Now Jesus was standing before Pilate the Roman governor "Are you the king of the Jews" he asked him. Jesus replied "You have said it" But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him Jesus remained silent. "don’t you hear all the charges they are bringing against you" Pilate demanded. But Jesus made no response to any of the charges much to the Governors surprise.
Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd, anyone they wanted. This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas. As the crowds gathered before Pilates house that morning he asked them "Which one do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah". Just then as Pilate was sitting on the judgement seat his wife sent him this message "Leave that innocent man alone, I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night". Meanwhile the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. So the governor asked again "Which one of these two do you want me to release to you". The crowd shouted back "Barabbas" Pilate responded "Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the messiah" They shouted back "Crucify him!" "Why" Pilate demanded "What crime has he committed" but the crowd roared even louder "Crucify him" Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing so he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd saying "I am innocent of this man’s blood the responsibility is yours". And all the people yelled back "We take responsibility for his death –we and our children". So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered that Jesus be flogged with a lead tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head and they placed a reed stick into his right hand as a scepter then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted "Hail king of the Jews" and they spat on him, grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they finally tired of mocking him they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. Along the way they came across a man called Simon from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’s cross.
A large crowd trailed behind including many grief stricken women and they went to a place called Golgotha ( Which means the place of the scull ) The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall but when he had tasted it he refused to drink it. After they had nailed him to the cross the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. A sign was fastened to the cross above Jesus’s head announcing the charge against him it read "This is Jesus the king of the Jews" Two revolutionaries were crucified with him one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said "Father forgive them they know not what they do" The people passing by shouted abuse shaking their heads in mockery. "Look at you now" they yelled at him "you said you were going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, Well then if you are the son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross". The leading priests, the teachers of religious law and the elders also mocked Jesus "He saved others" they scoffed "But he can’t save himself, So he is the king of Israel is he. Let him come down from the cross right now and we will believe in him. He trusted God so let God rescue him now if he wants him. For he said I am the son of God" Even one of the criminals that were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way but the other protested "don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die, We deserve to die for our crimes but this man hasn’t done anything wrong". Then he said to Jesus "Remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus replied "I assure you today you will be with me in paradise".
At noon darkness fell across the whole land until three o clock Jesus called out "My God my God why have you forsaken me" Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said "Wait let’s see if Elijah comes to save him". Then Jesus shouted out again and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart and tombs opened. The bodies of many Godly men and women were raised from the dead. The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said "This man truly was the son of God" And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and another follower Salome. SOME THOUGHTS At the cross Jesus was unjustly tried on a trumped up charge of blasphemy. He did not defend himself against the charges but simply told Pilate that he only had authority because God had given it to him. Jesus was pointing to a heavenly kingdom rather than an earthly imperial one. Pilate represents earthly powers because they will often dispense with justice in the face of self-interest and like Pilate wash their hands of the consequences. When Barabbas goes free it too becomes a symbol of us going free despite our sins as Jesus takes our place, bearing our sin just as he took the punishment instead of Barabbas. The pain and suffering that Jesus bore was intensely physical as Crucifixion was a cruel punishment but also emotional not just because he was unjustly mocked but because he was separated from the love of God the father. He bore the sin of all mankind much like we suffer when we are separated from God and we too suffer the penalty of sin in our bodies. When we identify with sin we die inside spiritually just as Jesus died on the cross.
On the cross the suffering of humans and God meet so that we are able to identify with and relate to him. We are presented with a suffering dead body only because sin has a cost and a price has to be paid for wrongdoing just as we observe in any court of law because neither love nor justice can be served by sinning or being sinned against. The criminal hanging beside Jesus was not condemned because of his wrongdoing but accepted into paradise because he recognised his crime and believed in and wanted to be with Jesus. The abuse of power, the harm of sin causing spiritual death and the cost of suffering without repentance are realities still with us today but Jesus overcomes sin by bearing it on the cross for us as symbolised by the splitting of the temple curtain thus removing the sin barrier between us and God. God communicates with us directly now through his holy spirit rather than just through the written law. This is the ultimate act of sacrificial love and grace. We like the criminal only need to trust in what he has done for us and through a life of prayer we too can be transformed to experience the living waters of his spiritual life and be inspired to love others and build his kingdom here on earth.