This is a "Part 2" to my post of yesterday, A Bittersweet Night.
Thursday (cont.)
Betrayed and Arrested
Right after Jesus finished praying in the Garden, He and His disciples crossed the Kidron Valley and went to an olive grove. John 18:2 (NIV) says, “Now Judas…knew the place…” Judas led the soldiers right to Jesus. Matthew 26:48 (NIV) says Judas had arranged a signal with religious leaders, saying, “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” When Judas kissed Him, Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.” (v. 50) (emphasis mine)
John 18:4-6 (NIV) records Jesus asking the soldiers who it was they wanted. They told Him they wanted “Jesus of Nazareth.” When Jesus replied, I am he, “they drew back and fell to the ground.”
Tried and Condemned
Jesus was subjected to six separate trials (three religious and three civil) before He was condemned.
He was tried first before Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest. (John 18) He was then tried before Caiaphas (the high priest at the time) and the Sanhedrin. (Luke 22:54,63-65) During these two trials, He was mocked, beat, insulted, spat upon, and kept up all night.
Friday
At daybreak, He was brought before the Sanhedrin again, who tried Him and sent Him to Pilate. (Luke 22:66-71)
He was tried by Pilate, who, upon learning Jesus was a Galilean, sent Him to Herod Antipas (the same who man who put John the Baptist’s head on a platter). (Luke23:6-12) Herod tried Him (Luke 23:9), then sent Him back to Pilate. He was tried again by Pilate (Luke 23:13-25).
Pilate tried three times to release Jesus (Luke 23:22). He offered to have Him punished and released. But that wasn’t good enough for the religious leaders. They didn’t want Him punished and released. They wanted Him dead. That’s why they brought Him to Pilate in the first place. Under Roman rule, the Jews did not have the right to execute anyone (John 18:31). Only Pilate had the authority to have Jesus crucified. Pilate found no grounds for the death penalty, “But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.” (Luke 23:23 NIV)
Jesus was flogged and led away to be crucified.
Crucifixion
The scourging Jesus received from the soldiers was so severe, He could not stand under the weight of the cross. Isaiah 52:14 (NIV) says that “his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…” He was beaten beyond recognition.
Beth goes on to say that, “The severity of the beating administered prior to crucifixion often depended upon how long the officials wanted victims to live. They could live up to six days. Quite possibly, Christ’s beating demonstrated the full extremity of severity, not to spare Him a lengthy death, but to allow the religious leaders to be home for supper. After all, it was a holiday weekend.”
The two most prominent causes of death by crucifixion were from blood and fluid loss or suffocation. The weight of His body pulling down on His outstretched arms and shoulders would have made it extremely hard to breathe, and He would have to push down on His feet to push Himself up to get a breath. Besides the wounds on His body from the beatings and scourging…besides the nails driven through His wrists and feet…He endured the excruciating pain of suffocation.
Matthew 27:45 (NIV) says, "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtahani?' -- which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"
Beth says, "I believe this cry marked the exact moment the sins of all humanity -- past, present and future-- were heaped upon Christ and the full cup of God's wrath poured forth. Somehow I believe that to bear the sin, Jesus also had to bear the separation. Though Christ had to suffer the incomparable agony of separation from the fellowship of His Father while sin was judged, I am moved that He breathed His last breath with full assurance of His Father's trustworthiness."
She is referring to Luke 23:44-46 (NIV), when "Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he had said this, he breathed his last."
Genesis 2:7 (NIV) says, "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 (NIV) says, "'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." (emphasis mine)
He breathed His last.
Matthew 27:51 says, "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split."
Hebrews 10:19-20 (NIV) says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is his body..." (emphasis mine)
At the moment the Word made Flesh breathed His last, the curtain [that is his body] was torn in two from top to bottom.
Another interesting point is that when Jesus was entering Jerusalem, and the religious leaders instructed Him to rebuke His disciples for praising Him, He told them, "I tell you...if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40 (NIV) Could this be what was happening in Matthew 27:51 when "the rocks split"?
Don't you love the deep waters that are the Word of the Living God?
Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus' body. With Pilate's permission, he and Nicodemus took the body and wrapped it with spices and strips of linen. Then they placed His body in a new tomb in a nearby garden.
"The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment." (Luke 23:55-56 (NIV)
John 20:12 (NIV) says there were two, "angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot." It's as if they were guarding His body as it lay "in state," as Beth says, in the sepulcher. This is the exact position of the cherubim in Exodus 25:19, who guarded the atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God.
He was the fulfillment of that Covenant, and every promise of God. Praise you, Lord!
I'll end on this Good Friday, which these words of John in his Gospel:
"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." John 1:10:14 (NIV)
Hallelujah to the King!
Matthew 27:45 (NIV) says, "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtahani?' -- which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"
Beth says, "I believe this cry marked the exact moment the sins of all humanity -- past, present and future-- were heaped upon Christ and the full cup of God's wrath poured forth. Somehow I believe that to bear the sin, Jesus also had to bear the separation. Though Christ had to suffer the incomparable agony of separation from the fellowship of His Father while sin was judged, I am moved that He breathed His last breath with full assurance of His Father's trustworthiness."
She is referring to Luke 23:44-46 (NIV), when "Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he had said this, he breathed his last."
Genesis 2:7 (NIV) says, "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 (NIV) says, "'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." (emphasis mine)
He breathed His last.
Matthew 27:51 says, "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split."
Hebrews 10:19-20 (NIV) says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is his body..." (emphasis mine)
At the moment the Word made Flesh breathed His last, the curtain [that is his body] was torn in two from top to bottom.
Another interesting point is that when Jesus was entering Jerusalem, and the religious leaders instructed Him to rebuke His disciples for praising Him, He told them, "I tell you...if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40 (NIV) Could this be what was happening in Matthew 27:51 when "the rocks split"?
Don't you love the deep waters that are the Word of the Living God?
Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus' body. With Pilate's permission, he and Nicodemus took the body and wrapped it with spices and strips of linen. Then they placed His body in a new tomb in a nearby garden.
"The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment." (Luke 23:55-56 (NIV)
John 20:12 (NIV) says there were two, "angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot." It's as if they were guarding His body as it lay "in state," as Beth says, in the sepulcher. This is the exact position of the cherubim in Exodus 25:19, who guarded the atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God.
He was the fulfillment of that Covenant, and every promise of God. Praise you, Lord!
I'll end on this Good Friday, which these words of John in his Gospel:
"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." John 1:10:14 (NIV)
Hallelujah to the King!
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