The Father Who Stayed

In 2018, a courtroom in Dallas became the setting for something no parent should endure. Botham Jean had been shot and killed in his own apartment by an off-duty police officer who claimed she mistook his unit for hers. During the sentencing trial, Botham's father, Bertrand, sat through every excruciating detail — the crime scene photos, the conflicting testimony, the defense arguments minimizing his son's life. Friends begged him to step out during the worst of it. He refused.

"I need to be here," he said. "This is what love requires."

He did not shout. He did not leave. He sat in that hard wooden chair and absorbed every wound the proceedings inflicted, not because he enjoyed suffering, but because his love for his son demanded he be fully present in the worst moment imaginable.

Matthew's Passion narrative reveals a God who stays. From Gethsemane's anguished prayer to the mockery of two trials, from the scourging post to Golgotha's hill, the Son of the Most High refused every exit ramp. He could have called twelve legions of angels. He could have stepped down from the cross when the crowd dared Him to. Instead, He absorbed it all — the betrayal, the abandonment, the nails, the suffocating darkness.

Why? For the same reason Bertrand Jean stayed in that courtroom.

Because that is what love requires.

The cross was not an accident. It was the Almighty's deliberate, unflinching decision to remain present in humanity's worst moment so that we would never have to face our worst moments alone.