THE BIG IDEA: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.” What was the “joy” that so motivated Jesus to go through such a humiliating and torturous death? I’m convinced, my friend, that you were the joy Jesus saw as he hung there on the cross. And when he saw that you would one day stand with him as one of the redeemed before his Father’s throne, his heart swelled even as the life drained from his body, and he said, “It’s worth it!” All the suffering and humiliation of the cross was worth it to Jesus because you’re worth it!

Meditation // Mark 15:24

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross.

Mark’s account of Jesus’s betrayal, arrest, trial, suffering, and crucifixion is moving beyond words. As you read in the paragraph below his description of what Jesus went through, I would encourage you to remember that Jesus didn’t have to go through this. But he did—and the reason was you.

The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then, they led him away to be crucified. (Mark 15:16-20)

Trumped-up charges, the mockery of a trial, public humiliation, mental and physical torture, and rejection—the Second Person of the Trinity, the Agent of Creation, the Messiah of God’s chosen people, suffered beyond description at the hands of the people he loved. Yet he chose to endure it. Why? He did it for you! Hebrews 12:2 says,

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.

What was the “joy” that so motivated Jesus to go through such a humiliating, torturous death? I am convinced, my friend, that you were the joy Jesus saw as he hung there on the cross. And when he saw that you would one day stand with him as one of the redeemed before his Father’s throne, his heart swelled even as the life drained from his body, and he said, “it’s worth it!”

All the suffering and humiliation of the cross was worth it to Jesus because you’re worth it!

“ At the heart of the story stands the cross of Christ where evil did its worst and met its match. — JOHN W. WENHAM