The only begotten Son of God consented to leave the heavenly courts and come to our world to live with an ungrateful people who refused His gracious mercies. He consented to live a life of poverty, and to endure suffering and temptation. He became a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And the Word declares, “We hid as it were our faces from him” (Isaiah 53:3). Of His own disciples, Peter, denied Him, and Judas betrayed Him. The people whom He came to bless rejected Him. They put Him to shame and caused Him untold suffering. They placed upon His head a crown of thorns that pierced His holy temples. They beat Him with a scourge, and then they nailed Him to the cross. Yet amid it all, no word of complaint escaped His lips.... (TDG 216.4) MC VC