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by Mark Sedrak
On Friday of Holy Pascha Week, our Lord Jesus Christ endured trials and crucifixion.
Jesus before Pilate
Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate's headquarters. It was early in the
morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual
defilement and to be able to eat the Passover.
So Pilate went out to them and
said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"
They answered, "If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you."
Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law."
The Jews replied, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death." (This was to fulfill
what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are
you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"
Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own
nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this
world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the
Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."
Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for
this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the
truth listens to my voice."
Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"
Jesus Sentenced to Death
After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, "I find no
case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the
Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" 40 They
shouted in reply, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a bandit.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of
thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept
coming up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and striking him on the
face.
Pilate went out again and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to
you to let you know that I find no case against him." So Jesus came out, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him!
Crucify him!"
Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find
no case against him."
The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to
that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God."
Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters
again and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.
Pilate therefore said to him, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know
that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?"
Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above;
therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release
this man, you are no friend of the emperor (Ceasar). Everyone who claims to be a king
sets himself up against the emperor."
When Pilate heard these words, he brought
Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone
Pavement, or in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the
Passover; and it was about noon.
He said to the Jews, "Here is your King!"
They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!"
Pilate asked them, "Shall I crucify your King?"
The chief priests answered, "We have no king but
the emperor." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is
called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they
crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between
them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read,
"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this
inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and
it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the
Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, "The King of the Jews,' but, "This man said,
I am King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them
into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic
was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, "Let
us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to
fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots." And that is what the soldiers did.
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother
and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother,
"Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother."
And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the
scripture), "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they
put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his
head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus' Side Is Pierced
Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on
the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great
solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and
the bodies removed.
Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and
of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the
soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.
He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is
true, and he knows These things occurred so that the scripture might be
fulfilled, "None of his bones shall be broken." And again another passage of
scripture says, "They will look on the one whom they have pierced."
The Burial of Jesus
After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a
secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away
the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body.
Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body
of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial
custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified,
and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And
so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they
laid Jesus there. (John 18:28-19:42)
Church Fathers on Jesus' Crucifixion
St. Irenaeus
Some of them, moreover—[when they predicted that] as a weak and inglorious man,
and as one who knew what it was to bear infirmity, and sitting upon the foal of
an ass, He should come to Jerusalem; and that He should give His back to
stripes, and His cheeks to palms [which struck Him]; and that He should be led
as a sheep to the slaughter; and that He should have vinegar and gall given Him
to drink; and that He should be forsaken by His friends and those nearest to
Him; and that He should stretch forth His hands the whole day long; and that He
should be mocked and maligned by those who looked upon Him; and that His
garments should be parted, and lots cast upon His raiment; and that He should be
brought down to the dust of death with all [the other] things of a like
nature—prophesied His coming in the character of a man as He entered Jerusalem,
in which by His passion and crucifixion He endured all the things which have
been mentioned.
Others, again, when they said, "The holy Lord remembered His
own dead ones who slept in the dust, and came down to them to raise them up,
that He might save them," furnished us with the reason on account of which He
suffered all these things. Those, moreover, who said, "In that day, says the
Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the earth
in the clear day; and I will turn your feast days into mourning, and all your
songs into lamentation," plainly announced that obscuration of the sun which at
the time of His crucifixion took place from the sixth hour onwards, and that
after this event, those days which were their festivals according to the law,
and their songs, should be changed into grief and lamentation when they were
handed over to the Gentiles. – Irenaeus
St. Augustine
"As [the women] were 'looking on,' so we too gaze at His wounds as He hangs. We
see His blood as He dies. We see the price offered by the Redeemer, touch the
scars of His Resurrection. He bows His head, as if to kiss you. His heart is
made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are extended that he may
embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your redemption. Ponder how great
these things are. Let all this be richly weighed in your mind; as He was once
fixed to the Cross in every part of His Body for you, so He may now be fixed in
every part of your soul." – Augustine (On Virginity)
St. Cyril of Alexandria
Today He who hung the earth upon the waters in hung upon the cross. He who is
King of the angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in
clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery...We venerate your passion, O Christ.
Show us also your glorious Resurrection. – Cyril of Alexandria
See Also:
Good Friday
Message
The Great Lent is almost coming to a close. Let us ask
four questions to ourselves.
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