The Reichenbach Fall

I've been watching the BBC series Sherlock recently.

The final episode of season 2 is called The Reichenbach Fall. 

Sherlock's arch-nemesis Jim Moriarty - a fantastically insane criminal mastermind - wants revenge. He has hitmen in place to kill Sherlock's friends. Sherlock can only save them if he himself dies - and not only dies, but dies in disgrace, with everyone thinking he's a fraud.

 

It made me think of these lines from a song:

"To pay for our salvation

He let a bunch of fools portray him as a criminal"

~ from Good Company by Ross King

Jesus didn't just die - he died in disgrace. Bad enough to be tortured to death, but so much worse to do so while being misrepresented, mocked, doubted even by his friends.

He could have come down from the cross like they goaded him to do. He could have asked his father to send 12 legions of angels to rescue him. He could have vindicated himself.

"He was despised and rejected by mankind, 

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. 

Like one from whom people hide their faces 

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 

Surely he took up our pain 

and bore our suffering, 

yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, 

he was crushed for our iniquities; 

the punishment that brought us peace was on him, 

and by his wounds we are healed."

Isaiah 53v3–5