232. Was Jesus Happy on His Way to the Cross?

We cannot suppose so, although some have held that, because he was doing the Father's will, therefore he must have been happy even in the midst of suffering. But in the narratives of the evangelists we find only the impression that he was filled with sorrow. From the time of the agony in the garden (see Matt. 26:37) till the last cry on the cross, this cloud was not lifted. On the way to Calvary, together with his sorrow for the people who "knew not what they did" --who were now as ready to mock and revile him as they were only a short time before to joyfully acclaim him--there must have been a deeper burden of sadness for his base betrayal and for his utter desertion by all of his panic-stricken disciples, even by Peter, that weighed down at every step. Yet, wounded, bleeding, and subjected to the worst indignities, he bore it all without a murmur even while his heart was breaking. He was sustained by the sense of his high mission and bore his suffering with such fortitude that even his enemies remarked it (Luke 23:47). Thus, to the last moments of his earthly life, he was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."