Why Did Jesus Not Come Down Off the Cross?

[Mat 27:39-42 KJV] 39 And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, 40 And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest [it] in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. 41  Likewise also the chief priests mocking [him], with the scribes and elders, said, 42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.

Why did Jesus not come down from the Cross?   In the passage above,  we see that some of the people in attendance that day to the Cross,   were mocking Jesus,  days after the whole city welcomed him crying 'Hosanna in the Highest'.   Was he found to be fraudulent?  No, quite the opposite was true,  his teaching was impeccable,  and even Pilate would declare that he found 'no fault in him'.  Jesus was the Messiah, the King of Israel, the High Priest of Israel and the Great Shepherd, but he also was the Lamb for sacrifice:  even in the Garden of Gethsemane,  his willful laying down of his life was shown in two instances:

1. In his prayer to the the Father
2. In his willful surrender to the will of God.

His prayer to God the Father goes as follows:

[Mat 26:39 KJV] 39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou [wilt]. 

The key is 'nevertheless not as I will, but as thou [wilt].  Jesus was more than willing to endure the suffering that he prophesied about himself.  Even in the garden, we see that he is not foolishly masochistic: he does not wish to suffer just for suffering's sake.  Many cults today have rigorous and horrid practices of self-inflicted wounds and pain, believing it makes them more 'spiritual' or draws them closer to God:  this is not the 'mortification of the flesh' spoken of in the Word of God,  but a form of self mutilation and self-affliction for no reason.  The mortification of the flesh spoken of in the epistles is mentioned two times:

[Rom 8:13 KJV] 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

[Col 3:5 KJV] 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Mortifying the 'deeds of the body," or 'your members which are upon the earth means to bring them under the control of the Holy Spirit is either

νεκρόω

which means to 'make dead' or deprive of power,  such as in dying to self and letting the Holy Spirit take control, or 

θανατόωblb

or 'thanato'  , essentially the same meaning, but more directly death, since our word for the study of death, 'thanatology' comes from this root.    Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, prays centrally for God's will to be done,  of which he is already aware,  which entails suffering, affliction and pain.

Jesus already knows that a cross is part of the suffering:

[Mat 16:24 KJV] 24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

While a cross may have been proverbial in that day,  even the word 'crucified' was implicit in the prophecies he rendered of his own death:

[Mat 20:19 KJV] 19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify [him]: and the third day he shall rise again.

[Mat 23:34 KJV] 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and [some] of them ye shall kill and crucify; and [some] of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute [them] from city to city: 

He knew he would be crucified.   The question at hand though, to answer the insane mockery at the cross,  is that he COULD have come down off the Cross if he had merely prayed to his Father.  He would never have come off the cross though,  because he was sent to that wooden altar to fulfill many prophecies,  such as the fulfillment of 'God will provide himself a lamb'  in the Akedah of Isaac, or the blood on the door posts and lintels during the Passover, with the passover lamb inside, or the 'Key of Eliakim'

[Isa 22:20-23 KJV] 20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: 21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him [as] a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. 

Jesus could have come down from the cross,  just as Moses could have forsaken Israel,  when they became rebellious and idolatrous and God offered Moses a whole new nation:

[Deu 9:13-14 KJV] 13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people: 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

Moses though, a prophet also, could not fail to intercede for and deliver Israel: it was his vocation, his calling:

 [Deu 9:13-14, 25-26 KJV] 13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people: 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. ... 25 Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down [at the first]; because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Jesus had the heart of God, just as Moses had for the children of Israel:  he could no more leave them and forsake them, nor wantonly disregard their redemption, salvation and deliverance than could Moses or the other prophets.   Jeremiah speaks of  the wish to even forsake doing God's will when times become too hard,  but being unable to:

9Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Jesus, then, 'could' have come down off the cross, and at the same time could not:  not and win the victory of all time;  not and save Israel and be a light to the Gentiles, not and bruise the head of the serpent, since Eden.   The mockery no doubt for the rest of us,  would have been the last vestige of cruelty which would have caused all of us to turn away,  but his steadfast love for us, with a love greater than that of this world, prevailed.  Hosanna in the highest.

till the next. ekb