I enjoy very much reading about the week before and the events leading up to the crucifixion. I get easily caught up in the small things. What did people and things look like? What did stuff smell like? Not really important stuff I guess, but I have a pretty vivid imagination. I can see from a distance, the Master and his followers walking from Bethany to the Mount of Olives, and the throngs of people as He makes His triumphal entry. I can see things happening with my imagination later in the week, as He and His remaining eleven friends walked with Him down the hill to the Kidron Valley and ultimately to the Garden of Gesthemene at the foot of the Mount of Olives. I can kind of hear the disciples singing Passover hymns in remembrance of the deliverance of their people by God from the merciless hands of Pharoah. I can see them being happy, but at the same time perplexed by the weird goings on at the Passover meal they had just shared with Jesus.

Since it was late at night, I imagine most of those who were in town for the festival had already gone to bed for the night along with most of the citizenry, but not Jesus. The night would be dreadfully long for Jesus, certainly for Peter and for the rest of the disciples. It would likely be one of the longest nights of their lives. Though the disciples would have trouble even staying awake to pray with Jesus, they would soon be shocked out of their sluggishness by a crowd of men whose number may have been in the hundreds, led by a former friend, who had decided to betray the Master for money into the hands of those who sought to oppose Him. I say sought, because He went willingly into their custody and allowed Himself to be tortured and killed for our sakes, and in our place.

It isn't pleasant to imagine what He went through on that night, or in the hours leading up to and even His being nailed to the Cross. I am thankful to Him though. I'm thankful that two thousand years later, death is still vanquished by His work, and that it always will be.

1 Cor 15:56-5756 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.