Menelik II was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 until 1913. News of a successful new means of dispatching criminals reached him. The news was about a device known as an electric chair. The Emperor eagerly ordered one for his country. Unfortunately, no one bothered to warn him that it would never work because Ethiopia at that time had no electricity. Menelik was determined that his new purchase should not go to waste. He converted the electric chair into a throne.
There was another occasion when an instrument of death became a throne. On a Palestinian hillside about twenty centuries ago a cross became a throne for one named Jesus of Nazareth. To this day that ancient instrument of torture and death is converted into a powerful symbol of life, hope, and resurrection. Millions of people around the world see the cross as God's way of indicating His refusal to let death and destruction have the final word.
On the last Friday of His life, Jesus was faced with a heavy choice: the decision to continue and fulfill His mission or to abort it and save His life. Late on Thursday night Jesus had been with His disciples in Jerusalem for a meal in celebration of the Passover. He changed portions of that meal and reminded the twelve that they would never participate in it again without remembering Him. After the meal was completed Jesus took the eleven — Judas left alone to complete his grisly task — and went to the Mount of Olives to pray. The hours to come would be the climax of all He had been about during His entire life.
The action in the gospels at this point is compressed like a steel spring in a box. There is abundant potential energy stored there. Actions were swift if not too certain. Decisions were made in a hurry. People gave their support to dark and dubious work. Political intrigue was at its height. Some reached Faustian bargains for the sake of power. Many were confused. A few were crushed. In the end, only one man stood out with his integrity intact.
The arrest of Jesus was accomplished easily enough. He was exactly where Judas had told the authorities to find Him. The traitor's kiss sealed the transaction and made the silver jingle in his pocket. Above all, the events of the arrest and the "trials" are full of ironies, illegalities, contradictions, and tragedies.
God decided to give Himself to humanity in a new way in the incarnation. He fully accepted the risk that people would react to His son in exactly the same way people react to everything — some accept, some reject, some ignore. Even so, in love God gave Himself to bring us back to Himself. The results at first seemed like failure because the crucifixion appeared so permanent. Jesus died and was genuinely dead. That He would offer Himself that way is amazing and incomprehensible.
Jesus accepted suffering as the way to bring people to God. Henry Nelson Wieman pointed out many years ago that pain and suffering are not the same thing. Suffering is a meaningful, communicable event. According to Wieman, emotional maturity is the willingness to incur suffering in order that creative good might emerge. Emotionally mature people do not necessarily seek suffering but recognize that it goes hand-in-hand with all genuine transformation.