Very God, very human.

CHAPTER 10. CRUCIFIXION.
Friday and Saturday

10.1 SCATTERED FOLLOWERS.
Only John witnessed any part of the trials, though Peter had an external glimpse from the courtyard. John saw some part of the interrogation - probably before Annas - but not the full trial before Caiaphas. His view of the trial before Pilate was restricted to that seen from outside - the occasions when the governor came out onto the balcony but not the two private interrogations.

It is doubtful whether John or anyone else was allowed to witness the scourging, but he would have seen Jesus when Pilate brought Him out to show its effect.

When at last sentence was given, John estimates the time as about the sixth hour (mid day). Time was only ever given approximately, usually rounded to the nearest three hours, and to one standing waiting it must have seemed like mid day. (Mark gives the time as the third hour, nine o’clock. It was probably somewhere between the two. Matthew and Luke give the sixth hour as the beginning of the three hours Jesus hung on the cross.)

Peter was somewhere in Jerusalem. He saw the crucifixion from a distance (see 1 Peter 5:1 where he calls himself a witness of Christ’s sufferings).

The nine disciples who had fled were almost certainly at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany. This had apparently been their base, although Jesus had many other followers around Jerusalem who might have offered shelter.

The rest of the party, men like Matthias who followed but were not among the twelve, were somewhere in the city, as were the women.

This was the situation when the news broke. Jesus was being crucified.

10.2 THE ROUTE TO GOLGOTHA.
The place of execution lay just outside the city, a flat piece of ground at the base of a rock formation resembling a skull. Jesus was led away with two other prisoners and they were given their crosses to carry. But Jesus had just been flogged. The fact that He could carry the cross at all, even part of the way, is tribute to His exceptional strength and endurance. Men had died under a Roman flogging. It is not surprising that there came a point when He could carry the heavy weight no further.

Roman soldiers had the right to conscript any man from a conquered nation to do menial work for them, or to carry a load up to one mile. In the sermon on the mount Jesus had described how a conquered people can seize the initiative from their captors - “If anyone forces you to walk a mile - go with him two.”

The soldiers needed to invoke the law to find a helper who would carry the cross for a prisoner already flogged. But they knew the crowd was in a ugly mood. And it was Passover day. They only had to pick the wrong man and trouble might flare up.

Looking around they saw a black face. A Cyrenean visiting Jerusalem, probably a proselyte or convert to Judaism but, and this was the point, not a local man. So the stranger was pressed into service and his name went down in history. Simon of Cyrene the father of Alexander and Rufus.


10.3 THE CROWD.
(Luke 23:27-31)
They were here at last; maybe later in the day than usual because it was Passover time and people tend to stay at home longer on such occasions. (Streets in Britain are often empty on a Christmas morning.) Now they arrived, too late to influence the decision; in time to “mourn and lament.” This was the true voice of the Jewish people, reported by the gentile writer, Luke.

“Don’t weep for me but for yourselves and your children,” Jesus said to some of the women who pressed near to see Him pass. He knew the way Jerusalem was heading and had foreseen the calamities ahead - though in fact it was nearly forty years before the worst disaster struck - long after Luke had finished writing. Jesus Himself had wept for the city when He had prophesied its destruction.

Some caring person, we have no idea who, was waiting at the place of execution with drugged wine; not by any means a full anaesthetic, but an analgesic perhaps, some small deadening of the pain. The two robbers no doubt drank theirs willingly, but Jesus only took a sip. Any moistening of the mouth was welcome, but when He tasted it and knew what it was, He drank no more. This pain was not to be deadened. As He had said in Gethsemane, “The cup the Father gives me, shall I not drink it.”


10.4 AT THE CROSS.
Jesus was not, as is usually depicted, still wearing the purple robe and crown of thorns. Matthew and Mark specifically state that he had been dressed in His own clothes. These were now stripped off Him to be shared out among the four soldiers. Then His hands and maybe also His feet were nailed to the wood, reinforced by rope to hold the weight, then the cross was raised and dropped into its socket in the ground, jolting bones out of joint.

John had followed along the way and was joined at the cross by a group of women. It is only by piecing together the different Gospel records that we can work out who they all were.

First there was Mary the mother of Jesus, who came together with her sister Salome, John’s mother. With them were Mary Magdalene and Mary Clopas who was the mother of two lesser known disciples James minor and Joses.

This little group, one man and four women, stood there through the long hours, determined not to desert Him, or each other. Clearly His mother had the right to be present and needed the support of her sister and friends. The soldiers let them stay.

They saw the muscular body, already covered with weals from whipping, stretched out and straining to bear its own weight. They felt the heat and saw the flies. They saw the slow trickle of blood, wished it might flow faster to hasten the end, but crucifixion kills slowly by exhaustion, not by loss of blood.

Somewhere behind them, the ordinary people looked, sighed, and returned to their homes. There were, however, some from the Chief Priests who could not keep from gloating. It had been a long hard night for them, the hurried preparations, the false trial, the setbacks, the delays - at last they breathed sighs of relief and came to pour scorn on a defeated foe.

“He saved others. He can not save Himself. If He is really the Messiah, let Him prove it now by coming down from the cross.”

10.5 FORGIVE THEM.
Words wrung from one in severe pain or under extreme stress can be more revealing than words carefully planned. Jolt a glass and what spills out will be what was already inside.

As He was being nailed to the cross Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,” (Luke 23:34).


10.6 TODAY IN PARADISE.
As the community leaders jeered, the two robbers alongside Jesus added their derision - “If you are Messiah, save yourself and us.” (It is normal enough for society’s outcasts to copy the sins of its most respected.)

Then one paused, thought and at last called out to the other, “Pack it in, we are guilty, He is not” then speaking to Jesus who had been labelled “King of the Jews” he said, “Remember me in your kingdom.”

Jesus told him, “Verily” certainly, this is an assured promise “You will be with me today in Paradise.”

He neither deserved Heaven, understood doctrine, nor had the opportunity for elaborate repentance. Yet his salvation was secure.

(This is not about theology, but Christ’s prayer for His killer’s forgiveness and His assurance of paradise to the dying criminal provide more hope for sinners than most theologians or their theories.)


10.7. MOTHER AND SON.
John 19:25-27

Jesus had brothers but they had never been His followers. Later they would follow, but Jesus wanted the care of His mother to be in the hands of an apostle. John was standing beside the cross with Mary and with her sister who was John’s own mother. Now Jesus entrusted responsibility for His mother’s care to John.

Supported by her sister and nephew Mary stood beside the cross as long as her son was alive. Then they took her away and cared for her. According to an early eastern Christian tradition, John took Mary with him when he later settled in Ephesus - and had the help of Mary Magdalene to care for her too. (An uncertain tradition but much more probable than the middle ages legend that Mary Magdalene settled in France).

At this point we must rid ourselves of the traditional image of John as a beardless youngster, the baby of the apostles. Mediaeval art may so depict him, but in fact he was as tough a fisherman as Peter and Andrew and James. He may have been young, there is evidence he lived a long time in Ephesus, but he was a young man not a youth.

10.8 DARKNESS.
Luke 23:44-49, Mark 15:33, Matthew 27:45

The sky grew dark, from what cause we will not speculate. Stillness descended on the scene and conversation came to an end.

Three hours followed, of which the Gospel records say nothing until it was over. The mockers had gone, the soldiers had finished sharing out the clothes, throwing dice for the tunic. Plenty of people watched from a distance, one man and four women stood close and silent. The only sound was the harsh breathing of the three crucified prisoners.

Up to then Christ’s suffering had all been public and fellow humans could understand. Now something was happening which was intensely private and no one will ever understand. Leave the veil of darkness in place, it is not for us to know the cost of our salvation. Only the infinite one could suffer infinite pain. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Peter who watched from a distance later wrote that “He in His own body bore our sins.”

We are given the bare fact. The details are beyond us.

10.9 FINAL WORDS.
John 19:25-30, Mark 15:34-39, Matthew 27:46-50.

“Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani - My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” a quote from Psalm 22 in Hebrew and the Roman soldiers only knew Greek and Latin; so they imagined the prisoner was calling for Elijah. The voice was not clear anyway, His mouth being parched with thirst.

But they knew He was trying to say something and so caught the words, “I’m thirsty” which they could understand.

What followed was a rough but kindly action from those who had previously shown no pity. Maybe standing beside the women for three hours had influenced them. Anyway one produced his sponge (part of every Roman soldier’s equipment) and put sour wine upon it from his flask. This was raised on a stick to the prisoner’s mouth - the only means by which it could be moistened.

His voice cleared Jesus now shouted, yes, shouted, “Cried out with a loud voice.” He was used to preaching to thousands, the strength of His voice is one of the few physical characteristics we know of Him. For one brief moment His muscles took His weight freeing His lungs for that one shout.

One word, “Tetelestai” - Finished! Job Done! Mission Accomplished! Success!

Then quietly, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” and His breathing ceased.

(See Appendix 3 for comments on Matthew 27:52-53.)

10.10 BURIAL.
Mary had stayed as long as her son lived to know she was there. She may have stayed until she knew what the burial arrangements were going to be, but she did not stay for the burial itself.

Probably her sister and nephew encouraged her to come away and rest, knowing the ordeal she had suffered; but there is another possible reason for her absence. It could be that of all the disciples who had heard Jesus tell them He would rise from the dead, his mother was the only one who knew Him well enough to take it literally and trust it would be so. She knew, as no one else could, that His body was miraculously conceived. Was she also confident that it would be miraculously raised? And did that confidence make the whole business of burial irrelevant for her?

Mary Magdalene stayed on, together with Mary Clopas, watching the next miniature drama within the greater drama. Two wealthy and respected gentlemen came, determined to give Jesus a decent burial. They had been secret followers and were brought into the open by the possibility that His body might be thrown into a pit with other criminals. Oblivious of the ancient prophecy that “He had a grave with the wicked but was with the rich in His death,” Joseph af Arimathea resolved to bury Him in his family vault. It was near at hand and available.

The tomb was new, unfinished in fact. It was cut into the cliff wall of “a garden” - a term which could mean an orchard, an olive grove or a vineyard. Excavations of the site adjoining the place of a skull has revealed a wine press and a substantial water storage system indicating a rich man’s vineyard. The vault is still unfinished, having spaces for only two bodies; and one of them lacks the chisel marks of final shaping.


Before Joseph could take charge or the body he had to clear it with the governor. Private burial of a prisoner was a common enough request and there was a clear routine for it. Pilate asked the centurion to check that Jesus was dead. The Centurion had no doubts but even so a soldier made quite sure with a javelin thrust. John witnessed this; so either he had taken Mary home and returned (leaving her in the care of his mother) or possibly Mary was still there up to this point and left immediately after it.

Now Joseph and Nicodemus had taken on the responsibility for the body although the soldiers may have lifted the cross out of its socket and laid it on the ground. With the two Mary’s looking on, these soft-handed rich men set about the gruesome task of removing the nails and wrapping the body in a linen shroud. Then followed an attempt to make something decent of the obscene mess of wounds and drying blood. Nicodemus provided some 30 kilos of myrrh and aloes which were wrapped into the shroud. Then they carried the body to the tomb.

The entrance was closed by rolling a stone disc into place along its prepared slot. It was a heavy but not unmanageable task for the two men.

Mary Magdalene and Mary Clopas noted the place and resolved to add their tribute of spices after the sabbath. For now, however, the four of them went to their homes to observe the sabbath rest which began at sunset.

10.11 THAT SABBATH.
There was nothing to do. The enforced rest ot the Jewish Sabbath only served to emphasise the helplessness of the Jesus’ followers. Nine of them, apparently, stayed at Bethany. Peter and John stayed in Jerusalem and by Sunday morning were together. The women were also in Jerusalem, as were hundreds, maybe thousands of disappointed, disheartened and disconsolate followers whose hopes had been dashed. Messiah was dead - but that did not fit their beliefs. Messiah was to be the conqueror, the ruler, the deliverer - only a few had grasped the message of the prophets that Messiah’s triumph would come after suffering.

It was the worst day of their lives.

10.12 JUDAS.
Matthew 27:3-10 Acts 1:16-20

These two accounts appear on the face of it to be very different, though they agree on the detail that a plot of land was purchased with the thirty pieces of silver and that it became known as “The field of blood.”

Matthew’s statement that Judas went out and hanged himself uses a word which does not appear anywhere else in the New Testament; so is of uncertain meaning. “Hanged” might be any form of suicide.

One possible scenario which could fit both narratives is as follows. Judas returned to the priests and threw down the money, as recorded in Matthew. The priests, with unbelievable hypocrisy, refused to put it into the treasury because it was dirty money. Then they heard the complaint of a potter whose little plot of land outside the city had become ceremonially defiled or otherwise socially unacceptable because of a particularly unpleasant suicide in it.

The priests then compensated the potter by buying the plot in the name of the deceased and allocating it for the burial of the poor - a posthumous act of charity.

The timing of the events is not clear, but Matthew does say, “When he saw that Jesus was condemned,” so the visit to the priests and the suicide might have even taken place while Jesus was still on the cross. It does raise the possibility that Caiaphas might have promised Judas that Jesus would not actually be executed - and Judas might just have been gullible enough to believe it. But this is pure theory.

There have been many attempts to interpret Judas, all involving some use of imagination. On the principle of always taking the simplest explanation, we conclude that he wanted to quit the disciples, felt the need to be restored to favour with the authorities, then realised that such favour was hollow. He had lost all his friends from both camps and saw nothing but existence as a lonely outcast, despised by both.

There are plenty of other more obscure possibilities, but it seems that the writers of the Gospels do not even claim to understand Judas themselves. So they say as little as possible, reporting bare facts without explanation or recrimination.


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