It was night. A detachment of troops, the captain of the Roman cohort, and the officers arrested the unarmed Man and bound his hands behind His back. “You won’t get away this time,” one of the soldiers snarled, grabbing the Man’s shoulder, and spinning Him around before pushing Him forward. They shoved the Man out from the serenity of the garden where He had been deep in anguish and in prayer. Two of the Man’s friends followed, but were unable to help Him against the mob of angry soldiers.
Instead of taking Him to jail, they brought Him to the priest’s house. The priest knew immediately the Man’s identity. After all, the priests and council members had been trying for months to nail the Man on trumped up charges solicited from false witnesses, because, although He taught with wisdom, He made statements contrary to their traditions. And they didn’t like it.
The priest asked the Man about His two friends and His teaching. The Man knew the law as well as the priests did – witnesses for the defense had to be called first to testify before the prisoner could be interrogated. So, the Man asked, “Why do you ask Me? I taught openly. Ask those who heard me.” And they were infuriated.
One of the officers struck the Man as though the Man had spoken disrespectfully to the priest, even though everyone involved knew it was unlawful to punish a prisoner before conviction. The Man said nothing.
And so it went for five more illegal trials with each trial becoming more violent with cruel mocking and vicious beatings. And Thursday night turned into Friday Morning. Finally, the Man stood before the governor. The Governor? Was the Man’s offense political or religious? Both sects accused the Man of crime and wrongdoing. Yet, neither side could offer proof of any wrongdoing by the Man. And the day wore on.
A huge crowd of people had gathered outside the Governor’s palace. The religious leaders stirred up the people persuading them to demand the Man’s death. The Governor was messing with a situation he knew not how to handle, and it scared him. So, he had the Man beaten unmercifully thinking that would appease the crowd. But they yelled all the more demanding the Man’s death. The Man was sentenced to death by crucifixion that day.
Some of the crowd stood together stunned in disbelief at what was unfolding before their eyes. “Isn’t this Jesus, the carpenter’s son?” “How can this be happening?” “He healed my daughter.” “I sat among thousands of people on a hillside and watched Him feed us all with a young boy’s lunch.” Questions and comments continued from those with fractured hearts.
The Man’s mother pushed her way through the crowd to be near Him. He passed before her, bloodied and battered beyond recognition. He stumbled as He carried a cross on which He would be hung. “My son, O Jesus, my son,” His mother sobbed uncontrollably. Their eyes locked for a brief instant. He could not comfort her. She could not stop the madness.
The broken-hearted ones, jammed amidst a mob of blood-thirsty men, were perpetuated in a horrendous parade that moved to a hill outside the city. Roman soldiers nailed the hands and feet of Jesus to the cross – each slam of the hammer sending its crushing anguish on Jesus and horror on those who heard it. The soldiers hoisted the cross upright between two other crosses that held criminals guilty of crimes deserving of death.
Loud voices rang out from the mixed crowd. “He’s innocent. Stop this insanity!” “Crucify Him. Crucify Him.”
At about 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in heart-wrenching agony. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” His heavenly Father had turned His face away from the suffering Jesus. You see, God could not look upon sin. Although Jesus was innocent of any sin, He carried the sins of the world on His body. And His Holy Father could not look upon the sins His Son bore.
Just before Jesus had breathed His last, He cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished.” He gave up His Spirit and bowed His head in death. A supernatural darkness turned the sky black. The earth quaked so violently, rocks split open as its Maker hung on a cross suspended between earth and heaven, like a bridge connecting two sides of a great expanse. The veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The centurion and those with him were overcome with extreme fear. “Truly this was the Son of God!” the centurion said, as the truth of his statement sank in on the day an innocent Man died.
Jesus was buried in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Several women cried openly in utter disbelief as they watched where Jesus was buried.
The day an innocent Man died was forever etched in their hearts.