“He said to his disciples...’the son of man will be handed over to be crucified’”. Matthew 26:2
The Lord Jesus knew the exact timing of the plan he had come to execute and the terrible events that awaited him.
When we know something terrifying is looming it’s hard to take hold of our emotions. Here the lord describes himself as the ‘son of man’ (see Paul's sermon yesterday; Daniel 7 also). The impending events must have utterly gripped him in his humanity. Yet he was not overwhelmed - not paralysed. He was shortly to be handed over for a death sentence.
He most definitely means his disciples to understand that he will be handed over by men to men (Acts 3:13), but Acts 2:23 reminds us that He was handed over by The Father’s express plan and foreknowledge, and lest we forget, handed over for our sake.
No man could have handed him over, were it not God’s will for him to be handed over. Nobody strong armed Jesus onto the cross, he went willingly and his Father handed him over freely.
Jesus’ death is therefore a God-plan first and foremost, not a man-plan. If it hadn’t have been so, we could have no more confidence in it than in any other human plan!
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