Around midnight Friday Morning
After dinner, Jesus led his disciples (other than Judas who
had left earlier from dinner in the upper room) to an olive garden on the other
side of the Kidron Valley named Gethsemane.[1] Jesus took his inner circle of disciples,
Peter, James, and John, and went off to another spot to pray.
His demeanor had changed significantly after dinner. A sense of sorrow and dread came over
him. He told Peter, James, and John of
his worries and told them to stay and keep watch while he went further still
and began to pray.
He pleaded with his Father to remove this burden (the
impending crucifixion and death) from him, but always remained faithful and
obedient to his Heavenly Father. He
returned to find his disciples asleep.
After rebuking them and telling them to pray that they would be strong
and not fall into temptation he went away again to pray asking again that this
burden be taken away from him.
When he returned, he found them asleep again. This time he left them
there and went away to pray a third time and asked the same thing.
When he returned the third time he woke his friends and
seeing a hoard of people coming toward them he told them to get up, he was about
to be betrayed.
1am Friday morning
While he was still talking to them, Judas arrived with some
of the temple guard sent by the Great Sanhedrin[2]. They were carrying clubs and swords, torches
and lanterns.
“Who is it you want?” Jesus asked.
“Jesus of Nazareth”, they replied.
“I am He”, said Jesus.
At this, the crowd moved backward and fell to the ground in
fear.
When he saw this, He asked them again who they wanted and they replied the
same way.
Jesus told them the He was the one they were looking for and
they should let his disciples go.
Just then Judas walked up to him to kiss him on the cheek. Jesus asked him “Judas, are you betraying the
Son of Man with a kiss?” Judas replied, “Rabbi,” and kissed him on the cheek.
Judas had pre-arranged with the temple guard
that the one he kissed would be Jesus and that He is the one they should
arrest.
The disciples started asking if they should use
the swords Jesus had commanded them to bring[3] to
defend themselves. Peter jumped up, drew his sword and took a swing at the
servant of the high priest, Malchus.
Malchus tried to avoid the blow, but Peter’s sword made contact with the
side of Malchus’ face cutting off his right ear.
“Stop this! Put your sword away!” command Jesus to Peter. “Shall I not drink the cup my Father has
given me?” Jesus knew His destiny was to
die for the sins of the world and He was prepared to fulfill his duty no matter
how difficult it was for him to bear.
Jesus walked up to the bleeding Malchus who's ear was barely still attached to the side of his face. He looked in Malchus face, reached up and touched his ear and it was healed.
Then He turned to the the hoard who had come to arrest Him and said, “Am I leading a rebellion that you have come out with swords
and clubs to capture me?” Jesus asked. I
have been teaching in the temples and courts and you never tried to arrest me
then.”
Jesus knew what they were going to accuse him of and he knew
that in order for him to be arrested they must have the eye witness testimony
of two or more witnesses. He had been
teaching in the temples and temple courts for years and nobody had attempted to
arrest him before. He was already
beginning to show how he was blameless and being illegally tried and convicted
having committed no crime. The crowd knew exactly what he was saying but they didn't budge.
“This is your hour,” Jesus said, “when darkness reigns. Do what you came to do.”
Upon hearing his surrender to the temple guard, His
disciples deserted him. John Mark, who
was standing by and watching, was seized by a guard and he slipped out of his
garment and fled naked to avoid being caught.[4]
Around 4am Friday morning
After leaving the garden they took Jesus to the house of Annas who was the
father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest.
Annas had been the high priest, but the Romans had fired him. Annas had installed each of his sons in turn as high
priests until they all got fired as well and he then appointed his son-in-law,
Caiaphas. But Annas was really the man in
power and it was to his house they took Jesus first.
Interestingly, Caiaphas had earlier prophesied that Jesus
would die to bring the Jewish nation together.
He just had no idea the significance of that prophecy.[5]
The entire Sanhedrin assembled in the courtyard of the large
house. John and Peter had followed the
hoard to Annas’ house and because John was known to Annas, he was allowed to
enter the courtyard. When John saw that
Peter was not allowed in, he spoke with the girl who was minding the gate and
vouched for him and he was allowed to enter.
As he entered, the girl asked
“You’re not one of his disciples are you?”
“I am not,” peter replied.
She allowed him to pass and he made his way to a fire that
the servants, officials, and temple guards had made to keep warm.
Meanwhile, Annas and the entire Sanhedrin were trying to
find a reason to have Jesus killed. There
were laws regarding capital crimes and punishment and Jesus was well aware of
them. Jewish law specified that a trial
can only be held in public and in the light of day. An accused man had a right to face his
accuser and hear the charges against him and to have someone represent his
interests and offer a defense.
Interestingly, Jewish law also specified that if anyone
brought false witness against someone, they were subject to the penalty that
would have been imposed on the accused if he was convicted. Evidently, the law was not of paramount
importance at the moment.
Annas began to question him about his disciples and his
teaching.
“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus said. “I always taught in synagogues or at the
temple where all the Jews come together.
I said nothing in secret. Why
question me? Ask those who heard
me. Surely they know what I said,” and
he pointed at the crowd.
By law, Jesus was not required to testify against himself
and those making the charges against him had to provide two witnesses to the
same illegal act and both of those testifying had to agree on all aspects of
what had taken place.[6] Jesus was heaping shame on the High priest pointing out the
illegalities of everything that was currently taking place.
After Jesus had replied to Annas one of the officials nearby
hit him in the face! “Is that how you answer
the high priest?” He demanded.
“If I said something incorrect, tell me what I said that was
wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did
you hit me?”
Another aspect of Jewish law specified that a person was
innocent until proven guilty and that until he was proven guilty it was the
obligation of the guard to protect him.
They were not allowed to abuse him in any way until he was convicted and
then the only punishment was for that of the crime that was committed.
Unable to find any way to put him to death Annas had him
taken over to Caiaphas, who was nearby.
At that time, many in the crowd began to speak out against
him.
One person testified that he had said “I will destroy this man-made
temple and in three days will build another, not made by man.” But even then those testifying couldn’t
agree.
Then Caiaphas stood up and asked Jesus, “Are you not going
to answer? What is this testimony that
these men are bringing against you?”
Jesus stood silently offering up no defense.
Then Caiaphas asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the
Blessed One?” He was asking if Jesus
claimed to be the son of God and thus God himself. The name of God was too sacred to be uttered
by man, so Caiaphas used the term Blessed One to refer to God.
“I am,” Jesus said, “And you will see the Son of Man sitting
at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
The crowd gasped and Caiaphas tore his clothes in lament!
Turning to the people in the crowd, many of whom were the
members of the Great Sanhedrin, he asked, “Why do we need any more
witnesses? You have heard the
blasphemy. What do you think?”
The problem was, in Jewish law a man’s testimony even
against himself was not suitable to convict him. They were still required to produce two
witnesses who would testify against him in a formal trial. They also didn’t consider that it isn’t
blasphemy to claim to be God if you actually are!
They all condemned him, though, and some began to spit on
him; they blindfolded him and hit him
with their fists and taunted him shouting “Prophecy!” Then the guards, who by law were required to
protect him, took him and beat him.
Back in the courtyard, Peter was still standing around the
fire. The girl tending the gate was
still nearby and some of the others there started to recognize him as
well. The girl looked more closely at
him and said “You were with that Nazerene Jesus.” But Peter denied it.
“Didn’t I see you at the olive grove?” another asked.
Someone else said, “Surely you are one of them, for your
accent gives you away.” Peter had the
accent of a Galilean.
Starting to get scared, Peter called down curses on himself
and swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”
Just then the rooster began to crow, Peter remembered what
Jesus had told him back in the upper room about how he would betray him and he
went outside the gate and wept bitterly.
Just then, very early in the morning, the Sanhedrin reached
a decision. The bound Jesus up tightly and
led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
The plight of Judas
When Judas saw that they had condemned him to death, he was
wracked with guilt and remorse. He went
to the chief priests at the temple and tried to give the money back, but they
wouldn’t take it.
“I have betrayed an innocent man!” he exclaimed.
Rather than denying it, they said “What’s that to us? That’s your responsibility, not ours.”
Judas threw the money into the temple and left. He went and found a tree overhanging a cliff
and hung himself. The weight of his
lifeless body eventually broke the branch from which he was hanging and he fell to
the ground far below, his body breaking apart on impact.
Back at the temple, the chief priests then picked up the 30
pieces of silver. Because they could not put blood money back into the
temple treasury, they used it to purchase a plot of land on which foreigners
could be buried. It was named the
Potter’s Field.
Around 6am Friday morning
Pilate would normally sit on a judgment seat placed on a
stone platform and hear disputes from the people. The entire Sanhedrin and the temple guard
(perhaps more than a hundred men) brought Jesus in front of Pilate at his
palace early in the morning. They shoved
him to the front of the crowd still bound and having been beaten by the temple
guard.
“What charges are you bringing against this man?” asked the
Roman Governor.
Knowing their case was tenuous at best, they answered, “If
he were not a criminal we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate was not amused.
“Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
The Romans kept the peace in outlying provinces by allowing
the cultures under their reign to govern most of their own affairs. The Jews had the authority to judge and
punish their own up to a point. They
were forbidden, however, to carry out capital punishment.
“But we have no right to execute anyone!” they
objected. The members of the Sanhedrin
began shouting accusations against him.
“We have found this man subverting our nation,” they said. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and
claims to be Christ, a king.”
Now they had Pilate’s attention. Claiming to be king of Rome was treason and a capital offense. There had to be more to the story. Pilate walked back into his palace and
summoned Jesus to follow him.
“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked.
“Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?”
Jesus replied.
“Am I a Jew?” he said, testily. “Your own people and your chief priests
handed you over to me. What have you
done?”
“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus replied. “If it were, my servants would fight to
prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now
my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate, thinking he was getting
somewhere.
“You are right in saying I am a king.” Jesus said.
“In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth. Everyone on the
side of truth listens to me.”
Pilate grunted, “What is truth?”
He went back outside and motioned for Jesus to follow. He stood in the courtyard with Jesus behind
him and the Jewish hoard in front.
“I find no basis for a charge against him,” He pronounced.
But they insisted.
“He stirs up people all over Judea by
his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here!”
“Is he a Galilean?” Pilate asked.
They confirmed that he was and Pilate got a flicker of hope
in his eyes. Years before, some of
Pilate’s soldiers had killed some of Herod’s subjects on the temple grounds,
not knowing who they were. Pilate now
saw an opportunity to mend some political fences. He and Herod had not spoken since the
incident and if Jesus was a Galilean then he was one of Herod’s subjects. He could kill two birds with one stone
here. He could get out of this current
situation, which was getting more troublesome by the moment, and he could
garner some good will with Herod. He
knew Herod had wanted to meet Jesus for a long time. As luck would have it, Herod was currently
visiting Jerusalem
and was just down the street at that very moment.
“Take him to Herod,” he commanded.
Still bound, the temple guard dragged Jesus through the
streets of Jerusalem
to the place where Herod was staying.
When they arrived they told Herod’s men that Pilate had sent them and
that they had Jesus with them.
Herod came out a short time later and was very pleased. He had heard that Jesus could perform magic
tricks and he wanted to see some. He
started asking Jesus questions, but Jesus remained silent, all the while, the members of the Sanhedrin were violently
shouting accusations about him.
Disappointed with the lack of amusement he got from Jesus, he
decided to create some of his own.
Together with his soldiers they ridiculed him, mocked him, and dressed
him in an elegant purple robe as a mock king.
When they had become bored with their sport, they sent him
back to Pilate. Herod was pleased by the
turn of events and from then on, he and Pilate were friends.
When Pilate saw that Herod had sent him back, he called the
chief priests and the rest of the Sanhedrin together.
Trying to find a way out of his predicament he said, “You
brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have
found no basis for your charges against him.
Neither has Herod, because he sent him back here to us; as you can see,
he has done nothing to deserve death.
“It is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at
the time of Passover. Do you want me to
release the king of the Jews or Barabbas?”
Barabbas had been thrown in to prison for insurrection and
murder. The Jews were accusing Jesus of
insurrection, but Barabbas was the real thing.
Having also been convicted of murder, Pilate had hoped the people would
not want him releasing a murderer back into the population.
Just then, while Pilate was sitting there making his offer,
one of his officials arrived with a message from his wife: “Don’t have anything
to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream
because of him.”
While Pilate was distracted, the chief priests had talked to
the temple guard and others gathered with them there and convinced them to ask
for Barabbas instead of Jesus.
“Away with this man!” they yelled, “Give us Barabbas!”
Pilate continued to try to reason with them but the chief
priests had whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
“What should I do with Jesus, then?” he asked.
“Crucify him! Crucify him!’ they chanted.
“What crime has this man committed?” he asked. “I have found no grounds for the death
penalty.”
Hoping to appease their blood lust he said, “I’ll have him
punished and then released!”
But the shouts got louder and louder and it was beginning to
look as if a riot would ensue.
Pilate then ordered that Jesus be scourged before being
released to the Jews. Perhaps he thought
that if they saw him punished, they would stop trying to have him killed.
Around 10am Friday morning
Roman scourging was called the
“halfway death” because it was supposed to stop this side of death. It was not administered in addition to
another punishment. The two “thieves’
who would die on this day were not scourged.
And the Jewish law – Mithah Arikhta – forbade any manner of prolonged
death for condemned criminals, and exempted any who were to die from the shame
of being scourged…
The scourging of Rome
… was administered by a trained man, called a lector – there were none in Palestine – and he used a
short circular piece of wood, to which were attached several strips of
leather. At the end of each strip, he
sewed a chunk of bone or a small piece of iron chain. This instrument was called a flagellum. There was no set number of stripes to be
administered, and the law said nothing about the parts of the body to be
assailed.
Jesus was standing, bent over a
short column and tied to it securely…
The soldier who performed the
flagellation for the Jerusalem
garrison… moved to a position about six feet behind Jesus, and spread his
legs. The flagellum was brought all the
way back and whistled forward and made a dull drum sound as the strips of
leather smashed against the back of the rib cage. The bits of bone and chain curled around the
right side of the body and raised small subcutaneous hemorrhages on the chest…
The flagellum came back again,
aimed slightly lower, and it crashed against the skin and flesh…. The
flagellum now moved in slow heavy rhythm.
The Tribune was also
watching… It was his responsibility to
stop the “discipline” when he thought that the guilty one might not be
revived. He ordered the executioner to stop.
The scourging had not taken more
than about three minutes. It was now
over, and the Tribune sent two men for cloths and cold water.[7]
The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it
on his head. They put the purple robe
Herod had adorned him with back on his shredded back and shouted “Hail, king of
the Jews!” and struck him in the face.
When this was done, Pilate came back out and said, “Look, I
am bringing him out to you to let you
know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”
Jesus followed Pilate out, still wearing the crown of thorns
and the purple robe, He was barely able to walk.
Not moved at all by the pitiful shape Jesus was in, the
chief priests and the rest of the Sanhedrin started their chant back up again:
“Crucify him, Crucify him!”
“You take him and crucify him.” Pilate answered, “I find no basis for a
charge against him.”
Knowing they could not legally carry out a death penalty,
the chief priest insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must
die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this he was even more afraid. The Romans had many gods and it was not a
good idea to get on the bad side of one of them. He went back inside and had Jesus brought in
with him.
“Where do you come from?” he asked.
When Jesus didn’t answer he yelled, “Do you refuse to speak
to me? Don’t you know I have the power
either to free you or to crucify you?”
“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you
from above,” he said. “Therefore the one
who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
Pilate went back out to face the Jews, trying again to get
them to relent.
“If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar,” they
said. “Anyone who claims to be a king
opposes Caesar.”
They were trying to scare Pilate into crucifying him. If Pilate allowed someone to live who claimed
to be king he would be subject to the punishment for treason himself.
When he heard this, he sat back down on the judgment seat.
“Here is your king,” he said.
“Crucify him, Crucify him!” they chanted.
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
This was obvious: God’s perfect design was for the Jews to have God as their king.[8] The Jews believed the Messiah was to be their
earthly king, but God sent his only son to be their spiritual king. Their rejection of him was not new, the Jews
had been rejecting God as their king for more than 500 years.
Finally, Pilate gave up.
Jewish law prescribed a very specific ritual for when a man
was found slain and the perpetrator was not known.
They were to take a heifer from the nearest town, one that
had never worked or been yoked, and sacrifice it. The elders from the town would wash their
hands over the heifer and declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did
our eyes see it done. Accept this
atonement for your people Israel,
whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood
of an innocent man.” In this way the bloodshed would be atoned for.[9]
Knowing of this ritual, Pilate walked over to a basin of water and washed his
hands. “I am innocent of this man’s
blood,” he said. “It is your
responsibility.”
The reply from the elders here, though, was different than
that prescribed by Jewish law in the case of the unknown murderer. Instead the replied, “Let his blood be on us and on our children,” they said.
Around 11am on Friday
Pilate’s soldiers then took charge of Jesus. They brought out the crossbeam from a cross
and made Jesus pick it up and carry it.
Just as his ancestor Isaac had carried to this very spot the wood on which he would be sacrificed by his father Abram,
Jesus now carried the wood on which he would be sacrificed, as was the will of His father.
Severely weakened from the beating he had taken, Jesus was
barely able to stagger down Via Dolorosa.
Becoming impatient with his progress, the Roman soldiers conscripted the
help of a passer by named Simon of Cyrene.
They put the cross on Simon's shoulders and made him carry it instead.
By this time, all of Jerusalem
had heard what was going on and had come out to watch. Jesus was followed by a large crowd including
women who mourned and wailed for him.
Jesus turned to them and quoted to them from the prophet
Hosea: “Daughters of Jerusalem,
do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say,
‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that
never nursed!’ Then “’they will say to
the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the
hills, “Cover us!”’[10] For if men do these things when the tree is
green, what will happen when it is dry.”
Two other men, both criminals, were also brought out to be
executed along with him. Together they
climbed the hill called Golgatha, The Skull. Jesus
hands were tied to the crossbeam Simon had carried and nails were driven through
his hands and into the wood. They then
placed the crossbeam over another slotted beam to form the shape of a “T”. They pulled his feet to either side of what was to be the upright beam and hammered nails through his heels into the wood to hold him there securely.
The Roman custom was to put a sign above the person being
crucified which explained the crime for which this person was being
executed. This was expected to be a
deterrent to those who would commit the same crime.
Pilate had written the sign above Jesus’ head himself and it
read: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” After all, that was the crime for which he
was being executed. He wrote it in
Aramaic, Latin, and Greek ensuring everyone who passed by the place could read
it.
When the Jews read the sign they protested and asked Pilate
to change it to say he “claimed” to be the king of the Jews. Disgusted, Pilate said “What I have written,
I have written.”
Once he was secured
to the cross, one soldier walked to either side of the crossbeam and lifted the
cross until the bottom of the vertical beam dropped into a hole causing Jesus
extreme agony.
He looked up into the sky and said, “Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing.”
The clothes Jesus wore were no longer of use to him. The Roman custom was to humiliate the
criminals as much as possible; they were crucified naked.
The soldiers divided his garments amongst themselves. There were four soldiers and five garments,
Jesus undergarment was woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
Near the cross, stood Jesus' mother, his mother’s sister,
Mary, and Mary Magdalene. Also nearby was John who claimed to be Jesus' best friend.
He looked down on them and said “Dear woman, here is your
son,” and to John he said, “Here is your mother.”
As Jesus and the two other criminals hung there dying, the
chief priests sneered at him. They said,
“He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen
One.”
The soldiers mocked him.
They offered him wine vinegar to ease the pain and said, “If you are the
king of the Jews, save yourself.”
One of the criminals who hung beside him joined in on the
insults: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save
yourself and us!”
The other criminal on his other side, though, chastised the first. “Don’t you fear God,” he said,
“since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, and we are getting what our deeds deserve, but
this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom.”
Filled with compassion, Jesus answered, “I tell you the
truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Noon on Friday
At noon, the entire region turned to darkness which lasted
for three hours. At 3pm Jesus cried out
in a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of those watching thought he was calling out to
Elijah. The word for “My God” in Aramaic
is “Eloi” which sound like Eli.
Immediately, someone went and got some wine vinegar and put
it on a stick and offered it to him.
Then the others said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him”
In reality, Jesus wasn’t crying out to Elijah, and he wasn’t
lamenting that God had “turned his face away.”
He was quoting his ancestor David who had prophesied about this moment
some 500 years before.
“My God, My God, why have you
forsaken me? Why are you so far from
saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”
The psalm goes on to say “Yet you brought me out of the
womb; you made me trust you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my
mother’s womb you have been my God.”
A bit later the psalmist says, “Dogs have surrounded me; a
band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.”
Then the psalmist gets to the real message Jesus was trying
to convey, the real truth of the prophecy.
“You who fear the Lord, praise
him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor
him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or disdained the
suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has
listened to his cry for help.
“From you comes the theme of my
praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.
“The poor will eat and be
satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him – may your hearts live
forever!
“All the ends of the earth will
remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow
down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the
nations.
“All the rich of the earth will
feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him – those
who cannot keep themselves alive.
“Posterity will serve him; future
generations will be told about the Lord.
“They will proclaim his
righteousness to a people yet unborn – for he has done it.”
Jesus’ exclamation from the cross was a shout of victory:
“He has done it!” He has achieved the
greatest gift of love ever bestowed up on the world, the gift of salvation,
just as he promised!
Then he said “I am thirsty.”
They soaked a sponge in wine vinegar and put the sponge on a
stalk of hyssop plant and raised it to his lips.
When he had drank some of it he called out in a loud voice
and said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. It is finished.” Then he bowed his head, and breathed his last... for now.
At that moment, the curtain in the temple separating the
Holy of Holies (the earthy home of God) from the rest of the temple was torn
from top to bottom. Man no longer needed
a priest to intercede for him to God.
Jesus, God Himself, was seated at the right hand of the father
interceding for us.
Then there was an earthquake and when those guarding Jesus saw
what had happened they said, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
It was getting late in the day on Friday and Jewish law said
that a body could not be hung on a tree over night. The soldiers came to break the legs of the
criminals so that they would die quicker being unable to raise themselves to
take a breath. When they came to Jesus,
though, they saw that he was already dead.
Rather than breaking his legs they used a spear and stabbed
him in the side causing a gush of blood and water to escape from his
chest. Just like it said in the prophecy
of his ancestor David, his side was pierced and none of his bones was broken.
Friday Evening, some time after 3pm
Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to ask for Jesus’
body. Joseph was a member of the Great
Sanhedrin but he did not agree with what they had done.[11] Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already
dead and asked for confirmation from the centurion. The centurion confirmed that it was so and
Pilate turned the body over to Joseph.[12]
With the help of Nicodemus who had brought myrrh and aloes
(about 75 pounds), Joseph took Jesus’ body down off the cross and wrapped it,
along with the spices, in strips of linen according to Jewish burial customs.[13]
Near the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden
in which there was a tomb which had been carved out by Joseph for himself and
no one had ever been buried there. It
was the day before the Sabbath and it was growing late. The tomb was close and so they placed him in
the tomb and Joseph covered the entrance of the tomb with a large stone. [14]
The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee
followed them to the tomb and watched as they laid him inside and rolled the stone
in front. They then went home and
prepared spices and perfumes. By the
time they were finished, though, it was too late for them to apply them because
dusk was near and they were not allowed to work on the Sabbath.[15]
Early Saturday Morning (The Sabbath Day)
On Saturday, the Sanhedrin went to see Pilate. They told him that Jesus had promised to rise
again in three days. They said his
disciples could come and steal his body and tell the people that he had risen
and that would be worse than anything he had done before. Pilate sent a guard with them and told them
to secure the stone as best they could.
They put a seal[16]
on the stone and posted guards.[17]
Early Sunday Morning
Early Sunday morning before dawn, Mary Magdalene[18],
Mary, Mother of James and Joses[19],
and Joanna[20], and
Salome[21],
wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John, left home to bring their spices
and perfumes to anoint the body of Jesus.[22]
At dawn, there was a violent earthquake[23]
and an angel rolled away the stone and then sat on it. The guards who had been posted at the tomb
shook with fear and fainted.[24]
The women arrived at the tomb just after dawn and were
asking each other how they were going to get the stone rolled away from the
tomb when they noticed it was already moved.[25]
Mary Magdalene immediately turned and ran back to the house.[26]
The other women entered the tomb and saw two angels in white
robes[27]
that gleamed like lightening[28]. The angel on the right said “Do not be
afraid. I know that you are looking for
Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified.[29] Why are you looking for the living among the
dead? He is not here, he is risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still
with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be
raised again.’ Come and look at the
place where he lay.[30]
“Go quickly and tell his disciples ‘He has risen from the
dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.”[31]
The women were scared and fled from the tomb, too afraid to
talk to anyone.[32]
As they were running down the road, Jesus met them and said
“Greetings”. They came to him clasped
his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus
told them “Do not be afraid. Go and tell
my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will
see me.”[33]
In the meantime, the guards went to the chief priests and
reported what had happened. They paid
them to say that his disciples had come during the night and stolen him and
promised to keep them out of trouble if the governor found out.[34]
Also during that time, Mary Magdalene had arrived back at
the house and told Peter and John that Jesus body had been stolen. They ran to the tomb to see for
themselves. John arrived first, but did
not enter the tomb. Peter arrived a short time later
and went in to see the linen strips laying there and the burial cloth folded up
and laying separately. John then entered
the tomb and saw it and believed Jesus had been raised from the dead.
In the meantime, the other women had arrived back at the
house and told the other disciples what they had seen, but they didn’t believe
them.[35]
Mary Magdalene had followed Peter and John and was waiting
outside the tomb. Peter and John
returned to the house, but Mary stayed behind and wept. She walked into the tomb and saw two angels,
one at the head and one at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they
have put him.”
She then turned away and saw Jesus standing there, but
didn’t recognize him. She thought he was
the gardener.
“Woman, why are you crying?
Who is it you are looking for?” He said.
“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have
put him, and I will get him.” She replied.
Then Jesus said to her, “Mary.” And she recognized him and cried out “Teacher!”
“Don’t get too attached to me,” He said, “I have not yet
returned to my father.” Go and tell my
brothers ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God.’”[36]
Then she returned to the house and told the disciples what
she had seen.
Later That Evening
Later that day, two of Jesus' disciples (but not of The Eleven)
were walking along the road to Emmaus.
Emmaus was a town about 7 miles or so west of Jerusalem.
They were talking about everything that had happened that day when Jesus
appeared, came up an began walking with them.
They did not recognize him and He asked them what they were
discussing. They told him, incredulous
that he didn’t know what had happened that day.
Jesus then started with Genesis and went through all of the scriptures
telling them everything that was said in the scriptures about him.
When they approached Emmaus, they asked him to come and eat
with them, so he did. As he took the
bread, prayed over it, and then broke it and gave it to them their eyes were
opened and they recognized him. He
immediately disappeared.
They immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem, found The Eleven, and told them
everything that had happened to them.[37]
They had found the disciples in a house with all of the
doors locked for fear of the Jews. While
they were still talking about these things, Jesus appeared to them and said
“Peace be with you!” [38]
The disciples were afraid, thinking that they had seen a
ghost. He showed them his hands, his
feet, and his side and his disciples were overjoyed, but they were still in a
state of shock and couldn’t believe it so he asked them “Do you have anything
here to eat?” They gave him a piece of
broiled fish and he ate it. Ghosts can’t
eat solid food, so his disciples believed.[39]
He told them “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father
promised[40]… in a
few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
They asked him “Is it time to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He had told them that this generation would
not pass away before the Son of Man came in all his glory.[41]
“It is not for you to know times or dates that the father
has set, but when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” He replied. [42]
Then he opened their minds so they
could understand the scriptures.[43]
He said “As the father sent me, I am sending you.[44] All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the age.”[45]
Then he led them out to the vicinity of Bethany and lifted up his hands and blessed
them[46]
and while he was blessing them he left them and ascended up to heaven. While they were intently looking up into the
sky, suddenly two men dressed in white appeared beside them.
“Men of Galilee, why do you
stand here looking into the sky? This
same Jesus, who as been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same
way you have seen him go into heaven.”[47]
Pentecost, 50 days after the crucifixion
50 days later, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came on them in
power and the age of the church had begun.[48]
[1] John
18:1
[2] The
Jewish Supreme Court made up of a religious chamber of 23 priests, a law
chamber of 23 scribes, and a popular chamber of 23 elders, plus two presiding
officers, the chief priests. They had
original jurisdiction of capital crimes, crimes involving the peace and majesty
of the people, and crimes committed by public officials.
[3] Luke
22:36-38
[4] Mark
14:51
[5] John
11:49-53
[6]
Deuteronomy 17:6
[7] Bishop,
Jim. The Day Christ Died, Harper
Collins, 1957, 1977.
[8] 1 Samuel
8:4-7
[9]
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
[10] Hosea
10:8
[11] Luke
23:50-51
[12] Mark
15:44-45
[13] John
19:40-41
[14] Matthew
27:59-60
[15] Luke
23:55-56
[16] We’re
not sure how it was sealed, but most likely this was some kind of wax in which
the seal of the governor or the Great Sanhedrin was impressed, notifying anyone
that tried to open it that they would face the wrath of the sealer if they
broke the seal.
[17] Matthew
27:62-66
[18] John
20:1
[19] Matthew
27:56
[20] Luke
24:10
[21] Matthew
27:56
[22] Luke
24:1
[23]
Earthquakes indicate the presence of God
[24] Matthew
28:2
[25] Mark
16:3-4
[26] John
20:1
[27] Mark
16:5
[28] Luke
24:4
[29] Mark
16:6
[30] Matthew
28:5-6
[31] Matthew
28:7
[32] Mark
16:8
[33] Matthew
28:9-10
[34] Matthew
28:11-15
[35] Luke
24:9-11
[36] John
20:2-18
[37] Luke
24:13-35
[38] John
20:19-20
[39] Luke
24:37-43
[40] Luke
24:49, Acts 1:4
[41] Matthew
24
[42] Acts
1:4-8
[43] Luke
24:45
[44] John
20:21
[45] Matthew
28:18b-20
[46] Luke
24:50-51
[47] Acts
1:10-11
[48] Acts 2
