The following resource is from desiring God.org.

Let's pray together.

Father, I asked that you would grant that by the power of the resurrection we would be able to sing in suffering and love our enemies.

I pray that we would be able to move

from the cross,

through the resurrection into hope, circle back around and live a life crucified. And then forever enjoy your joy. So draw near now please and help me in these few minutes to bring the explosive power of the resurrection by your spirit into our suffering. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

If you had been there at the cross, you probably would have vomited or screamed or pulled out your hair or

thrown yourself on the ground and pounded the dirt and sobbed yourself into exhaustion.

To have nails or spikes driven through your arms and legs and then to have your whole body weight hang there for hours and then have legs smashed or a spear run through your side was almost unbearable to watch. I think it would have been for us in our modern sensibilities

and surely unbearable to endure.

And Jesus volunteered for this. He chose it. It wasn't forced on him by any man.

You remember what he said. Nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down of my

own accord and if I lay it down I can take it again. Do you think that I can't call to my father and have 12,000

angels to rescue me at any moment.

Nobody forced him to do this.

This was what he chose to do. I'm not trapped. You think Herod or Pilot or the mobs in Jerusalem or the soldiers are in charge here.

They're not in charge. My father wrote this drama.

My father and I agreed my role in the drama is to be crucified. It's what I do freely. I'm in charge, not pilot. There's a name for this. It's called

love. This is the way Paul put it in Romans 5. God shows his love for us

in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That's the name of volunteering

for that kind of suffering for us. So the greatest suffering in the service of the greatest love for the least

...