Approximately two thousand feet. After hearing the sentence from the man who had become His judge, He understood that He was now required to walk an approximation of two thousand feet (six hundred meters) to the place where it would all end. His flesh, very tender and swollen from the brutal and merciless torture He endured at the expert hands of powerful men who took pleasure in what they considered their art. His physical strength dangerously low due to the tremendous amount of blood lost from the deep and excruciating lacerations His body now exhibited. Everywhere He stepped, pools of blood marked His path as a testimony of sorts to all, that He had been there. After hearing His verdict, He silently stood before His accusers and listened as they cheered in triumph when His weakened shoulders were forced to carry the one hundred and twenty-five pound beam toward the place that had an appearance of a skull. Feeling the pressure of the heavy beam on his heavily injured and weakened body, He began His ascend toward the hill where He would accomplish His heavenly mission for all of mankind. He found great solace and strength in knowing that this was how He would finally free, truly free His friends; His brothers. At the top of this two thousand foot journey, His glory appeared before Him on mount Calvary. The vertical post the Romans had permanently placed there specifically for the purpose of a humiliating execution, would now be transformed by Him into a banner of hope and pride for all of humanity. All that separated the Master from fulfilling His divine task was to be raised by His executioners on the vertical beam that stood tall on Golgotha with the one hundred and twenty-five pound beam across His shoulders. History suggests that our Lord was placed in the center of mount Calvary because it was the highest elevation point. According to many historians, the crucifixion of our Master could be seen several miles inside the city of Jerusalem beyond the heavy stone wall it was surrounded by. The beaten and bloodied body of our Lord could even be witnessed by the priests who were inside Herod’s temple. There, at the highest point of the mount, our Lord fulfilled the same purpose the brass serpent had served Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 21:5-9, John 3:13-16). Our Master left His example for us to follow and understand how to carry our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23-25). Hence, why now that we have reached the summit of this mountain we are to remove the sandals from our feet, because this is truly holy ground. From the very beginning, the apostle Peter has been guiding us in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been training us how to carry our cross and ascend with them for the honor and glory of our Father. Let us recall that the apostle’s purpose for writing his second letter was to encourage the discouraged members of Christ’s body. He did so by reminding them that our Lord would return for His church, but he also exhorted them to follow in the footsteps of the Lord. We have been steadily climbing this spiritual Everest with the purpose to “grow in the grace, and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2nd Peter 3:18). This verse is how the apostle concludes his letter. It is in this verse where we understand the lessons Peter has been teaching us so we may be properly trained in how to be true followers of Christ. Our entire climb up this mountain has been so we may all be “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). The idea that it is impossible to be like the Master is completely false. Believing this wicked jeer from our adversary truncates our journey before it even begins. Our Lord not only came to the world to remove sin from it, but also to leave an example for us to follow. In the form of a man, Jesus too had to have faith in His Father and faith to follow the will of His Father. He required virtue to accept the agonizing pain and humiliation of the cross. He prepared His mind with the knowledge of the Scriptures He needed to fulfill by dying at Calvary. He armed Himself with temperance as He stood before His accusers, withholding the urge to use His power as God to prove to them He is the Son of God. He had patience as he endured the mockery from those below His cross. He manifested His godliness in His complete obedience of His Father unto death. He demonstrated His brotherly love by speaking words of encouragement to His followers and family from the cross. He proved His love by blessing those who cursed Him in redeeming everyone without exceptions from sin with His blood that He voluntarily shed on the cross. In doing this, our Master and Savior reached the heavens and was given the honor to sit on the right hand of God (Romans 8:31-34). When the mountaineer reaches the top of a mountain, he seals his victorious conquest by planting his flag at the peak. The Lord Jesus did the same with His cross at Calvary. Our God in His infinite love and wisdom transformed a symbol of dread and torture into a symbol of hope and new life. What was once used for humiliation, our Master created it into the banner of eternal glory. Peter’s main lesson is to have the vision the Master had as He ascended Golgotha to free us from sin (2nd Peter 1:8-9). Our Lord’s focus went past the pain and disgrace He would suffer through crucifixion. His sight went beyond the shame of the cross and saw the joy it would accomplish in heaven and earth (Hebrews 12:2-3). Our Savior expects us to be able to see the joy that awaits us at the top of this spiritual mountain. The never ending joy that has been reserved only for those who reach the peak and are able to plant their banners victoriously. As we hear the conclusion of the whole matter, we have reached the summit by loving as Christ has loved us. In imitating His love we are also being a part of His essence, and to be our brother’s keeper becomes our privilege and not an unwanted obligation. It, therefore, allows our light to shine brightly before men and we learn to win that game of patience. We are now appropriately trained in how to know when to make a resting point to meditate on our past achievements, but also to look ahead as to what is left to accomplish. We have been endowed with the ability to handle ourselves with care, and have been given to eat honey from the honeycomb for everlasting life. Our God has blessed us in allowing us to have a hero’s character that we can only obtain when we begin our journey with faith. Having conquered this spiritual Everest, let us plant our banner of the cross of Christ in victory and let us shout joyful praises to God for guiding us all the way to the top!
