Good Friday

CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM! 

The crowd gathered around Pilate's estate grew more agitated with every passing moment. If he couldn't get this riot under control he could lose his position. Caesar would not take kindly to a man who couldn't control a crowd.

"I have found no guilt in this man!" He tried to reason with them.

"CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!"

He looked to where his wife's messenger now stood off behind him. Her words echoed in his mind,

~Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.~ 

There had to be something he was missing.

"Nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Therefore, I will punish Him then release him." He had to try to get these people to see reason.

He sent Jesus to be flogged. When Jesus was brought back before him his heart ached. Then he remembered, it was custom to release a prisoner at the passover feast. He could bring up Barabbas, a known criminal. He could have Barabbas killed, and release Jesus. Perhaps that would satisfy the mob's bloodlust.

"Whom do you want me to release to you?" He spoke confident that this would work, "Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"

"RELEASE BARABBAS!"

"But I found no guilt in Him!" He couldn't believe his ears.

He looked to the men beside him. Jesus who stood there beaten and bloodied but silent, it was like He knew His fate was already sealed, and then Pilate's gaze shifted to Barabbas who grinned wickedly at this unexpected turn of luck that had been given to him.

"What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?"

"CRUCIFY HIM!  CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!"

Those words must have haunted Pilate till the day he died. I cannot imagine what it would have been like standing in the presence of Jesus, an innocent man, and trying to understand why on earth His own people would so ardently cry out for His death-and not just any death, a painful, drawn out, brutal, humiliating death.

I have to wonder went through Pilate's mind while he questioned Jesus. He knew in his heart that Jesus was innocent, and did all he could in order to try and convince everyone else of Jesus' innocence. He was only met with a resounding "Crucify him!" He feared Ceasar. His position could be taken from him in an instant, so he gave Jesus to the crowd to do with the man as they willed.

I wonder what he felt when the sky went dark and the earth shook beneath his feet. He knew deep down something was terribly wrong, but he had made it so it was out of his hands.

Now carrying a cross to Golgotha, Jesus, already beaten beyond recognition and with a crown of thorns pressed deep into his brow, collapses on the road too weak to continue forward.

A guard impatiently grumbles, grabs the closest man to them, and barks orders for him to take the cross and continue on.

I wonder what went through Simon of Cyrene's mind as he was yanked from the crowd. Did he get to look into Jesus' eyes as he took the cross upon his own back? Could he feel Jesus' blood already soaked into the wood? Did it come off onto his clothing? Did he understand how very precious that blood was? Did he realize what that blood was paying for?

Can you hear the hammer hitting the nails as they were driven through Jesus' hands and feet? Metal striking metal as he was pierced for our transgressions.

The sky grows dark as night even though it is still day. The world seemed to be screaming out Jesus' innocence.

Jesus cried to His Father, "Why have you forsaken me?!" "Forgive them for they know not what they do..." Even as He was staring the enemy in the face He could only think of us, whom He loved so fiercly.

Mocking laughter reached his ears from one of the thieves being crucified beside him. He sneered and rebuked Jesus saying if He was really the Son of God He would save Himself and both of them, but the other thief rebuked his comrade. He knew Jesus for who He was and pleaded for Jesus to remember him when he came into His kingdom.

"Truly I say to you," Jesus spoke to the repentant thief, "today you shall be with Me in paradise."

"It is finished," the earth shuddered as Jesus spoke His last, and the unsettling darkness continued on. It seemed to everyone watching that the enemy had finally won a glorious victory.

However, something had happened, something so intensely powerful that even the Roman centurion who had helped nail Jesus to the cross declared, "Surely, this man was the Son of God..." When that centurion realized this, what must have gone through his mind and heart? The Savior of the world was dead...

What did the Senhedrin think when they heard of the temple curtain that separated the Holy if Holies had been ripped in two? Did they begin to understand that at long last we didn't have to be separated from our Creator, or did they only see the tradition and foundation of their lives crumbling at their feet? Were they terrified? Were they still blind to what had happened?

The great I AM had given His only Son for us. Jesus had died willingly for us. He loved all of us that much...those who beat Him, spit upon Him, mocked Him, hated Him, laughed at Him, and even those who hammered the nails through His hands and feet. He loves each of us more than we can ever know. He saw each of our faces as He endured the worst fate any human could suffer, and said it was worth the price.

But what difference did that make any more? Jesus' body now hung lifeless on the cross.

I can picture the enemy celebrating their victory. The cries of pain and suffering from those who had stayed by Jesus only added fuel to their fire. They knew all of the waiting, all of the centuries of carefully planting lies and deception into the hearts of the very people Jesus loved so dearly had finally paid off. The Son of God was dead.

I can hear the enemy jeering as Joseph of Arimathea boldly approached Pilate to ask his permission to bury Jesus' body. They probably laughed till their sides ached as they watched Joseph carefully get Jesus' body from the cross and tenderly place it in a tomb that had been meant for one of the members of his own family.

Cheers rang across the enemy lines as the huge stone was rolled into place blocking the tomb's entrance so no one would ever go in and more importantly no one would ever come out.

Little did they know, that the victory was far from won. Their celebrations a little too premature. They didn't know that their laughter would soon turn to cries of fear and disbelief.

Because luckily for us, the story doesn't end with a burial.

TO BE CONTINUED...