write, we have entered Holy Week and now make our journey toward Easter’s victory. So this week, we walk hard steps with Jesus. 

If you and I choose to, we may walk with Jesus on a journey of turning himself over to human inevitability. That is, he was going to die but didn’t necessarily have to. Humanity chose to kill him in an attempt to blunt out his powerful presence. 

I used to think that the only way they killed Jesus is that they did not understand who and what he was. Lately, though, I have considered a more chilling cause. Some of those around our Lord understood precisely who he was and how he threatened their status quo. Therefore, he had to go. 

As we joined Jesus this week in the scripture, he was sitting down at a table for the Last Supper. Luke 22 lets us peer over his shoulder and out onto the very setup he had asked a couple of his disciples to oversee. 

Now at this table came the first of many remarkable Passion Week moments. We are told that Jesus even made room there for the one who would betray him. I don’t know about you, but I can likely assure you it wouldn’t be within me to be that big in spirit. 

Common table fare became ritual elements as Jesus blessed and dedicated them to his memory. Bread that represented his body to be sacrificed. Wine that represented his blood to be poured out in the ultimate act of self-giving. Jesus, in his simplicity, had thought of it all. 

Not that it would change much. But so often, I hear well-intentioned believers say that Judas didn’t really sin when he betrayed Jesus because Satan had entered his body. Earlier in this chapter, we hear of Judas choosing to take on this assignment. 

Also here in Luke’s telling of the story, Jesus proclaims woe upon the one who betrays him. In another, he says that it would be better if that individual had never been born. My point, I suppose, is that we are always responsible for the choices we make. If we remembered that more often, we might give more thought to the decisions we act upon. 

As if to illustrate the humanity that Jesus died for, his distractible disciples begin to argue over who will be regarded in history as the greatest. In one of the most heartbreaking and tender moments of his life, Jesus has to stop and attend to this teachable moment. He reminds them about place, status and humility in God’s kingdom. 

Now the stage is set for what we know will play out in the days to come. Now the days are ours to gather during what is left of this Holy Week and worship. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday lie just ahead on our pilgrimage to the empty tomb. 

As our Catholic friends proclaim, our temptation about now is to rush ahead to the victory symbolized by the tomb. But we can’t proclaim a risen Christ without also walking with him on the way to being put on the cross. That is the hard work of this week. 

What was “good” about that Friday? Not much, by conventional measures. But by the sacrificial and humble acts that led to God giving up an only Son, the good is magnificent. The goodness is perhaps best found in the results. For Jesus did submit himself to the inevitability of his physical death. 

Do you think Jesus wanted to die? Do you think the way he was treated was okay? I surely doubt it. I think I always believed that Jesus simply had to die for our sins. That’s usually the way we Christians put it. Lately, though, I’ve also begun to consider how humanity seems to work. 

When a disrupter like Jesus came along, when a movement of followers began to stir up that much competition for the Holy Roman Empire, his death became more inevitable. Someone was going to die. That someone was Jesus. Sure enough, humanity did what I’m not so sure humanity wouldn’t still do today. 

So we gather this week. We collect what we can of our own families. We join in with our other chosen family of the Spirit. We worship these days because we need to hear the stories once again of the anxious last minutes.

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.