So he grew up.  As his mind increased in wisdom, so his Body grew in stature.  And in that Body he suffered.  The Devil, the Spirit of Evil and Lord of Darkness, knew that the only way that he could prevent our union with God was to break Our Lord’s, and in order to do that, he confronted him with the Crucifixion.  Our Lord loved his Father and us enough to be born in the stable at Bethlehem.  But would he pay the price of dying for us on the Cross of Calvary?  Would his love for us then fade into indifference, or his love for his Father turn into mistrust and resentment?

Such was the challenge in the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday night and Our Lord accepted it; and the next day, in our own flesh and blood he defeated that attempt to bring about his spiritual downfall.  At three o’clock on Good Friday, when there was no more that the power of evil could do, that bond of faith and love which united him to his Father, remained unbroken and unbreakable.

But his Body – that was not the same: it was not only that it was spattered with blood, nor that there were great tears in the hands and feet – it was dead.  And for three days it was dead, as still and as cold as the stone slab on which it was stretched.