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1 Jesus, having prayed this prayer, left with his disciples and crossed over the brook Kidron at a place where there was a garden. He and his disciples entered it. 2 Judas, his betrayer, knew the place because Jesus and his disciples went there often. 3 So Judas led the way to the garden, and the Roman soldiers and police sent by the high priests and Pharisees followed. They arrived there with lanterns and torches and swords. 4 Jesus, knowing by now everything that was coming down on him, went out and met them. He said, "Who are you after?" They answered, "Jesus the Nazarene." 5 He said, "That's me." The soldiers recoiled, totally taken aback. Judas, his betrayer, stood out like a sore thumb. 6 7 Jesus asked again, "Who are you after?" They answered, "Jesus the Nazarene." 8 "I told you," said Jesus, "that's me. I'm the one. So if it's me you're after, let these others go." 9 (This validated the words in his prayer, "I didn't lose one of those you gave.") 10 Just then Simon Peter, who was carrying a sword, pulled it from its sheath and struck the Chief Priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. Malchus was the servant's name. 11 Jesus ordered Peter, "Put back your sword. Do you think for a minute I'm not going to drink this cup the Father gave me?" 12 Then the Roman soldiers under their commander, joined by the Jewish police, seized Jesus and tied him up. 13 They took him first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the Chief Priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people. 15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the Chief Priest, and so he went in with Jesus to the Chief Priest's courtyard. 16 Peter had to stay outside. Then the other disciple went out, spoke to the doorkeeper, and got Peter in. 17 The young woman who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, "Aren't you one of this man's disciples?" He said, "No, I'm not." 18 The servants and police had made a fire because of the cold and were huddled there warming themselves. Peter stood with them, trying to get warm.19 Annas interrogated Jesus regarding his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered, "I've spoken openly in public. I've taught regularly in meeting places and the Temple, where the Jews all come together. Everything has been out in the open. I've said nothing in secret. 21 So why are you treating me like a conspirator? Question those who have been listening to me. They know well what I have said. My teachings have all been aboveboard." 22 When he said this, one of the policemen standing there slapped Jesus across the face, saying, "How dare you speak to the Chief Priest like that!" 23 Jesus replied, "If I've said something wrong, prove it. But if I've spoken the plain truth, why this slapping around?" 24 Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to the Chief Priest Caiaphas. 25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was back at the fire, still trying to get warm. The others there said to him, "Aren't you one of his disciples?" He denied it, "Not me." 26 One of the Chief Priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?" 27 Again, Peter denied it. Just then a rooster crowed. 28 They led Jesus then from Caiaphas to the Roman governor's palace. It was early morning. They themselves didn't enter the palace because they didn't want to be disqualified from eating the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and spoke. "What charge do you bring against this man?" 30 They said, "If he hadn't been doing something evil, do you think we'd be here bothering you?" 31 Pilate said, "You take him. Judge him by your law." 32 (This would confirm Jesus' word indicating the way he would die.) 33 Pilate went back into the palace and called for Jesus. He said, "Are you the 'King of the Jews'?" 34 Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you this about me?" 35 Pilate said, "Do I look like a Jew? Your people and your high priests turned you over to me. What did you do?" 36 "My kingdom," said Jesus, "doesn't consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews. But I'm not that kind of king, not the world's kind of king." 37 Then Pilate said, "So, are you a king or not?" Jesus answered, "You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice." 38 Pilate said, "What is truth?" Then he went back out to the Jews and told them, "I find nothing wrong in this man." 39 It's your custom that I pardon one prisoner at Passover. Do you want me to pardon the 'King of the Jews'?" 40 They shouted back, "Not this one, but Barabbas!" Barabbas was a Jewish freedom fighter. 1 So Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. 2 The soldiers, having braided a crown from thorns, set it on his head, threw a purple robe over him, 3 and approached him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they greeted him with slaps in the face. 4 Pilate went back out again and said to them, "I present him to you, but I want you to know that I do not find him guilty of any crime." 5 Just then Jesus came out wearing the thorn crown and purple robe. Pilate announced, "Here he is: the Man." 6 When the high priests and police saw him, they shouted in a frenzy, "Crucify! Crucify!" Pilate told them, "You take him. You crucify him. I find nothing wrong with him." 7 The Jews answered, "We have a law, and by that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God."8 When Pilate heard this, he became even more scared. 9 He went back into the palace and said to Jesus, "Where did you come from?" Jesus gave no answer. 10 Pilate said, "You won't talk? Don't you know that I have the authority to pardon you, and the authority to - crucify you?" 11 Jesus said, "You haven't a shred of authority over me except what has been given you from heaven. That's why the one who betrayed me to you has committed a far greater fault." 12 At this, Pilate tried his best to pardon him, but the Jews shouted him down: "If you pardon this man, you're no friend of Caesar's. Anyone setting himself up as 'king' defies Caesar." 13 When Pilate heard those words, he led Jesus outside. He sat down at the judgment seat in the area designated Stone Court (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was the preparation day for Passover. The hour was noon. Pilate said to the Jews, "Here is your king." 15 They shouted back, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!" Pilate said, "I am to crucify your king?" The high priests answered, "We have no king except Caesar." 16 Pilate caved in to their demand. He turned him over to be crucified. 17 Carrying his cross, Jesus went out to the place called Skull Hill (the name in Hebrew is Golgotha), 18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate wrote a sign and had it placed on the cross. It read: jesus the nazarene the king of the jews. 20 Many of the Jews read the sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was right next to the city. It was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21The Jewish high priests objected. "Don't write," they said to Pilate, "'The King of the Jews.' Make it, 'This man said, "I am the King of the Jews."'" 22 Pilate said, "What I've written, I've written." 23 When they crucified him, the Roman soldiers took his clothes and divided them up four ways, to each soldier a fourth. But his robe was seamless, a single piece of weaving, 24 so they said to each other, "Let's not tear it up. Let's throw dice to see who gets it." This confirmed the Scripture that said, "They divided up my clothes among them and threw dice for my coat." (The soldiers validated the Scriptures!) 25 Jesus' mother, his aunt, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross. 26 Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her. He said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." 27 Then to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that moment the disciple accepted her as his own mother. 28 Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, "I'm thirsty." 29 A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. 30 After he took the wine, Jesus said, "It's done . . . complete." Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit. 31 Then the Jews, since it was the day of Sabbath preparation, and so the bodies wouldn't stay on the crosses over the Sabbath (it was a high holy day that year), petitioned Pilate that their legs be broken to speed death, and the bodies taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man crucified with Jesus, and then the other. 33 When they got to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. 34 One of the soldiers stabbed him in the side with his spear. Blood and water gushed out. 35 The eyewitness to these things has presented an accurate report. He saw it himself and is telling the truth so that you, also, will believe. 36 These things that happened confirmed the Scripture, "Not a bone in his body was broken," 37 and the other Scripture that reads, "They will stare at the one they pierced." 38 After all this, Joseph of Arimathea (he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he was intimidated by the Jews) petitioned Pilate to take the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission. So Joseph came and took the body. 39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, came now in broad daylight carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 They took Jesus' body and, following the Jewish burial custom, wrapped it in linen with the spices. 41 There was a garden near the place he was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been placed. 42 So, because it was Sabbath preparation for the Jews and the tomb was convenient, they placed Jesus in it. (John 18:1-19:42 The Message Bible)
It is the day. The day Jesus dreaded. The day Jesus knew was necessary. It was the day Jesus died a painful, excruciating death. It was what the world needed, though many did not, and still many do not know it was for them. These two chapters of John make up what we call the Passion of Christ. There are several things we should know about His passion. The first is that this was God-directed and God-ordained. It was an act in which Jesus surrendered His will for His Father's will. This drama of passion is filled with faith, fueled by prayer, and powered by grace. It has all the marks of a well-scripted drama; love, passion, betrayal, arrests, a trial and a rush to judgement. It begins at night and ends even in darkness at 3 in the afternoon. Roman soldiers assist religious authorities in the arrest of Jesus. Judas, a hand-selected disciple, keeper of the ministry's treasury, for his own profit, decides to call Jesus' hand into doing what the crowd expected on Sunday; an open and successful revolt against Caesar so that the Jewish nation could return to its glory days of David and Solomon. During the arrest, the hot-headed Peter draws his sword and cuts off the right ear of the servant of the High Priest; only to be rebuked by his Master who says He was obedient to God even to the very end.
The scene shifts to stand trial, where the twelve follow cautiously. One disciple, known to Caiaphas was allowed to enter with Jesus, but Peter has to stand outside. He undergoes his own trial by a young woman who questions if he is one of the disciples. He denies that he is. This line of questioning would continue until Peter would deny Jesus three times before the rooster could crow once; just as Jesus had foretold. Inside it was worse for Jesus. Jesus maintaining the truth; He openly taught "out in the open" with nothing being said in secret; which leads to a policeman to strike Jesus across the face, with Him saying, "If I've said something wrong, prove it. But if I've spoken the plain truth, why this slapping around?" Jesus is then tied up, and sent to the home of Caiaphas, who was Chief Priest for that year. Nothing that His accusers wanted worked out, so to the home of the Roman Governor's palace, they take our Lord. Most of the religious ones do not enter the palace for they would have been considered unclean and thus not worthy of eating the Passover meal. Pilate asks what charge they were bringing against Jesus. The only answer they can think of will get most people out of jury duty; "Why would we arrest him if he wasn't guilty?" Pilate orders Jesus into the palace where he questions Him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus responds, "Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you this about me?" Pilate replies by asking if he looked like a Jew; Jesus then says His kingdom is not from this world. And He further explains that He entered the world to speak about the truth, to which Pilate asks his famous, "What is truth?" He decides that Jesus is not guilty of anything and so tries to offer to the crowd the opportunity for them to decide to free Jesus or a known "freedom fighter" named Barabbas. The crowd chose Barabbas, and so Jesus is whipped. The Roman soldiers braided a crown made of thorns and places that on Jesus' head, and added a purple robe as well, and mocked Him with taunts, "Hail, King of the Jews!" The hail they offered were slaps in Jesus' face. Pilate then publicly says that he finds no guilt in Him; but the appearance of Jesus dressed as a mock king drives the high priests and the crowd crazy with anger and begin to shout, "Crucify! Crucify!" To which Pilate says they must do it themselves; and the Jews respond that Jesus was guilty of claiming to be the Son of God, and thus deserved to die. Pilate, to his credit, tries to pardon Jesus, but was overruled by the crowd, and tuns Him over to be crucified.
The actual crucifixion took place outside of town on a hill named Golgotha, which means, "Skull hill," and it was there, between two criminals, Jesus is nailed to the cross and left to die. Pilate now joins in wholeheartedly with the Jews by making a sign that read, "King of the Jews." This angers the religious leaders, but Pilate sticks to his decision of leaving the sign as written. The soliders took Jesus' garments and divided them up four ways; but Jesus' robe was seamless, and they threw dice to determine who would keep it. In so doing, Roman soldiers validated Hebrew scriptures.
The only ones brave enough to stand at the foot of the cross were Mary, Jesus' mother, his aunt, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Upon seeing His mother, Jesus utters one of the seven last words attributed to Him on the cross, "Woman, here is your son," and to His disciple Mark, He says, "Here is your mother," fulfilling an appointment of responsibility to him and to her. Jesus then says, "I'm thirsty." And to His thirst, He is given sour wine; and then Jesus says, "It's done...complete." And bowing His head, He died. Being the eve of the Sabbath, the Jews could not properly prepare the body for burial. The Jews demanded the legs of those on the crosses be broken; and the two criminals had their legs broken, but seeing that Jesus was already dead, the soldiers spared Him that action and instead speared Him in the side, and blood and water gushed out. Many scholars believe this was a sign of a broken heart. Scripture that read "Not a bone in His body was broken," and "They will stare at the one they pierced," were fulfilled.
Joseph of Arimathea, a secret undercover disciple of Jesus, believed by some to have been the rich young ruler who approached Jesus to ask how he might inherit eternal life, asked permission of Pilate to take possession of the body of Jesus. And Joseph took the body and placed it in a new, unused tomb. And then we meet Nicodemus, "Nite at Night," who came to Jesus by night to ask about Him, who has come forward with a mixture of myrrh and aloes, believed to be about 75 pounds worth, with which he wanted to prepare the body for burial. And wrapping Jesus in linen with spices, they laid Him to rest.
There Jesus would lay for three days. Tradition holds that upon His death, He was able to go into hell and preach there to those who had not had an opportunity to hear the truth about God, and many accepted Him and were given eternal life. Another tradition says the true meaning behind "he ascended into hell" refers to the pain and suffering He endured prior to His death on the cross. Whatever you may believe, or not yet believe, the story does not end here.
PRAYER: Father, shine light in those dark places and spaces of our lives. May doubt, sin, and despair be removed from us; guide us into the fullness of life; prepare us truly for Easter. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Friends, I ask prayer for Wil and Bonnie Blayney, of San Antonio, Texas. Their only remaining child, a daughter died unexpected this week. Bonnie believes that in her dedicated care for them, she neglected herself. Pray that God's comfort be with this loving couple during their grief.
