the judged judge

I am once again blown away by the significance of Good Friday. 

Jesus is the Judge. (2 Timothy 4:1; Revelation 20:4)

        And yet…

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be arrested. (Luke 22:47ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be questioned by the High Council. (Luke 22:66ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be questioned by the governor, Pilate. (Luke 23:1ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be questioned before Herod Antipas. (Luke 23:8ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be jostled between courts. (Luke 23:1-12)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be declared innocent by the rulers. (Luke 23:13ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows the people to condemn him as guilty. (Luke 23:18ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows a murderer to be freed as a substitute for his incrimination.  (Luke 23:18-23)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself be insulted, mocked, laughed at, abhored, humiliated, stripped bare, beaten, ridiculed, harassed, exposed, accused, and nailed to wood.  (Luke 23)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to carry his own instrument of execution.  (Luke 23:26)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be executed between two criminals.  (Luke 23:32ff)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to feel excruciation. (Luke 23)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to be painfully and frightfully hung in a slow death of asphyxiation.  (Luke 23)

Jesus, the Judge, allows himself to die a criminal.

            And yet, in the middle of this whole process…

Jesus, the Judge, pleads with his Father, "Father, forgive these people, because they don't know what they are doing."  (Luke 23:34)