After the Last Supper, Jesus and His disciples went to Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. Jesus left eight disciples here and told them to stay there while He took Peter, James, and John a little ways away to pray. He said to the three disciples, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” (The same directive we are told today – watch, wait, and work in the harvest fields.) Jesus went alone a little farther and fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
It was after midnight when Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. He felt compassion for them when He said, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.” Jesus was teaching them that prayer is our defense against temptation. Jesus went away and prayed the second time asking His Father if this cup (God’s wrath against sin) could not pass from Him, surrendered His will by saying, “Your will be done.” Again, He returned to the sleeping disciples. And for the third time, Jesus prayed the same words to His Father. He returned to the sleepings disciples and said, “Rise, let us be going. My betrayer is at hand.”
While Jesus was still speaking, Judas came leading a great multitude with swords and clubs. Judas prearranged his signal to seize Jesus ~ a kiss of a friend. “Greetings, Rabbi!” Judas said, and kissed Him. But Jesus said to Judas, “Friend, why have you come?” He turned to the mob and said, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me.” But when the mob seized Jesus, all the disciples scattered and fled, except Peter who followed the mob at a distance to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and elders had been hastily assembled.
Jesus was subjected to six trials ~ three Jewish trials (religious) and three Gentile trials (political). It was during the first trial that Peter sat with the servants below in the courtyard to see what would happen to Jesus. A servant girl approached him and said, “You also were with this Jesus.” But Peter denied it saying, “I do not know what you are saying,” and went out on the porch and a rooster crowed. A servantgirl saw him and said to those around, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.” Again, Peter denied it with an oath, “Woman, I do not know the Man!”
A little later those who stood by came up to Peter and said, “Surely you also are one of them, for you are Galilean and your speech shows it.” Then Peter began to curse and to swear saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately, while Peter was still speaking, a rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the words of Jesus, “Berfore the roosters crows twice you will deny Me three times. So Peter went out and wept bitterly. When our sin is exposed, do we repent immediately as Peter did?
Jesus endured five more illegal trials, each becoming more violent with cruel mocking and vicious beatings. At the last trial, Jesus stood before Pilot, the governor. A huge crowd had gathered outside the governor’s palace as Pilot questioned Jesus. The crowd, stirred up by religious leaders, began to cry out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
Pilot was messing with a situation he did not know how to handle, and it scared him, so he had Jesus beatened unmercifully thinking that would appease the crowd. But they yelled all the more, “Crucify Him!”
Jesus, beaten and bloodied beyond recognition, was sentenced to death by crucifixion that day.
He was forced to carry His own cross to a hill outside Jersusalem called Golgotha. The crowd followed the hideous procession toward the site of torturous death.
Some jammed together in stunned disbelief at what was unfolding before their eyes. “How can this be happening?” “He healed my daughter.” “I sat among thousands on a hillside and watched Him feed us all with a young boy’s lunch.” Questions and comments continued from those with fractured hearts. Jesus’ mother pushed her way through the crowd to glimpse her Son. He passed before her. Although He was unrecognizable to most, she knew, and she sobbed uncontrollably. “My Son, O, Jesus, my Son.” Their eyes met for an 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 engufed in a horrendous parade that moved toward Golgatha.
Roman soldiers nailed the hands and feet of Jesus to the cross ~ each slam of their hammers sent crushing anguish to Jesus and horror on those who heard it. The soldiers hoisted the cross holding an innocent Man upright between two other men ~ criminals guilty of their crimes deserving of death. Mixed shouts rang out from the crowd, “He’s innocent. Stop this insanity!” While others continued their blood-thirsty “Crucify Him!”
At about 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” But with the past, present, and future sins, the guilt, and the shame of the world laid on Jesus, His holy, heavenly Father could not look upon the sins His beloved Son bore for the redemption of mankind. And for the first time ever, Jesus was separated from His Father. In His humanity, Jesus, the sinless One, the sacrificial Lamb, was the only One who could pay the unimaginable debt of sin.
“It is finished!” He cried out. He gave up His spirit and bowed His head in death.
The sky turned black. The earth quaked so violently rocks split open as it 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 signifying that redeemed man now had direct access to the Holy of Holies.
The centurion and those with him were overcome with extreme fear. “Truly this was the Son of God!” the centurion said. And the truth of his statement was forever etched in the hearts of all mankind on the day an innocent Man died.
To read the full details of this account of Jesus’ crucifixion, see Matthew 26:1-27:57; Mark 14:1-15:41; Luke 22:1-23:49; and John 12:1-19:37.
The final blog of this Resurrection series and what it means for you will post on Sunday.