Most of the world didn’t know he existed. If they had gazed upon him at this moment they would have told you he was just a man praying in a garden. To those who had felt his touch, heard his voice, or saw him in action, he was a teacher, a rabbi, a prophet, and a miracle worker. Some of them would tell you they had seen him heal the lame and the sick. Some would tell you they were the lame and the sick he had healed. Others would have told you they watched as he had called forth life where death had left its sting just days before. The denizens of Hell knew him on sight. He’d walked on water and turned water into wine.
Not your average dude.
Despite all this, tonight he was troubled and his heart filled with sorrow. He had one more thing to do; one more act of love to perform. If the fear in him that night had won, the world you and I live in would be a very different and darker place. He knew the road to his next destination would be bumpy, excruciatingly painful and ultimately, the hardest and loneliest steps he had ever walked. In anguish so great that blood dripped from his pores, he prayed only for the will of his Father to be done.
What took place over the next several hours was a travesty of religion and justice. Betrayed by one friend, disowned by another, and abandoned by nearly everyone else, Jesus stood amid a sea of accusations, lies and threats. His accusers were men who could quote the entire book that had spoken about him since Moses scribbled, “In the beginning…” These were the men who supposedly knew God better and served more closely to Him than anyone alive. They were men, who after years of sacrificing animals as the price of sin, completely missed the irony of what they were going to do to this man standing before them.
His crimes were healing on the Sabbath and claiming to be the Son of God. The sentence was death.
Given to the Roman leader Pilate to be put to death, Jesus was found to be innocent of wrong doing twice; once by Pilate himself and the second by Herod and Pilate. When offered a choice to spare an innocent man or a murderer, the people Jesus had come to serve chose to allow the taker of life to go free, while the giver of life was sent to be crucified. The mob had won a victory.
For the moment...
First, this innocent and humble man was taken and scourged. While the scholarly judging priests wore garments that gave them power and prestige, the man they hated had his clothes ripped from him, his flesh torn away in chunks, and his blood spilled on the ground. In jest, the Roman guards twisted a garland from bushes that had long, sharp thorns. They forced the thorny crown down on the bleeding man’s head, laughing as they watched the thorns bite into his flesh and blood flow down his swollen, bruised face to mingle with the blood pooling around his feet. The guards taunted him further, covering him in a scarlet robe and beating him in the head with a staff they had put in his hands as a joke.l
Beaten severely and most certainly suffering from loss of blood, this man was forced to carry his cross through the streets to Golgotha – the place of the skull. When Jesus could not carry the cross any further, a man named Simon was pulled from the crowd and forced to carry it the rest of the way. Once there, he was placed on the cross with nails pounded through his hands and feet into the wood beneath them. The cross was then raised into place beside the two criminals that were sentenced to die with him. While one of the men taunted Jesus, the other asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. In a moment when most would focus on their own misery, Jesus blessed a new traveling companion.
As the day reached noon, the sun stopped shining and supernatural darkness covered the land. At three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out his last words and breathed his last breath. In the temple, the thick curtain that had separated the people from the Holy of Holies was torn in two, from top to bottom. The ground shook and the rocks split apart, causing the tombs to break open. Then, silence. It was finished.
Jesus’ body was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb carved from solid rock. Then, fearing the friends of this humble man might steal the body in order to fool the people into believe he had risen from the dead, the religious leaders requested Pilate to put a guard outside the tomb.
Inside the stone tomb, nothing moved. The scent of expensive spices and herbs filled the air.
Outside, the tomb's guard checked the seal and watched intently for anything out of the ordinary.
The disciples were in shock. The Mary's were in tears.
Meanwhile, Heaven counted to three…
