Jesus’ walk towards Golgotha (or Calvary) started after the last supper, where Jesus introduced communion to His disciples. Peter declared, loud and confident, that even if everyone else would fall away on account of Jesus, he never would. Even if it meant dying with Him. A few hours later he found himself in the courtyard of the high priest, swearing that he did not know Jesus. And he was not the only one. Along the way to the cross, Jesus was surrounded by people who failed Him. At the end He died all alone, left behind by everybody.

In Gethsemane, while Jesus struggled to be true to what He had to finish, His disciples slept. It was His disciple Judas who betrayed Jesus when He was arrested.  All the other disciples fled. At the Sanhedrin no one defended Him. Everyone agreed He was worthy of death. Then they spit in His face, struck Him and slapped him. Peter denied Him. This was followed by a meeting with Pilate. He thought Jesus was innocent, but in fear and cowardice he let the crowd of people shouting “crucify Him”, have their way. Then the Roman soldiers got to torture and make fun of Him. Finally, He was crucified as a simple criminal at Golgotha. Even there He was made fun of and mocked.

The suffering of an unimaginably painful death, being left behind by people was not the worst that happened. The worst was expressed as He cried: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” The darkness of God’s absence is the terror of the perdition. We were the ones who should have cried. He walked down that road all alone, for our sake. He did it for us, so we don’t have to. Because Jesus didn’t just die, but rose from the dead and won victory over the consequences of our sins.  By giving our lives to Him we receive all He has for us - God’s grace and forgiveness in Jesus.