Friday of Christ’s Passion Week
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?’” –Matt 26:52-54 ESV
My Thoughts:
On Friday morning, to obtain official approval of the death sentence, Jesus is set before the Roman ruler Pontius Pilate for a final judgment. Finding Jesus to be from Nazareth and a Galilean, Pilate sends him to Herod Antipas who was in Jerusalem for the Passover festival. Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate who, giving into political pressure, then publicly gives the death sentence to Jesus as the crowds requested. Jesus is scourged and then crucified around 9am on Friday at Golgotha, also called Calvary in Latin or the Place of the Skull, which was just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Over His head is written in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew the accusation: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Over the next three hours Jesus is mocked, His clothes are divided among the soldiers and they cast lots for His tunic, one of the two robbers crucified with Him is saved, and Jesus commits His disciple John and His mother Mary into each other’s care. The painful hours drag by until noon comes. From about noon until 3pm (or what is called the ninth hour) there is darkness over all the land. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matt 27: 46 ESV). Both the reference to the casting of lots for His garments and Jesus’ cry have parallels in Psalm 22, attributed to David, which is a story of David and the Greater David, the Messiah, first being God-forsaken and then God-saved. Now it is mid-afternoon on Friday.
So much has happened… and yet so much more was still to happen.
