Pontius Pilate, having reluctantly surrendered to the clamorous demands of the Jews, issued the fatal order. Jesus, divested of the purple robe and arrayed in His own apparel, was led away to be crucified. Two convicted criminals, who had been sentenced to the cross for robbery, were led forth to death at the same time. There was to be a triple execution; and the prospective scene of horror attracted the morbidly minded, such as delight to gloat over the sufferings of their fellows. In the crowd, however, were some genuine mourners, as shall be shown.
It was the Roman custom to make the execution of convicts as public as possible, under the mistaken and anti-psychological assumption that the spectacle of dreadful punishment would be of deterrent effect. The sentence of death by crucifixion required that the condemned person carry the cross upon which he was to suffer. Jesus started on the way bearing His cross. The terrible strain of the preceding hours, the agony in Gethsemane, the barbarous treatment He had suffered in the palace of the high priest, the humiliation and cruel usage to which He had been subjected before Herod, the frightful scourging under Pilate's order, the brutal treatment by the inhuman soldiery, together with the extreme humiliation and the mental agony of it
The soldiers, impatient at the delay, peremptorily impressed into service a man whom they met coming into Jerusalem from the country, and him they compelled to carry the cross of Jesus. No Roman or Jew would have voluntarily incurred the ignominy of bearing such a gruesome burden. The man so forced to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, bearing the cross upon which the Savior of the world was to consummate His glorious mission, was Simon, a native of Cyrene.
We read of no man who ventured to raise his voice in protest or pity; but on this dreadful occasion as at other times, women were not afraid to cry out in commiseration or praise. Jesus turned to the women whose sympathizing lamentations had reached His ears, and uttered these pathetic and portentous words of admonition and warning. "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"
It was the Lord's last testimony of the impending holocaust of destruction that was to follow the nation's rejection of her King. Although motherhood was the glory of every Jewish woman's life, yet in the terrible scenes which many of those there weeping would live to witness, barrenness would be accounted a blessing. The childless would have fewer to weep over, and at least would be spared the horror of seeing their offspring die of starvation or by violence. So dreadful would be that day that people would fain welcome the falling of the mountains upon them to end their sufferings. If Israel's oppressors could do what was then in process of doing to the "Green Tree," what would the powers of evil not do to the
The destination was a spot called Golgotha, or Calvary, meaning "the place of a skull" It was the custom to offer each a narcotic draught of sour wine or vinegar mingled with myrrh and possibly containing other anodyne ingredients. This was no Roman practise, but was allowed as a concession to Jewish sentiment. When the drugged cup was presented to Jesus He put it to His lips, but having ascertained the nature of its contents refused to drink, and so demonstrated His determination to meet death with faculties alert and mind unclouded. Then they crucified Him, on the central cross of three, and placed one of the condemned malefactors on His right hand, the
Death by crucifixion was at once the most lingering and most painful of all forms of execution. The spikes so cruelly driven through hands and feet penetrated and crushed sensitive nerves and quivering tendons. The welcome relief of death came through the exhaustion caused by intense and unremitting pain, through localized inflammation and congestion of organs incident to the strained and unnatural posture of the body.
As the crucifiers proceeded with their awful task, the agonized Sufferer voiced the first of the seven utterances delivered from the cross. In the spirit of God-like mercy he prayed: " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" There is significance in the form in which this merciful benediction was expressed.
Moses forgave Miriam for her offense against himself as her brother. God alone could remit the penalty and remove the leprosy that had come upon her for having spoken against Jehovah's high priest. The clothes worn by a condemned person at the time of execution became the perquisites of the executioners. The four soldiers in charge of the cross distributed parts of His raiment among themselves.
To the cross above the head of Jesus was affixed a title or inscription, prepared by order of Pilate. In this instance the title was inscribed in three languages, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. The inscription was read by many, for Calvary was close to the public thoroughfare.
Comment was aroused; for, if literally construed, the inscription was an official declaration that the crucified Jesus was in fact King of the Jews. When this circumstance was brought to the attention of the chief priests, they excitedly appealed to the governor. Pilate answered, What I have written I've written.
Pilate's action in so wording the title, and his blunt refusal to permit an alteration, may have been an intended rebuff to the Jewish officials who had forced him against his judgment and will to condemn Jesus. The soldiers whose duty it was to guard the crosses, until loitering death would relieve the crucified of their increasing anguish, jested among themselves, and derided the Christ, pledging Him in their cups of sour wine in tragic mockery. But, whatever the purpose behind the writing, the inscription stands in history as testimony of a heathen's consideration in contrast with Israel's ruthless rejection of Israel's King.
Looking at the title affixed above the Sufferer's head, they bellowed forth the devil-inspired challenge: "If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself" Though uttered in ribald mockery, the declaration of the rulers in Israel stands as an attestation that Christ had saved others. "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him"
The dominant note in all the railings and revilings, the ribaldry and mockery, with which the patient and submissive Christ was assailed while He hung, "lifted up" as He had said He would be. That "If" was Satan's last shaft, keenly barbed and doubly envenomed, and it sped as with the fierce hiss of a viper.
Was it possible in this the final and most dreadful stage of Christ's mission, to make Him doubt His divine Sonship, or, failing such, to taunt or anger the dying Savior into the use of His superhuman powers for personal relief? To achieve such a victory was Satan's desperate purpose. The shaft failed. Through taunts and derision, through blasphemous challenge and diabolical goading, the agonized Christ was silent. Then one of the crucified thieves, softened into penitence by the Savior's uncomplaining fortitude, rebuked his railing fellow, saying: "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due
His confession of guilt and his acknowledgment of the justice of his own condemnation led to incipient repentance, and to faith in the Lord Jesus, his companion in agony. To the appeal of penitence the Lord replied with such a promise as He alone could make: "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Among the spectators of this, the greatest tragedy in history, were some who had come in sympathy and sorrow. No mention is found of the presence of any of the Twelve, save one, and he, the disciple "whom Jesus loved," John the apostle, evangelist, and revelator.
In addition to the women named were many others, some of whom had ministered unto Jesus in the course of His labors in Galilee. First in point of consideration among them all was Mary, the mother of Jesus, into whose soul the sword had pierced even as righteous Simeon had prophesied. Jesus looking with tender compassion upon His weeping mother, as she stood with John at the foot of the cross, commended her to the care and protection of the beloved disciple. The disciple tenderly led the heart-stricken Mary away from her dying Son, and "took her unto his own home," thus immediately assuming the new relationship established by his dying Master.
The terrifying gloom continued for a period of three hours. This remarkable phenomenon has received no satisfactory explanation from science. It could not have been due to a solar eclipse, as has been suggested in ignorance. The darkness was brought about by miraculous operation of natural laws directed by divine power. It was a fitting sign of the earth's deep mourning over the impending death of her Creator. Of the mortal agony through which the Lord passed while upon the cross the Gospel-scribes are reverently reticent. At the ninth hour, or about three in the afternoon, a loud voice, surpassing the most anguished cry of physical suffering issued from the central cross, rending the dreadful darkness.
In that bitterest hour the dying Christ was alone, alone in most terrible reality. The cry from the cross, though heard by all who were near, was understood by few. That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consummated in all its fulness, the Father seems to have withdrawn the support of His immediate Presence, leaving to the Savior of men the glory of complete victory over the forces of sin and death.
The maddening thirst, which constituted one of the worst of the crucifixion agonies, wrung from the Savior's lips His one recorded utterance expressive of physical suffering. One of those who stood by, whether Roman or Jew, disciple or skeptic, we are not told, hastily saturated a sponge with vinegar, and fastened the sponge to the end of a reed, or stalk of hyssop. Some others would have prevented this one act of human response, for they said: "Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him." John affirms that Christ uttered the exclamation, "I thirst," only when He knew "that all things were now accomplished"; and the apostle saw in
Fully realizing that He was no longer forsaken, but that His atoning sacrifice had been accepted by the Father, He exclaimed in a loud voice of holy triumph: " It is finished! " In reverence, resignation, and relief, he addressed the Father saying: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" Jesus the Christ was dead. His life had not been taken from Him except as He had willed to permit. Sweet and welcome as would have been the relief of death in any of the earlier stages of His suffering from Gethsemane to the cross, He lived until all things were accomplished as had been appointed. In the latter days the voice of the Lord Jesus has been heard affirming
The death of Christ was accompanied by terrifying phenomena. There was a violent earthquake; the rocks of the mighty hills were disrupted, and many graves were torn open. The veil of the temple which hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies was rent from top to bottom. The interior, which none but the high priest had been permitted to see, was thrown open to common gaze. It was the rending of Judaism, the consummation of the Mosaic dispensation, and the inauguration of Christianity under apostolic administration.
The actual death of Jesus appeared to all who were present to be a miracle, as in fact it was. This marvel, coupled with the earthquake and its attendant horrors, so impressed the centurion that he prayed to God. Others joined in fearsome averment: "Truly this was the Son of God." The terrified ones who spoke and those who heard left the place in a state of fear, beating their breasts, and bewailing what seemed to be an impending destruction. A few loving women, however, watched from a distant point, and saw all that took place until the Lord's body was laid away. It was now late in the afternoon; at sunset the Sabbath would begin.
That approaching Sabbath was held to be more than ordinarily sacred for it was a high day, in that it was the weekly Sabbath and a paschal holy day. The Jewish officials, who had not hesitated to slay their Lord, were horrified at the thought of men left hanging on crosses on such a day. So these scrupulous rulers went to Pilate and begged that Jesus and the two malefactors be summarily dispatched by the brutal Roman method of breaking their legs. The governor gave his consent, and the soldiers broke the limbs of the two thieves with cudgels. Jesus, however, was found to be already dead, so they broke not His bones. Christ, the great Passover sacrifice, of whom all altar
One of the soldiers, to make sure that Jesus was actually dead, or to surely kill Him if He was yet alive, drove a spear into His side. The withdrawal of the spear was followed by an outflow of blood and water. A man known as Joseph of Arimathea, who was at heart a disciple of Christ, but who had hesitated to openly confess his conversion through fear of the Jews, desired to give the Lord's body a decent and honorable interment. This man, Joseph, was "a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just."
It is expressly said of him that he "had not consented to the counsel and deed of them"; from which statement we infer that he was a Sanhedrist and had been opposed to the action of his colleagues in condemning Jesus to death. Joseph was a man of wealth, station, and influence. He went in boldly unto Pilate and begged the body of Christ. The governor was surprized to learn that Jesus was already dead. The unusual circumstance seems to have added to Pilate's troubled concern. He gave command and the body was delivered to Joseph. The body was removed from the cross; and in preparing it for the tomb Joseph was assisted by Nicodemus, another member of the Sanhedrin.
Nicodemus brought a large quantity of myrrh and aloes, about a hundredweight. The odorous mixture was highly esteemed for anointing and embalming, but its cost restricted its use to the wealthy. These two revering disciples wrapped the Lord's body in clean linen, "with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury"; and then laid it in a new sepulchre, hewn in the rock. Some of the devoted women, particularly Mary Magdalene, and "the other Mary," who was the mother of James and Joses, had watched the entombment from a distance. When it was completed "they returned, and prepared spices and ointments
Chief priests and Pharisees came in a body to Pilate, saying: "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again" Pilate answered with terse assent: "Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can"
Simon the Cyrenian was a member of the Jewish colony in northern Africa. The colony had been established nearly three centuries before the birth of Christ by Ptolemeus Lagi. Rufus and his mother are mentioned in friendly reference by Paul over a quarter of a century after the death of Christ (Romans 16:13)
As to whether Simon had become a disciple before the crucifixion, or was converted through his compulsory service in bearing the Lord's cross, or became a member of the Church at a later date, we are not definitely told. —"The time would come, when the Old Testament curse of barrenness (Hosea 9:14) would be coveted as a blessing"
How often, these many centuries, must Israel's women have felt that terrible longing for childlessness? How often must the prayer of despair for the quick death of falling mountains and burying hills have risen to the lips of Israel's sufferers? And yet, even so, these words were also prophetic of a still more terrible future (Rev. 6:10). For, if Israel had put such flame to its 'green tree' how terribly would the divine judgment burn among the dry wood of an apostate and rebellious people? "—Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 2, p. 588.
The Aramaic Hebrew name "Golgotha", the Greek "Kranion", and the Latin "Calvaria" or, as Anglicized, "Calvary" have the same meaning, and connote "a skull" The name may have been applied with reference to topographical features, as we speak of the brow of a hill; or, if the spot was the usual place of execution, it may be so called as expressive of death, just as we call a skull a death's head.
It is probable that the bodies of executed convicts were buried near the place of death. The leaving of bodies or any of their parts unburied was contrary to Jewish law and sentiment. The origin of the name is of as little importance as are the many divergent suppositions concerning the exact location of the spot.
The place of execution was outside the city (1 Kings 21:13; Acts 7:58; Heb. 13:12), often in some public road or other conspicuous place. The cross was then driven into the ground, so that the feet of the condemned were a foot or two above the earth, and he was lifted upon it. It was the custom to station soldiers to watch the cross, so as to prevent the removal of the sufferer while yet alive. "This was necessary from the lingering character of the death, which sometimes did not supervene even for three days, and was at last the result of gradual benumbing and starvation. But for this guard, the persons might have been taken down and recovered, as
No two of the Gospel-writers give the same wording of the title or inscription placed by Pilate's order above the head of Jesus on the cross. It is probable that there was actual diversity in the trilingual versions. John's version is followed in the common abbreviations used in connection with Roman Catholic figures of Christ: J. N. R. J.; or, inasmuch as "I" used to be an ordinary equivalent of "J",—I.
Mark (15:25) says: "And it was the third hour and they crucified him"; the time so specified corresponds to the hour from 9 to 10 a.m. This writer and his fellow synoptists, Matthew and Luke, give place to many incidents that occurred between the nailing of Christ to the cross and the sixth hour. From these several accounts it is clear that Jesus was crucified during the forenoon.
A discrepancy plainly appears between these records and John's statement (19:14) that it was "about the sixth hour" (noon) when Pilate gave the sentence of execution. All attempts to harmonize the accounts in this particular have proved futile because the discrepancy is real. —While, as stated in the text, the yielding up of life was voluntary on the part of Jesus Christ, for He had life in Himself and no man could take His life except as He willed to allow it to be taken, there was of necessity a direct physical cause of dissolution.
As stated also the crucified sometimes lived for days upon the cross, and death resulted, not from the infliction of mortal wounds, but from internal congestion, inflammations, organic disturbances, and consequent exhaustion of vital energy. Jesus, though weakened by long torture during the crucifixion itself, as also by intense mental agony, and particularly through spiritual suffering such as no other man has ever endured, manifested surprizing vigor, both of mind and body, to the last. The strong, loud utterance, immediately following which He bowed His head and "gave up the ghost", when considered in connection with other recorded details, points to a physical rupture of the heart as the direct cause of death.
If the soldier's spear was thrust into the left side of the Lord's body and actually penetrated the heart, the outrush of "blood and water" observed by John is further evidence of a cardiac rupture. Blood accumulates within the pericardium, and there undergoes a change by which the corpuscles separate as a partially clotted mass from the almost colorless, watery serum. Similar accumulations of clotted corpuscles and serum occur within the pleura. Dr. Abercrombie of Edinburgh, as cited by Deems ( Light of the Nations , p. 682), "gives a case of the sudden death of a man aged seventy-seven years, owing to a rupture of the
'On opening the body the pericardium was found distended with clear serum , and a very large coagulum of blood, which had escaped through a spontaneous rupture of the aorta near its origin' Many cases might be cited, but these suffice. Great mental stress, poignant emotion either of grief or joy, and intense spiritual struggle are among the recognized causes of heart rupture. The present writer believes that the Lord Jesus died of a broken heart. The psalmist sang in dolorous measure according to his inspired prevision of the Lord's passion: "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness" (Psalm 69:20, 21; see also 22
Many critics hold that the deputation called upon Pilate on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath had ended. Matthew's statement is definite—that the application was made on "the next day, that followed the day of the preparation" The preparation day extended from sunset on Thursday to the beginning of the Sabbath at sunset on Friday.
The clause "if he be the King of Israel" in verse 42 of the common text is admittedly a mistranslation. See revised version; also Edersheim, vol. 2, p. 596; compare Mark 15:32. The Gospel writers leave us in some uncertainty as to which of the last two utterances from the cross, "It is finished," and "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," was spoken first.
John 19:31-37. Deut. 21:23. Exo. 12:46; Numb. 9:12; Psa. 34:20; John 19:36; 1 Cor. 5:7. John 20:27; B. of M., 3 Nephi 11:14, 15. See "The House of the Lord," pages 59, 60. Matt. 27:51-54; Mark 15:38, 39; Luke 23:47-49. John 3:1, 2; 7:50; see pages 158, 404, and page 613, herein.