Good Friday

When Jesus is arrested they take Him to Caiaphas.  We usually envision Roman soldiers in Gethsemane, but the Gospels say the crowd arresting Him was from the chief priests and elders of the Jews.  Caiaphas has to make a legal case against Jesus and bring it to Pilate to get permission to kill Jesus.  The false witnesses don’t seem to do very well, and Caiaphas goes with a basic assertion that Jesus is the Messiah.  Without any testing of the assertion, he acts outraged, calls it blasphemy and gets a solid vote to convict Jesus to death and send Him to Pilate.  Now it’s politically safe to turn against Him, so they hit and mock Him.  The servants notice, and turn on Peter in the courtyard, and Peter denies knowing Jesus.

Judas kills himself when he sees Jesus is condemned, which tells me he was more than greedy.  He was hoping to force Jesus to fight.  He had put his hopes in the sword more than in Jesus, so he died by the sword.

Pilate wants to know if Jesus is a king.  He doesn’t see any political ambition in Jesus, sees the Jews are envious of Him, so finds Him innocent and doesn’t want to kill Him.  He tries to get Jesus off the hook by offering the Jews Barabbas, who was probably a zealot who attacked and assainated Romans.  The Jews go to another level of rejecting Jesus by choosing basically a terrorist over Jesus.  Pilate gives in, so not it’s the Roman soldiers’ turn.  These guys are trained to hurt and kill, so this is no walk in the park.  They scourge Him, probably with a whip with metal tied to the ends, so it rips into the flesh.  They pretend he is the king of the Jews, so they can take out their hostility on this hot, dry, tense place where they drew the short straw to get stationed.  Crown of thorns, a fake scepter they hit him with.  They walk him out of the city to Golgotha to crucify Him.  He is too physically weak to carry His own cross. 

At about 9am they crucify Him.  Passersby and ruling Jews mock Him.  One convict insults Him, but the other says Jesus isn’t guilty like they are.  The soldiers divvy up His clothes and gamble for the best one.  Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.  Jesus asks John to take Mary His mother into John’s family.

Pilate’s sign on Jesus’ cross, that usually states the crime, just says, “The King of the Jews.”  The rulers get mad, “hey put on there that HE SAID he’s the king, not that he actually IS.  But Pilate’s had enough of accommodating them, and the truth stays.

From noon to 3pm, the sun goes dark, and at 3pm Jesus cries out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.  Jesus is misunderstood even in that moment, He says, “It is finished,” and He dies paying the price of God-forsakenness, for all the sins of all His people.

The temple curtain tears, there is earthquake and some resurrections.  The centurion says this must have been the Son of God, while the women watch from farther away.

Joseph of Arimathea asks for Jesus’ body to bury in his own new tomb. The soldiers don’t break Jesus’ legs, since they see he is already dead after piercing his side to make sure. Nicodemus, Sanhedrin member who came to Jesus at night, joins Joseph with spices to bury Jesus. 

 It was Friday night, and the Sabbath was coming. The new Sabbath of life and rest in resurrection glory.