Discussions of Jesus' words and actions as he went to the cross are fairly common. What about the other players? How do their reactions connect to the critical, final action of Jesus?

Dr. William Powell Tuck, who has previously written about the centrality of the cross in Christian faith (The Church Under the Cross), and the last words of Jesus (The Last Words from the Cross), takes a look at the reaction of others who were involved, leading up to the final cry of Jesus, "It is finished!" In doing so, Dr. Tuck leads us to questions of how we respond to Jesus personally, and especially to the meaning of this central event of Christianity.

It is easy for us to think about the resurrection and to speak of the joy, strength, and triumph that it portrays. But we lose the depth and breadth of the resurrection when we fail to look at these scenes from the journey Jesus took to the cross itself. Our response to strength, glory, and triumph is less a demonstration of who we are than our response to trials and apparent tragedy.

In this book you will learn to look at different perspectives on that difficult time, as people react to events they do not understand. How can we learn to respond better to the situations that our lives present to us?

This book is suitable for individual reading, and would also make an excellent study for a small group. While it would be particularly valuable as a Lenten study, mediation on the cross is valuable at any time of the year.