Climax to The Greatest Story Ever Told

Climax to The Greatest Story Ever Told Part 2

He stood alone in the vast wasteland. He was surrounded on every side by myriads of grotesque, jeering devils. This was the one and only moment in all of history when they would ever be able to approach and attack Him without fear; now, when He'd allowed Himself to be at His weakest for the sake of bearing Adam's colossal weight of sin. His spirit was swamped in a deep sorrow, almost crushed by the sheer weight of the sins of countless individuals past, present and future. Besides that, He had to deal with them...these demons. They closed in menacingly.

But He wasn't afraid of them. They had not been the cause of His distress in the Garden of Gethsemane earlier. They had not been the threat before which He had been tempted to flee and had almost preferred to have pass from Him. No, there was something far worse in store for Him. But they were trying to hinder His work, His mission. They, unlike humanity, had earned His wrath in an unprecedented way. They had deceived the humans and pushed them to do all that they had done to Him since the night before, and from as far back as the very first sin. They would be the ones to continue doing so to trillions more after this very day. They were behind the entire series of events that had necessitated His being here in this very situation. And they were even now brazen enough to try to stop Him from achieving the age-old promise, the salvation of Adam. His anger was kindled.

Treacherous ones! How He loved them and how they'd flung—and were continuing to fling—that love back in His face! He hated the fact that things had to be this way. Love them though He might, He would not force them to love Him in return. In His omniscience, He knew without a doubt that there would never be a time when they would be willing to abandon their futile resistance and come back to Him. They had too much pride to ever come crawling back with heads bowed and tails between their legs. And that simple fact was enough to damn them to Hell for all eternity. It was also a fact that caused Him unimaginable sorrow and pain--He was having to watch His beloved creations choose eternal damnation under the tragic delusion of one day being able to overpower and destroy their Creator, rather than to give up their utter stupidity and reinstate themselves as His beloved sons in eternal paradise. But they had made their choice and He was no such fool as to cry over spilt milk. If they preferred His eternal wrath and its horrors, so be it.

They were coming! He sighed and drew His sword, readying Himself to meet their onslaught.

"Oh, sons of Adam," He whispered, tears coming to His eyes, "why wouldn't you listen to Me? Are these the ones you preferred over Me? Are they the ones you are so willing to choose for eternity? Where are their flashy promises now? Where is the advantage you were to gain? Are you happy now? Is sickness and poverty and ultimately death and torment what you wanted? It's all they've given you! Was My rule so wicked and corrupt that you would seek your own? Look where it has brought them! Look where it has brought you! Look where it has brought Me!"

He looked with deepest sympathy upon that moment in the future when so many of these and their offspring would recall this moment and regret it horribly, when they would remember the cross and their ignorance of what they were actually doing and to Whom. He looked upon the countless others who would seal their fate and cast in their lot with the demons of Hell and Lucifer forever. The tears overflowed slowly.

He felt the attacks coming. Ranged attacks. Darts designed to plant the poison of fear within Him, to make Him think of self-preservation and abort the mission He had planned carefully with the Father before the formation of the universe. He could feel everything. The air was rife with devilish power and evil intent. It was sickening. He turned swiftly to face the darts and raised the Shield of Faith that He knew how to use so well. He'd never, ever, been touched by a demon attack in all His thirty-three-and-a-half years of mortal life, and it would be only too tragic to start now. One touch—even one—would mean He had become tainted like the First Adam and unworthy to be the sacrifice for humanity. He was so close to completing the mission. There was no way He could allow Himself to lose focus now.