Anyone can stay calm when there is no stress. (Well, almost anyone). Staying calm in the middle of chaos is much more challenging. Staying calm when facing death is, well, peculiar.

In a short time (20 minutes maybe), here’s what Jesus does.

• He finishes a time of prayer and wakes up his team, the ones that were supposed to be keeping him company. He does it in an encouraging way.
• He stands waiting for a friend (Judas) who he knows is coming to betray him.
• He accepts a greeting from that friend and speaks to him.
• He watches another friend (Peter) defend him, reattaches the ear that was cut off, and calmly explains how to handle betrayal.
• He turns to the crowd that Judas has brought. He gently scolds them and then explains the context for their behavior.

Jesus does what he has been doing for as long as we have known him. He teaches with words and actions.

It’s not that he didn’t struggle with what was about to happen. He had, just a couple hours before. He had talked with his dad about the challenge. He had accepted how things needed to happen. He had accepted that this plan, God’s plan, was the way it needed to happen.

So now, as he was walking through the unimaginable, he was calm, encouraging, instructive, affectionate.

If I had to summarize the lesson of this section for us, here’s what I’d say: Doing what needs to be done for a plan that matters is possible when your strength comes from your relationship with God.

If it’s something pointless, we wouldn’t do it. If it’s not something we’ve learned and done across time, we couldn’t do it. If it’s being done alone, on our sheer willpower, we shouldn’t do it.

But his way…