When Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, it looks like he’s rolling to success. As the week progresses there’s more and more conflict with the leaders of the people. That conflict comes to a head when one of Jesus’ disciples hands him over to the authorities. The Jewish authorities convict him as a false prophet and blasphemer, one who is leading the people astray. The Romans convict him because his messianic claims pose him as an opponent to Caesar. That Friday afternoon we see Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, run into the buzz saw not only of Roman authority, but death itself.

Jesus didn’t HAVE to do this. He could have settled for just being a prophet, a dispenser of information. He could have just shared the information people needed to have a happy life with God and gone on his merry way. He never would have had to become vulnerable; the immortal God would never have had to become mortal.

But he did. And he did it for us. At any point in his experience of opposition, rejection, beating, and crucifixion he could have stopped and withdrawn. He could have called “10,000 angels.” He could have used his own divine authority to simply annihilate those who opposed him.

The thing is, he came for those people too. He came for Caiaphas and his crew. He came for Pilate and his pals. He came for the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots, and the Romans. He came for sinners – even those who determined themselves to be his enemies.

Christians speak of “Good Friday.” We don’t call it that because we look at Jesus’ sufferings and think nothing of them. We call it that because we know he willingly took on that suffering for us.

There’s one other thing we know, something that makes all the difference. That Friday it LOOKED like Rome and its partner Death got the last word. Jesus had been brutally rejected and put in his place. But they didn’t get the last word. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, overruling all the powers of sin, death, and hell. The victory Jesus won was not just for him, it was for us. Because those same forces – sin, death, and hell – are arrayed against us, we need the life and victory Jesus offers us. That’s why we entrust our lives to him and give him our allegiance.