"It should be obvious: The Gospels are mainly about the gospel. Already in Matthew 1 we read that Jesus will save his people from their sins. Already in John 1 we read that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Three times in Mare and three times in Luke, Jesus predicts His death prior to the Passion Week. Nine of the twenty-eight chapters in Matthew deal with the last week of Jesus' life - the events leading up to his execution, His death on a cross, and His resurrection from the dead. Passion Week accounts for six of Mark's sixteen chapters, six of Luke's twenty-four chapters, and nine of John's twenty-one chapters. So out of eighty-nine chapters in four gospels, thirty (one-third) are about the climactic final week of Jesus' life."

"The Catechism makes it clear that the ending of Jesus' life, with its severe affliction, was but an intensification of the entire life He lived. Although our pain-averse, comfort-prizing natures would like to forget it, we worship a Savior whose life was marked by profound suffering." Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot. 81. 

Question 37: What do you understand by the word "suffered"?

Answer:  That during His whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race. This He did in order that, by His suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, He might set us free, body and soul, from eternal condemnation, and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life. 

Question 38:  Why did He suffer "under Pontius Pilate" as judge?

Answer:  So that He, though innocent, might be condemned by a civil judge, and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.  

Question 39:  Is is significant that He was "crucified" instead of dying some other way?

Answer:  Yes. This death convinces me that He shouldered the curse which lay on me since death by crucifixion was accursed by God.