"Surely you know I could ask my Father, and he would give me more than twelve armies of angels." (Matthew 26:53)
The fact that Jesus could have done something but did nothing to save himself from suffering and death took on a whole different meaning for me this past week.
While working through the verses in Mark 6, a textual flashback into the death of John the Baptist, I had one of those moments that got me to thinking.
Jesus could have rescued John. Certainly Jesus could have called more than twelve armies of angels to rescue his cousin? Yet we know that Jesus did nothing to save John from suffering and death.
I understand the "why" from an eternal perspective. It’s the immediate perspective that challenges my thinking. We all want to be the exception to the rescue / deliver rule. We see Jesus choosing to save, choosing to deliver different people and we want to tip the scale in our favor when our time of suffering (or death) is near.
It means more to me knowing that Jesus did nothing to save himself when he did nothing to save the one who prepared the way.
