it must be so

Matthew 26:26-29

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Aaron Orendorff

Intentional, determined, resolved.

On the heels of what would have been (up to that point) the darkest moment of his life, Jesus walks with calculated intensity into the heart of a gathering storm. The cross is no accident. The mob is not sovereign. The Scriptures, as Jesus twice repeats, must be fulfilled. The Father’s will must be done. The “cup” must be drained. And so, just as Jesus predicted, the shepherd is struck, the sheep scatter and the fate of a fallen world begins rushing to meet a deserted, betrayed and unwavering Jew.