After a night in jail, Jesus is bound and led to the palace of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province. The Jews themselves have no power to execute criminals. That is a power held only by the Romans. So, they gather outside of Pilate residence and call for him to executeJesus on the charge of heresy.
Pilate is a man who is careful in his actions. He has political ambitions that go beyond the outpost in Jerusalem, and he doesn't want to do anything that might hinder his upward mobility. He is also a just man who doesn't want any unnecessary blood on his hands. So, when they bring this man, this Jesus, bound and beaten into his presence, he is curious. They say that he calls himself a king. They say that he has made himself the Son of God. Pilate takes Jesus into the praetorium to question him.
Pilate asks repeatedly whether or not Jesus is a king, and Jesus refuses to give him a straight answer. Finally, Jesus says, "my kingdom is not of this world." (Jn 18:36). Pilate walks out and addresses the crowd that welcomed Jesus as the Messiah a few short days ago. He does not find any guilt in Jesus. The crowds call loudly for his crucifixion. In order to placate them, and to possibly save this innocent man's life, Pilate offers to give the Jews a choice of which prisoner to release, and which to execute. He can either release Jesus, or he can release Barabbas, a revolutionary and a murderer. To Pilate surprise, they call for Barabbas. In Hebrew, Bar-abbas means "Son of the Father". In this way, the true Son is handed over to death while an impostor is released.Pilate still refuses to execute Jesus. Instead he says that he will have him scourged and then release him. The whips used to scourge prisoners had nine straps, all attached to bones, glass, hooks, and metal pieces that were meant to tear the flesh from the bones. By the time Jesus is brought back, he would have been unrecognizable. He would have been a bloody mess. After he is scourged, the guards weave a crown out of thorns and place it on his head. They place a reed in his hand and a purple robe on his back. He is dressed as a makeshift king, and on his head are the same thorns that Adam was cursed to pull forth from the ground (Gen 3: 18). The new Adam is crowned with the fruit of Adams sin.
Jesus is brought back before the Jews, and they still call for his crucifixion. Pilate tries to intercede for him. He tries to release him, but the Jews call out, "If you release him, you are not a friend of Caesar." (Jn 19:12). So, under the weight of public pressure, Pilate allows them to take Jesus to crucify him.
The cross is laid on the back of Jesus. He is made to walk it along with two criminals. The walk itself is about a mile long, first through the hot, winding streets of Jerusalem, then out of the city to the place of the skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. Along the way, the same people who called him the Son of David now mock him and jeer at him. He is beaten and spit upon. People cry out to him and curse him. Jesus knows every single one of them. He knows their hearts. He knew them when they were conceived and he knows their every joy and hurt. He loves them. He weeps for them. These are the people who he is dying for. These are those for whom he has chosen to give everything.
He falls over and over. The weight of the cross is simply too much for his battered frame to handle. So, in order to keep him alive until they reach Golgotha, the guards pull Simon, a Cyrenian, of the crowd and press him into service. Simon puts his arm over the blood soaked cross. He likely doesn't realize that a single drop of that blood could save all of humanity. Jesus must have looked at him. What were those eyes like? The holiness and the love, still visible through the blood and tears, was enough to draw Simon in. It was enough to make him help this man he never knew.Jesus is walked up to the hill, and there he is crucified. They lay him on the wood of the cross, and the drive nails through his wrists and through his ankles. The nails they used were comparable in size to railroad spikes, and the sound they made as they were pounded repeatedly through flesh and bone must have been nauseating. Jesus is crucified and the cross is placed in the ground. There he hung as people mocked him, spit upon him, and cursed his name. The tempted him to prove his power by coming down. Even one of the other men crucified called for him to step down from the cross. But he stays on the cross. He stays immersed in suffering because he knew that we would not have a choice to come down from our own crosses.
His last action is to call forth John, and disciple that he loved, and his mother, Mary. To John he says,"Behold, your mother", and to Mary, "Behold, your son." (Jn 19:26-27). The last thing he has on earth, his relationship with his mother, he relinquishes for our good. He makes sure that there is no relationship and no thing that he still possesses at the end. He gives everything there is to give, and after three hours of torture, he gives up his spirit.
What relief to be finished. To be taken off the cross and to be laid in a tomb. What sorrow and abandonment must the disciples have felt. Did we run like they did? Did we follow behind and curse him or deny that we knew him? Did we try to help like Simon? Today, we enter into the tomb with our Lord. We feel his absence. We know the reality of his death. Today, mourn the loss of our God, but remain hopeful. We will see that we cannot have a cross without a resurrection. We cannot have a Good Friday without an Easter Sunday.Joseph, model of manhood, pray for us
God, Father in heaven, bless us
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