Jesus called His disciples by the tender name for ‘little children’.  That word (in Greek) is strongly affectionate and reflects the deep trust between parents and children, teachers and their students.  It so impressed John that he used it 9 times in his first epistle (the same word translated as ‘dear children’), referring to Christians in the early church.   Jesus knew He was going to the cross and wanted to reassure His disciples that His route to heaven and theirs will be different.  Although many of the apostles would face a violent death, they would never face what Jesus suffered on the cross.
 
His death was uniquely lonely.  He was separated from Father God because He was bearing the sin of the world (Isaiah 53:12).  The Son of God went through a unique agonising isolation because God’s judgement fell on Him instead of on us.  The visible anguish in Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-44) was only a foretaste; so too was the mockery, beating and physical pain of crucifixion.  

It was terrible for the Holy God, who cannot tolerate any sin, to bear the weight of every sin in the world (2 Corinthians 5:21). As an old hymn (‘There is a green hill far away …’) puts it, ‘We may not know, we cannot tell, what pains He had to bear, but we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there’.  The crucifixion was certainly very public (Acts 26:26), and its benefits to sinful humanity would be glorious, but the weight of God’s judgement was intensely private and immensely dreadful.  Jesus promised the disciples they would not have to go through that agony, because He bore it instead of them.
 
A part of the wonder of our salvation is that we shall never know the depths of Christ’s sacrifice.  It is the same for little children in a family.  They cannot comprehend what their parents may have to endure to provide for them.  They know enough, but never so much that they can fully repay their parents.  Likewise, neither can we repay the love of Christ for us.  However, we can and must thank Him and worship Him to the limit of our understanding and serve Him to the limit of all the energy He gives us.  And whatever hard times we have to go through, we can be certain that Jesus understands (Hebrews 2:17-18).  So, however busy your day, stop and know that it was for you that Jesus went to the secret place of God’s judgement: and give Him thanks.