03/29/2024
Friday- around noon, after being scourged and dressed in a robe and crowned with a crown of thorns, Pilate brought Jesus out again to the crowd of mostly religious leaders, and said he could find no wrong in the man, but the people yelled crucify Him. He claims to be God. Pilate being afraid asked Jesus who He was, but Jesus didn’t answer. Pilate said, “Don’t you know that I have the power to let you live or die?” Jesus said you only have the power given to you by Heaven. Pilate washed his hands and told the soldiers to take him away to be crucified. Jesus was given a cross to carry to Golgotha where he was hung between two thieves. Of the 12, only John and the women who followed Jesus and His mother were there at the foot of the cross. Soldiers and religious leaders mocked Jesus as he hung nailed and torn to pieces saying if He was God, He should save himself. One thief join d in, but the other rebuked him saying he has done nothing wrong. We deserve our punishment. Then that penitent thief asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom. Jesus replied that today, the thief would be with him in paradise. Right then, the thief was saved and forgiven. No baptism, no specific prayer, no good deeds prior were required. The thief, like us, only had to believe the man who is God. About 3:00 pm, when the Chief Priest was preparing for Passover and was sacrificing the unblemished lamb for the people’s sins, Jesus said, “It is finished.” He then gave up His spirit and died. The sky was dark, and an earthquake shook the earth. At that moment, the veil between the temple areas and the Holy of Holies, where God met with the High Priest on the Ark of the Covenant, was torn in two opening the way for any who believe to come before God Almighty. A Roman soldier at the foot of the cross declared this must be the Son of God. The prophecies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled. As evening came closer and the bodies needed to be removed before the Shabbat began, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves to hasten their deaths, but as they came to Jesus they saw He was already dead. To make certain they pierced His side where fluid and blood rushed out. Prophecy had declared that His side would be pierced, but not a bone would be broken. Nicodemus, who had been coming to Jesus questioning at night, and Joseph of Arimathema, who was a disciple secretly came boldly and asked for the body and quickly took it for burial before Shabbat began. The Romans rolled a heavy stone across the entrance to the tomb to prevent anyone from trying to steal the body. All had been fulfilled. The price for our redemption had been paid in full. The silence of grief and waiting began. If only the disciples had understood what Jesus had said would happen next. Sunday was coming.
