INRI

What came next on the Gospel According to John was the main reason why Jesus is such an important figure in Christianity. This is when Jesus is caught, humiliated and finally crucified by the Jews. The time when he completes his mission on Earth finally arrives. Like the Gospel said:
"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:1-3).
Every Spring Break, I wonder what would have happened if it hadn't been that way. What would have happened if Jesus hadn't been crucified and later resurrected?
First of all, I've always been impressed with Jesus' will to keep on with the torture. He was the Son of God he could have avoided the whole situation if he had wanted to. However, he wanted to sacrifice himself for humanity. He loved us so much he accepted endless torture and humiliation only to save our sinful souls.  Besides, he didn't really die. He knew he was going to resurrect, and that way he could prove he really was the Son of God, and start his new alliance (religion). It apparently worked because today, more than one third of the world population is Christian.
In the end, Jesus' sacrifice was good for everyone, and it was planned so that it would end well (somehow). Still, I can't help but think how evil was incorporated into this. Judas betrayed Jesus (it had been foreseen) to the Pharisees, which were in an awful need to kill him. They wanted to see him dead for claiming he was the King of Jews and the Son of God. They were even happy to let the evil Barabbas free in order to crucify Jesus.
Peter was a very disappointing case. During the Last Supper, he claimed he would give his life for Jesus. However, like Jesus had predicted, before the crow crew, Peter had already denied him three times. What a perfect display of hypocrisy.
Pilate is sort of a different situation. He didn't want to condemn Jesus at all. He did all he could to appease the angry Jews, but they only wanted Jesus' blood. Like the Gospel said:
" And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar."(John19:12).
He really had no choice. If he let Jesus go, the Jews might make a scandal over Pilate ignoring the Caesar as the emperor. His very own life was at stake, so he couldn't sacrifice it over some weird Jew scandal. All Pilate can say to comfort himself is that Jesus didn't expect him to save him at all. I wonder if he ever felt remorse over what he did.
The happy ending of this story was that Jesus resurrected after the horrible ordeal he had to endure. I think we should all be thankful for the huge sacrifice Jesus made to save our sorry butts from burning in the fires of hell, and actually give us a chance of forgiveness.