Jesus ran because he wanted to, not simply because he had to or because the Father told him to. He ran “for the joy set before him,” which means he ran out of desire. To use the familiar phrase, his heart was fully in it. We call the final week of our Savior’s life his Passion Week. Look at the depth of his desire, the fire in his soul. Consumed with passion, he clears the temple of the charlatans who have turned his Father’s house into a swap meet (Matt. 21:12). Later, he stands looking over the city that was to be his bride but now lies in the bondage of her adulteries and the oppression of her taskmasters. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he cries, “… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt. 23:37, emphasis added). As the final hours of his greatest struggle approach, his passion intensifies. He gathers with his closest friends like a condemned criminal sitting down to his last meal. He alone knows what is about to unfold. “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you,” he says, “before I suffer” (Luke 22:15, emphasis added). Then on he presses, through the intensity of Gethsemane and the passion of the Cross. Is it possible he went through any of it halfheartedly? (The Sacred Romance , 197–98)
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