Before Jesus died, he discovered that you can die quite a few times before you are actually dead. Most of us anticipate a humiliation spread thin across a lifetime, but some of us know better– that it has every possibility of being spread thick onto one evening. Before Jesus died on the cross, he died on the inside first, like you do when you have to allow people to be wrong about you. It was one of those circumstances where you aren’t allowed to rescue yourself, and feel you might have to die in order to accept it.
Before Jesus died on trial, he died in the Garden of Gethsemane. He pictured what was coming, and killed the parts of himself that made him unwilling. God had seen it all first, and gave it his permission, particularly the part that showed there’d be no defence– no biting back, no climbing down. So much depended on Jesus dying clean. That was some of what was in the bitter cup he didn’t want to drink from. Fear and ego would have illegitimised him, and made the night long for all of us.
The reign of Jesus is forever. That is what lay behind a bet on his humility, and what an evening of humiliation unlocked. It didn't make it easy, but it made it bearable. Jesus was in on the plan with God, and God wanted a new beginning. Such world-imploding evenings where life feels like it has ended are good for starting again. They’re often for when God needs flattened, empty ground so that he can build something eternal, so that you can enjoy the security and stability of something eternal. The old things have to pass away to make room, and other people are used to kill them.