Please read Matthew 27:15-56, Mark 15:2-41,
Luke 23:13-49 & John 18:38-19:37
Now during the feast, the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd one prisoner, anyone they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Yeshua Bar-Abba. So when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Which one do you want me to release for you? Yeshua who is Bar-Abba, or Yeshua who is called Messiah?” For he knew that they had handed Him over out of envy.
While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, “Don’t have anything to do with that righteous Man, for today I’ve suffered many things in a dream because of Him.”
Now the ruling kohanim and elders persuaded the crowds that they should ask for Bar-Abba and destroy Yeshua.
But the governor responded, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”
And they said, “Bar-Abba!”
Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Yeshua, who is called Messiah?”
“Execute Him!” all of them say.
But Pilate said, “Why? What evil has He done?”
But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Let Him be executed!”
Matthew 27:15-23 TLV
Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas.
And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them.
And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”
For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead.
And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”
And they cried out again, “Crucify him.”
And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?”
But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” Mark 15:6-14 ESV
And Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined Him before you, I have found in this man no guilt of what you are accusing Him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us; and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Therefore I will punish Him and release Him.”
[Now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner.] But they cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!” (He had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city and for murder.)
But again Pilate addressed them, wanting to release Jesus, but they kept on calling out, saying, “Crucify, crucify Him!”
And he said to them a third time, “Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in Him no guilt worthy of death; therefore I will punish Him and release Him.”
Luke 23:13-22 LSB
After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in Him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
They cried out again, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a robber (OR “an insurrectionist”). John 18:38-40, ESV
Matthew 27:16,17 in some versions, and some ancient manuscripts, gives a longer name for Barabbas which heightens the dramatic contrast: “Which one do you want me to release for you? Yeshua who is Bar-Abba, or Yeshua who is called Messiah?” Some biblical scholars, such as Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, suggest that the name Yeshua before Bar Abba was just a scribal error. He noticed that in Matthew 27:17, in the clause, ‘Who do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus’ the last two letters of ‘to you’ in Greek form the standard abbreviation used for ‘Yeshua’. The name ‘Yeshua’ was one of the words consistently abbreviated by writing only the first and last letter(s). Samuel reasoned that a scribe, in anticipation of the name Jesus, could have accidently read the final letters of υμιν (‘to you’) twice. Hence the name ‘Jesus Barabbas‘ in only some, rather than all, ancient manuscripts.
Others think it more likely that the name Yeshua was removed from before Barabbas in some manuscripts out of concern that it would cause confusion.
The original Hebrew-Aramaic name of Jesus is Yeshuˈa, which is derived from the Hebrew verb, yasha, that means “to deliver, save, or rescue,” and is short for Yehōshuˈa (Joshua). It was a popular name during the time of Messiah, so it is possible that both men had the same name and were thus differentiated by their designation as Bar-Abba (son of father), and HaMashiach (the anointed). If that was the case, then the crowd was choosing between the Yeshua who raised the dead and a Yeshua who murdered people and stole from them. They chose the latter.
The chief priests and officers of the Sanhedrin were determined that Yeshua be punished in accordance with the shame filled, torturous Roman manner of punishment for slaves and rebels – crucifixion. Why? Because they wanted Him to be discredited in the eyes of the people in general, and even in the eyes of His followers. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 states: “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” For the Jewish religious leaders, to have Yeshua crucified was to demonstrate that He was not a man of God but One who was cursed of God, He hangs on the tree – this horrible instrument of torture. They failed to realise that He was taking our curse upon Himself in order to gift us His blessedness.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:2-5
And after he had Yeshua scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
Matthew 27:26b- TLV
and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Mark 15:6-15 ESV
Then Pilate took Yeshua and had Him scourged. John 19:1 TLV
“Scourged” was a Roman judicial penalty, consisting of a severe beating with a multi-lashed whip containing embedded pieces of bone and metal that made a bloody pulp of a man’s body. It was a brutal punishment that was standard practice before a crucifixion. The person to be scourged was stripped of his clothing, tied to a post or pillar, and beaten until his flesh hung in shreds. Unlike Jewish practice, there was no maximum number of strokes: the whipping could go on as long as the soldier administering it wished. Men frequently collapsed and died as the result of a scourging.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort to Him. And they stripped Him and put a red cloak on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and put a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on Him, and took the reed and beat Him on the head. And after they had mocked Him, they took the cloak off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.
Matthew 27:27-31 NASB
And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
Mark 15:16-20 ESV
Then Pilate took Yeshua and had Him scourged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and dressed Him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapping Him over and over.
John 19:1-3 TLV
These Roman soldiers took out all their frustrations against the Jewish people on this One called their king. The physical torments of scourging were followed by sarcastic mocking and deriding combined with more physical abuse. The garment placed upon Jesus after his brutal scourging was likely one that had been worn and cast off as useless, “a scarlet robe…faded to resemble purple” (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary). The ancients (especially the Romans) used the term purple when speaking of various shades of red (McGarvey, 1875, p. 361; Barnes, 1997). Yeshua‘s tattered flash and blood would have stuck to this robe, and then been torn away when they stripped it off to put His own clothes back on Him. Cruel sinners doing all they could to punish and torment the pure Son of God. It was a bloodied, weakened Man who staggered back out for Pilate to present to the people as they were given one last chance to choose where their faith would lie.
Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”
Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.”
The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law He ought to die because He has made Himself the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?”
But Jesus gave him no answer.
So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?”
Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered Me over to you has the greater sin.”
From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.
Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.
He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
So he delivered Him over to them to be crucified. John 19:4-16 ESV
When Pilate saw he was accomplishing nothing, but instead a riot was starting, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this blood,” he said. “You see to it yourselves!”
All the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
Then he released to them Bar-Abba. And after he had Yeshua scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified. Matthew 27:24-26 TLV
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Mark 15:15 ESV
But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices were prevailing. And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted. And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will. Luke 23:23-25 LSB
Pilate had no qualms about killing anyone, guilty or innocent. But what he did care about, what affected his political fortunes, power and prestige, was ensuring the peace and stability of the region under his charge. He had bitter experience of how dedicated these Jews could be to their faith and the last thing he wanted was a riot for killing their Messiah, or for failing to kill Him. The intelligence he received would have given him some idea of how large the crowds were that followed this Man, and also of Yeshua’s total lack of attack on Roman authority or institutions in His sermons, which was in line with Pilate’s current experience in questioning the Man. All His rhetorical attacks seemed to be against these religious leaders who had now brought Him to be tried. If Pilate could get them to take responsibility for His death there would be nothing for the Jews to riot against him about.
And then there was his wife’s dream, Romans were generally superstitious polytheists. The objective of Roman worship was to gain the blessing of the gods and thereby gain prosperity for themselves, their families and communities. Anything that angered the gods could threaten such prosperity. Another good reason to goad the Jews into taking full responsibility for getting rid of this Man who threatened Roman order by His very existence and who made religious claims reserved for Caesar (like being the Son of God).
To have the chief priests cry out in loud affirmation: “We have no king but Caesar” was a mighty victory indeed. It discredited any and every suggestion of a Jewish Messiah King and denounced all Jewish longings to be free from Roman rule.
First Century Roman Religion
In Latin, “religio” means “something that binds.” For Romans, religion was a force that bound families together, bound subjects to their ruler and bound men to the gods. Roman religion was two-fold. Household worship to honour their family spirits, and public worship in the temples of gods such as Jupiter and Mars, with priests paying tribute to these gods on behalf of Rome itself. Likewise, the Jewish priests sort to gain the favour of their Roman overlords by making sacrifices to Yahweh on their behalf and on behalf of the Empire. The Roman gods were narcissistic, they cared nothing about people’s morality, how they treated one another, but demanded images be made of them and temples be built for them and elaborate ritualized worship of them .
Before Yeshua HaMashiach was handed over to be crucified, Pilate gave the crowds the opportunity to have one prisoner released in celebration of Passover and offered them this “King of the Jews“. Although Rome found it highly offensive for anyone they had not appointed to be called “king“, this Man had not, and would not, partake in any violent uprising against them, so Pilate thought Him the best option to release. Those of Yeshua‘s followers who knew He’d been taken were still in fearful shock and didn’t know what to do, whereas the chief priests had planned this out and gathered their supporters to incite the mob gathered outside Pilate’s Praetorium. They called for the release of Barabbas and crucifixion of Christ.
Barabbas and the two men who were crucified with Christ were likely all involved in the same insurrection (attack, or series of attacks, on Roman interests). The scriptures do not tell us why it was Barabbas that the crowd called for, rather than either of the men who ended up being crucified with Yeshua, but we may have a hint in his name. In Hebrew and Aramaic Barabbas is Bar (son of) abba (father), which figuratively can mean son of the teacher. So, he may have been the son of a rabbi, possibly one of the men on the Sanhedrin who had condemned Yeshua. Matthew described him as ‘a notorious prisoner’ (Matthew 27:16), and Mark as ‘someone who had committed murder in the insurrection’ (Mark 15:7). Whoever he was, the crowd was clamoring for his release, and the crucifixion of the Son of God.
Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
But they said, “What is that to us? You shall see to it yourself!”
And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and left; and he went away and hanged himself.
The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them in the temple treasury, since it is money paid for blood.”
And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the One whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, just as the Lord directed me.” Matthew 27:3-10 NASB
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me.
He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’” Jeremiah 18:1-12 NIV
This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me… Jeremiah 19:1-4a NIV
This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”
So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”
Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.”
So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued Me!
So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord. Zechariah 11:4-13 NIV
The hurtful betrayal, the condemnation of the only innocent Man, involved so much sin from so many, and yet it fulfilled the perfect will of God. In His sovereignty God uses all things together for good, even the greatest evil imaginable cannot escape the web of God’s goodness. Our sin can never surprise or out-maneuver God, He knows it all from before the beginning. Yet our sin can have devastating consequences for us, as it did for Judas and as it would for the population of Jerusalem. Matthew hints at the tragedy of God’s judgment that is to come through drawing attention to Jeremiah’s prophesy about the potter and at the same time loosely quoting from Zechariah’s reference to the miserly thirty pieces of silver that they had valued Him at and that was thrown at the house of the Lord. He thus assures his readers that God foretold of this travesty, and that His judgments are on their way.
Then they took Yeshua. He went out, carrying His own crossbar, to the Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. John 19:17 TLV
As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they compelled to carry His cross. Matthew 27:32 NASB
And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry His cross. And they brought Him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). Mark 15:21-22 ESV
And when they led Him away, they took hold of a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.
And following Him was a large multitude of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop crying for Me, but cry for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Now two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him. And when they came to the place called The Skull … Luke 23:26-33a LSB
CRUCIFIXION
The term “crucifixion” derives from the Latin past-participle stem of crucifigere “to fasten to a cross.” The original Greek word translated as ‘cross’ is “stauros” (σταυρός) “an upright wooden stake or post”. This was the essential element in all the different forms of crucifixion from Assyrian to Roman. In Latin, “crucifixion” applied to many different forms of painful execution, from impaling on a stake to affixing to a tree, to an upright pole or to a combination of an upright and a crossbeam. In antiquity crucifixion was considered one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death. It was horrifically painful (hence the term excruciating, literally “out of crucifying”), naked, gruesome and public.
It was a favorite tactic of the Assyrians to impale victims en mass alive on poles outside of a fortified city they wished to conquer as a means of psychological warfare, using the victims’ screams to convince the target city to surrender so as to avoid such. Other civilisations that took up torturing their enemies to death by attaching them to an upright post or stake included the Babylonians and Persians (whose method was closer to what the Romans would later use). Alexander the Great brought crucifixion from there to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century BC. The major difference in early usage of this torture method by the Persians and others was that this was often done on a stake or tree without the use of a cross-member (or “patibulum“). This type of cross is known as a crux simplex and is the primary reason σταυρός can be translated as an upright stake. The Romans used crucifixion for 5 centuries until it was abolished by Constantine in 341 A.D. The Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 Jews in 4 B.C., and Josephus records other mass crucifixions of Jews during the first century A.D.
In the Roman Empire, when a specific place was used for crucifixion, they would typically bury a pole (the stipes) in the ground which was then used repeatedly and served as a reminder of the fate of any who dared challenge the Empire. This was referred to in the Greek as “stauros” (σταυρὸν) and translated as ‘cross’ in English.
The accused would be forced to carry the horizontal piece (the patibulum) up the hill. Atop the patibulum lies a sign (the titulus), stating the crime for which they are sentenced to this tortious death. After the condemned person was nailed to the patibulum it was raised up and secured on top of the stipes (Greek “stauros” (σταυρός), which was the permanent part of the cross.
The earliest writings that speak specifically of the shape of the cross on which Yeshua died describe it as shaped like the letter T (the Greek letter tau). Some second-century writers took it for granted that a crucified person would have his arms stretched out, not connected to a single stake: Lucian speaks of Prometheus as crucified “above the ravine with his hands outstretched” and explains that the letter T (the Greek letter tau) was looked upon as an unlucky letter or sign (similar to the way the number 13 is looked upon today as an unlucky number), saying that the letter got its “evil significance” because of the “evil instrument” which had that shape, an instrument which tyrants hung men on. Others described it as composed of an upright and a transverse beam, together with a small peg in the upright. The oldest image of a crucifixion was found by archaeologists more than a century ago on the Palatine Hill in Rome:
a second-century graffiti scratched into a wall that was part of the imperial palace complex. It includes a caption – by someone taunting and deriding Christians by showing crude stick-figures of a boy reverencing his “God,” who has the head of a jackass and is upon a cross with arms spread wide and with hands nailed to the crossbeam as is the traditional shape of the cross.
The Romans intended crucifixion to be:
1) unspeakably cruel;
2) mercilessly lingering; and
3) inescapably public (public shaming and warning to others);
Thus, crucifixion was always on a low hill outside the main city gate (because a gate is a bottleneck – any person going into/out of the city must pass that way).
From the palace it was a short walk of about 400 metres to Golgotha. For any who had been scourged almost to death before their crucifixion it was a long, arduous walk carrying the heavy crossbeam patibulum on the shredded remains of their shoulders. Yeshua‘s battered body may have made it to the city gate before failing under the weight of the patibulum. Simon from Cyrene, an ancient Greek colony near present day Shahhat, Libya in North Africa was heading from the countryside into Jerusalem, likely for Passover, when he was grabbed by the Roman soldiers and compelled to carry Yeshua’s patibulum. It seems that this encounter with Yeshua changed Simon forever, and he led his family to Christ. Mark writes that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus – obviously two men who were well known in the church. In Romans Paul writes: “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother” (Rom 16:13 CSB). Paul may be referring to Simon’s son by the same name, lending further credence to the belief that this family became well known and respected members of the church in Rome.
By now the word had spread and many women came out to grieve what was being done to the only holy man they knew. If only their tears could melt the hearts of these cruel Roman soldiers. Despite His agony, Yeshua turned His attention to these women, encouraging them to stop crying for Him because this was the Father’s will, and warning them of what was to come.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha (that is to say, Place of a Skull), they offered Him wine mixed with gall to drink; but after tasting, He was unwilling to drink it.
And when they had crucified Him, they divided His clothing among themselves by casting lots. And they sat down and kept guard over Him there.
Over His head they put the charge against Him, which read: “THIS IS YESHUA, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
Then two outlaws were executed with Him, one on the right and one on the left.
Matthew 27:33-38 TLV
And they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it.
And they crucified Him and divided His garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.
And it was the third hour when they crucified Him.
And the inscription of the charge against Him read, “The King of the Jews.”
And with Him they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.
Mark 15:23-27 ESV
There they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves….
Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
Luke 23:33b-34, 38 LSB
There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side and Yeshua in between.
Pilate also wrote a sign and put it on the execution stake. It was written, “YESHUA HA-NATZRATI, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
Many Judeans read this sign, because the place where Yeshua was executed was near the city; it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
The ruling kohanim of the Judeans were saying to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”
“What I have written, I have written,” Pilate answered.
So the soldiers, when they executed Yeshua, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part for each soldier. They took His tunic also, but it was seamless, woven top to bottom in one piece. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be.” This was so the Scripture would be fulfilled,
“They divided My garments among them,
and for My clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things. John 19:18-24 TLV
Psalm 22 TLV
For the music director, on “The Doe of the Dawn,” a psalm of David.
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Distant from my salvation are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cried out by day, but You did not answer,
by night, but there was no rest for me.
Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In You our fathers put their trust. They trusted, and You delivered them.
They cried to you and were delivered.
In You they trusted, and were not disappointed.
Am I a worm, and not a man? Am I a scorn of men, despised by people?
All who see me mock me. They curl their lips, shaking their heads:
“Rely on Adonai! Let Him deliver him!
Let Him rescue him – since he delights in Him!”
Yet You brought me out of the womb, made me secure at my mother’s breasts.
From the womb I was cast on You –
from my mother’s womb You have been my God.
Be not far from me!
For trouble is near – there is no one to help.
Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan encircled me.
They open wide their mouths against me, like a tearing, roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed.
My heart is like wax – melting within my innards.
My strength is dried up like a clay pot, my tongue clings to my jaws.
You lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has closed in on me.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones. They stare, they gape at me.
They divide my clothes among them, and cast lots for my garment.
But You, Adonai, be not far off! O my strength! Come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword – my only one from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth. From the horns of the wild oxen rescue me.
I will declare Your Name to my brothers.
I will praise You amid the congregation.
You who fear Adonai, praise Him! All Jacob’s descendants, glorify Him!
Revere Him, all you seed of Israel.
For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the lowly one.
Nor has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.
From You is my praise in the great assembly.
I will fulfill my vows before those who fear Him.
Let the poor eat and be satisfied.
Let them who seek after Him praise Adonai. May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Adonai.
All the families of the nations will bow down before You.
For the kingdom belongs to Adonai, and He rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship.
Everyone who goes down to the dust will kneel before Him –
even the one who could not keep his own soul alive.
His posterity will serve him, telling the next generation about my Lord.
They will come and declare His righteousness to a people yet to be born –
because He has done it!
Psalm 69:16-22 LSB
Answer me, O Yahweh, for Your lovingkindness is good;
According to the abundance of Your compassion, turn to me,
And do not hide Your face from Your slave,
For I am in distress; answer me quickly.
Oh draw near to my soul and redeem it;
Ransom me because of my enemies!
You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor;
All my adversaries are before You.
Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick.
And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Mark tells us that it was the third hour when Yeshua was crucified. The Jews divided the daylight hours into twelve. So, the third hour was three hours after sunrise, so around 9am. The whole trial process before the Sanhedrin and then Pilate had begun at sunrise and taken around 3 hours.
In the Bible, the word gall most often refers to a bitter-tasting substance made of a plant such as wormwood or myrrh. Mark specifies that the bitterness in the wine was due to the presence of myrrh. Myrrh means ‘bitter’ in Arabic. It is a resiny brownish sap that comes out of cuts from the bark of trees that are members of the Commiphora species. This species of tree typically grows in Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. In ancient medicine, myrrh was believed to have antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic properties. Wine mixed with myrrh created a potion that dulled the sense of pain. The Talmud states: “The women of highest rank in Jerusalem, out of free impulse, and at their own cost, gave the condemned man this draught.” This, too, was a fulfilment of prophesy from Psalm 62, with the second half of that verse to be fulfilled later that day. Yeshua refused this drink designed to lessen His suffering and dull His senses.
The accused were nailed to the patibulum while lying down, so after having refused the analgesic wine, Yeshua was stripped naked and thrown to the ground, reopening His wounds, grinding in dirt, and causing further bleeding. They nailed His “hands” to the patibulum. The Greek meaning of “hands” includes the wrist. It is more likely that the nails went through Yeshua’s wrists, between the two major bones of the forearm. Evidence of nails being used by the Romans for crucifixion is also provided by Josephus, who writes that at the Siege of Jerusalem (70 C.E.), “the soldiers out of rage and hatred, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest.” The ‘nails’ were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 inch (13 to 18 cm) long, with a square shaft 3/8 inch (1 cm) across. The huge nail damages or severs the major nerve to the hand (the median nerve) upon impact, causing continuous agonizing pain up both of Yeshua’s arms. Then the patibulum with its sign (titulus) declaring His name and crime “YESHUA HA-NATZRATI, THE KING OF THE JEWS” was lifted up onto the upright stauros (σταυρός) and secured there. Next, thick iron spikes were pounded through His feet, attaching them to the stauros. Every part of Yeshua’s body, from head to feet, suffered torturous, agonizing assault as He hung on that cross for our sin.
John is the first to alert us to this whole scene being a fulfilment of Psalm 22 when he writes:
This was so the Scripture would be fulfilled,
“They divided My garments among them,
and for My clothing they cast lots.”.
Yes, even the finer details of this horror had been foretold by God through David’s Psalm. All things are in His hands.
Yeshua’s powerful first words from the agony of the cross were: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” When we understand what He was going through for us, and because of us, when He uttered that plea on our behalf there is no excuse left for refusing to forgive anyone for anything. Such radical forgiveness is part of what it means to take up our cross and follow Yeshua.
Do not expect a positive response to your generous forgiveness. Yeshua’s tormentors just increased their verbal abuse directed towards Him.
And those passing by were speaking abusively to Him, shaking their heads, and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He has trusted in God; let God rescue Him now, if He takes pleasure in Him (see Psalm 22:9 above); for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
And the rebels who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him in the same way. Matthew 27:39-44 NASB
And those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!”
So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked Him to one another, saying, “He saved others; He cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.”
Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. Mark 15:29-32 ESV
And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were scoffing at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”
And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Luke 23:35-37 LSB
For Yeshua, the abandonment and rejection from His own people was total. He was despised and rejected by men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Isaiah 53:3 ESV. Yet, His cry for their forgiveness was not dependent on them repenting or apologizing or proving faithful. It was not “forgive them for they are sorry” but “forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing“, so it was not impacted by the abuse they were now hurling at Him.
One of the evildoers hanging there was jeering at Him, saying, “Aren’t You the Messiah? Save Yourself—and us!”
But the other one, rebuking him, replied, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We’re getting what we deserve for our actions, and rightly so—but this One has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Yeshua, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
Yeshua said to him, “Amen, I tell you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43 TLV
According to A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), λῃστής (translated here as “evildoers“) has two meanings. The first is “robber, highwayman, bandit” and the second is “revolutionary, insurrectionist, guerrilla, terrorist.” The Greek work kleptes refers to a common thief; but in Matthew and Mark’s account of the thieves crucified, the Greek word lestes is used, which has the root meaning “to plunder.” Though we don’t have information on the nature of their crimes, the use of this term indicates they were probably a part of a rebel group. While the ESV has chosen to translate it as “robber,” the context clearly suggests a very serious crime is in mind. If Barabbas was a robber, he must have been a violent one – and John does not need to use an adjective to express that. Mark 15:7 backs up that John means insurrectionist by λῃστής, as he describes Barabbas as a rebel who committed murder in an insurrection. Given the fact that Barabbas was in custody for his part in an insurrection, it seems likely that the two λῃστής crucified with Jesus were also insurrectionists. If not, they were at least violent robbers – the meaning of λῃστής does not allow for ordinary thieves. The best conclusion, then, is that Yeshua was crucified alongside two rebels (so NIV)/revolutionaries (so NLT). They both had blood on their hands from violently attacking others, whereas Yeshua’s hands had only touched others to bring healing. One of them recognized this.
Here was the first fruits of Yeshua’s forgiveness. A man whose heart was transformed. He had nothing to commend himself and nothing to offer, being under the same death sentence, but he believed and it was sufficient. “Remember me” is an earnest plea for mercy in the royal court when Yeshua assumes His kingly status and power. It was a declaration of saving faith that Yeshua really is the King of God’s kingdom.
Yeshua’s response brings hope and comfort to so many who have nothing to offer and no way of making up for the wrong they have done. His promise is sure and true. “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” This very day, Nissan 14th, before the sun sets, this new believer will be with Him in paradise. No penance was needed for all his sins, Yeshua was paying the full price for that. Go directly from the shame, pain and sorrows of this life into the joys of paradise with Christ. To be with Him forever!
Now beside the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household. John 19:25-27 NASB
Here we have some intimate details missed by the other Gospel accounts. Mary’s overcoming love for her Son and Yeshua’s care for His mother. The other disciples may have scattered, and stayed away out of fear of being caught and likewise crucified, as the Romans were wont to do to all members of any group they considered to be a threat to the public order of the Empire. But Mary, her sister and Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene would not be kept away by anything. This is the second glimmer of hope we see in the sea of great darkness covering this event. Yeshua was not totally alone, the women were there. One of His male disciples was also there. The one who knew the High Priest, the one this author refers to as “the disciple whom He loved“. Most scholars think the author is referring to himself. John is the Gospel writer who focused on Yeshua‘s time in Judea and temple attendance for the Jewish festivals. It appears that he is the only male disciple at the cross with the women. None of Yeshua’s brothers are there. So, fulfilling His duty as eldest Son, Yeshua hands His mother over to the care of this disciple whom He loves, this one who stayed close despite the dangers, the one who was available, the one who was supporting her now at her point of greatest need.
And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured. Luke 23:44-45a LSB
Now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
About the ninth hour Yeshua cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?”
When some of those standing there heard it, they began saying, “This Man is calling for Elijah.” Matthew 27:45-47 TLV
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.”
Mark 15:33-35 ESV
By day they encounter darkness and grope at noon as if it were night. Job 5:14 TLV
He sent darkness, and it was dark, so they did not rebel against His words.
Psalm 105:28 TLV
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.”
So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days.
Exodus 10:21-23
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Psalm 22:1a (2a)
Yeshua had been suffering on the cross for about three hours. It was now the sixth hour since the sun came up – the middle of the day. It was the brightest, lightest time of the day and suddenly all light was gone – darkness covered the land. It was Passover time, all the Jews had been focusing on the story of their exodus from Egypt. God had sent ten plagues to convince Pharaoh to let the Jews go. The ninth plague was darkness on all the land for three days. Now they were faced with darkness on all the land for three hours. The next plague, the one that set them free, was the death of the firstborn son, a plague the Jews were only saved from by the blood of the spotless, innocent Passover lamb on the wooden lintel and door posts of their houses. Upon that middle cross, on this 14th day of the first month, His blood sprinkled on the crossbeam and upright post. After the plague of darkness, He would die as the substitute sacrifice for all mankind – the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
At the ninth hour (3pm) Yeshua gathered all His strength to cry out the first verse of Psalm 22: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and the darkness started lifting. For the learned Jews who had memorized the TaNaKh in Hebrew (or Aramaic) this cry would have directed them to the whole of Psalm 22, which they had seen playing out before their eyes. But the bystanders close to the cross at this time were not Hebrew speakers so totally misunderstood and thought Yeshua was crying out for Elijah to rescue Him.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”
A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. John 19:28-29 NASB
Right away one of them ran and took a sponge. He filled it with sour wine and put it on a stick, and was offering it to Yeshua to drink.
But the rest were saying, “Leave Him alone! Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him.”
Matthew 27:45-49 TLV
And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”
Mark 15:36 ESV
Psalm 69:8-22 TLV
For I have endured scorn for Your sake.
Disgrace has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers,
a foreigner to my mother’s children.
For zeal for Your House consumed me –
the insults of those who insulted You have fallen on me.
When I wept and fasted – that became a reproach to me.
When I put on sackcloth, I became a joke to them.
Those who sit at the gate chatter about me,
and I am the song of the drunkards.
But as for me, my prayer to You, Adonai, is for a time of favor.
O God, in Your great love, answer me with the truth of Your salvation.
Deliver me from the mire – do not let me sink.
Deliver me from those who hate me, out of the deep waters.
Do not let floodwaters sweep over me,
nor the deep swallow me up,
nor the Pit shut its mouth over me.
Answer me, Adonai, for good is Your mercy.
With Your great compassion, turn to me.
Hide not Your face from Your servant.
For I am in distress – answer me quickly.
Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my foes.
You know my reproach, my shame, my disgrace.
All my adversaries are before You.
Scorn has broken my heart, so I am sick.
I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but found none.
They put gall in my food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Psalm 69, which spoke of the zeal for God’s house consuming Him that was saw with the cleansing of the Temple, also spoke of the response to Messiah’s thirst on the cross – He was given (in the Greek) oxos. Thayer’s Lexicon defines oxos as follows: The mixture of sour wine or vinegar and water which the Roman soldiers were accustomed to drink.
Yeshua had something more to say, but His mouth and throat were so parched by the ordeal of crucifixion that He did not have the physical strength to say it; thus this request for moisture for His lips, “I thirst“. It was sufficient, and Yeshua managed to squeeze out His last two declarations.
The Greek word translated as “been accomplished” in John 19:28 is tetelestai, the same word Yeshua cried out after He had received the oxos. He said “I thirst” because He knew that all things had already been accomplished with the three hours of darkness and it was now time to bring His suffering to an end.
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”
John 19:30a
We don’t know if Yeshua’s last words on the cross were in His native Hebrew (שָׁלֵם / shalem), or in the more universal language of Greek (τετέλεσται / tetelestai) so that the Roman soldiers could also understand what was being said.
The Hebrew word that τετέλεσται (it is finished) best translates is שָׁלֵם. In the context of John 19:30 שָׁלֵם has the meaning, “It is complete, finished, ended”. In the Torah, שָׁלֵם also has the meanings:
# made whole or good,
# restored the thing lost Joel 2:25, or stolen Exodus 21:37,
# debt paid 2 Kings 4:7; Psalm 37:21 Proverbs 22:27 Job 41:3
The Greek τετέλεσται / tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means “to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.” It signifies the successful end to a significant course of action – “I did exactly what I set out to do.” Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek, which speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present, “this happened and it is still in effect today.” The results of the cross are eternal, there never is or will be any other way for us to be reconciled to God.
“It is finished” also refers to completing the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies, symbols, and foreshadowings of the coming Messiah. From Genesis to Malachi, there are over 300 prophecies detailing the coming of the Anointed One, that were fulfilled by Yeshua. From the “seed” who would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15), to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, to the prediction of the “messenger” of the Lord (John the Baptist) who would “prepare the way” for the Messiah, all prophecies of Yeshua’s life, ministry, and death were fulfilled and finished at the cross.
The Cross is the sole basis for God’s total provision for us. Everything He did, does, and will do for us and in us, He does through the Cross and the shed blood of His only Son. There is no path back to Him that does not go through the Cross. Paul wrote: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14 NIV); “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Corinthians 5:21); and “God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus. “(Romans 3:25-26 BSB)
And Yeshua cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the Temple was split in two, from top to bottom. And the earth quaked and rocks were split apart. And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the kedoshim who were sleeping were raised to life. And coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
Now the centurion, and those with him keeping guard over Yeshua, when they saw the earthquake and what was happening, they became terribly frightened and said, “This really was the Son of God!
Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Yeshua from the Galilee, serving Him. Among them were Miriam from Magdala, Miriam the mother of Jacob and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Matthew 27:50-56 TLV
And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When He was in Galilee, they followed Him and ministered to Him, and there were also many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
Mark 15:37-41 ESV
And the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “Certainly this man was righteous.”
And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, were returning, beating their chests.
And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, watching these things. Luke 23:45b-49 LSB
When the veil in the Temple was torn, the emptiness of the Holy of Holies was revealed. There was no ark of the covenant in this temple, it had been lost after the first temple was destroyed.
Psalm 31
For the Director of Music, A Psalm of David.
In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.
Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commit my spirit;
deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the Lord.
I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.
You have not given me into the hands of the enemy
but have set my feet in a spacious place.
Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief.
My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors
and an object of dread to my closest friends –
those who see me on the street flee from me.
I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
from those who pursue me.
Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead.
Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt
they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
How abundant are the good things
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you.
In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues;
you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.
Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love
when I was in a city under siege.
in my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full.
Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
Yeshua’s last words from the cross, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” were once again quoted from the Psalms. This time it was Psalm 31 that the Son of David was drawing attention to. It is a sharp rebuke to His enemies, a comfort to those persecuted for righteousness, and a declaration of absolute trust in His Father.
As the first group of Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple, Yeshua breathed His last and the thick 60feet (20m) long curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The tearing of the temple veil signified the removal of what had separated us from God’s presence and need for earthly mediators between God and man. Christ’s ministry as our High Priest was being inaugurated. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11–12 ESV)
Slaughter of the Passover Lambs in the Temple
Josephus gives the following account of the temple sacrifice of the Passover lambs: “So these high priests, upon the coming of their feast, which is called Passover, when they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour to the eleventh [approximately 3 PM to 5 PM]…” (Wars of the Jews, Bk. VI, Ch. IX, Sec. 3).
Whereas originally Israel was to slaughter the Passover lambs in their homes as Nissan 14th began in the evening, and eat them during Nissan 14th night, leaving nothing until the morning. Now, it had become the traditional Jewish practice to slaughter their lambs during the afternoon (3-5pm) that was the last hours of Nissan 14th, and eat them that night, during the first hours of Nissan 15th.
A Talmudic passage describes the Temple ritual on the afternoon of Nisan 14th:
The paschal lamb was slaughtered in three groups… when the first group entered and the Temple court was filled, the gates of the Temple were closed. A tekiah, teruah, and again a tekiah were then blown on the shofar. The priests stood in rows, and in their hands were basins of silver and basins of gold. … An Israelite slaughtered his offering and the priests caught the blood. The priest passed the basin to his fellow priest, and he to his fellow, each receiving a full basin and giving back an empty one. The priest nearest to the altar tossed the blood against the base of the altar. While this ritual was performed the Levites sang the Hallel [Talmud Pesachim 64a].
Hallel (literally “praise”) is a sequence of praise and gratitude-themed psalms (Psalms 113-118) which are recited as a unit, on joyous occasions such as religious Festivals.
The historian Josephus records contemporary Passover celebrations in which he estimates that the participants who gathered in Jerusalem to perform the sacrifice in the year 65 CE were “not less than three million” (Josephus, Wars, 2:280).
Although there were different practices in different Jewish groups, for the majority of the population in New Testament times the Passover lamb was slaughtered between 3-6pm on the 14th day of the first Hebrew month (Nisan). At the same time Israel began slaughtering their Passover lambs on Nisan 14, Yeshua, the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29) breathed His last on a cross. Thus was fulfilled the prophetic symbolism of the Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) was, through the offering of His own precious blood, appointed our forever High Priest. Our atoning sacrifice became our High Priest. He was both the pure, unblemished sacrifice and the One who offered this sacrifice to God. The curtain was torn, the barrier between us and the holy presence of God removed, the Holy of Holies is now with us wherever we are in the world, accessed through the blood of Yeshua.
God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. Romans 3:25 BSB
Therefore He is also able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, always living to make intercession for them. For such a Kohen Gadol (High Priest) was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need to offer up sacrifices day by day like those other kohanim g’dolim – first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people. For when He offered up Himself, He did this once for all.
Hebrews 7:25-27 TLV
so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
Hebrews 9:29 HCSB
Indeed, every kohen stands day by day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But on the other hand, when this One offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. … Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have boldness to enter into the Holies by the blood of Yeshua. He inaugurated a new and living way for us through the curtain – that is, His flesh. Hebrews 10:11-12, 19-20 TLV
And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Now then, since it was the day of preparation, to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews requested of Pilate that their legs be broken, and the bodies be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was crucified with Him; but after they came to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. Yet one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.
For these things took place so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look at Him whom they pierced.” John 19:30-37 NASB
God’s ways and timing are perfect in every way, His will is accomplished no matter what man plans. Concerning the Passover lamb God had declared: It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. (Exodus 12:46) & They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall observe it. (Numbers 9:12). He had also prophesied through David: The afflictions of the righteous are many, but the Lord rescues him from them all. He protects all his bones, not one of them is broken. (Psalm 34:19-20). The Jewish religious leaders didn’t want anyone hanging on a cross during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so asked Pilate that their legs be broken to hasten death so they could be removed. While they were negotiating this, Yeshua committed His spirit into the Father’s hands, bowed His head and gave up His spirit. The soldiers broke the legs of the two others crucified with Messiah but seeing that He was already dead they had no need to break His legs. As God had foretold, not one of His bones was broken.
Another prophetic scripture was to be fulfilled before Yeshua was laid to rest: Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. Zechariah 12:10 BSB. Just to make sure, one soldier thrust his spear into Yeshua’s side, likely under His ribs, piercing Him and causing blood and water to gush out. Crucifixion typically resulted in death through one of two ways. The first way was hypovolemic shock, loss of blood volume through severe dehydration or blood loss from the flogging that preceded the crucifixion. This caused the heart to beat rapidly, desperately trying to pump enough blood around the body, and this causes fluid to gather in the pericardium (a fluid-filled sac that encases the heart and the roots of the great vessels). The second way was asphyxiation as the victim tired of pulling themself up on pierced wrists and feet to breathe. Asphyxiation can also result in the buildup of fluid around the heart. The gush of water and blood confirmed that Yeshua’s pericardial sack had both filled with fluid indicating death and been pierced along with at least one of the great vessels therein, so no blood would be left for His heart to pump. It was a dramatic piercing, as the scriptures had foretold.
Not only had our Lord’s death been physically torturous, but crucifixion was also specifically designed to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. Degradation was the whole point. It was the worst of shaming.
“They will look at Him...” Herein lies salvation. To look at Him who was pierced for us. To look at Him who died for us. To look at Him who took our sin upon Himself. To look at Him our atoning sacrifice. To look at Him who is able to save us completely. Not look to another, neither priest nor prophet. Not look at ourselves, neither in admiration nor disgust. Look at Yeshua, the author and perfector of our faith, and receive from Him what we are incapable of earning for ourself.
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In the comments section below share your thoughts on what you have read and answer some of the following questions…
* Jesus warned that many would come in His name and deceive many. How do we avoid doing what the Jews outside Pilate’s place did and choosing the wrong Jesus?
* What was the significance of Jesus dying on a cross (tree)?
* In your culture what obligations do people have to their parents?
* How was north Africa connected to the cross of Christ, and what impact did it have on this man?
* How do we view our sin in light of what Christ suffered for it?
* What did Jesus accomplish through His death / what was finished on the cross?
