The Crucifixion of Jesus. This is the story that will enflame the prayer movement. If you want to intercede with fervency, meet your King here. If you stare at Him hanging on a Cross you might just find yourself suddenly emboldened in love. He came this low, He wants to hear from me and I want to discover Him there.   What kind of King do we have? Imagine the prayers of all the people throughout the ages who groaned for a Messiah. Imagine their surprise at how the events played out. Who could have known how greatly He loves mercy?  Who could have imagined that Israel’s Messiah, who came in a manger with the thunder of a thousand angel’s voices singing “Glory to God in the highest,” would die in a coronation of spit, blood, taunts, scorn, and derision? Who would have believed that His innocent flesh would be torn by Roman nails? In the dark hour of Calvary, the brutal truth unfolded. This King was born to die. John the Baptist testified in John 1:29, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The herald from the wilderness announced, “Behold your King, the one marked for death, the One designated from birth to be slaughtered for the sins of the world.”   The story of Jesus’ death will cause you to be transformed. The Cross is more than a theological proposition. Once and for all, this event displayed the heart of God to men and made possible the nearness of men’s hearts to God. This story has caused men and women from every religious background to give way under its power. It is our privilege forever to ponder the crucifixion and the work of intercession He accomplished there.   In Jesus, two offices of priest and king were made one. The only way He could ascend into His kingly function was through the high priestly ministry of intercession, a prophetic picture of this is in Zechariah 6:11 when the Lord commanded the crown to be put on the high priest. Jesus defined His role as the King, as the Messiah, the Anointed One, through the lens of intercession and atonement. Jesus could only be crowned as King and manifested before the whole earth after He had fulfilled His intercessory function on the Cross as High Priest. In John 17, Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed His high priestly prayer. Jesus entered into a level of intercession never seen before. His spirit was troubled and sorrowful. He was looking for companionship in His hour of sorrow. He wanted friends who would partner with Him in the burden of His heart. Are you willing to meet Him there?     The Son at Calvary stands in the gap as the ultimate Intercessor of the ages. In His very person, He pleads the cause of God and the cause of humanity. In Christ, the very justice and mercy of God find solace. He is the ultimate Intercessor! There is no one like Him.   Jesus invites us to meet with Him in His own passion for justice and mercy to be displayed on earth, as it exists in heaven. Can you comprehend the privilege?  One who meets with God at love’s most sacred moment; between the sovereignty of God and the destiny of man, one finds the intercessor. There, in the great chasm between God’s blazing righteousness and man’s fallenness, an intercessor is found waiting. There, love waits and wrestles for God to be heard and man to be pitied. This is where the courageous are found, fighting for God to be adored and man to be accepted. In this holy place, one enters into the suffering heart of the Mediator, Jesus, who vindicates His Father’s glorious name and atones for all of humanity. This is a holy place, a divine meeting where doors open to deep caverns of divine paradox, where God’s emotions lead us to groans and pleas for triumph and redemption. Blessed is the man or woman who wait here with God. Blessed is the one who enters these secret chambers in God’s heart where justice and mercy give birth to love in action. In the swirl of God’s own passions, the intercessor is beckoned to enter the place where God prays to God, where the Son asks the Father to forgive them – and the Father agrees, crushing the Son with the burden of the masses. The intercessor meets the crucified Jesus at Golgotha’s triumph and finds fullness there: God’s fullness and our acceptance into it!   As you sit in the seat called intercession, pursue this Man Jesus and let the great Intercessor teach you of Himself. To know Him, His suffering and His path to glory, is to embrace the journey of understanding the glorious honor of asking Him for the desires of His own heart and watching those passions become yours.   Glorious Father, precious Jesus, how could it be that You died for me, that you would ransom my life with Your precious blood? What kind of love pierces so deeply, stoops so low, and fights so tenaciously, even to the point of death? I am stunned and humbled by Your love. Thank you Father, show me the depths of this humble King. Thank you Jesus for showing me the paths of love and strengthening me to meet You in the deep places of Your heart, that I might pray the very prayers of Your own heart, for myself and for others.