NOTE: THESE CHAPTERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN A MUCH IMPROVED, EXPANDED BOOK, "A SWORD SHALL PIERCE YOUR SOUL" from FriesenPress
The Roman Governor Pilate raised his hands to quiet the mob that surged between in front of him. 19:12As if to banish any thoughts of releasing him, Mary heard the Jewish leaders shouted out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar! Everyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar!” 19:13When Pilate heard these words he sat down on the judgment seat. Pilate said to the Jewish leaders, “Look, here is your king! (John 19:13).”
Mary was awed. Where did Pilate get that idea? What had he been told. Indeed, the angels’ messages to her and Joseph when Jesus was conceived and then born had indicated that was Jesus’ destiny. Her thoughts were quickly overwhelmed though by a roar from the crowd:
(John 19:15)“Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”
Then Pilate called out, “Shall I crucify your king?”
The high priests replied, “We have no king except Caesar!”
Pilate then seemed to be gesturing to a servant nearby and someone then appeared beside Pilate with a basin and as they watched, Pilate washed his hands in it and then turned to the crowd. He raised his hand to try and achieve some silence, with little success, but Mary was close enough to hear, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” 27:25The people in the crowd who had moments before been chanting ‘Crucify him’ now began to follow their religious leaders again in yelling, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”
Then the governor appeared to say something to the soldiers. At that they grabbed Jesus by both arms and took him back out of sight of the crowd.
The crowd continued to cry for Jesus’ crucifixion, saying also that they would bear the responsibility. Mary looked at the distorted angry faces nearest her. ‘They don’t know what they are doing,’ she thought. They don’t really know who Jesus is.’ She and John and the other followers of Jesus they had met were caught up in the milling crowd and could hardly have made their way through it if they had wanted to leave. They were all numbed by the emotions stirred up by what they had seen happen to their beloved Jesus and really were not going anywhere anyway. Where should they go? What should they do? They looked blankly at one another, really not knowing what to say.
Suddenly, the crowd’s angry chorus swelled and there was a rush towards the side of the palace. Mary knew the reason why as soon as she saw Jesus appear, blood dripping through his clothes and from his face, struggling under the weight of a cross laid over his shoulder. There were two other men also bearing crosses with him.
“What have they done?” cried Mary. One of the other women leaned in towards her and said, “He has just had a flogging. They always do that before they crucify someone.”
“He is going to crucified like a common criminal?” Mary cried “How can this be? For what purpose is this happening?” But no, maybe it was more than that. Pilate had called Jesus their king. Had Jesus said something to convince him that was who he was, or felt destined to be. Then it would be no wonder Pilate would accept having him crucified. Saying you were king was treason, and that was punishable by death.
She had to believe something positive was about to happen though. It couldn’t all end like this. How could it? What about all those prophecies and messages from the angels? How could they be fulfilled if Jesus was now going to be killed? Jesus could so easily shake all that off and disappear like he had in Nazareth whey had wanted to kill him there. He had the power. Mary knew that. But Jesus was doing no such thing. He shouldered the cross and bravely struggled out to the street. The soldiers were pushing the three men towards the nearest city gate. One concession Rome had made to Judea was not to crucify criminals within the walls of the holy city.
The crowd surged after the procession and Mary, John and the others were swept along with them. Suddenly Jesus stumbled and fell. Veronica rushed forward, pushing her way through the crowd and began to wipe the blood from Jesus’ face. The soldiers pushed her aside so roughly she almost fell. Some of the other women rushed, weeping to her side. Jesus stopped, looked back at them and found the strength to speak: Luke 23:28“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 23:29For this is certain: The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ 23:30Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’23:31For if such things are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Mary did not entirely understand what Jesus was saying. Some of it sounded foreboding. What was he predicting? At the same time, she got some comfort from hearing that he still had compassion on others, in spite of the predicament he was in. ‘Jesus,’ she thought, ‘You never stop caring about others before yourself.’
Meanwhile, the soldiers, looking about, spied a tall, swarthy, well-built man on the side of the street and dragged him out to carry the cross (Mark 15:21) on to their destination. They proceeded to the hill called Golgotha and stopped at its peak (Luke 23:32-33). The soldiers grabbed the three men and held them to the ground as they proceeded to nail them to the cross. Mary covered her ears at the sound of the screams, but sneaking a look at Jesus, she saw that his mouth remained shut; no sound came from him. She saw the soldiers give the men something to drink but Jesus refused it. Then they hoisted the men and the crosses up and dropped them into the holes already there from many previous crucifixions.
Mary noticed a sign at the top of the cross and wondered what it meant. As if to answer her question, John turned to her and said, “They have called him ‘The King of the Jews (Mark 15:26).” That sign indicates the reason for his being crucified. ‘So,’ Mary thought, ‘Somewhere Jesus has put out the message of his kingship. But again, what about that if he is now being taken to his death?’
Meanwhile, oblivious to the suffering going on above them, the soldiers had taken the victims’ clothing and were clustered at the foot of the crosses, seeming to be playing some kind of game. One of the women turned to the rest and explained, “They’re gambling on who gets Jesus and the others’ clothes (Mark 15:25).”
‘How low can you get?’ Mary thought. ‘How utterly inhumane. Human beings are dying above your heads and all you can think about is what you will get out of it.’
As time passed, the crowd began to thin somewhat. As some of the throng left though, Mary’s heart was pained again as she heard them make a point of passing below Jesus and mocking him,Mark 15:29shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 15:30save yourself and come down from the cross!” 15:31In the same way, even the chief priests – together with the experts in the law – Mary could tell by their dress and demeanour – who were also still there, as if to make sure their victim got what they wanted, - could be heard mocking him among themselves: “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! 15:32Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, that we may see and believe!”
Mary was aghast. How could their religious leaders, the people they were expected to respect and look up to, do and say such things. She was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. What was happening to her world? Part of her wished she had never come. But her mother instinct was strong and she could not bear the thought of leaving her son alone at a time like this.
As the crowd thinned further the women and Jesus’ young followers - those who were there – inched cautiously closer to the cross upon which Jesus hung. The two men beside Jesus had also spoken out against him (Matthew 27:44). ‘Who are they and what right do they have to say anything,’ Mary thought. Some time later, one of them seemed to have second thoughts. (Luke 23:39)One of the criminals who was hanging there had just called out in desperation, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 23:40But the other rebuked him, saying, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?23:41And we rightly so, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.”23:42Then he turned to Jesus, who was hanging between them (Matthew 27:38) and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.”23:43And Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Mary almost gasped. Jesus still had not forgotten who he was, what message he bore. Even in the midst of his suffering he was continuing to show compassion and offering forgiveness. Just hearing that gave her heart a little lift. As if sensing what was going on in her heart, Jesus suddenly gave a loud cry, “23:34… “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Indeed, thought Mary. Does anyone here today know what they are doing?
But others continued to hurl insults at Jesus from where they stood at a distance, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”Luke 23:36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 23:37and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!”
It had been around the time of the end of the first morning watch when the crowd had arrived on the hill. Suddenly, when 23:44it was about noon, an ominous darkness came over the scene. It was more than just dark clouds; it seemed that 23:45the sun’s light itself had failed. A chill settled over the hill and Mary and the others pulled their cloaks tighter around them as they stayed, rooted to the ground, unable to tear themselves away from the awful picture playing out before them.
Suddenly, it seemed that Jesus opened his eyes enough to be aware of who was about him. 19:26Mary saw him look in the direction of her and John in particular, looking like he was trying to focus his eyes on whom he was seeing. Then, as if mustering his last breath of will, his gaze fixed on Mary and he said to his mother, “Woman, look,’ lifting his chin in the direction of John, “here is your son!” 19:27He then turned his eyes towards John and said to his disciple, “Look, here is your mother!” As if in obedience to his master’s dying wish, John moved alongside Mary and put his arm around her as they faced Jesus together. Mary burst into tears again and just buried her head in John’s arms and wept. ‘Oh my Jesus,’ she thought, ‘What has it come to? Is this how it all ends? What about all those prophecies?’ Somehow, she could not believe there was not going to be more.
By his time, three hours of this dreadful darkness had passed, when (Mark) 15:34Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” In other words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”15:35When some of the bystanders heard it they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah!” “Leave him alone! Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down!”
Before they could do anything, (John) 19:28 Jesus cried out again “I am thirsty!” 19:29One of the soldiers put a sponge soaked in something from a jar standing near and on, a branch of hyssop, lifted it to Jesus’ mouth. 19:30Jesus appeared to at least wet his lips with what he had received, after which he cried out with a loud voice, “It is completed! Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Mark) With that his head fell forward 15:37 and he breathed his last.
